The Siege Of Caerphilly Castle, 1326/27

Shortly before Edward II and Hugh Despenser the Younger were captured in South Wales on 16 November 1326 following Roger Mortimer and Isabella's invasion, they had spent time at Hugh's great stronghold of Caerphilly, which he and his wife Eleanor had inherited from her father Gilbert 'the Red' de Clare, earl of Gloucester (died 1295).  Why Edward and Hugh decided to leave a castle where they could have held out practically forever, I can't imagine, but they left it in the hands of an experienced knight named Sir John Felton and Hugh the Younger's eldest son, yet another Hugh - Edward II's chamber journals call the lad 'Huchon' and the Anonimalle chronicle names him as 'Hughelyn' - who was then seventeen or eighteen.  According to an entry on the Fine Roll of 30 December 1326, when Edward II was still king but in captivity at Kenilworth Castle, he had ordered John Felton on pain of forfeiture and on an oath sworn on the Gospels not to surrender Caerphilly "to the king's wife or Edward [of Windsor] his son..." while he was at the castle in early November.  Evidently the loyal Felton, who was named in Edward's chamber journal in August 1326 as one of Hugh Despenser the Younger's knights and was ordered with Donald of Mar on 14 October 1326 to hold the Marches of Wales against the rebels, took his oath seriously.  [1]

Edward and Hugh had left the massive sum of £14,000 and a great deal of their treasure inside Caerphilly; see my post for some of it, and a full inventory in William Rees' book Caerphilly Castle and its place in the Annals of Glamorgan.  The siege of the castle probably began very soon after Edward II's capture in mid-November, or perhaps even before.  On 1 December 1326, a week after the execution of Hugh Despenser the Younger, Roger Mortimer and Isabella appointed Sir Roger Chandos as sheriff of Glamorgan and declared that "it is the king's will that the same Roger cause the siege of the castle of Kerfily, which still holds out against him, to be diligently kept up."  [2]  This entry on the Patent Roll was issued in the name of "the queen and the king's firstborn son," and needless to say represents Isabella's wishes, not those of her husband, who was now being held captive at Kenilworth Castle.  The garrison of Caerphilly Castle under John Felton, however, refused to surrender and give up the teenaged Huchon Despenser to be executed like his father and grandfather, even when they were all promised free pardons for holding the castle against the queen.  And execute the teenaged Huchon Despenser was exactly what Mortimer and Isabella wanted to do, as is made clear by several entries in the chancery rolls which offer a pardon "of the forfeiture of his life and limbs" to all members of the garrison except Huchon - presumably for no other reason than he was the son of the hated Despenser the Younger.

On 15 February 1327, Roger Mortimer and Isabella, evidently frustrated at the failure of Sir Roger Chandos to capture the castle and at the garrison's refusal to give up Huchon Despenser to his death - not to mention at the thought of all that lovely treasure and money inside that they couldn't access - appointed Sir William la Zouche, lord of Ashby in Leicestershire, to lead the siege in Chandos's place.  On the same day was issued a "[p]ardon to all who were [sic] in Kaerfilly Castle when it was [sic] held against queen Isabella, except Hugh son of Hugh le Despenser the younger."   [3]  William la Zouche was a distant cousin of Roger Mortimer (his father was named Robert Mortimer, and he took his mother Joyce la Zouche's name), and the stepfather of Juliana Leyburne and of Thomas Beauchamp (born 1314), future earl of Warwick, by marriage to Alice de Toeni, who had died in 1324.  In early 1329 la Zouche married Edward II's niece and Huchon Despenser's mother Eleanor (de Clare) Despenser and the next year joined the earl of Kent's plot to free the former Edward II from Corfe Castle, but in 1326/27 was firmly on Isabella and Mortimer's side.  Roger Northburgh, bishop of Coventry and Lichfield, was appointed as joint leader of the siege, rather oddly.  With them were twenty bannerets, five knights, twenty-one squires, 400 footmen, men-at-arms and others.  [4]

By 20 February 1327, la Zouche or Northburgh had evidently learned the identity of some of the men holding out inside Caerphilly, and just under forty were named in yet another pardon on that date which excluded Huchon Despenser.  [5]  A siege of the castle might end up lasting a very long time: Gilbert 'the Red' had designed Caerphilly to be basically impregnable, and the only real option was to starve the garrison out.  And therefore on 20 March 1327, the siege was abandoned and all the men inside pardoned, including Huchon Despenser, who was spared execution: "Pardon to Hugh son of Hugh le Despenser the younger of the forfeiture of his life, without restitution of his lands."  [6]  With Huchon's life now safe, the garrison - around 150 of them - left the castle.  Huchon Despenser was imprisoned in Roger Mortimer's custody until December 1328, then transferred to Bristol Castle in the custody of Sir Thomas Gurney, named as one of Edward II's murderers in November 1330.  [7]  The chronicle of the royal clerk Adam Murimuth says that he, like his stepfather William la Zouche and uncle Edward de Monthermer, was involved in the 1330 plot of the earl of Kent (who like Edward II himself was Huchon's great-uncle, though there was only about seven years' age difference between the two men), though as he was in prison presumably his role could only be one of passive support.  Huchon was released by Edward III after the downfall of Roger Mortimer and Isabella, and later made an excellent marriage to the earl of Salisbury's daughter Elizabeth Montacute; their tombs and effigies still exist in Tewkesbury Abbey.  Huchon inherited his mother Eleanor's vast lands on her death in 1337, and died childless in February 1349, perhaps of the plague.

As for the garrison who refused to surrender him, most of them are very obscure and I doubt I could find out much about them, though there are a few I'd like to look at here:

Giles of Spain
I once wrote part of a blog post about the Castilian-born Giles, who is especially interesting: a long-term member of Edward II's household, he was another adherent of the earl of Kent in 1330, and was later sent by Edward III to pursue Thomas Gurney in Spain.

'Gills. Beaucair'
Almost certainly this means William Beaukaire, a royal sergeant-at-arms who guarded Edward of Caernarfon's body alone from 21 September to 20 October 1327.  Presumably 'Gills' was a nickname for Guillaume, and presumably also William was French, as Beaucaire is a town in the south of France, near Avignon (not in the English-ruled part of the country).  Most, most interesting and peculiar to see that a man who held out against Mortimer and Isabella for months with Despenser adherents was the sole guardian of Edward II's body a few months later, for an entire month.

Roger atte Watre
One of Edward II's sergeants-at-arms from at least 1311 onwards, Roger joined the Dunheved brothers in the summer of 1327 in temporarily freeing Edward of Caernarfon from Berkeley Castle.

Stephen Dun
I wonder if this means Stephen Dunheved?

Benedict (or Benet) Braham
Apparently from Suffolk, Benet was one of the men named on 31 March 1330 as aiding the earl of Kent in his plot to free Edward of Caernarfon, and ordered to be arrested.

Rodrigo (or Roderico) de Medyne
A sergeant-at-arms of Edward II who later served Edward III for many years as well.  He was still alive in November 1348.

Simon Symeon
Simon later joined the household of Edward II's cousin Henry, earl of Lancaster.  Known as 'Simkyn', he served the Lancasters faithfully for many years.

William Hurley 
I've saved the best till last.  :)  William's name appears in the pardon as 'William de Hurle, carpenter', which is something of an understatement: he was Edward II and Edward III's master carpenter from the late 1310s/early 1320s to c. 1354, and worked on many projects including the palace of Westminster, the Tower of London and Windsor Castle.  He is most famous for his work on the fabulous timber lantern of the octagonal crossing tower at Ely Cathedral (the original tower collapsed in 1322).  More info about William here.

Sources

1) Calendar of Fine Rolls 1319-1327, p. 430; Calendar of Patent Rolls 1324-1327, p. 332.
2) Patent Rolls 1324-1327, p. 341.
3) Patent Rolls 1327-1330, pp. 12, 18; Fine Rolls 1327-1337, pp. 12-13.
4) William Rees, Caerphilly Castle and its place in the Annals of Glamorgan, p. 83.
5) Patent Rolls 1327-1330, p. 14.
6) Patent Rolls 1327-1330, pp. 37-39.
7) Calendar of Close Rolls 1327-1330, p. 352.