VI. IN TIMES OF WAR.
There were many episodes of thrilling interest connected with the assaults, sieges and menaces of the Castle during the twenty centuries.
THE ROMANS CHECKED.
As far back as August, B.C. 55 a thrill of excitement stirred the hearts of Britons assembled on these "high bold shores" to resist the landing of Julius Cresar; but, of course, there was no Castle then.
ARVIRAGUS DEFIES CAESAR.
During the Roman occupation, A.D. 43, there was a British insurrection, led by Arviragus, when It is stated that to keep the Romans out of the haven between the hills an attempt was made by a multitude of Britons to blockade the entrance to the land-locked harbour which lay behind the Roman Castle. Tradition states that that spirited resistance succeeded in keeping the Roman Fleet out and compelling them to seek a landing further west.
A FIGHT IN SAXON DAYS.
The fatal affray between Eustace of Boulogne and the burghers of Dover, near the close of the Saxon Period, a disquieting affair in itself, led to serious consequences. Eustace, Count of Boulogne, with a party of armed men, were returning from the Court at Gloucester, when, presuming on their supposed superior rank, they picked a quarrel with the burghers of Dover about lodgings, and slew one of them in his own house. Then Eustace's men rode up to the Castle to make their complaints, but, finding no sympathy, a fight ensued, in which twenty Dover men were slain as well as nineteen of the Count's, and the remnant of his men rode back to Gloucester to lay their complaint before the King. Earl Godwin, who was present at Court, Stoutly defended his Dover burghers, and carried it with so high a hand, that he and his sons were banished from the realm by Edward the Confessor. The great Saxon Earl and his sons, when across the sea, caused so much trouble that the King was glad to recall them, but there remained a root of bitterness between the Norman friends of the Confessor and Godwin. The quarrel which began in the streets of Dover was not really fought out until the Confessor and Godwin were dead, and the decisive conflict between Harold, son of Godwin, and William of Normandy on the battlefield of Hastings finally gave the Norman ascendancy in Britain.
THE NORMAN CONQUEST.
The seizure of Dover Castle by the Normans at the Contiuest was effected without a siege. So many Kentish men had been slain in the Battle of Hastings that there was not a sufficient force left at Dover to give battle to the invaders in the open ; but there was some resistance at the Castle, in consequence of which the town was pillaged aiid burnt; and Bertram Ashburnham, Harold's faithful Co stable, was beheaded in front of the Garrison. In the attack and defence the Castle was so battered that the Conqueror's soldiers had to spend eight days in buikling up the breaches and estal)lishing a sufficient guard before it was deemed prudent to advance towards the Capital.
AFTERMATH OF THE CONQUEST.
An aftermath of the Conquest sprung up at Dover, owing to the rapacity of the victorious Normans in depriving the Saxon landowners in Kent of their estates. It is said that the Canons of Dover were the only Kentish landowners whose estates were not given to the warriors who came over with the Conqueror. The East Kent Saxons were goaded into rebellion, and that old soldier of fortune, Count Eustace of Boulogne, brought a force over to assist the Kentish men to sie/.e the Castle. The Count and his soldiers landed after nightfall at a little quay under the Castle cliff, where the men of Kent joined them, and together they climbed the hill to the open space between the edge of the cliflF and the Saxon fortifications. While they were springing to scale the walls the Garrison made a sudden sally through Colton Gate, driving many of the foreigners to swift destruction over the edge of the cliff. Count Eustace and a few of his bodyguard escaping down the hill, re-embarked, leaving the men ot Kent to the vengeance of the Normans.
WARS OF THE TWO MAUDS.
During the nineteen years of the reign of Stephen, the holders of Dover Castle had a harassing time. Henry I., who died in Normandy, nominated his daughter Maud (known as the Empress, being the widow of Emperor Henry V.) to inherit the Crown of England; but Stephen, a grandson of the Conqueror, asserted liis claim to the Throne. Both Maud and Stephen were on ihe Continent when the King died; but Stephen, being nearest to the coast, gathered his supporters, and hurriedly crossed to Dover. He found the Castle closed to him, the Constable, Lord John de Fiennes, having pledged himself to support the late King's daughter. Making no stay at Dover, Stephen hastened inland to secure the Crown and ihe contents of the 'J'reasury, while his wife (also named Maud) remained at Boulogne to collect an army. Stephen had arrived at Dover in December, 1135, and his Queen Maud landed here with her army in March, 1136. Avoiding the Castle, she marched with her troops to Canterbury, where she met Stephen, and they were crowned in the Cathedral there. Together they carried on this war against the Empress Maud and her supi)orter, the Earl of Gloucester, with varying success. Constable John de Fiennes held Dover Castle against Stephen for two years, but in 1138, while King Stephen was fighting in the Midlands, Oueen Maud advanced into Kent, and demanded the surrender of Dover Castle. The Constable being away, fighting for the Empress Maud in the Midlands, his deputy, Walkelin de Magminot surrendered to Queen Maud. Walkelin has been suspected of treachery, but the facts indicate that Constable Fiennes had taken so many men away with him that the defenders of the Castle were not strong enough to resist the enthusiastic army of the warlike Queen, whose demonstrations of force left no ho})e of effectual resistance. The Queen placed the Castle in charge of William d'Ipress the leader of her foreign troops, and at the same time the Empress Maud nominated Henry Fitz-Herbert as Constable, but Fitz-Herbert was then commanding the troops of the Emperss in the Midlands, and being taken prisoner of war, never took the appointment. Some writers say that the Empress seized Dover Castle, but she was never near it. Being weary of the Civil War she retired to the Continent, but her son Henr}', who by his marriage had become the richest gentleman in Europe, collected a great army with which he landed at Dover, and after a short struggle with Queen Maud's troops seized the Castle. That broke the brave Queen's heart, for she had held the Castle against all comers for 14 years. She died in the year that the Castle was taken from her, and was buried in the abbey which she had founded at Faversham. Peace was soon alter made on an agreement that Stephen should reign, but that at his death the crown should descend to Henry, son of the Empress Maud and grandson of Henry 1 The Castle was given up to King Stephen, who appointed his son Eustace as Constable, but he dying l)efore his father, Walkelin de Magminot, who had surrendered to Queen Maud, was Constable until the accession of Henry H., when his sudden flight to the Continent gave support to the rumour that he treacherously surrendered the Castle to Queen Maud.
HUBERT DE BURGH'S GALLANT DEFENCE.
The sternest siege that Dover Castle ever withstood was in the latter part of the reign of King John, when the English Barons invited Louis, the Dauphin of France to come over and take the crown. Louis landed a great army at Stonar, near Sandwich, and advanced on London, leaving in his rear, Dover Castle, which was held by Hubert de Burgh for King John. When the King of France heard that his son had advanced on London leaving Dover Castle untaken behind him, he sent a message to the Dauphin telling him that he could not consider that he had gained a foot in England until he had captured Dover Castle. Louis then marched his forces hack to Dover, and planted before the Castle walls great battering rams used in those days for attacking fortified places, and having made some breaches in the walls, on the 24th June, 12 16, he attempted to take this fortress by storm, but without success. He then closely invested the Castle, spending the month of August, 1216, in an effort to starve out the garrison, and in the meantime the French miners dug a deep trench from the foot of the hill, by Harold's Passage throwing up a high mound on the South, hoping to shield themselves from the Stones and darts thrown from the Castle walls as they advanced up the trench to make an effective attack on the North side, which though only slightly protected by walls was strongly held by men-at-arms. While the miners were engaged on the trench, Sir John de Pencester with a strong body of cavalry, bringing provisions, made a dash from Broadlees Bottom across the Northfall Meadow, entering the Castle through Godwin's sally-port. This relief put new heart into the garrison, who were holding out gallantly on the 19th October, when King Joh-i died. Louis sent a flag of truce with the news of the King's death, calling for a surrender, with a threat that if Hubert de Burgh continued the struggle he would be hung in front of the Castle walls. To this the brave Hubert replied : " Let not Louis hope that I will surrender as long as I draw breath. Never will I yield to French aliens this Castle, which is the very key and gate of England!" Soon after, the French abandoned the siege with the intention of renewing it in the following year; but an army that was embarked from Calais, in eighty-six transports, to renew the war was destroyed by the Cinque Ports Fleet within sight of the Castle walls.
THE WARS OF THE BARONS.
In the Civil War between Henry HL and the Barons, Dover Castle played an important part. On the Barons' side, in June, 1263, Sir Roger de Leybourne entered into a guerilla war in Kent, when he seized the Car,tle and Port of Dover to prevent foreign mercenaries from landing to help the King. Prince Edward, knowing that Sir Roger was powerful enough to hold the Castle and Port, promised that if the bold knight would go over to the King's side, he should be legally installed as Constable of the Castle and restored to his other forfeited offices and estates. The terms were accepted, and the Castle restored to the King in December, 1263. In the following year Sir Roger left the Castle in charge of Richard de Grey, and marched with the King's forces to Northampton ; and during his absence Simon de Montford, aided by the Cinque Ports men, seized Dover Castle, and, although Sir Roger de Leybourne hurried back, his efforts to retake the Castle failed. In the following year Prince Edward and Sir Roger were taken prisoners at the Battle of Lewes. The Prince was imprisoned by tlie Barons in Dover Castle, where Simon de Montford was Constable; but Sir Roger eluded his captors, and, a few months later, he succeeded in liberating Prince Edward. Together they fought for the Royal cause at the Battle of Evesham, when the Barons were finally defeated in August, 1265. For two months longer the Cinque Ports men held Dover Castle for the Barons, but before the close of the year Sir Roger de Leybourne returned with a suilicieiit army to quell the Cinque Ports Insurrection, and to retake Dover Castle for Henry III.
THE WARS OF THE ROSES.
During the Wars of the Roses the Civil contests raged round Dover Castle. In the beginning of the war Humphrey, Duke of Buckingham, was Constable, upholding the cause of the Red Roses ; and the Earl of Warwick, surnamed "The King-Maker," who was Governor of Calais, then an English city, championed the White Roses. Warwick landed at Dover in June, 1460, with 1,500 men, recruited in Calais, to support the Yorkists. He avoided Dover Castle, which was then held by the Lancastrians, but as he marched through Kent he issued Yorkist manifestoes. The men of Kent, headed by Lord Cobham, fiockefl to his banners, and by the time he reached Blackheath, his following had increased to 30,000. From London, Warwick continued his march with his ever-increasing forces until he encountered the Lancastrian army at Northampton, where their leader, the Constable of Dover Castle, was slain. With the deposition of Henry VI., and the crowning of Edward IV., Dover Castle was transferred from the Lanca.strians to the Yorkists, but the fighting which brought it about occurred far away in the Midlands. That, however, was but tlie first act in the drama. Eleven years after that the Civil War continued to rage, and "Warwick, the King-Maker," was the stormy petrel all the time until he fell in the Battle of Barnett in 1471. From the time of his appointment as Constable of Dover Castle and Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports, in T460, the Cinque Ports men were his thick and thin adherents, even when he deserted the Yorkist cause to set up the Lancastrian King again, l^ut although there was much n. arching and crjuntcrmarching, alarms and rumours of war, there was no actual figliling at the Castle; and although judges came to Dover, when it was all over, to try the rebels, no one was punished, and Sir John Scott, a Kentish man, who had been Lieutenant Constable for Earl Warwick, was promoted to the office of Constable when the wars were over.
RICHARD DAWKES SEIZES THE CASTLE.
Richard Dawkes's exploit in seizing Dover Castle during " The Great Rebellion " was a dramatic surprise, which annoyed Kentish Royalists and elated -the Parliamentarians much more than it affected the fortunes of war on either side. The fortress was then in a netdected state, held for the King by about twenty-five soldiers, when a band of eight daring men, led by Richard Dawkes, a Dover Freeman, resolved to seize it for the Parliament. They met at the Flying Horse Inn, King Street, a little before midnight on the 20th August, 1642, and, ha\ing formed their plan, departed their various ways to meet an hour later in the Northfall Meadow, near the Castle cliff. Climbing the slope, near the Ashford Towers, they were able, owing to the decayed state of the walls, to reach the top of the hill, scale the old wall south of the Roman oval, and surprise the guard, who, assuming that their assailants were numerous, surrendered without resistance. It was not a great exploit — in fact, the only great feature about it was the great folly of those who left the Castle so badly defended.
EXPLOITS OF THE KENTISH ROYALISTS.
The Parliamentary capture led to strenuous efforts on the part of Kentish Royalists to re-capture " The Key of the Kingdom." There was an attempt to re-capture made by the Royalists in September, 1642, but it was successfully resisted by the Parliamentary garrison. Nothing further was done until 1648, when the Royalists of Kent, led by Sir Richard Hardres, entered on a vigorous campaign to re-capture all the Kent coast fortresses which had been seized by the Parliamentary forces. Without much trouble, Sir Richard seized the Castles of Sandown, Deal, and Walmer, carrying away the ammunition and guns to Dover, where they assembled 2,000 foot soldiers and the Kentish Yeomanry. They opened a vigorous bombardment from batteries on the high ground north of the spur. Five hundred projectiles had been hurled against the northern walls, doing damage which might have enabled the besiegers to advance through the breaches and successfully storm the fortress which was defended by Sir Algernon Sydney and three companies of foot ; but before the storming party were ready to advance, an overwhelming force of Parliamentarians, who had marched under Colonel Rich from Maidstone, dispersed the besiegers. After that the Castle was left in the undisputed possession of the Parliament until the Constable, the Earl of Winchelsea, handed it over to Charles II. at the Restoration.
AN UNDRAMATIC CAPTURE.
A peculiar seizure of Dover Castle was effected on the 8th December, 1688. News had arrived of the abdication of James 11. and the landing of William of Ormge. At the same time it was rumoured in the town that Irish troops were coming to take the Castle, and that French forces would land to help them. The Castle being then without a garrison, about thirty Dover men assembled in the Market Place, where they made a public announcement that the Castle was in peril. The little band soon increased to 300. and they marched up to the Castle, and, in the name of WilIiam III., they took possession of the fortress. They remained there all night, and in the morning the Mayor, Captain William Stokes, R.N., went up to the gate to beg them to return to the town, asserting that there was no danger, but they refused to move until Colonel Wingfield, with troops, arrived, when the Dover men yielded up the Castle to the representative of the new King. The men, who volunteered to hold the Castle against the world in general and nobody in particular, were awarded such places as they were fitted for in the Army and Navy.
NAPOLEON'S THREATENED INVASION.
The last menace that made a stir at Dover Castle was Napoleon Bounaparte's threat of invasion. Between the years 1798 and 1805, engineers worked their hardest to strengthen the fortress. Not only were the Ca.stle and adjacent cliffs bristling with up-to-date guns, but the shore of the Dover valley gap was secured by a line of detached forts and a moat extending from cliff to cliff. A boom protected the harbour's mouth, and a palisading the low shore between the South Pier and Archcliffe. Troops crowded the Castle and the Western Heights, while across the Channel, on the hills of Boulogne, could be seen the long rows of tents where the soldiers of Bounaparte were waiting to invade England. The crisis was expected on the 9th August, 1805, when the army of invasion was making ready to eml)ark. The troops at Dover all that day and the following night were at attention, each man carrying sixty ball cartridges. Of the adult population of Dover, there had been a levy-en-masse, each townsman having his allotted task. Some were told off to watch along the cliffs; some were appointed as guides to the troops; and others had to take the women and children into the country for safety. What resistance Dover Castle and its garrison would have made was not put to the test, for the first line of defence — the British Navy — made it impossible for the army of invasion to leave Boulogne and the neighbouring ports, and a little later the master stroke of Admiral Nelson at Trafalgar caused the invasion scheme to be abandoned.