Newbury Castle: Meaning (information, definition, explanation, facts)

Newbury Castle is the name of an English adulterine castle built by John Marshal, during The Anarchy when the Empress Maud fought King Stephen I of England for the English throne. Despite appearing proudly on the town´s coat of arms, Newbury Castle doesn´t appear to have been built in Newbury, Berkshire, England at all, but 4 miles away in the village of Hampstead Marshal. Here, the mottes of 3 castles can be found, which would be consistant with the general tactics of siege warfare of this medieval period. Newbury Castle is mentioned in the L'Histoire de Guillaume le Marechal: In 1152 King Stephen was beseiging the castle and holding John Marshal's son, William Marshal, as a hostage against Newbury´s surrender. When John refused to comply, Stephen threatened to have the young boy catapulted over the walls. John, ('that child of hell and root of all evil' according to Henry of Huntingdon) merely responded, 'I have the anvils and the hammer to forge still better sons'. King Stephen wasn´t so heartless though, and the boy survived. Today there is little left to see.