page_title: Bertram de Criol
section_title: Works and duties
hierarchical_section_title: Bertram de Criol / Works and duties
caption_attribution_description: English: One of the chapels in the keep of Dover Castle
context_page_description: Sir Bertram de Criol was a senior and trusted Steward and diplomat to King Henry III. He served as Constable and Keeper of Dover Castle, Keeper of the Coast and of the Cinque Ports, Keeper of the receipts, expenses and wardships of the archbishopric of Canterbury, Constable of the Tower of London and Sheriff of Kent.
context_section_description: An adjustment to scutage for Bertram and his sons was extended to John and Simon de Criol and to Nicholas de Hadlou. He received orders in April 1243 to prevent the embarcation of the Master of the Knights Templar in England to answer the summons of the Grand Master to Jerusalem. Four silver bowls were sent for him to place before the shrine of St Thomas at Canterbury.
  Preparations for the marriage of Richard, Earl of Cornwall to the queen's sister Sanchia in November 1243 involved de Criol and Caxton in many duties. The hire of ships, boats and galleys, the wages of mariners and serjeants, etc., for the transport of Beatrice Countess of Provence, Sanchia, and their household, and the conveyance of wine from Sandwich to Dover and Canterbury were met from the Canterbury issues. A great sum was expended on candles for the Canterbury churches for the arrival of the Countess, and the keepers had the cost of her journey home. In December 1243 de Criol witnessed the covenant made between the King and Earl Richard. Payments were made for the carriage of many fowl and swans to the king's kitchen at Westminster, and for the king's huntsmen, over the next months.
  Responsibility for Kentish works fell to the Sheriff during 1244, especially for a building to contain the king's engines at Dover, for the repair or rebuilding of houses for the king's galleys at Rye, and for the installation at Dover of the catapult, trebuchet and ram, but all under the supervision of de Criol as Constable. De Criol and Caxton saw to the repair of the gate buildings at Canterbury Castle. He was occupied with the king's interdictions: during the spring of 1244 armed Scotsmen were to be sought out and arrested, and merchant ships in the ports were not permitted to sail. A year later, religious persons of any kind arriving were to be held and searched for letters, and not permitted to proceed without the king's approval. In May 1246 he was to appoint custodians in every port to prevent English coin being taken out, and no ship, or anything from which a ship could be made, was to be sold to anyone in fealty to the King of France. He completed repairs to the walls at Rye and Winchelsea, and received contributions for his court at Shipway.
  Meanwhile, the king sent gifts of bucks from the park at Elham, and Nicholas de Croill, royal groom ("vadlettus"), was sent hunting for them. Bertram received a goshawk from Hubert de Rewley, the king's fine for a market at Cattawade, by Orwell Haven. Liveried chaplains were appointed for divine service at Dover Castle in 1246, and in 1247 three silver chalices, a censer, and quantities of orphrey, samite and other precious cloths for making chasubles and dalmatics for the Castle chapels, including the pre-conquest church of St Mary in Castro, were supplied to de Criol. The King was then engaged in his new works at Westminster Abbey, and was soon to proclaim the Relic of the Holy Blood. Dover Castle's best hospitality, at the King's expense, was required for Baldwin II, Emperor of Constantinople, on his journey home in April 1247, but the Constable was to pay his whole passage. In August he was to prepare a good ship at Sandwich equipped for horses and men to be the king's messengers on a secret errand.
  De Criol delivered the castles of Rochester and Canterbury to Nicholas de Ores, Sheriff of Kent, in November 1248. At Easter 1249 he, with two other knights, was sent to the Duchy of Gascony for four months on the king's service, being required to deliver £1000 by weight to Simon de Montfort, its viceroy. Nicholas de Crioll was in Gascony with him for the same period. He made arrangements for the transport of Earl Richard "and others of the king's faithful men on his errand over seas", and for two voyages of John de Newburgh (the king's chaplain) as king's messenger, in the following year.
  In February 1251 a delegate for the bailiwick of the Cinque Ports was required of him to join the sheriffs in their commission into money counterfeiting and false exchange. Great were the arrangements of August and September 1252, when the
caption: One of the chapels in Dover Castle
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