heraldryofyorkmi01custuoft

310 HERALDRY OF YORK MINSTER.
His grandson was Brian Fitzalan, of whose arms in the Minster
I am speaking. He seems to have been a brave warrior and a man of
great distinction, for he was one of the eight knights who had their
Alan Rufus
special stations and periods of duty at the castle built by
as a place of security for himself and followers from the incursions of the
Angles and Danes, and called by him Riche-mont (Richmond), as being
the more fruitful and stronger portion of his territory. The town grew up
around it, the adjoining territory called by the Bretons "the land of Fontenay"
being given to the burgesses in 1 145 by Alan, third earl. It must according
to the mode of warfare at that time have been a strong and impregnable
fortress, towering up on an almost perpendicular rock upon the banks of
the Swale. It was encompassed with a wall six feet thick and 650 yards
long, embattled, and strengthened at intervals with lofty square towers, two
or three storeys high
;
some of them had open galleries on the outside of
the inner wall, supported by stone brackets, as means of communication
between the upper apartments, to which there was no admission from the
rooms below. Against this wall, after the manner of Norman castles, were
placed the habitations of the owner and his warlike retainers, and there
was a great central tower, called Robin Hood's tower, beneath which was
the chapel dedicated to St. Nicholas. There was also the keep, a great
square tower of hewn stone in courses, 54 feet long by 48 feet wide at
the base, and other towers called the Barbican or watch tower, the Garden
tower, and the Cockpit tower.
To maintain this fortress, his followers and retainers had to keep
"castle guard" at the castle, and perform military service at appointed
periods in discharge for the lordships and manors which he had with a
liberal hand distributed amongst them. The circumference of the castle
wall seems to have been divided into eight portions, each allotted to a
trusty knight and his retainers, and marked with their standards.
Standard i : Or a chief indented azure (over the chapel of St. Nicholas,
on the east). Ranulphus, son of Robert, lord of Middleham. His greatgrandfather,
Ribald, received the manor of Middleham from his brother
Alan Rufus ;
and his father, Robert, built the castle there, receiving in
addition, from his kinsman Conan, the forest of Wensleydale, and marrying
Helewisia, daughter and heiress of Ralph de Glanville, lord of Coverham.
Ranulphus, who died in 1251, had a son, Ralph, by Mary, daughter of
Roger Bigot, Earl of Norfolk and
; Ralph, having married Anastasia,
daughter of William Lord Percy, left one daughter, Maria, who married
Robert de Nevill, lord of Raby, and carried Middleham into that family,
to be in after-times the residence of the great Richard Nevill, Earl of
Warwick, surnamed " the king-maker."