Old Dive's History of Norwich Castle - Part the First - The Rise of Castle Blanchefleur - Chapter I

Once upon a time …

THE RISE OF CASTLE BLANCHEFLEUR - September, 1066 to Christmas 1121

Being the Tale of the Building of Norwich Castle - with Some Reference to the Doings of William the Bastard and of his Sons: Robert Curthose, William Rufus and Henri Beauclerc.

First up: a bit of background on the characters who gave us our castle. A veritable Game of Thrones it is, too.

I love mediæval names and this tale involves some corkers, though regrettably no Queen Sexburga this time.

Our story starts back around the year 911, when Rollo the Viking persuaded French King Charles the Simple (probably with not too much difficulty) to cede him the lands around Rouen. These lands became known as Normandy, from "North Men," ruled by Rollo's Vikings and their descendants, who became known in their turn as the Normans.

A little later, over on this side of the water, Swein Forkbeard - another Viking - drove Æthelred the Unready out of Northern and Eastern England, ruled for a bit and popped his clogs, leaving the kingdom to his son, Cnut … careful how you spell that one.

That's Cnut on the right, at least that's what the artist of the Kings and Queens of England cigarette cards though he might look like.

Back in Normandy, at Falaise Castle, probably in early 1028, Robert, Duke of Normandy, AKA Robert the Devil, impregnated one of his servant girls, Herleva, daughter of Fulbert the Embalmer (nice) and nine months later she begat William the Bastard.

William the Bastard became known - though not until long after his death - as William the Conqueror, for defeating the exhausted army of Harold, mere days after Harold's men had beaten off a Viking invasion (another Swein) at the other end of the country.

And it was this William who launched a massive campaign of castle building throughout his new realm, which resulted in the creation of our own castle at Norwich, the current stone keep of which was constructed by his younger sons, William Rufus and Henri Beauclerc (later Henry the First).

Ely Cathedral

In 1071, as we learned in our talk on Ely Cathedral, William the Bastard was busy besieging the Isle of Ely, watching the flower of his Norman army sink into a swamp, employing a witch to curse and waggle her wrinkled bottom at Hereward and Morcar and eventually storming the city and confiscating the eyes, hands and feet of the defenders.

A charming man. What else do we know about him?

William the Bastard stood five-feet-eight-inches tall, but that's about all we know of his appearance and we only know that by a re-measuring in 1983 of all that is left of him: a single femur.

We can infer that he was - how shall I put this - burly and robust, especially in later life as the sorry tale of his death relates.

In July, 1087, in the process of invading his Norman neighbours' lands and seizing the town of Mantes, William suffered a gruesome, yet strangely hilarious injury to his 'lower person' from his horse's saddle pommel.

He was taken to the Priory of St.Gervais in Rouen where he passed painfully and infectedly away on the ninth of September and, such was the reverence felt for him that - as soon as he had gasped his last - his attendants looted his belongings and fled, leaving his nekkid carcass athwart his bed.

From there, the corpse was taken by cart to Caen, by which time it must have been pretty ripe.

William's funeral was interrupted by an angry heckler protesting loudly that the Abbey had been built on his father's stolen property and that he had received no compensation.

Much ado and hubbub ensued and it turned out that the allegation was true and he was hastily laden with silver so that the funeral service could continue.

To finish this woeful tale, we must relate that William's bloated corpse proved too fat to fit into his stone sarcophagus and that, when the monks tried to force it in, his distended bowels burst, filling the Abbey with such as stench that all fled save the officiating clergy who inhaled incense to stay conscious.

The man sure knew how to go out in style.

More fun with William's family in the next post …

Sources:

The Oxford History of England: 1087-1216: From Domesday Book to Magna Carta: Austin Lane Poole (ed.) 1951

Gesta Herewardi (later translation)