page_title: Bedford Castle
section_title: Siege of 1224
hierarchical_section_title: Bedford Castle / History / Mid-medieval period (1153–1224) / Siege of 1224
caption_attribution_description: English: 4 pieces of mangonel shot dug from grounds of Bedford Castle. They were fired in the siege of the castle in 1224.
context_page_description: Bedford Castle was a large medieval castle in Bedford, England. Built after 1100 by Henry I, the castle played a prominent part in both the civil war of the Anarchy and the First Barons' War. The castle was significantly extended in stone, although the final plan of the castle remains uncertain. Henry III of England besieged the castle in 1224 following a disagreement with Falkes de Breauté; the siege lasted eight weeks and involved an army of as many as 2,700 soldiers with equipment drawn from across England. After the surrender of the castle, the king ordered its destruction.
  Although partially refortified in the 17th century during the English Civil War, the castle remained a ruin until the urban expansion in Bedford during the 19th century, when houses were built across much of the property. Today only part of the motte still stands, forming part of an archaeological park built on the site between 2007 and 2009.
context_section_description: Henry III decided that Bedford Castle should be returned to its original owner, William de Beauchamp, and became increasingly frustrated with Falkes' refusal to do so; matters came to a head when Falkes' castellans imprisoned Henry of Braybrooke, a royal judge who was hearing law cases against Falkes. When Falkes refused to release the judge, Henry mobilised an army, supported by the Church in the form of Stephen Langton, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and advanced to Bedford. Falkes had left the castle, along with around eighty men, in charge of his brother, William de Breauté, who refused to surrender it to the king. Falkes was probably hoping that if the castle held on long enough, his efforts to convince Pope Honorius III to intervene against Henry would succeed. The Archbishop excommunicated William and the siege began.
  The siege of Bedford Castle required huge resources. Siege engines were brought from Lincoln, Northampton and Oxfordshire, while carpenters built others on site using timber from Northamptonshire; ropes from London, Cambridge and Southampton; hides from Northampton and tallow from London. Labourers from across Bedfordshire and Northamptonshire were gathered by the relevant sheriffs, and miners from Hereford and the Forest of Dean. Crossbow bolts were ordered from a depot at Corfe Castle and from the provinces; 43,300 crossbow bolts are known to have been ordered by the king. Local trees were cut down, and stone quarrying begun to provide ammunition for siege engines. Tents and pavilions for the King were sent from London along with supplies of luxury foods and wine, also for the King. In total, Henry's wage bill for the siege came to £1,311; it is uncertain exactly how large Henry's army was, but potentially there were between 1,600 and 2,700 men present at any one time. To support the siege, Langton instructed his bishops to mobilise one man from every 24 hectares (60 acres) of land they owned and levied a special tax on the churches' estates.
  With these resources, Henry erected a number of siege engines around the castle; one probable trebuchet and two mangonels were set up to the east of the castle; two mangonels were placed on the west side, to attack the keep, and one mangonel on both the north and south sides. Two siege-castles were established to observe the occupants of the castle. William was confident, however, that either his brother would return and relieve the siege, or that the pope would intervene, and held on despite the artillery attacks. The losses in the royal army began to mount; chronicler Ralph of Coggeshall suggests that seven knights, and over 200 soldiers and labourers were killed as the siege dragged on.
  Bedford Castle finally fell through a sequence of four attacks. Royal forces first captured the barbican and then stormed the outer bailey, seizing most of the castle's supplies but taking considerable losses. Miners, operating under the protection of a "cat", then gained access to the inner bailey by collapsing part of the wall. Finally, on 14 August, the miners attacked the keep itself, lighting a fire under the walls, cracking the stone and filling the building with smoke. The female members of the household, including Falkes' wife, and Henry de Braybrooke were released, the royal standard was raised over the tower, and the next day William and the garrison surrendered.
  A discussion ensued about the fate of the garrison; near contemporary accounts suggest that the prisoners asked the Archbishop for assistance, but that this was declined. Henry then had all the male members of the garrison hanged, except for three knights who agreed to join the military order of the Knights Templar. Three days after the fall of Bedford Castle, the Pope wrote a letter demanding that Henry cease his campaign against Falkes, but this intervention had occurred far too late to be of use. Alexander de Stavenby, the Bishop of Coventry, convinced Falkes to surrender after the fall of the castle; he handed over his remaining castles at Plympton and Storgursey and was absolved by Langton, going into 
caption: Mangonel shot, discovered at the castle in the 1970s and probably dating from the 1224 siege[25]
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