seized that of Rochester. The king recovered Rochester after a severe struggle and captured Tonbridge, but thenceforth there was a war of sieges between John with his mercenaries and Louis of France with his Frenchmen and the barons, which was specially notable for the great defence of Dover Castle by Hubert de Burgh against Louis. On the final triumph of the royal cause, after John’s death, at the battle of Lincoln, the general pacification was accompanied by a fresh issue of the Great Charter in the autumn of 1217, in which the precedent of Stephen’s reign was followed and a special clause inserted that all “adulterine” castles, namely those which had been constructed or rebuilt since the breaking out of war between John and the barons, should be immediately destroyed. And special stress was laid on this in the writs addressed to the sheriffs.
In 1223 Hubert de Burgh, as regent, demanded the surrender to the crown of all royal castles not in official custody, and though he succeeded in this, Falkes de Breauté, John’s mercenary, burst into revolt next year, and it cost a great national effort and a siege of nearly two months to reduce Bedford Castle, which he had held. Towards the close of Henry’s reign castles again asserted, in the Baron’s War, their importance. The Provisions of Oxford included a list of the chief royal castles and of their appointed castellans with the oath that they were to take; but the alien favourites refused to make way for them till they were forcibly ejected. When war broke out it was Rochester Castle that successfully held Simon de Montfort at bay in 1264, and in Pevensey Castle that the fugitives from the rout of Lewes were able to defy his power. Finally, after his fall at Evesham, it was in Kenilworth Castle that the remnant of his followers made their last stand, holding out nearly five months against all the forces of the crown, till their provisions failed them at the close of 1266.
Thus for two centuries after the Norman Conquest castles had proved of primary consequence in English political struggles, revolts and warfare. And, although, when the country was again torn by civil strife, their military importance was of small account, the crown’s historic jealousy of private fortification was still seen in the need to obtain the king’s licence to “crenellate” (i.e. embattle) the country mansion.
Bibliography.—G. T. Clark, Medieval Military Architecture in England (2 vols.), includes a few French castles and is the standard work on the subject, but inaccurate and superseded on some points by recent research; Professor Oman’s Art of War in the Middle Ages is a wide survey of the subject, but follows Clark in some of his errors; Mackenzie, The Castles of England (1897), valuable for illustrations; Deville, Histoire du Château-Gaillard (1829) and Château d’Argues (1839); Viollet-le-Duc’s Essay on the Military Architecture of the Middle Ages was translated by M. Macdermott in 1860. More recent studies will be found in J. H. Round’s Geoffrey de Mandeville (1891); “English Castles” (Quarterly Review, July 1894); and “Castles of the Conquest” (Archeologia, lviii., 1902); St John Hope’s “English Castles of the 10th and 11th Centuries” (Archaeol. Journal, lx., 1902); Mrs Armitage’s “Early Norman Castles of England” (Eng. Hist. Review, xix. 1904), and her papers in Scot. Soc. Ant. Proc. xxxiv., and The Antiquary, July, August, 1906; G. Neilson’s “The Motes in Norman Scotland” (Scottish Review, lxiv., 1898); G. H. Orpen, “Motes and Norman Castles in Ireland” (Eng. Hist. Review, xxi., xxii., 1906–1907). (J. H. R.)
CASTLEBAR, a market town and the county town of Co. Mayo, Ireland, in the west parliamentary division, on the river and near the lough of the same name, on the Manulla and Westport branch of the Midland Great Western railway. Pop. of urban district (1901) 3585. The county court buildings and other public offices occupy a square, and there is a pleasant mall shaded by fine trees. There are some breweries, and trade in linens and agricultural produce. The castle, which gives its name to the town, was a fortress of the De Burgh family; but the town itself was founded in the reign of James I., and received a charter from him in 1613. In 1641 the castle was held for the parliament by Sir Henry Bingham, but he was forced to surrender to Lord Mayo, and fell a victim, with all his garrison, to the fury and treachery of the besiegers. The massacre was afterwards avenged in 1653 by the execution of Sir Theobald Burke (by that time Lord Mayo), who had been in command along with his father at the siege. In 1798 the town was occupied for some weeks by the French under General J. J. Humbert, who had defeated the English under Luke Hutchison in a conflict which is jocularly styled the “Castlebar Races.” The town returned two members to the Irish parliament until the Union. Four miles N.E. of Castlebar is Turlough, with a round tower 70 ft. high and 57 ft. in circumference, and other remains.
CASTLECONNELL, a village of Co. Limerick, Ireland, on the left bank of the Shannon, 8 m. N.E. of Limerick on the Great Southern & Western railway. It possesses a spa which was once considerably frequented, but is famous as a centre for the salmon fishing on the lower Shannon. Castleconnell is so intimately connected with this sport that it has given its name to a favourite pattern of fly-rod, in which a movable splice takes the place of the usual metal joint. The beautiful rapids of Doonas (avoided by a canal) are in the neighbourhood, and the surrounding scenery is generally attractive. There are remains of a castle from which the town took its name, which was the seat of the kings of Thomond, and was blown up by General Ginkel at the time of the siege of Limerick (1690).
CASTLE DONINGTON, a town in the Loughborough parliamentary division of Leicestershire, England, 12312 m. N.N.W. from London, on the Trent Junction and Western branch of the Midland railway. Pop. (1901) 2514. It lies on the flank of the hills overlooking the Trent and Soar valleys. There are slight remains of the castle. The church of St Luke is a fine building of Early English and later date. Donington Park, a neighbouring mansion, was offered to refugees during the French Revolution in 1830, and Charles X. availed himself of this retreat. Hosiery, silk and baskets are manufactured. Castle Donington is 212 m. west of Kegworth station on the Midland main line. Kegworth (pop. 2078), on the Soar, has a hosiery and knitting industry.
CASTLE DOUGLAS, a burgh of barony and police burgh of Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland. Pop. (1901) 3018. It is situated on Carlingwark Loch, 1912 m. S.W. of Dumfries by the Glasgow & South-Western railway. Its auction marts for sheep and cattle sales are the largest in the south-west of Scotland; at an autumn sale as many as 15,000 sheep and 1400 cattle are disposed of in one day. The leading industries comprise the making of agricultural implements and mineral waters, besides tanning. The Macmillan Free Church perpetuates the memory of John Macmillan (d. 1753), the Cameronian, who helped to found the Reformed Presbyterian Church. He had been chaplain to Murray of Broughton, and afterwards became minister of Balmaghie, about 312 m. N.W. of Castle Douglas. The town is the chief centre of business in East Galloway, and it is also resorted to in midsummer for its beautiful scenery and excellent fishing. Till 1765 it was only a village under the name of Causewayhead, but the discovery of marl in the lake brought it some prosperity, and it was purchased in 1792 by Sir William Douglas and called after him. Since then its progress has been continuous. Carlingwark Loch contains several islets, on one of which is a crannog, or ancient lake dwelling.
CASTLEFORD, an urban district in the Osgoldcross parliamentary division of the West Riding of Yorkshire, England, on the river Aire near its junction with the Calder, 9 m. S.E. of Leeds, on the North-Eastern and Lancashire & Yorkshire railways. Pop. (1901) 17,386. Large glass-bottle and earthenware-jar works, chemical works, and neighbouring collieries employ the inhabitants. Here was the Roman village or fort of Lagecium or Legeolium; and though visible remains are wanting, a number of relics have been discovered.
CASTLE-GUARD, an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain baronies, and divided among their knight’s fees. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their knights. In both cases the obligation was commuted very early for a fixed money payment, which, as “castle-guard rent” lasted on to modern times.
See J. H. Round, “Castle-Guard,” in Archaeological Journal, vol. lix., and “Castle-ward and Coinage,” in The Commune of London. (J. H. R.)
