Berkhamsted - Castle

Castle

Berkhamsted Castle is a ruined Norman castle, beside the railway station. Now in the care of English Heritage, this royal castle was once the home of Edward, the Black Prince and his wife, Joan of Kent. Geoffrey Chaucer was constable. Work first started on the construction of the castle in 1066.

The original Saxon structure of timber and earthworks was replaced by a stone castle 1080s and became a favourite home of Norman and Plantagenet monarchs. Simon Schama refers to Berkhamsted as being to the Plantagenets what Windsor is to today's Royal Family.

From 1155 until 1165, Henry II's favourite Thomas Becket was appointed constable. The surviving flintwork walls remain from his building plans. However, according to Percy Birtchnell, one of the reasons for Beckett's fall from grace and assassination was his overspend on Berkhamsted Castle which stretched the kings finances. Despite this records show that a chamber was always named St. Thomas's.

in 1216 the castle's defences were put to the test in the First Barons War, when the forces of the future King of France, Louis VIII, besieged the town in December.

Henry III and Edward I of England are two monarchs who spent much time here. A tower of three storeys in the castle was built to commemorate birth of Henry's son Edmund in 1249. This potential future king died as an infant. His mother, Henry's wife Sanchia of Provence also died in the castle in 1260.

In 1309 King Edward II granted Berkhamsted to his lover Piers Gaveston. For the sake of honour Piers married Margaret de Clare, the grand daughter of King Edward I in Berkhamsted Castle. However in 1312 he was assassinated and the castle returned to the crown.

However, it was to Berkhamsted in 1353 that Edward brought his most celebrated prisoner, John II, King of France. As a royal prisoner he could not be taken to anything other than a royal residence.

More happily the Hero of Berkhamsted, Edward Prince of Wales, the Black Prince spent his honeymoon here with Joan, the Maid of Kent in 1361. The entire court celebrated for five days to celebrate the marriage in Berkhamsted and on Berkhamsted Common. Aged only 16 he was the hero of the Battle of Crecy. His lieutenants included Berkhamsted men such as Everard Halsey, John Wood, Stephen of Champneys, Robert Whittingham, Edward le Bourne, Richard of Gaddesden, and Henry of Berkhamsted. At the Battle of Poitiers Henry saved the Prince's baggage and was rewarded with 2d a day and was appointed porter of the royal castle at Berkhamsted.

It remained a Royal Castle until it was abandoned in 1495. Much of the stonework was plundered for building materials for the town and nearby manor house Berkhamsted Place (demolished in 1967) but the impressive earthworks and two of the original three moats remain. Half of the third was lost when the London and Birmingham Railway line was built.

During the Second World War much of London's statuary including the statue of Charles I now found at the top of Whitehall on Trafalgar Square, were relocated to the grounds of Berkhamsted Castle.

Having noteworthy earthworks raised above the surrounding valley floor (flooded by chalk stream aquifers – at the most Northern extent of the London Basin), it is likely the castle's site has been of some significance since man first populated the area.