104 WABEHAM I ITS INVASIONS AND BATTLES. 



have taken place between Hubert and his prisoner, whose life was 

 still spared. John paid a stealthy night visit to his nephew. 

 Subsequently there is recorded "a sudden stab and a fair- 

 haired corpse cleaving the dark waters of the Seine." Among 

 the prisoners captured by John were 24 knights from 

 among " the principal nobility of Poictiers ; " these were consigned 

 to the dungeon at Corfe Castle, and there 22 of them are said to 

 have been starved to death by John's special orders. John had 

 got into his power Arthur's sister ; and amongst other places of 

 imprisonment, his niece, " The Princess Alianor, La Brete, or the 

 damsel of Bretagne, in company with the two daughters of 

 Alexander, king of Scotland, were confined in Corfe Castle." In 

 a paper on Corfe Castle it is stated that " only a few months 

 before his death he sent here William d'Albini and other 

 knights whom he captured in the Castle at Rochester, and 

 in order to make room for them other prisoners had to be sent 

 away." In looking at Corfe Castle as a State prison we have 

 anticipated. 



According to Matt. Paris, in July, 1204, King John visited 

 Wareham, and again (Saxon Annals), in 1205, he landed here. 

 From the same source we gather that in the year 1208 King John 

 again came to Wareham and placed a garrison here. This same 

 year John had a quarrel with the Pope. At this period lived a 

 priest, one Peter of Pomfret, and he declared to the King that his 

 reign should end on Ascension Day, May 23, 1213. This festival 

 is said to have been " much dreaded and mistrusted, not by the 

 King only, but by all classes of the people, on account of the 

 prophecy." Peter, who " persisted in his assertion and offered to 

 undergo any punishment if its truth were not proved, was thrown 

 in chains into the dungeon at Corfe Castle to abide the event." 

 Before the dawn of Ascension Day the required submission was 

 made, "and it was believed that John's surrender of the crown to 

 the Pope had verified the prediction." John had failed to realise 

 the fulfilment of Peter's assertion ; consequently " determined 

 to bring him to punishment as an imposter; and though the 



