WINDSOR CASTLE.

Dunstan Times, Issue 3128, 31 July 1922, Page 2

WINDSOR CASTLE.

(By Walter G. Bell.)

Everyone retains among tlie lasting impressions or Ins lue tue first view of Windsor Castle, whether trom the tram wimimg into the Koyal oorougn, from tlio river now mg beneath its walls, or more distantly over the open country*. Emm whatever point seen, Windsor Castle is ol unrivalled magnificence. iNaturo provided this eminence, and man has built upon it in successive centuries a majestic structure which easily is first among the cleiensivc places ol this country. There is nothing else comparable with tins duel icsidcnee of our Sovereigns'. Arundel is majestic, too, Alnwick nas great antiquity, but they lack the spaciousness, the age, the variety, and, above all, the historical associations wluch make Windsor unique. Turret and tower and churclt pinnacle rise into the blue vault, grouped around the massive Hound lower, or keep—a forest built of masonry, the fitting homo lor Kings. Proudly King George and his successors on the British Throno will bear tho name of “the House of Windsor. The Royal Palaces of Europe, set beside Windsor, are things of yesterday- - the Quirinal in Pome, the Escnrial in Madrid, the Hofberg in Vienna, The Winter Palace of Petrograd, and tho Poval Schloss in Berlin. Even the Louvre in Paris, begun by’ Phillippe Auguste in the year 1204, lacks a century and more of Windsor’s hearty age. . At the hack of the mind is always a picture of William the Conqueroi uigiug his horse up the steep hill, and with instant intuition deciding that upon this strong place should be built bis Castle of Windsor. It is imagination though obvious enough to seem real The “mount” he there constructed, with ditch and scarp and palHsade, formed hut one of many castles which tho Conqueror scattered about England to make the subjugation ol I line w subjects secure. In the capital, where first the hank rises above the low-lying river marshes of Essex anct Middlesex up from the sea, he built the Tower of London. And as the river above winds mile after mile through open country, there is no other natural eminence to command its passage till Windsor is reached. Edward, the Saxon Confessor, had a Palace at Old Windsor, hut that was not here; the site lies by the water two miles distant King William tound that jus predecessor had already granted the chalk hill to the Abbot of Westminster hut arranged an exchanged ot 1 auds at Battersea and in Essex, and Windsor has been the Royal fortress and residence since his day. It is mentioned in Domesday Book, hut not at The Windsor of to-day was in the Manor of Glower; there the Castle ot ■Windsor” was built and the town grew ifi) about it, sheltered by its Sfc The > Conqueror threw up the “mount” upon winch the Round Tower afterwards was built, and as iu see it today it is his work; the sides wonderfully steep, a cone cropped with m ass. Around a circular dry ditch a as cut out of the chalk, of winch a large part remains, the material e\ca\a ted being thrown m towards the centie. Upon the heap a wooden lurt was constructed, the “donjon, no doubt much like those in Normandy that aio pictured upon the Baveaux tapestn not very formidable, but sufficient in its day. That these forts crowning tlie mount were timher-huilt, we know from the same tapestry, whereon knights are shown trying to burn that at Dinan. The fact that Windsor was at a convenient distance from London, hv the riverside, and with a great forest stretching far away suitable lor the Royal chase, makes it likely that King William used it as a hunting lodge, hut there is no record. King Henrv 1., in the year 1110. ‘for the first time held his Court in the New Windsor.” Earlier, the fort had served the use of a prison, lor Pufus sent Robert, flu* captive Earl ot Northumbria, under there; and a new and more intimate association of Windsor with the Royal house may ho said to have begun when King Henrv 1., in 1121, married in the Castle chapel his second Queen, Aclelecia. daughter of the Duke ol Lonvain. A mount of npthrown chalk requires time to settle before it can hear a heavy load; the wooden fort, and the Conqueror’s staked pallisade and scrap and ditch, enclosing the Royal lodgings. no doubt still represented Windsor Castle. From such beginnings tho great fortress palace grew, and there are few of our Sovereigns, stretching hack in long line to William of Normandy, who have nut in some detail added to it. King Henry 11. was a considerable builder at Vi indsor; the great Roll of tho Pipe shows that he brought down large quantities of stone, and it is probable that this king first constructed a masonry Hound Tower as the central keep of the fort. Sir W. St. Hope, Windsor Castle’s most erudite historian, attributes to King Henry 11., besides this work, the rebuilding of the Royal lodging and ot a wall enclosing it, and the building of four lowers on tho eastern curtain, and of four others on the south side, with tho erection of curtain walls. Tho Castle appears to have filled the whole ol the eminence now covered from the earliest times; hut only the Middle and the Upper Wards were first enclosed within masonry walls, the Lower Ward, where the ground falls, depending for defence upon the steep slope of the scarp, strengthened with ditch and staked at the crest —a source of weakness when, under King John. Windsor C astle was besieged by the barons. That monarch divided much ot Ins time between Windsor and the Tower ol London —strong places both —when he was not desolating the country of subjects in revolt, and Windsor Castle is unhappily associated with one of the darkest stories of his reign. William de Hr aose held castles on the Welsh border and partly destroyed I he King's town of Leominster. Defeated, he led with his family lo Ireland. King John following. Narratives of the 'chroniclers vary; one says that De Rraose eluded him : another, that the feudal baron was liberated to obtain the large lansom required for his family’s release. whereupon he lied to Frame. Whichever be (rue. King John seized Ins wife. Maud de Hraose. and her son, and sent them to Windsor, with orders that they be starved to death, locked in a prison chamber. On the eleventh day the door was opened, and both were found dead, the mother silting upright between her son’s legs, with head leaning back on his breast. The youth also was in a sitting posture, with the bead turned. .Maud de Hraose. in the ravening pangs of hunger and delirium, had gnawed her son's cheek, and after that last effort she appeared to have fallen as she was found. This revolting ael of vengeance has been attributed both to 'Windsor and to Corfu Castle, but of (he tragedy itself there is. nnhappmy. no doubt John was at Windsor when the negotiations with the barons took place which ended with the signing of .Magna Carta. The great charter of English libei ties bears date June 15. 1215, but that was tire day when the conference at Rnnymede began, and 1 it lasted til! the 23rd day of the month. The place of meeting was chosen by the barons:

it lay within sight of the towers of Windsor, easily ■ accessible to the King, yet far enough distant to prevent any treacherous surprise by his forces’. John and his) retinue made the journey from Windsor each morning, returning to the Castle’s shelter at night, and there are various orders issued day by day by the King for the surrender of castles and lands, and the delivery of hostages, as agreement was reached with the barons. Neither side held the other in trust. Magna Carta Island, in the Thames, has the popular tradition of being the ground upon which the momentuous conference took place and the prachmentg were sealed, but the Charter itself says plainly “in the field ol R,unimode”—the pleasant meadow that still stretches away, green and fresh, from the river bank. John’s unfaithfulness to his pledged word led to a determined siege ol AVindsor Castle in 1216, then by his forces hi the King’s absence. The garrison, led by Eugelard d’Athies and Andrew do Chaneeaux, with whom were sixty knights and numerous retainers, made a spirited defence. They beat hick attacks, made desperate sorties, and twice broke the beam of the “perriere,” or military engine used by the barons for hurling large stones, while John’s activities were largely spent in burning and ravaging the lands of the besiegers. Once the two armies almost met. John advancing upon AVindsor, but in the night the King withdrew. No success was obtained, and eventual iy the siege was raised; but in the conflict the defences sustained much damage, and John’s successor, King Henry Hi., made AA’indsor Castle secure by completing the encirclement of walls and towers.