For a bolt (sera) for the door of the keep 060 894 5 6 4270 0 11 Our next records deal with the measures taken by King Richard after his return from captivity. In the war of 1194-5 the Vexin was lost, Caux had been wasted 2 and much damage done in the Evrecin and at Rouen and Vaudreuil in the valleys of the Seine and lower Eure. The king seems to have been impressed by the strategic value of Vaudreuil, which, until the fortification of 3 He Andeli, was now the chief fortress on the frontier. also realised, as John afterwards did not, its relation to Pont de l'Arche, where an important bridge crossed the Seine at its junction with the Eure. Hence, although Richard paid attention to the other fortresses, and 1. The extra 1d. is obviously due to a slip in the enrollment of one of the two entries at the beginning, e.g., xxiijd. instead of xxijd. 2. Instead of 1100 li. the prepositi of Dieppe accounted for only 600 li. in 1195 pro guerra (Rot. Scacc., i, 235). Since Pentecost the port had been relieved of the payments from duties on hides, wool, and salt (ibid.). 3. It will be remembered that Arques and Drincourt, on the eastern frontier, were until the treaty of 1195-6 in Philip's hands, in virtue of the treaty of July, 1193. The payment of the garrisons, in accordance with the terms arranged in 1193, is accounted for on the roll (i, 137). See above p. 149. 4. Moulineaux, Orival, Moulins, Bonmoulins, Lions, Radepont, Osman. ville, Gorron (i, 137, 222, 245); smiths and carpenters at Falaise (p. 270); engines of war, perreria et mangonella, refixed at Caen (p. 185). especially to Verneuil, his main care was the strengthening of Pont de l'Arche and Vaudreuil. The clerks or engineers in charge of the works were Master Euric and William Tirel.2 Another castle which, owing to the temporary loss of Arques and Drincourt, came into prominence during these years, was Bellencombre, a few miles to the west of Drincourt, on the river Varenne.s All previous efforts, however, were cast into the shade by Richard's activity in 1197, when Château-Gaillard rose on the rock above Andeli with the unhurried speed and confidence of some magical creation. Like many great strategists, Richard preferred a bold, clean stroke in the open day to caution and intrigue. After the bickering and failure which followed the treaty of 1195-6, the king decided to clear the way by removing the archbishop of Rouen from Andeli altogether; if the manor were once part of his demesne, he could control the river at the critical point, and cover the lines of the Andelle and the lower Eure. Above all he would have the opportunity of building a castle whose construction would be all his own, an experiment in all the newest engineering devices, based upon the latest experience in war. In every case the construction of a new castle involved the settlement of new claims and some social readjustment. For example, the opening of suitable quarries or worksheds might interfere with private rights of ownership; or, again, the service of the new chapel might lead to friction 1. "Ad operationes ville et murorum Vernolii dirutorum per regem Francie tempore guerre" (p. 233); "in operationibus murorum castri de Vernolio" (p. 239). 2. i, 156, 236–7; Master Elias was also employed (p. 137). 3. e.g., i, 137, 237. 4. Above p. 173. 5. There are instances of this in the Querimoniae Normannorum or inquests of St. Louis, e.g., at Bonneville-sur-Touque (Histor. de France, xxiv, nos. 24, 31). with the patrons of neighbouring parishes.1 The story of such petty difficulties is very rarely preserved, and we know nothing of the revolution in the life of the old archiepiscopal manor which must have been produced by Richard's operations. A new bailiwick was created, and although the old town paid its farm directly into the exchequer, a handsome domain had been retained to serve the castle it comprised meadows and vineyards, stretches of arable, woods, clearings and fishponds.2 Royal officials collected the dues from the shipping of the river. A new town was laid out by the river side to serve the needs of the elaborate system of defences which bound together rock and water.1 We can only imagine the local effects of the change. Fortunately, however, the exchequer roll for 1198 throws light on the building operations, and an inquiry of the thirteenth century survives to show King Richard at work on a similar task in Poitou. When a young man of twenty-five years or so, Richard, as count of Poitou, had been impressed by the weakness of one spot on the road between Tours and Poitiers. 1. Compare a case which arose at Durtal in Anjou in the eleventh century. The neighbouring parishes claimed that part of the castle pertained ad jus suum. It was decided before the bishop and count : 'Ex antiquo esse consuetudinem in Andecavensi regione ut, si comes Andecavensis fecerit castellum in medio quarumlibet parrochiarum terre sue, ecclesia ipsius castelli tantum de circumjacentibus parrochiis obtineat quantum palus vel fossatum aut alia firmitas illius castelli in circuitu occupaverit' (Cart. de Saint-Aubin, quoted by Halphen, Bibl. de la Faculté des lettres, xiii, 33; also by Marchegay, Bibliothèque de l'école des Chartes, 1875, xxxvi, 395). 2. Rot. Scacc., ii, 449. Revenues for eleven months before Michaelmas, 1198. 3. Rot. Norm., 81. Writ to the constable of Chester and Henry of Rolleston: "sciatis quod quietavimus dilecto et fideli nostro W. de Braosa unam navem de mala tolta usque ad summam quinquaginta li. de tali moneta qualem capitis de mala tolta." The constable of Chester was castellan of the rock. 4. This, and Saint-Remy mentioned below are good instances of the creation of towns for the sake of the neighbouring castle. 1 Loudun and Mirebeau guarded the interests of the count between Angers and Poitiers, but Châtellerault, with its semi-independent lord, lay across the road to Tours. Richard decided to fortify Saint-Remy de la Haye on the river Creuse, a tributary of the Vienne which, during part of its course, separated Poitou from Touraine to the north-east of Châtellerault. In order to carry out this plan, it was necessary to make terms with the lord of SaintRemy, the abbot of Maillezais. In 1184 Richard effected an exchange of territory, and promised to provide for a couple of monks who would continue to serve the Church and inhabit the monastic grange at Saint-Remy.1 He began to build a castle and laid out a town. A thirteenth century inquest, arising out of a dispute between Count Alphonse of Poitou, and the viscount of Châtellerault, enables us, in spite of the conflicting evidence, to follow the history of this change of ownership.2 A centenarian from Les Roches remembered the prior of Maillezais holding the pleas of Saint-Remy eighty years before; another witness had been present in the platea before the monastery when the agreement of exchange was read, and Richard and the abbot each had his part of the cyrograph'; a third, William the monk, who had perhaps been one of the two monks left at Saint-Remy, recalled how the monks had received the various rents and dues,3 and how, later, Richard and John had successively levied them through their officials.4 This witness and another, who had been janitor, told also how the castle was taken by Bartholomew Payen on King Philip's behalf and how 1. Richard, Comtes de Poitou, ii, 230. 2. Comptes et enquêtes d'Alphonse, Comte de Poitou, 1253-1269, edited by Bardonnet in Archives historiques de Poitou (1879), viii, 39. 3. "scilicet frumentagium, avenagium, molendinum et exclusam et forestam et alias res" (pp. 46-47). 4. Master Philip, Geoffrey or Hugh Achard, Girard of Athée, Geoffrey de Cella, are mentioned. it was destroyed.1 Several others, many of them advocates of the viscount's claims, spoke of the castle and the town: one had seen the workmen at work and heard say that Richard had proclaimed a free town there at five shillings the burgage; another spoke of the rich burgesses whose safety Richard guaranteed against the hostility of Châtellerault the new town meant some loss for old towns; another had seen Master Philip, Richard's clerk, giving over 'plots for a rent (ad censum) to Renaud Gorron and his five sons and their heirs, and to many more, so that they might build houses.' It would be a hard task to reconcile all these memories, their chronology in particular; monk, baron, Templar, soldiers, and peasants tell very different stories; but we can see rents, dues, and forest, the mill and pond on the Creuse passing into other hands, walls and towers rising, and the busy officials laying out the town. Another record, the roll of the Norman Exchequer for 1198, is of more direct value for the history of ChâteauGaillard than is this story of Saint-Remy. The roll confirms and adds detail to the description of Richard's work which has come down in the writings of William the Breton. We know from this chronicler that the king first fortified and built a noble house on the Isle of Andeli, the most prominent, though by no means the largest, of the islands which interrupt the river at this point. Here the archbishop of Rouen had levied toll on the shipping. 1. pp. 47, 48. For the loss of Saint-Remy, see Richard, ii, 449. 2. "et audivit quod ex parte regis fuit ibi libera villa criata ad quinque solidos" (p. 43). This reminds us of the artificial Norman and English towns on the one hand, and of the Aquitanian bastides on the other. Cf. Henry II's creation of Beauvoir in Maine: "rex Henricus fecit castrum munitissimum et burgum pergrande juxta haiam de Malaffre, quod vocatum est Bealveer" (Robert of Torigni, ed. Delisle, ii, 14). For the development of urban rents at this period, distinct from the old census or gablum, see Legras, Le Bourgage de Caen (1911), e.g., p. 149. 3. Chronicon, ed. Delaborde, i, 207-209; Philippid., vii, 29-85 (ii, 177-9). |