Portchester Castle

Portchester Castle sits on the south coast of England, overlooking Portsmouth harbour. It is perfectly placed to defend that stretch of water, and this fact was not lost on the Romans who built a fort at Portchester.  Archaeological investigations have confirmed that a Roman fort was built here between the years 285 and 290.  Most of the medieval castles, which sit on Roman sites, have been completely rebuilt and very little if any trace of Roman occupation remains. This is not the case at Portchester, which is still thought to contain the largest remains of a Roman fort anywhere in Britain. The D-shaped Roman towers which survive, give a good impression of the Roman defences.  Part of the Roman walls still stand at what is thought to be their original height of 6.1 meters (20 feet), although the upper levels and parapets are medieval.  Roman tiles can also be seen in the wall, which were used to strengthen and level the masonry. The Roman fort was laid out symmetrically, and around its square perimeter there were originally 20 regularly spaced D-shaped towers.

It is thought that the Roman fort was continuously occupied throughout the early medieval period.  Just because the Romans left, doesn’t mean it was necessarily abandoned. After all, why would you leave a safe and secure location, that was well built and available, if you didn’t need to.  Archaeology proves for us that this is likely the case, and excavations in the outer bailey have found evidence of a succession of early timber buildings. It wasn’t until the year 904 however, that the first mention of Portchester occurs.  In that year, King Edward of the West Saxons received ‘Porcestra’, from the Bishop of Winchester.  It is likely that it was around this time that the fort was turned into a burgh, one of a series of fortified locations used in the defence of the kingdom of Wessex.

William the Conqueror gave Portchester to his loyal supporter William Maudit in 1066.  Maudit established a new inner bailey in the north-west corner of the Roman site.  This early timber structure may have included a wooden keep.  When William Maudit died, his estates passed to his son Robert, however Robert was drowned, along with King Henry I’s son, William the Effulging, when the White Ship sank in 1120. Portchester castle is then thought to have been inherited by Robert’s daughter, who married William Pont de l’Arche. He is presumed to have held it until his death in 1148.  It was probably during his ownership that the keep was then rebuilt in stone.

In the 12th Century, the first stone keep at Portchester would have been a two-story structure.  By the late 12th Century, two extra storeys were added to the keep. In the early 14th Century, the top floor for the keep was rebuilt, with a new roof at a higher level. This did not add an extra floor, but raised the height of the top floor rooms, as well as raising the keep to the height we see today.  The keep has always been the focus of the castle. Built in square plan, it stands more than 30 meters high (98.5 feet).

In 1128, we know that William Pont de l’Arche founded an Augustinian priory within the walls of the old Roman fort. Its foundation charter implies that a church had already existed on this site, and it is likely that this was a wooden structure of which no trace now remains. The new church of St. Mary's was built for the new community in the 1130’s.  However, around the time of the founder’s death, the priory of Augustinian canons moved nearby to Southwick, and their residential buildings were demolished.  Their church however remains.

The architectural details of the church can be compared to the work on the castle, and have helped to date the castle building to the first half of the 12th Century. It is unclear what happened to the castle from the time of the death of William Pont de l’Arche in 1148, and when Henry II came to the throne of England in 1154. What we do know, is that King Henry II took the castle at Portchester into royal possession, where it remained until 1632. 

Portchester was a useful location for King Henry II, who regularly stayed there, and used it as a place from which to embark on journeys to the continent. Once the castle came into royal ownership, there are far more records on its upkeep and events.  Henry II also used the castle as a upper class prison, and during 1163-64 when his family rebelled against him, Portchester castle was made ready to withstand an assault.  It was armed with catapults and the wall-walks were enclosed with wooden galleries. A garrison of 20 knights were also hired.  

Kind John also visited the castle regularly, and he built a new chamber and wardrobe at Portchester in 1211. King John primarily used it for royal recreation, with its neighbouring hunting park and royal forest.  We know that King John brought his hunting hounds here in 1214.  Archaeological excavations at the 12th Century level, have also found the bones of falcons used for hunting.  It was also from Portchester Castle, that King John launched two unsuccessful expeditions to recover his lost lands on the continent, in 1205 and 1213. When John’s arguments with the Barons led to them inviting Prince Louis, the son of Philip Augustus, to take the throne of England, Portchester surrendered to the French Prince in June of 1216, after both London and Winchester had fallen. 

Portchester Castle was retaken the following year in 1217, on behalf of the new King Henry III. It was also used by Henry III in the same way as Kings before him, as a point from which to embark to the continent. During Edward I’s reign, the castle mill at Portchester was repaired in 1289, and in 1296 there is a record of a wooden tower being built to repair the Roman wall along the sea front. Edward II spent over £1,100, a substantial sum at the time, to remodel the buildings of the inner bailey and rework the Landgate and Watergate. Although there is no record of a siege here, within 10 years of these improvements the castle and its defences are described as being in a ruinous state, with the sea having broken through the south wall of the Roman fort. 

King Edward III arrived at Portchester Castle on the 1st of June 1346, and over the month of June he waited for his army to assemble.   By the time they were ready, the King had gathered 1,000 ships in order to carry his 14,000 men to France.  His army is thought to have comprised of 2,800 knights and men at arms, 3,000 mounted archers, and 8,000 infantry, which included 5,000 archers.  In addition to the soldiers, there would also have been around 10,000 horses which needed to be transported. There would also have been camp followers and men of different trades, such as miners, masons, carpenters, tentmakers, blacksmiths, farriers, surgeons, clerks and servants who would have accompanied the army.   The ships were provisioned for two weeks, sufficient for the passage to Bordeaux in Gascony, but King Edward had no intention of traveling to Bordeaux, this was merely a cover story to confuse the French. 

King Edward III’s army sailed from Portchester on the 28th of June, and stopped in Portsmouth until the 12th of July, when the fleet left for its secret destination. The ships masters carried sealed orders, which were only to be opened if the fleet dispersed. They set off for their real destination of Normandy, landing on a sheltered beach south of Barfleur. From their landing on the beach of Normandy on the 12th of July, to King Edward III’s victory at the battle of Crecy on the 25th of August, the King’s army walked across Normandy leaving decimated villages in their wake.  While the official line was that the King forbade the looting of the towns, which just over a hundred years earlier his ancestors had ruled, the fact is that he turned a blind eye to their destruction. The 1,000 ships, which followed the army by sea, were often sent back to unload their stolen goods and their prisoners.  Portchester Castle played its part, both in the preparation of this invasion, and in the aftermath of its landing.  This would not be the last time that Portchester would hold French prisoners.

King Richard II built a new great hall at Portchester in the 1390’s, shortly after arranging a peace treaty with the French.  He began working on the existing royal apartments in the inner bailey.  He remodelled the keep and the Landgate, as well as building a new great hall, located on the first floor of a new range with storage rooms below. The entrance to the new royal apartments on the first floor, was through the projecting porch in the middle of the great hall range. On each side, we can still see two spaces where lamps would have been used to light the threshold.  

In the Middle Ages, the moat around the bailey would have been wider and deeper than what we see today.  It also would have been filled with water, which was diverted from the sea. The land would have been banked against the walls, higher and steeper than its current level.  The moat originally would have run around the whole of the inner bailey, both inside and outside the walls. A culvert was built below ground level which allowed the water to flow below the walls.

Set mid-way along each of the original four Roman exterior walls would have been a gate, two primary gates situated east and west, and two secondary gates on the north and south sides.  The Landgate is a medieval reworking of the northern entrance to the fort. The gate as we see it today, largely dates from the 1390’s, and takes the form of a square tower with a vaulted gate passage and an upper lodging chamber.  The Landgate replaces the usual Roman entrance arrangement, and yet there is still something distinctly Roman about it. 

While no other major building work occurred after this point, Portchester Castle was still in use.  Henry VI had his French bride, Margaret of Anjou, arrive at Portchester in 1445.  In the 1490’s, the castle was again repaired.  In 1535, Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn visited Portchester Castle.  In 1563, the castle was used as a military hospital, for the sick and wounded from the French Wars of Religion. It was made ready again in 1603, when Queen Elizabeth I held court there.

The castle remained in royal ownership until 1632, when it was purchased by Sir William Uedale. The castle was again used as a prison in 1665, when 500 men were taken here during the Second Anglo-Dutch War. In 1796, over 2,000 prisoners of war from the Caribbean, arrived at Portchester Castle. They were captured during the fighting on the islands of St. Lucia, St. Vincent, and Grenada, during the fighting between Britain and France. Then, in the early 19th Century, during the Napoleonic wars, French prisoners of war were incarcerated at various locations throughout England, and some of them were brought to Portchester Castle.  It was during this time that the castle's theatre was built in the basement of the keep. It was created by the French prisoners who arrived here in 1810.