href="@public@vhost@g@gutenberg@html@files@46556@[email protected]#Page_62" class="pginternal" tag="{http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml}a">p. 62).

In the time of King Stephen, "Baldwin de Redvers made an insurrection against Stephen at Exeter, was there besieged and starved out, and then fled to the Wight, an island situate between Normandy and England, but nearer to England than to Normandy. He there occupied his castle, which was most grand built of stone and strengthened by very great fortifications. It was considered impregnable, and being well stored with provisions and plenty of water, Baldwin determined to defy the King, but by the providence of God intervening the well was dried up suddenly. Baldwin on this was so discouraged that he fled to the King to ask forgiveness and to be allowed to retain his own property; but he did not get his request granted. He then repaired to the Court of Anjou, which received him with much honour" (Gesta Stephani).

With the treaty which provided for the succession of Henry came the re-establishment of Baldwin at Carisbrooke, whereupon he at once sank a much deeper and better well, the one which is now in existence, probably with an eye to future contingencies! The family of de Redvers, which continued long in possession, was Norman, and the description of the island as lying "between Normandy and England" is not really so absurd as it sounds in view of the fact that it was an appanage of Normandy, and when Normandy was lost to England it continued to be so, until Edward I. bought it from its "lord," Isabella de Fortibus, the last of the line of de Redvers, who is said to have had "a man's courage and lion's heart." She sold it to him as she lay dying, childless and a widow. The sum was one which in these days would be equal to £60,000. Since then it has been an integral part of England. It is true that the Duke of Warwick was called King of the Island by Henry VI., but the empty title died with its only possessor. Among the Wardens and Governors have been many whose names stand out in history: Humphry, Duke of Gloucester, Richard, Duke of York (killed at Agincourt), Piers Gaveston the Favourite, Edmund, Duke of Somerset, Anthony Woodville, who was Lord Scales in right of his wife, and became Earl Rivers when his father and elder brother were beheaded. The same fate befell him when he was only forty-one, because he had dared to espouse the cause of his nephew, Edward V., against the Duke of Gloucester.

Cromwell, the "Hammer of the Monks," was another Governor, but did not long enjoy his position; he was made Constable of Carisbrooke Castle in 1538, and it was only two years later that his downfall came. One of his last letters written to the King from the tower where he was imprisoned ends, "Your Highness's most heavy and most miserable prisoner and poor slave." Among the names of our own times there is that of Prince Henry of Battenberg, whose wife succeeded him in the honorary position at his death.

YACHTING AT COWES. Pages 41-45.
Where the Royal Yacht Squadron have their headquarters, and where the famous "Cowes Week" takes place in August.

At the time of the Spanish Armada the castle was most strongly fortified. The works were placed in charge of an Italian called Giambelli. He it was who devised the bastioned enceinte around the castle. The shape is an irregular pentagon, faced with stone and defended by a ditch. The men of the island contributed £400 to the money given by the Government, and voluntary labour was freely offered. That the work was not unnecessary was shown by the appearance of the Spanish Fleet at the back of the island. It had been looked for for many a year; as early as 1583 the island had been provided with a train of artillery, every parish giving a piece of brass ordnance, and each part of the coast had been put in charge of a "centoneer," who had watchers under him. Beacons were to be lighted to give the alarm, and the names of these show the districts: Brook, Mottistone, Swanston, Kingston, Nunwell, Yaverland, Bembridge, Stenbury, and Wolverton. At this time Sir George Carey, Lord Hunsdon, cousin to the Queen, was the Governor of the island.

When, therefore, the fleet did come, hundreds of the island folk gathered on the high cliffs to watch with nervous excitement for developments. The great galleons, lying heavily on the water, looked formidable enough, but they could not move easily, while the smaller English craft could be towed about by their long-boats. Lord Howard of Effingham himself came up, and Captain Hawkins actually took a galleon, while Sir Martin Frobisher was so sorely set upon by several at once that other ships—the White Bear and Elizabeth Jones—had to go to his assistance. The English would probably have won, but that the powder fell short, having been blazed merrily away; and the Spanish ships, being in the same plight, at length sailed off.

Among the entries in the register of Carisbrooke church, written in faint, discoloured ink, is the record: "1588. The very year that the great and huge fleete of the Spanyard came to the ile of Wight was at Maudlinestide, in the yeere of our Lord God, 1588, the which God defended us, our Queene and Realm this day and for evermore, and send us truthe and quietnes within ourselves, anno 1588."

At the beginning of the Civil War it was held by Colonel Brett, and with him in the castle was the Countess of Portland, wife of the Governor of the island, and her five children. Gallantly was the castle held till there were but three days' provisions left, and the besieging hordes, fighting for the Parliament, were around the walls. Then it seemed that surrender must be made, but the Countess herself appeared on the walls with dauntless courage, and, telling the roaring mob that unless they granted honourable terms, including the lives and freedom of the garrison, she would herself put the match to the first cannon and fight till the walls crumbled, so impressed them that her conditions were granted.

Sad indeed is the story of the ill-fated King Charles I., who came to Carisbrooke of his own free will after his escape from Hampton Court in November, 1647. This was not his first visit to the island; that had taken place very many years before, when, as a small boy of nine, he had been brought by his father to hunt in the great forest of Parkhurst. When he arrived as a fugitive, he was courteously received, and at first treated as a guest, but bit by bit all his attributes of royalty were stripped from him, and he realized the bitterness of imprisonment without honour. As he grew more sensible of the hopelessness of his future, he ceased to care for his appearance, and lived very quietly, eating little and reading much, such books as Hooker's Ecclesiastical Polity, and Bishop Andrewes' Sermons. While he was at Carisbrooke he was said to have written the Eikon Basilike, the authorship of which is now generally attributed, however, to Bishop Gauden. The King certainly did write at least one poem at the castle, one verse of which runs:

Once in the month of March, 1648, and again in the May following, he made attempts at escape abortively. The first time he found the window through which he tried to pass too