— 415 — 



It took two years after the conquest for the Normans 

 to come in force before York, but when they came they 

 left their mark, for a short, sharp battle outside the 

 walls made William, who commanded in person, master 

 of the city and castle which he fortified strongly. The 

 Danish inhabitants, however did not take kindly to 

 their Norman cousins, to whom they were bad neigh- 

 bours, and whom they cruelly annoyed from the cover 

 afforded them by the Forest of Galtres, which extended 

 right up to the city walls. William had to come back 

 the next year to strengthen his garrison, but in 1070 

 the townsmen, aided by an imported army of Danes 

 seized and sacked the castle with terrible slaughter, not 

 a Norman escaping. The Conqueror's savage oath on 

 hearing the news is matter of history, as is how he kept 

 it. Just after Cceur-de- Lion's coronation the castle was 

 again the scene of a gruesome tragedy, for a number of 

 landless knights and other broken men deep in debt to 

 the Jews seized the opportunity of the scare begun in 

 Westminster Hall to try to wipe out old scores by fire 

 and sword. They burned the " stairs," and penning up, 

 the Jews in the castle, were about to murder and plunder 

 them in detail, when most of their victims with des- 

 perate courage forestalled them by burning their 

 property and killing their families and themselves. 

 With so many bloody memories hanging round the 

 castle there is little wonder that, like the Tower of 

 London, it had its ghost. It was a curious one creep- 

 ing out under the door of a porch in the Clifford's 

 Tower, in the form of a scroll of paper (was it a " starr " ?) 

 then turning into a monkey, and then into a turkey- 

 cock, as may be read at lenght by all curious as to 

 demonology and witchcraft, in Sir John Keresby's 

 memoirs. One can hardly touch on the noticeable things 

 which happened at York in later years, for except Lou- 

 don probably no city has had such a succession of stir- 

 ring incidents. Its walls twice gave breathing time to 

 the unlucky second Edward, after his defeats at Ban-. 



