Editing First Barons' War (section)

===Sieges of Windsor and Rochester===
Apart from Dover, the only castle to hold out against Louis was that at [[Windsor Castle|Windsor]], where 60 loyalist knights survived a two-month siege, despite severe damage to the structure of its lower ward. That was immediately repaired in 1216 by Henry III, who further strengthened the defences with the construction of the western curtain wall, much of which survives today. The damage was caused possibly by the castle having been besieged by the barons in 1189, less than 30 years earlier.

In 1206, John had spent £115{{efn|{{Inflation|UK|115|1209|r=0|fmt=eq|cursign=£}} money.}} on repairs to [[Rochester Castle]], and he had even pre-emptively held it during the year of the negotiations leading up to [[Magna Carta]], but the Charter's terms had forced him to hand it back into the custody of [[Stephen Langton]], Archbishop of Canterbury, in May 1215. The rebel barons had then sent troops under [[William d'Aubigny (rebel)|William d'Aubigny]] to the castle, to whom its constable [[Reginald de Cornhill]] opened the castle's gates. Thus, during October 1215 on his marching from Dover to London, John found Rochester in his way and on 11 October began besieging it in person.
[[File:Rochester Castle, Kent - geograph.org.uk - 1582414.jpg|thumb|right|The round tower (centre) and two square towers (left and right) of [[Rochester Castle]].]]

The rebels were expecting reinforcements from London but John sent [[fire ship]]s out to burn their route in, the city's bridge over the Medway. [[Robert Fitzwalter]] rode out to stop the king and fought his way onto the bridge but was eventually beaten back into the castle. John also sacked the [[Rochester Cathedral|cathedral]], took anything of value and stabled his horses in it, all as a slight to Langton. Orders were then sent to the men of Canterbury.

After that five siege engines were erected, and work was carried out to undermine the curtain wall. By one of those means, the king's forces entered and held the [[bailey (fortification)|bailey]] in early November, and began attempting the same tactics against the keep, including undermining the south-eastern tower. The mine-roof was supported by wooden props, which were then set alight using pig-fat. On 25 November 1215, John had sent a writ to the [[justiciar]]s saying, "Send to us with all speed by day and night, forty of the fattest pigs of the sort least good for eating so that we may bring fire beneath the castle".<ref>Contemporary source quoted in Salter (2000).</ref> The fire thus created caused one entire corner of the keep to collapse. The rebels withdrew behind the keep's [[cross-wall]] but still managed to hold out. A few were allowed to leave the castle but on John's orders had their hands and feet lopped off as an example.

Winter was now setting in, and the castle was taken on 30 November by starvation and not by force. John set up a memorial to the pigs and a gallows with the intention of hanging the whole garrison, but one of his captains, [[Savari de Mauléon]], persuaded him not to hang the rebels since hanging those who had surrendered would set a precedent if John ever surrendered; only one man was actually hanged (a young bowman who had previously been in John's service). The remainder of the rebel barons were taken away and imprisoned at various royal-held castles, such as [[Corfe Castle]]. Of the siege, the [[Barnwell chronicler]] wrote "No one alive can remember a siege so fiercely pressed and so manfully resisted" and that, after it, "There were few who would put their trust in castles".