Portchester Castle

Castle Serjeanty

Grand Serjeanty

Grand serjeanty was the most honourable form of feudal tenure in medieval England. A tenant held land directly from the King in return for performing a specific personal service, typically of a military or ceremonial nature. Unlike knight service, which could be commuted to a money payment (scutage), the obligations of grand serjeanty were fixed and particular to each holding.

The lords of Little Gatcombe, Parish of Wymering, Hampshire, held their manor from the King in chief by grand serjeanty for the defence of Portchester Castle. The obligation was recorded in detail through successive inquisitions post mortem.

The Obligation

The service owed by the lords of Little Gatcombe was recorded at the death of Sir William de Esturs in 1291. It comprised three elements:

Suit at the court of Portchester Castle every three weeks; one armed man furnished with lance, helmet and shield for eight days in time of war.

The earlier record, at the death of Fulk de Wymeringes in the mid-thirteenth century, recorded eight days' armed service in wartime. John de Lisle, who died in 1337, was recorded as holding from the King in chief by grand serjeanty for the defence of Portchester Castle. The obligation ran with the manor across generations.

Sir William de Esturs also held a separate parcel of land within the parish for a different kind of rent entirely: "a pound of pepper and one rose". Such payments, mixing practical spice with courtly gesture, were a common feature of medieval tenure and are recorded throughout the Hampshire inquisitions.

The Castle

Portchester Castle stands at the northern tip of Portsmouth Harbour, overlooking the Solent. It is the most complete Roman fort surviving in northern Europe. The outer walls date from the late third century, around 285 AD, when the fort was built as part of the Saxon Shore defences against coastal raiders. The Roman walls still stand to their original height on all four sides.

After the Roman withdrawal, the site was occupied by a Saxon community. A Norman keep was constructed in the north-west corner after the Conquest, and the castle served as a royal residence, a military staging point and a prisoner-of-war camp across the following centuries. Henry II, Richard I, John and Edward I all used the castle. Richard II refurbished it as a palace in the 1390s.

Southwick Priory, an Augustinian house, was founded within the castle walls around 1128 to 1133 before relocating to Southwick in Hampshire around 1150. The priory held extensive lands across the region for four centuries until the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

Coastal Defence

The castle serjeanty owed by the lords of Little Gatcombe placed them within a network of military obligations centred on Portsmouth Harbour. Portchester guarded the harbour entrance, and the obligation to provide an armed man with lance, helmet and shield was a practical requirement for coastal defence, not a ceremonial courtesy. The requirement of suit at the castle court every three weeks indicates regular attendance, not merely wartime service.

The castle remained in active military use into the seventeenth century. During the Napoleonic Wars, it served as a prison for captured French and Spanish soldiers. It is now in the care of English Heritage and open to the public.

Primary source: Victoria County History of Hampshire, Vol. 3, pp. 165-170. See also: VCH Hampshire, Vol. 3, pp. 151-161 (Portchester).