52 



During the contentions for the crown between Stephen and 

 the Empress Maud and her son, afterwards Henry II., Roger 

 DE Berkeley, the grandson, Lord op Dursley, as a crown 

 vassal of course supported his sovereign ; but on the accession 

 of Henry he was punished for his fidelity by being deprived of 

 Berkeley, which the king bestowed upon Egbert, the son of 

 Harding, who had been one of the principal adherents of the 

 Empress, his mother. 



This Robert was the founder and direct ancestor of the 

 present noble family of Berkeley, and the manor has continued 

 in the possession of his descendants (with the exception of one 

 short alienation) down to the present time. His father, Harding, 

 was a Dane of royal descent, who had come over in the train of 

 William the Conqueror, and was by him rewarded with large 

 possessions in and around Bristol, where he resided. By the 

 same deed by which Henry granted to Robert the Great Manor 

 of Berkeley, (and which is still preserved at the castle,) he 

 covenants to build for Robert a castle there, and to see this 

 engagement performed the king came to Berkeley in 1154, and 

 the building was then actually commenced. 



Mr. Smyth states that the castle was built out of the ruins of 

 the nunnery formerly mentioned. It also appears that some 

 kind of religious foundation had continued on the spot down to 

 that time, as in the great RoU of the Pipe of the last year of the 

 reign of Stephen, there is an entry of an allowance for the 

 garments of three nuns resident at Berkeley. I therefore con- 

 ceive that no castle existed at Berkeley prior to this time, and 

 that the "Castle of Berkeley" mentioned by Atkyns and Rudder, 

 from which Roger the lord thereof was ejected for his adherence 

 to King Stephen, must be considered to refer to the castle at 

 Dursley, the old family inheritance of Roger. 



The castle at its first erection consisted of the keep only and 

 the buildings within it, the remainder being the work of the 

 three succeeding lords, and was only completed during the reign 

 of Edward III. 



The History of Berkeley and its Lords is henceforth the 

 History of England ; there being scarcely a transaction in the 



