VOL. XX. (2) 
ANCIENT CIRENCESTER 
95 
moat) ran. The Castle orchard and meadows ran out over 
the present Great Western Railway to the Querns. 
It was suggested that the disappearance of this Castle of 
Cirencester had greatly influenced the destinies of Cirencester. 
Indeed, its disappearance was rather like a misfortune, as 
will now be shown. 
And first, when did it disappear ? This took place in 
1 141-42, shortly after the Empress Maud, daughter to the 
late King Henry I., had occupied it with a rich retinue and 
powerful garrison during her war with her cousin, King Stephen. 
The Empress being a little later at Oxford, and King Stephen 
formerly her prisoner at Gloucester Castle, having escaped 
thence, he and his followers set fire to the Castle to prevent 
her re-occupation, and it never re-arose. 
The misfortune for the town lay in this, that the rising 
importance of Gloucester (owing to the Norman policy of 
subduing Wales) diminished the strategic significance of 
Cirencester. The need of re-building the Castle here was felt 
far less than the need for strengthening Gloucester. Hence, 
the money that would have sufficed for rebuilding the bumed- 
out towers of Cirencester Castle went presently under Henry II. 
(1170-75) to the erection of the fortress-gate and bridge (known 
at Westgate Bridge) at Gloucester. 
These facts caused the now enriched Abbot of St. Mary’s 
here to cast a business-eye upon the remains of the Castle and 
the possibility of extending his authority and possessions. With 
the accession, and impecuniosity, of Richard Cceur-de-Lion, 
his opportunity duly came. The Abbot knew precisely the 
value and importance of the governance of the King’s Castle- 
Manor : its real control of the town, its taxation, its levies, 
and its defences. It became probable that for a price, which 
his monastery could afford to offer, the crusading Richard, 
sorely in want of money at any sacrifice, would not refuse to 
part with a derelict stronghold, which had lost all strategic 
value, and the upkeep of which, with its Constable and garrison, 
was a burden to an impoverished Crown. If the Kings wished 
to visit Cirencester the future Abbots would gladly enough act 
as their hosts and place St. Mary’s at their disposal. They 
often did soC 
