A HISTORY OF BEDFORDSHIRE 



He last appears as witness to a charter of Stephen in April 1136." After 

 the capture of Exeter Stephen spent the autumn of that year in hunting at 

 Brampton, near Huntingdon, and kept Christmas at Dunstable." Next year 

 he was in Normandy, and was again at Dunstable for Christmas." But this 

 time he had serious work on hand. Simon was dead, and Miles de 

 Beauchamp was in command of Bedford Castle ' by the king's leave.' '* 

 Stephen sent him instructions to render up the castle, and such military 

 service as he owed the king, to Hugh de Beaumont (le Poer), whom he had 

 just made Earl of Bedford.'* 



Miles replied that he would readily fight for the king and obey 

 his orders provided that he did not attempt to oust him from a possession 

 due to him and his by hereditary right."" If Stephen really meant to 

 attack him he would endure as he could, but the king should never have the 

 castle unless he were brought down to the last extremity. The king, 

 enraged, gathered an army from all England, came to Bedford, and began 

 the siege. Miles rapidly and forcibly collected provisions. The townsmen 

 and inhabitants of the neighbourhood, whom he had before treated 

 humanely as his own, he now plundered recklessly, and, having stored 

 all he could lay hands upon, shut himself up in the castle, Stephen began 

 the attack with a dense flight of arrows directed on all exposed points of the 

 walls, and prepared military engines, ' arte et ingenio et sumptu et opere,' 

 while all the exits were watched at night by a guard of knights. But as 

 the castle was protected by a very high rampart, surrounded by a strong high 

 wall, and strengthened by a strong tower which could not be battered down, 

 the king was unable to take it without a long siege. He was called away 

 to the north by the news of the Scottish invasion, and left a force to reduce 

 the castle by blockade if they could not carry it by assault. At last it was 

 surrendered on terms {militari condkione)}'^ Possibly some sort of castle or 

 work of defence at Meppershall was also besieged by Stephen at this time.** 



The castle was recovered by the Beauchamps when the empress seemed 

 to have secured her triumph by the capture of Stephen at Lincoln in 

 February 1141. 



Great was their exultation in proportion to their present dejection when they came 

 back not long after ; for they not only recovered the castle but they made Roger [hV ; it should 

 be Hugh] himself out of an earl into a knight and out of a knight into a pauper as the order 

 of things had now been strangely changed by Divine judgment.^ 



But the triumph of the empress did not last long ; the capture of her 

 half-brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, in September 1141 provided 

 Stephen's supporters with an exchange, and the king was soon at hberty. 



" Round, Gevff. de Mandevilk, 263. '^ Hen. of Huntingdon, Hist. Angl. (Rolls Ser.), 260. " Ibid. 



" Chron. Stephen, &c. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 30. " Ibid, and note ; see also Round, op. cit. 271, 276! 



'" ' Possessione ex paterno iure sibi et suis debits.' 



" The authorities do not agree as to the date of the siege. The Gesta Stephani {Chron. loc. cit.) says it took 

 place after Christmas, and is supported by the continuator of Florence of Worcester. Henry of Huntingdon 

 emphasizes the fact that the siege went on 'all through Christmas,' and Orderlc Vitalis says the king 

 attacked the castle at Christmas, ' prohibente fratre suo Henrico.' The duration of the siege is also doubtful. 

 Orderic gives five weeks, while the continuator of Florence of Worcester says Stephen heard of the Scottish 

 invasion after the fall of Bedford ; as he reached Northumbria about 2 Feb., and must have taken a fortnight 

 to get there, this would reduce the time to about three weeks. 



° There is a charter dated at Meppershall ' during the siege ' ; Hewlett, Chron. Stephen, &c. (Rolls Ser.) 

 iii, pp. XXV, 31 n. See also F.C.H. Beds, i, 296. 



" Chron. Stephen, &c. (Rolls Ser.), iii, 32 ; see also p. 73. 



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