A HISTORY OF HAMPSHIRE 



it was granted by charter of Henry II with the manor 

 (q.v.) to William Mauduit's second son Henry. In 

 1 163 the king's treasure was carried from Winchester 

 to Portchester,* presumably to the castle. Perhaps 

 treasure was sent here in connexion with a visit of 

 the king, as he crossed to Normandy frequently at 

 that time, 6 and was staying at Portchester in 1 1 64, 

 when Rotrou, bishop of Evreux, came to the king 

 to try to mediate between him and Becket in their 

 dispute over the Constitutions of Clarendon. 6 * This 

 place was used by the English kings as the port of 

 embarkation during the long struggle to retain their 

 French possessions. In 1172 Henry II passed 

 through Portchester on his way to France,' where 

 he declared his innocence of Becket's murder before 

 the papal legates, and hoped to come to terms with 

 his rebellious son. During his absence an insurrection 

 was raised in favour of Prince Henry, but the rebels 

 were defeated and the earl of Leicester and his wife the 

 countess Parnel captured and sent to Henry in France. 

 On his return to England the king brought these prisoners 

 back with him and placed them with many others in 

 Portchester Castle in 1 1 74, when there is a record of 

 16 paid for their keep. 8 In the same year sums 

 amounting to ^i 58 were paid for knights and Serjeants 

 in garrison in the castle, and over 20 for victualling 

 it.* In 1176 Prince Henry, as a pretext to escape to 

 the Continent, professed a desire to make a pilgrimage 

 to the famous shrine of St. James of Compostella. 

 With his wife and retinue he reached Portchester, 10 but 

 was delayed there for many days by contrary winds. 

 King Henry was celebrating Easter with great pomp 

 at Winchester, whither he summoned young Henry 

 and extracted a promise from him to defer his 

 pilgrimage until his brother Richard had made peace 

 with his barons in Aquitaine. The prince then 

 returned to Portchester, where he had left his wife, and 

 on 20 April they started, reaching Barfleur the next 

 day." On the accession of Richard I the charge of 

 the castles of Winchester and Portchester was among 

 the things purchased by the bishop of Winchester 

 from the king. The Pipe Rolls of 1177 and 1181 

 record treasure being sent to Portchester, and that 

 of 1185 proves that Queen Eleanor and her son- 

 in-law, the duke of Saxony, stayed there."* 



King John was frequently at the castle. In 1 200, 

 after his return from Scotland, he went to France to 

 marry Isabel of Angoule'me, staying at Portchester 

 and in its vicinity from 21 to 28 April." It was to 

 Portchester that he summoned the barons of England 

 in the following May 13 to set out on an expedi- 

 tion against Philip of France, who had taken up the 

 cause of Prince Arthur and of the young count of 

 La Marche. In 1 204 the king transacted business 



here while making a prolonged visit to Hampshire 

 in April and May," and here the news of the 

 loss of almost all his French possessions probably 

 reached him. In the following spring he made vast 

 preparations for reconquering them, and went down 

 to Portchester 15 to meet his troops. Ralph of 

 Coggeshall gives a graphic description of the anger 

 and disappointment of the king when he was obliged 

 to abandon the expedition owing to the opposition of 

 the archbishop of Canterbury and the earl marshal. 

 He left Portchester on 9 June cum magna tristitia, 1 ' and 

 went as far as Winchester, only to return to Portsmouth 

 immediately in the hope of carrying out his plans, 

 but the barons remained firm and refused to leave 

 England. A year later his time seems to have been 

 more pleasantly spent, when he wrote to the barons 

 of the Exchequer that ' we lent our brother, the earl 

 of Salisbury, at Portchester, ten shillings to play.' 17 

 He was at Portchester on 26 March, 1 208, 18 when 

 the pope's interdict fell on England. The king 

 visited the castle again in 1209" and 1211.* 

 In June, 1213, he mustered his force at South- 

 hampton, intending to invade France, but the 

 barons would not follow him." " While waiting at 

 Portchester in January, 1214," he appears to have 

 hunted in the park attached to the castle, as he 

 afterwards sent an order to William de Harcourt to 

 send his hunting dogs to Portsmouth from Portchester. 1 * 

 The castle surrendered to Louis of France at the 

 end of June, 1 2 1 6." 1 



Eustace the Monk, a well-known freebooter of the 

 Channel, was detained in the castle with other 

 prisoners in 1214.** John's methods were econo- 

 mical, and they were obliged to provide themselves 

 with food and other necessaries. In 1217 an order 

 was sent to Oliver d'Aubigny to destroy the castle, 

 or if he was unable to level it, to burn it com- 

 pletely." That this order has a connexion with the 

 troubles at the end of John's reign is to be assumed, 

 but its precise connexion is more difficult to fix. In the 

 same year there is a similar order about Chichester,* 5 in 

 pursuance of a command given by John some years 

 before, and this appears to have been carried out. 

 But perhaps in consequence of the expulsion of Louis 

 and his invading army, the circumstances which made 

 the destruction of Portchester expedient ceased to 

 exist, and the next year the king ordered that the 

 castle should be repaired.' 6 It had been perhaps in 

 preparation for the expedition to Poitou that Henry III 

 had his armour brought to Portchester in 1 224, paying 

 four knights zos. each for carrying it there,* 7 and four 

 ' doles ' of wine taken as booty were hurriedly ordered 

 to be sent there against the king's arrival on 1 3 July.** 

 Henry summoned his vassals to meet him at Ports- 



PipcR.(Pipc R. Soc.),io Hen. II, p.26. 



Nich. T revet, Ann. (Engl. Hist. Soc.}, 



53. 54, &<= 



" Materials far Hitt. of Thus. Becket 

 (Rolls Ser.), iv, 37. 



^ Matt. Paris, Hist. Angl. (Rolli Ser.), 



', 37'- 



8 Pipe R. (Pipe R. Soc.), 20 Hen. II, xxi, 

 125, 136. 



Pipe R.(Pift R.Soc.), 20 Hen. Ill, i, 

 125,138. 



10 Benedict of Peterborough, Gcsta Hen. 

 II etRic. I (Rolls Ser.), i, 114. 



Ibid. 115. 



Richard of Deyiies, Chron. (Rolls 

 Ser.), 338. 



Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), i, pt. i, 49, 



5, *<= 



18 Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i, 

 Itinerary of King John, sub anno. 



14 Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), i, pt. i, 125, 

 128, &c. 



15 Ralph of Coggeshall, Chron. Angl. 

 (Rolls Ser.), 152. 



" Ibid. 154. 



V Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i, Introd. 

 p. xxxiii. 



18 Rot. Chart. (Rec. Com.), i, pt. i, 

 176. 



19 Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i, Itin. 

 of King John, tub anno. 



Ibid. 



152 



*"> Roger of Wendover, Flor. Hist. (Rolls 

 Ser.), ii, 82 ; Walter of Coventry, 

 Memoriale (Rolls Ser.), ii, 212. 



81 Rot. Lit. Pat. (Rec. Com.), i, Itin. 

 of King John, sub anno. 



M Rot. de Oblatis et Finibus (Rec. Com.), 

 545- 



3ta Histoire des Dues de Normandie, 

 174 ; Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal, 

 11. 15, 1 01. 



28 Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), 177. 



"< Pat. I Hen. Ill, m. 8. 



Ibid. 



Close, 2 Hen. Ill, m. 3. 



W Rot. Lit. Claus. (Rec. Com.), 5. 



38 Ibid. 50. 



