Anyhoo … in happier times William had bred many more bastards along with three legitimate sons: Robert, William (another one) and Henri.
Robert, being eldest, would have been the obvious choice to rule England after the Bastard's death but alas, he was the Tyrion Lannister of this tale, nicknamed by his father "Robert Curthose" or "short pants" for his short legs, but colloquially and more popularly by the Norman-hating Saxons of England as "Robert Short-Arse."
Like Tyrion, he was eloquent and chivalrous, but also like Tyrion he was dissolute, consorting with fools and harlots. His younger brothers being given precedence over him irked young Robert somewhat, especially when, in his teens, William and Henri contrived to dump a full chamberpot over his head.
When his father broke up the resulting, somewhat fragrant brawl, yet refused to punish his favourite younger sons, Robert went off on one and attempted - unsuccessfully - to storm Rouen Castle (as you would).
Chased out of Normandy by his irate father Robert took refuge in Flanders, from where - after a hairwash - he proceeded to plunder any parts of Normandy he could reach.
William was even more enraged when he discovered that his wife had been secretly sending Robert money.
Ah, families … At a battle in January 1079, Robert succeeded in knocking his dad off his horse and wounding him, only refraining from killing him when he recognised William's voice.
It wasn't until Easter the following year that Queen Matilda managed to get them to grumpily shake hands and make up.
After William the Fat Bastard's reeking demise, in September 1087 the throne of England was gifted to his second son, William Rufus. Robert Short-Arse was given the Duchy of Normandy and Henri Beauclerc was left five-thousand-pounds weight of silver; quite a bundle back then, even though it is reported that all three brothers felt short-changed.
We shall return to their doings presently …
In the meantime let us step back to 1068, when William the Bastard, having declared himself King William the First of England, tasked one Herbert the Ditcher and one Rabel the Engineer with building a motte and bailey timber fort with defensive ditch and palisade at Norwich for the suppression (and of course taxation - that being the whole purpose of the Domesday Book after all) of the local populace.
Herbert the Ditcher picked the highest and most prominent spot he could find, the site of the present castle, inconveniently occupied at the time by Norwich citizens.
The Domesday Book records, "and on that land over which Harold had jurisdiction there are fifteen burgesses and seventeen vacant houses which are in the occupation of the castle. And in the borough are one-hundred-and-ninety empty houses there which were in the jurisdiction of the king and the earl, and eighty-one in the occupation of the castle."
T. E. Heslop states that "The broad implications of this information are clear; that the castle had been set up within a quite densely built part of the town …" resulting in at least ninety-eight homes being demolished within the boundary of Herbert's ditch.
Around the time that Herbert and Rabel were flattening the townsfolk's homes and building their fort, there were - unsurprisingly - not a few local rebellions, including that of Hereward the Wake and Morcar at nearby Ely, which kept William the Bastard and his army busy, bewitched and wet for a bit (see preface).
By 1075 the fort was up and running and William popped back to Normandy to sort out his other kingdom. He left the Breton Earl Ralph in charge of Norwich's timber castle, which was not perhaps the wisest thing to do.
Earl Ralph was to marry Emma, sixteen-year-old daughter of William Fitzosbern and younger sister of Roger of Breteuil. Ralph and Roger, together with Earl Waltheof, conspired at the wedding feast to rebel against the king on his return from abroad.
Archbishop Lanfranc, then tasked with country-sitting for William learned of the plot and wrote to the king assuring him that he could deal with the rebels. He then set siege to the timber castle at Norwich.
The timber castle and bailey at Norwich, 1068 - 1094, courtesy Norfolk Museums Service
Earl Ralph bravely ran away, leaving behind his teenage bride in charge of his Breton soldiers. Emma successfully held the castle for three months, eventually forcing Lanfranc to allow her and her army unmolested right of passage back across the Channel. She left with - in Lanfranc's words - "three-hundred men in armour with armour with them, with crossbowmen and many artificers of machines."
Thanks to Emma, Norwich Castle had withstood its first siege.
Shortly afterwards, William the Bastard and his terminally torn testicles passed away and William Rufus was crowned King William the Second of England.
We shall have more adventures with William, Henri and Robert in the next post and see the rise of the current castle.
Sources:
Francis Blomefield: An Essay Towards a Topographical History of the County of Norfolk: Volume 3: The History of the City and County of Norwich: 1753 to 1775
The Oxford History of England: 1087-1216: From Domesday Book to Magna Carta: Austin Lane Poole (ed.) 1951
Frank Barlow: The Norman Conquest and Beyond: 1983
T. A. Heslop: Norwich Castle Keep: Romanesque Architecture and Social Context: Centre for East Anglian Studies: 1994
James F. King: Norwich Castle Keep: Dates and Contexts: British Archæological Association: 2015
9 comments:
How fortunate that there were all those empty houses right where the castle was to be built! *snickering*
Yup, the Normans were like that, Savannah. "We're in charge now, so we're gonna knock down your houses and then you're gonna build us a smegging big castle so we can subjugate you." xox
Called in our times "eminent domain." Down the block from where I live, a new shopping mall is being built to replace the long-gone trashy motel, a convenience store/gas station, and another gas station - which was the successor of the one above ^^. In between, there is a Mexican restaurant that's done very good business since the 1980s. I see it has clung to principle and is still there. That's the best, because the restaurant has always been modestly-priced, served good food, and had full parking lot as a result.
That Mexican sounds great, Speedway. Yum! The image of American shops has this week (for the rest of the world) consisted a garden supply store nestled between a crematorium and a porno bookstore cum dildo shop. Thanks, Donald and Rudi.
:-D! Yeh, sad to say. I have family who are part of that evil tribe and cannot fathom why.
So good to see you on your blog again xx
History repeats itself. This is almost word for word the same story as the building of Dodger Stadium in Los Angeles, except maybe the testicles part.
Hi, Petrea. Have you got Ry Cooder's album Chavez Ravine? Utterly brilliant and comes with a booklet explaining the whole sordid story.
I don't have the album, but I know the story and it is indeed sordid.
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