The Siege of Hertford Castle 1216
A Ferocious Assault by an Invading French Army upon a Royal castle
Little now remains of Hertford Castle by the River Lea, one of the oldest castles in England, but in its day it was of great strategic importance to the Crown. William the Conqueror first raised a timber motte and bailey fortress surrounded by a double moat on the site not long after the Battle of Hastings in 1066. In the 1170s King Henry II paid for the castle to be reconstructed in stone and flint, adding walls, drawbridges and gatehouses to the original timber structure. Further fortifications were added during the reign of Henry’s son, Richard I and another gatehouse and an octagonal tower were constructed in the 15th century. Despite the long history of the castle and the royal expenditure lavished upon improving its defences, it has only been attacked once. This occurred in December 1216, during the invasion of England by Prince Louis, son of the French King Philip Augustus.
Prince Louis is invited to England
Prince Louis was invited to invade England and take the English crown by English barons sick of the tyranny and misrule of their monarch, King John. Louis landed in May 1216 and marched to London where he was proclaimed King, unopposed by John who distrusted his own troops and retreated north rather than risk a pitched battle. Louis then set about conquering the south of England and within a few months the whole of Kent and Sussex were his with the exception of Dover Castle and the forest of the Weald where a number of loyalist partisans made their camp and harried French troops as they marched about the country.
Death of King John and Accession of Henry III
In October of that year King John performed the best service he could for his country – he died at Newark, leaving his nine-year-old son to succeed him as Henry III. Young Henry’s cause was taken up by the aged knight-errant William Marshal, who became regent of England and vowed to fight on until Louis and all his men were ejected from England. The war dragged on throughout the winter of 1216, and in late November Prince Louis and his army appeared before the walls of Hertford Castle.
Up until the end of the twelfth century the castle had been in Crown custody, but during the civil wars that raged in the last years of King John’s reign it was seized and garrisoned by a leading rebel baron, Robert Fitzwalter. When Fitzwalter fled to France in 1211 to join Prince Louis the castle was confiscated by King John, who appointed a new governor, Walter de Godarvil. Godarvil was a knight and a retainer of one of King John’s foreign mercenary captains, and instead of staying behind the walls of Hertford Castle he was expected to wage aggressive war against the rebels and their French allies: John commanded Godarvil to ‘destroy all the castles, houses, towns, parks, warrens, ponds, mills…and all things that belonged to the barons’.
Surrender of the Tower of London
By the winter of 1216 things looked grim for the supporters of young Henry III. King John’s death had prompted some of the rebel barons to abandon Prince Louis, for though they had fought against John they had no quarrel with his son, but much of the south-west was still in enemy hands. On the 6th November the Tower of London surrendered to Prince Louis, and in the wake of this victory he decided to fight a winter campaign and mop up the last pockets of loyalist resistance in the south-east.
The French March out of London
The French army marched out of London and advanced on the castles of Hertford and Berkhampstead. Louis arrived outside the walls of Hertford Castle on the Feast of St Martin (12 November) and his men immediately set about erecting trebuchets and catapults to hurl great stones against the defences. He also gave orders for mines to be dug beneath the walls, hoping to set light to their foundations beneath the earth and bring them crashing down. But the governor Walter de Godarvil had ensured that the castle was well-supplied to endure a siege, and that the garrison under his command was prepared to withstand anything the French could throw at them.
Storming of Hertford
The garrison managed to hold out from the day of St Martin to the Feast of St Nicholas (December 6), a period of 25 days. Their resistance was impressive considering that they had to withstand repeated assaults by a French army numbering many thousands, and that the castle was continually bombarded by siege engines encircling the walls. According to contemporary chroniclers Walter de Godarvil and his men made a ‘great slaughter’ of the French as the latter attempted to storm the battlements, though there could be no doubt of the result in the end.
Sources:
“King John” by W.L. Warren, published by University of California Press (1978)
“King John: England’s Evil King?” by Ralph V. Turner, published by Tempus Publishing Ltd (2005)
What do you think about this article?
More in History
Latest Articles