Built in the 1080s after the Norman Invasion, Rochester Castle possesses one of the tallest medieval great towers in Europe. It was built to protect the strategic crossing of the River Medway – also used in Roman and Saxon times.
William the Conqueror established the site as an earth and timber castle. Shortly after, Gundulf, the Bishop of Rochester (also the White Tower at the Tower of London), began replacing it with a stone fortress.
King Henry I granted the castle to the Archbishop of Canterbury in 1127, who commissioned the great stone keep.
The fortress was a bastion for knights rebelling against King John, ultimately succumbing to a 50-day siege in 1215.
The castle was besieged again in 1264 by forces led by Simon de Montfort (who first established a blueprint for parliamentary governance) and sacked during the Peasants’ Revolt in 1381. By the late 16th century, the castle was obsolete and slowly fell into ruin.
Today, the site is managed by English Heritage.
Photographs (c) Essential History
