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happened then scarcely deserves the name of a 

 battle, being rather a riot, when the men of the 

 town rose en masse to defend their rig-htsas English- 

 men against the insolence of foreigners. The story 

 is thus charmingly told by Professor E. A. Freeman. 

 " Drogo, of Mantes, the husband of the King's 

 (Edward the Confessor's) sister, was dead, and she 

 married another Frenchman, Eustace, Count of 

 Boulogne. So, not long after his marriage. Count 

 Eustace came over, like other people, to see his 

 brother-in-law. and got from him all that he asked 

 for. Then he turned about to go home. So he 

 and his men came to Dover, and, thinking they 

 might do just what they pleased, Count Eustace 

 and some of his followers wanted to lodge in the 

 house of one of the townsmen against his will. 

 "When the master of the house would not let them 

 in, they killed him ; meanwhile his fellow-towns- 

 men had come to help him, and there was a general 

 battle, in which about twenty people were killed on 

 each side. But at last Count Eustace and his men 

 were driven out of the town ; so they rode back to 

 the King, who was at Gloucester, and told him the 

 story their own way, making out that it was not 

 they who were to blame, but the men of Dover. So 

 KingEdward was very wroth, and badeEarl God wine, 

 as Dover was in his Earldom, go and chastise the 

 people of the town for the wrong done to his 

 brother-in-law. . . . So he answered the King 

 plainly that he would do nothing of the kind ; no 

 man in his earldom should be put to death without 

 trial ; if the Dover men had done anything wrong, 

 let their magistrates b« brought before the meeting 

 of the wise men, and there be tried fairly." 



1066. On October 21, seven days after the great 

 battle at Senlac, William the Conuueror marched 

 to Dover with the intent to besiege the Castle 

 which Harold had strengthened with the latest 

 improvements of Norman military art. But the 

 fortress submitted to the Conqueror without a blow 

 being btruck. '* But," says Professor Freeman, 

 " some of the unruly soldiers of his army felt them- 

 selves defrauded of their expected plunder, and 

 they betook themselves tojthe wontedNorman means 

 of destruction. Fire was as freely used at Dover 

 as it had been at Mayenneoiat Dinan, but this time 

 it was used without any order from Duke Wiliiam 

 for its use. A large part of the town was burned. 

 But the politic liberality of the Duke made good 

 their losses to the owners of the destroyed houses, 

 and the offenders were only sheltered from punish- 

 ment by their numbers and by the baseness of 

 their condition. William remained at Dover eight 

 days. He further strengthened the fortifications of 

 the Castle, which now received that Norman 

 garrison with which Harold had failed to people it. 

 The sick, who were a numerous body, were left 

 behind, and William marched on, ready to receive 

 other surrenders or to subdue other enemies." 



1067, December 8. Sixteen years after 

 Count Eustace of Boulogne had been 

 driven ignominiousiy away from the town 

 by the spirited defence of the townsmen, 

 Dover received a second visit from the same 

 cowardly foe. The men of Kent, writhing under 

 the iron rule of Bishop Odo of Bayeux and Hugh 

 de Montford, revolted, and in their despair sought 

 the aid of Eustace to free them from Norman 



tyranny. The enterprise was planned in folly 

 and ended in utter disgrace. On his landing, 

 Eustace was joined bj- a large English fuice and 

 anticipated an easy victory. But the Castle held 

 its own bravely, and after a fight which lasted for 

 several hours, the bpsieged made a sally and 

 utterly routt-d the besiegers. " Their loss was 

 frightful," says Freeman, " but, though the 

 Norman horsemen followed on the fliers, slaying 

 and taking captivps. yet the smallest number of 

 those who fell that day v/ere those who were slain 

 by the sword. Some, seeking to escape the horse- 

 men, strove to climb the steep heights on either 

 side ot the town. But in their flight and hurry 

 and ignorance of the paths, the most part of them 

 perished by tailing over the rocks. Some thrpw 

 aside their arms, and were dashed to pieces by the 

 mere fall ; others, in the general c nfui^ion and 

 entaoglement, received deadly wounds from their 

 own weapons or from those of their comrades. 

 Some contrived to reach the coast unhurt, but as 

 they crowded recklessly into their shipt^, the frail 

 vessels sank, and many of them perished. Eustace, 

 the man whose crime had been the beginning of 

 evils, the man who had slaughtered the burghers' 

 of Dover in their streets and in their houses, the 

 man whose one exploit in the great battle had 

 been to wreak a coward's spite on the body of the 

 dying Harold," managed to reach his ship and so 

 escaped. 



1C69. Once again, in 1069, the garrison of 

 Dover Castle beat off an invader. The huge fleet 

 of two hundred and forty ships sent by Swegen, 

 King of Denmark, to deliver England out cf the 

 hand of the conqueror made its first attack on 

 Dover. No detailed account of this attack is pre- 

 served. All we know is that it was unsuccess- 

 ful. 



1216. When Louis, soq of Philip Augustus, 

 came in 1216 to claim the kingdom of England, . 

 King John was at Dover, but on the appioach of 

 Louis he deserted the Castle, leaving it in the 

 charge of Hubert de Burgh, who kept his charge 

 so manfully that the French army, after rava^jing 

 the whole of the district, had to leave the Castle 

 untaken." 



1265. During the war of the Barons, which 

 culminated in the victory for the Royalists at 

 Evesham, the Castle of Dovr was in the hands of 

 the King's enemies. " But," says Holinshed, " in 

 some writers we find it thus recorded, that when 

 certeine prisoners which were kept by the Barons 

 of the Cinque Ports, in the Castell of Dover, 

 heard how all things prospered oa the 

 King's side, they got possession of a tower 

 within the same Castell, and tooke upon 

 them to defend it against their keepers ; whereof 

 when advertisement was given to the King and 

 to his Sonne the Lord Edward, they hasted furth 

 to come and succour their friends. The keepers 

 of the Castell, perceiving themselves beset with 

 their enemies, sent to the Kiag for peace, who 

 granting them pardon of life and limme, with 

 horse, armour, and otner necessaries, the Castell 

 was yielded unto his hands." 



It does not appear from this that the fortress 

 was assaulted, but jieMed to lawful authority as 

 it had done some two buodred years before to the 



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