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Besieged!
With dreams of
regaining Normandy, King John had imposed some unpopular taxes for his military expeditions
against Philip Augustus of France. This included demanding enormous fees for a baronial
heir to inherit property. His relationship with his barons thus already strained, the King
infuriated them further by choosing a foreigner, Peter des Roches the Bishop of Winchester,
to take over while he was away.
On his return in 1214, there were still barons who were
willing to negotiate, but there were also rebels who would eventually rise against
the King. The Magna Carta of political and civil liberties (which outlawed some of
the King’s methods of taxation) was drawn up. To buy some time, the King signed it at
Runnymede in 1215. However, he had no intention of allowing it to stand and wrote
immediately to the Pope to have the charter annulled. This sparked a civil war and
the barons invited Prince Louis of France to become king of England. The French
prince landed and marched on London. King John was forced to retreat. He fell ill and
died in Oct 1216, leaving his nine year old son Henry III as
king.
Maybe the
attackers halted in their march to wonder at the double-moated fortress that was their
target. Beyond the counterscarp
bank to the
N
orth
and
East
at
Berkhamsted Castle was a further bank
backed by seven
earth
bastions. It is said that
these were built by the attacking forces, but it is more likely that they were part
of King John’s restoration efforts.
It seems likely
that heavy siege engines were constructed at the site, rather than being transported. Most
siege engines, such as the mangonel, were capable of throwing a stone of 300 lbs or more a
distance of at least 150 metres.
In Dec
1216, Berkhamsted
Castle was
besieged by Prince
Louis of
France. It is likely that the
constable at the castle was aware of the approach of a hostile force of French
mercenaries. He will have hastily arranged for plentiful food supplies to be brought
in: bread, cheese, eggs and meat. Hopefully, he would
have sent women and children out of harm’s way, if only to preserve the food and
drink supplies for fighting men. Wells in the bailey and on the motte provided
plentiful water and they would have hunkered down, ready for the
attack.
It is said that
Prince Louis introduced a new and even more terrifying siege engine to England and used it
at Berkhamsted—the trebuchet. This worked like a
catapult, with a large stone being placed in a sling at the end of the long beam. In the
early days, people exerted downward pull on the short end of the beam to flip up the longer
end. As designs became more sophisticated, a counterweight was used to provide the downward
pull. It was by trial and error
that the trajectory and distance were worked out. The effect would have been devastating on
the walls and towers of the castle and terrifying for those cowering within.
King Henry III
ordered his constable at the castle to surrender after two weeks on humanitarian grounds.
Hopefully this was not in response to a common practice in those days of catapulting dead
animals into the castle grounds in the hope of spreading disease.
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Siege = To surround
a fortified area (such as a castle) with military forces to bring about its
surrender
Magna Carta
Mangonel
Trebuchet
(Chiltern Open Air Museum sometimes demonstrates the use of the trebuchet
using grapefruits as missiles)
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