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The Castle’s Early History (1066 – 1216)

The castle was built on and around Marlborough Mount, which served as the motte for a keep.  The bailey is now built on by Marlborough College.  It is possible that there was an outer bailey which extended into what is now the High Street as the western part of the High Street was formerly known as the “Bailey Ward”.  The mint from Bedwyn was transferred to Marlborough in 1068.  Aethelric, Bishop of Selsey, was imprisoned in Marlborough in 1070 implying that a castle had already been built as it would have been nonsensical to hold a bishop in an undefended settlement.  King Henry I spent Easter in Marlborough in 1110.  The castle is first specifically mentioned in 1138 as being re-fortified when it was held by John the Marshall during the civil war between the Empress Matilda and King Stephen.  John retained the castle on the accession of King Henry II in 1154 but in 1158 Henry formally re-instated it as a royal residence.  Prince John married Isobel of Gloucester at the castle on 29th August 1189.  His brother King Richard I gave him the castle as a wedding present. 

In 1193 Richard was captured and held hostage by the German Emperor on his return from the crusades.  John rebelled against his brother and in 1194 his castle in Marlborough was besieged and captured for Richard by the regent Hubert Walter, who was also Archbishop of Canterbury.  Richard returned to England after the ransom was paid and forgave John for his treachery after admonishing him for childishness.  In 1199 Richard was killed whilst attacking Chalus Castle in the Limousin in France.  John became king.

During the baronial revolt in May 1215 John gave orders that should Winchester be surrendered, the Constable of Marlborough castle, Hugh de Neville, was to convey the Queen and nine year old Prince Henry to Marlborough.  A month later he faced his barons at Runneymede.  The moderate party, led by William Marshall son of John the Marshall former castellan of Marlborough Castle, brought the autocratic king and his supporters including Hugh de Neville, and the rebellious barons to the compromise of written law, to which, for the first time, the king himself was subject.  Magna Carta was, however, a device to buy time for John: he had no intention of adhering to it.  In September 1215 a more serious baronial revolt broke out.  London was taken by the rebels and by May 1216 Prince Louis of France had landed unopposed in England pursuing his claim to the throne.  On John's death in October 1216, Hugh de Neville surrendered Marlborough Castle to Prince Louis; but within a year the moderate barons forced Louis and his supporters to seek terms.  Louis withdrew the claim he was making to the throne of England and the 10 year old Henry III could reign in peace with 80 year old William Marshall as regent.

Origins and Development of the Town (1066 – 1216)

The earliest written reference to Marlborough is on a silver penny of King William minted there in about 1072.  Marlborough was known then as “Maerlebi” which could be derived from “Maere leah” meaning boundary meadow.  The town certainly existed by 1086 as the Domesday Book lists it as “Merleberge”.  A medieval myth that “Marlborough” means “Merlin’s barrow” cannot be true as Geoffrey of Monmouth first built him into the Arthurian story in his “History of the Kings of Britain” in the 1130s.  William Camden in his “Britannia” of 1610 referred to the myth as “ridiculous” and attributed it to Alexander Necham’s “Book of Divine Wisdom”.  As Necham (1157 – 1217) was the abbot of Cirencester Abbey, he would have visited Marlborough on his travels and quite likely have invented the connection with Merlin.  The “borough” part of “Marlborough” probably refers to the Mount or “barrow”.  “Marl” could be derived from an old word for chalk.

Marlborough's mention in the Domesday Book of 1086, particularly its listing as "Merleberg" alongside Wilton, Salisbury, Cricklade, Bath, and Malmesbury confirms its borough status by that time.  It reads, "From the third penny of Salisbury the King has £6; from the third penny of Marlborough £4: from the third penny of Cricklade £5; from the third penny of Bath £11; from the third penny of Malmesbury £6".  Only two towns in Wiltshire, the Anglo-Saxon centres of Wilton and Malmesbury are specifically listed as boroughs.  The third penny cited for Marlborough shows that a third of its revenue went to the king.

William of Beaufour is mentioned in the Domesday Book as having one hide of land with a church in Marlborough valued at 30 shillings.  This church is likely to have been Preshute church as the parish of Preshute predated the town of Marlborough and was probably synonymous with the early urban settlement.  At least geographical evidence would suggest this as the original parish completely surrounded Marlborough strongly suggesting the borough was planted within it.  However, the name itself does not appear until 1186 over a century after the first appearance of Marlborough as a place name. (“Victoria County History of Wiltshire”, Vol. XII, p160)  William was one of the king’s clerks and was nominated bishop of Thetford in December 1085.  In 1091 he died and his Marlborough land and church was transferred to the Salisbury diocese.  The 1091 registry of St Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury, refers to “churches” of Marlborough.  Those churches were likely to have been Preshute, the original parish church and St Mary’s the first town church.  St Peter’s, because of where it is, was almost certainly part of the castle estate when it was first built probably in the 12th century.

King William derived taxation from Marlborough but there is no evidence that the town existed before the Conquest.  Unlike Saxon towns, Marlborough is not described as being formerly held by King Edward the Confessor, as was Calne, Bedwyn, Amesbury, Warminster, Chippenham, Britford, and Tilshead: neither was it held by Edward’s queen nor Earl Harold nor any other Saxon noble.  It seems clear that there was no Saxon Marlborough, at least before the Conquest.

In June1204 King John lost Normandy to Philip of France.  In the same month he granted a charter to Marlborough.  The charter gave freedom from tolls to the burgesses, granted a market to be held twice weekly on Wednesdays and Saturdays, and a fair to be held for 8 days in August, at the feast of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.  The markets survive today.  John granted a guild-merchant but he was actually confirming what had been already been in existence for nearly 40 years.  A pipe roll reveals that the burgesses paid £5 in 1163 to John’s father King Henry II for the right to have a merchant guild.  King John gave what is now the southern part of the Common to the burgesses in exchange for land near the Castle.  The Common was originally part of the Castle Barton, effectively farmland controlled by the King.  Before King John’s exchange, the Common was entirely outside the borough boundary in the parish of Preshute.  The incorporation of the southern part within the borough extended the borough boundary northwards.  The Common, known historically as “The Thorns” provided the burgesses with pasture land for their animals.