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1. Sherborne and Corfe castles in 1260–61

Castles, their construction, maintenance and control, had been crucial to the Norman and Angevin settlement and struggle for power in England. By the reign of Henry III, however, they were losing their importance as defensive structures. Here, by analysing an entry on the dorse of the fine roll in the middle of the period of Baronial Reform, Huw Ridgeway, recently retired History Master at Sherborne School in Dorset, who has published widely on Henry’s reign, shows how castles could fall out of use and examines the part they played, or not, in Henry’s conflict with his barons.

⁋1The fine roll for 1260–61, at the start of February 1261, includes a copy of a survey of the state of Sherborne and Corfe castles in Dorset made by four knights of the shire presumably late in 1260, following the death in office of the castles’ custodian, Stephen de Longespee, and the need to appoint a temporary keeper, Matthias de la Mare, until the next parliament in 1261. ¹ Longespee, uncle of the late earl of Salisbury and a royal kinsman, had been appointed under the Provisions of Oxford in 1258; he was, however, almost immediately also made Justiciar of Ireland, which may have meant that, in practice, the castles were eventually looked after by deputies. ² The sorry picture of Sherborne and Corfe revealed by this survey is a unique record (although another version, incomplete, is on the Liberate Rolls). ³ Of course, we have no way of knowing how thorough or accurate its findings were but they ring true enough as they stand and, as we shall see, they can be supported by other evidence. The Dorset knights found little left in Sherborne castle, apart from rusty armour for about fourteen men and the odd pot and pan; the walls and all the buildings were in a ruinous state ‘in debili statu’. Corfe, in comparison, was full of decaying armaments. No comment was passed on the condition of its walls. The castle’s contents included armour, all rusty, for about sixty men, some eighty bows of various types, mainly crossbows (about thirty in rusty condition), 26,000 arrows – over three hundred shots per man – a dismantled mangonel and other ‘engines’, all in parts, some mouldering kitchen equipment and, more sinisterly, various instruments for restraining prisoners. However, both castles appear to have been completely deserted shells in 1260: there is no mention of actual troops garrisoning either, or indeed of the necessary larder stores and kitchens needed to feed them. Here we have a fascinating and amusing glimpse into the run-down state of two royal castles at a critical moment when Henry III was plotting to extricate himself from the tutelage of the Provisions of Oxford and Baronial Council. Henry, for his part, might have been particularly offended by the apparent absence of any ornaments left in either of the two chapels at Sherborne, even though he had ordered books and other things for them in 1239 ⁴ (in 1250 he had specifically instructed the glass windows in the King’s chapel to be repaired so that they opened and closed properly). ⁵ Where had all these things gone? He would similarly have been distressed by the reported state of things in the three chapels at Corfe, now with only one chalice left between them and one ‘old and torn pair of vestments’, despite the books and the other things provided over the years. ⁶ Indeed, these findings may have immediately been taken up by the king as ammunition against the Council, for in his published ‘Grievances against the Council’ of March-April 1261 he accused them of failing to maintain his castles and houses in good order. ⁷ These were matters very dear to the king’s heart.

⁋2But how does this picture square with what else we know of these Dorset castles? Sherborne, constructed by Roger bishop of Salisbury in the 1120s as a country residence and one of the earliest stone castles in England, had been a royal castle since 1139 when it was confiscated by King Stephen. By 1260, old-fashioned and never upgraded, its chief function was as a base for the sheriff of Somerset-Dorset, periodic sessions of Itinerant Justices and as a prison. ⁸ Henry III only visited Sherborne in person twice, for a day or so, in June 1236 and August 1250. ⁹ On both occasions it was the same story: he noted alarming breaches in the walls and other defects ¹⁰ but it is clear that by 1250 little or nothing had been done to make the defences sound – one wall was ‘leaning and about to fall over’ ¹¹ – and although after that there was a modest restoration programme, including the royal apartments and a chapel, repeated orders for repairs throughout the 1250s suggest that they were probably not well done. ¹² No attempt was made to equip Sherborne for a military role and in 1257 Henry proposed to lend it out to Sir Nicholas de Moules as a residence for his wife. ¹³ Corfe on its impregnable hill, in contrast, had always been a major royal fortress. King John took great interest in it, with annual visits, and rebuilt the defences, using it as a residence, treasury and notorious state prison. Henry III spent as much, if not more, on the defences, more than doubling them in great bursts of building in the 1230s and early 1250s. ¹⁴ However, he never visited Corfe and seems to have had limited use for it, apart from as an occasional prison and exploiting the resources of its forest and marble quarry. ¹⁵ Between July 1255 and June 1258 it was taken from control of the sheriff of Somerset-Dorset and made over to the Poitevin knight and royal favourite, Elias de Rabayn, ¹⁶ and the last order to munition it with equipment for war were the thirty-six crossbows ordered in October 1252 which could still be found there, in decayed condition, in 1260. ¹⁷

⁋3The 1260 survey of Sherborne and Corfe, far from straightforward evidence of neglect by the Baronial Council, reveals that, in this respect, the Council was little different from, and certainly no improvement on, Henry III. Some efforts had, in fact, been made by the Council to maintain at least Corfe, including orders in September 1260 to repair ‘before winter’ the King’s buildings ‘which have fallen down’, ¹⁸ but their limited number may have simply reflected the Council’s inability to restore royal finances in those years. ¹⁹ Interestingly enough, in May 1259 Henry ordered Stephen Longespee, now ‘too busy in Ireland’, to surrender the castles but the king was not obeyed, presumably because at that stage the Council would not endorse a change to the Provisions. ²⁰

⁋4During the Barons’ War, after his recovery of power, Henry re-fortified both Corfe (1261–70) and Sherborne (1263–67), but with little success for his cause. ²¹ Dorset fell under the control of rebels as surely as any other area, with accompanying anarchy. ²² By 1270 it was again reported that parts of Sherborne castle threatened to fall down! ²³ The late 1260 survey of Sherborne and Corfe is testimony, as much as anything, to the Crown’s limited resources and interest in castles by the thirteenth century. England, even remote Dorset, was essentially a peaceful land and the castle’s role, although invested with much symbolism and prestige, was becoming less clear. ²⁴ Henry may have spent on building layers of walls at Corfe but those buildings were useless without constant supervision, maintenance, provisioning and garrisoning – and this is where the king’s problems began.

2.1. C 60/58, Fine Roll 45 Henry III (28 October 1260–27 October 1261), membrane 16d

2.1.1. 198

⁋1[No date]. Concerning the state of castles. This is the view of the state of the castle of Sherborne made by William de Mohun, John de Stroude, John de Cedindon’ and Robert de Godmaniston’, knights, who found there nine iron hauberks that had rusted and five small hauberks all rusted, one brass pot (ollam eream pannam), two pairs of iron buxarum, three helmets and a cap. Moreover, they found all buildings, walls and everything else in a ruinous state (in debili statu).This is the view of the castle of Corfe made by William de Mohun, John de Cedindon’, Thomas de Goshull’ and Robert de Godmaneston’, knights, who found there on the platform above the chapel at the top of the great chamber two rusty hauberks, three pairs of large, rusty iron caparisons, 30 rusty iron caps, 25 rusty helmets, 25 pairs of buxarum for keeping the prisons, 14 pairs of grissilonum, eleven pairs of iron anulorum for keeping the prison, five rusty and immunitas slings for the mangonel, two iron circos, two old brass pans, an old, broken copper pot, three lead vessels for the kitchen, one silver chalice for the chapel, two old and torn towels, one old and torn pair of vestments, two iron chairs, four iron baculos and two large iron chains in the tower above the second gate, 15 horn bows with stirrup and two horn crossbows with stirrup. Item, seven horn bows operated by winch without tiller, two bows with two stirrups without tiller. Item, six wooden crossbows operated by winch. Item, 17 wooden crossbows with stirrup and one with winch. In the king’s hall 25 pieces of timber for the mangonel and two large wooden beams, at the top of the great chamber 26000 quarrels in three arks, both for winch-operated bows and for those with one and two stirrups. In the chamber that is called Gloriette 29 pieces, both bows and tillers, for crossbows, which had rusted, with six rusty and also immunitis winches. In the inner bailey of the said castle, 14 pieces of timber with two wooden beams for the uprights of engines, one trough for fishing with two cunis (?) and four tables. Mathias de Mara received the aforesaid castles in the aforesaid form.