Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/235

 Bedford Castle. 219 the king, who seems to have attempted to settle the fief upon the daughter of the eldest brother, married to Hugh, surnamed Pauper," brother to the Earl of Leicester. Milo de Beauchamp held the castle against King Stephen in 1137. The siege lasted live weeks, and was pressed with great energy. It was finally taken by starvation. The author of the " Gesta Stephani " describes the castle as having strong earthworks, " editissimo aggere vallatum." Simon de Beauchamp held the castle through the reigns of Henry 11. and Richard I., until his death, about the 8th of John. It appears from the red book of the Exchequer that he held 36 and 5-ioths knight fees of the old feoffment, and 8 fees of the new, all in the barony of Bedford. In his time the castle seems to have been held against Henry II. since in the second year of that king, 1 155-6, those burgesses of Bedford who were in the castle against the king were fined twenty marks, of which sum they rendered account in 1 1 57-8. In 1 190 Simon fined £,^00 for the governorship of the castle. William, son and successor of Simon, is described as lord of the strong castle of Bedford, the " caput " of the Honour. He took part with the rebel barons towards the close of John's reign, and in 1215 admitted their forces into his castle. In consequence it was attacked by the well-known Falkde Breaute, and, not being relieved, was surrendered in November, after a seven days' siege. John was himself present at Bedford thrice in that year, in all for eight days. He granted the confiscated Honour to Falk. Falk strengthened and held the castle into the reign of Henry HI., and thence ravaged the country below the Chilterns. At first a supporter of the young king, he afterwards resisted his authority, and, at the instance of his oppressed neighbours, Henry de Braibroc was sent to Dunstable in 8th Henry HI., 1224, to try their com- plaints, when thirty verdicts were found against the baron, and fines imposed of £,^00 under each of them. In revenge, Falk kidnapped the judge and lodged him a prisoner in Bedford Castle, treating him with much indignity. His wife complained to the Parliament then at Northampton, and the king ordered him to give up the judge, but in vain. Henry was probably glad of the opportunity of crushing a very turbulent subject, and appears to have lost no time in punishing the affront. In June, 1224, commenced a series of orders, issued by the king himself, and which show the greatness of his preparations for a siege_, and the vigour with which he pushed them forward. On the 22nd of June, Henry was at Bedford in person, and there remained during the siege until the 19th of August, nearly two months. The preparations were both extensive and minute, and the mandates, always described as pressing, were issued to a vast number of sheriffs and other persons as far south and west as Corfe Castle and St. Briavels. They require men, money, arrears of scutage, cord, cable, iron, steel, hides, leather for slings, twine for strings, mangonels, petraries, balistas,quarrells, stone shot, quarrymen, masons, miners, carpenters, saddlers, wagons for conveying the royal