Description of the site. and by the town which has sunk to a village, lies between the castle and the stream that flows beneath the height. The site is a lordly one, and is almost the more striking because it commands no other great object such as those which are commanded by those castles which were raised to protect or to keep down a city. When the forest was still a forest in every sense of the word, the aspect of the castle of Rockingham, one of the wilder retreats of English kingship, must have been at once lonelier and busier than it is now.
Meeting of the Assembly. March 11, 1095.
Place of meeting; the castle-chapel.
The King's inner council.
At Rockingham then the Assembly met, a fortnight
before Easter. The immediate place of meeting was the
church within the castle.[1] The church has perished, but
its probable site may be traced among the buildings to
the north of the mound. But it is hard to understand
how the narrow space of a castle-chapel could hold the
great gathering which came together at Rockingham.
The King and his immediate counsellors sat apart in a
separate chamber, while outside were a numerous body,
among whom we hear of the bishops and nobles, but
which is also spoken of as a vast crowd of monks,
clerks, and laymen.[2] It may be that, according to an
arrangement which is sometimes found elsewhere, but
of which there is no present trace at Rockingham, the
great hall opened into the chapel, so that, while the
church was formally the place of meeting, the greater
space of the hall would be open to receive the over-*flowing
crowd.[3] The time of meeting was the early
- ↑ Eadmer, Hist. Nov. 26. "Fit conventus omnium dominico die, in ecclesia quæ est in ipso castro sita, ab hora prima, rege et suis secretius in Anselmum consilia sua studiose texentibus."
- ↑ "Anselmus autem, episcopis, abbatibus, et principibus, ad se a regio secreto vocatis, eos et assistentem monachorum, clericorum, laicorum, numerosam multitudinem hac voce alloquitur."
- ↑ See above, p. 480, for somewhat similar arrangements. But the present hall of Rockingham, dating from the thirteenth century, is divided by the width of the court from what seems to be the site of the chapel.
