Page:Medieval Military Architecture in England (volume 1).djvu/76

 60 Mediceval Military Architecture in England, CHAPTER V. THE POLITICAL INFLUENCE OF CASTLES IN THE REIGN OF HENRY II. HENRY II. was a great builder, and especially of military works. " In muris, in propugnaculis, in munitionibus, in fossatis, .... nullus subtilior, nullus magni- ficentior, invenitur." This, however, does not so much refer to new castles, of which he built but few, as to the comple- tion or addition of new keeps to the old ones, such, for example, as Dover. A few days after his arrival in England he received the fealty of the magnates of the realm at Winchester Castle, and was crowned at Westminster, 19th December, imme- diately after which he granted to William, Earl of Arundel, the castle and honour of Arundel and the third penny of the county of Sussex. This was probably for life, for upon the Earl's death in 11 76 the castle and county reverted to the Crown, and were re-granted. Notwithstanding this beginning, Henry was fully determined to carry out the policy agreed upon at Wallingford in the face of the nation. A few days later he attended a council at Bermondsey, at which it was decided to order all foreign mercenaries to quit the kingdom on pain of death, and to raze all castles erected in the reign of Stephen. This decision was felt on all sides to be absolutely required ; and it was, to a great extent, at once acted upon. Of these " castra adulterina " he destroyed, by some accounts, 375; by others, 1,115. Unfortunately, their names and sites have rarely been preserved, and can only be inferred where a castle played a part in the wars of Stephen and Matilda, and is not afterwards mentioned. These castles were, no doubt, built usually by men of limited means, and in haste ; but even a small and badly-built castle of masonry would require some labour and outlay of money for its destruction. Possibly many of these buildings were of timber, upon the existing mounds. Also there are found slight earthworks of no great height or area, the plan of which seems that of a Norman castle, and which not impro- bably belong to this period. At Eaton-Socon, in Bedford-