Rochester Castle was built in 1088, by the Bishop of Rochester - Gundulf. It was known that the Bishop owed the King - King William Rufus, a sum of L100. To settle the dispute the King ordered Gundulf to build a motte and bailey castle at Rochester. Th cost was L60, and the money came from Gundulf. The structure of the castle consisted simply of a single stone wall. In 1122, a square stone keep was built inside the bailey, by John of Worcester. In 1230 a cross wall was built. It divided the Bailey into two parts - the outer bailey and the inner bailey. This information was extracted from the Textus Roffensis - Register of Rochester castle.

During it's existence, Rochester Castle was sieged three times. Once in 1088, then 1215 and finally in 1264.

The siege in 1088 was against King William II, as his brother, Robert and his uncle, Odo, wanted to overthrow him and place Robert on the throne. The plan failed and Robert remained king.

The siege in 1215 was against King John because he refused the nomination of Simon Langton as Archbishop of Canterbury. Langton became Archbishop, and was appointed to 'look after the castle', but the king asked for it to be r

 Spiral staircases inside the towers of the keep with many landings were there to confuse attackers of where they were going.

According to Roger of Wendover, the king undermined the east tower and set fire to it. This shows that the King valued the castle a lot as he was prepared to fight for it.

Because Rochester Castle was en route to London it may have meant that attackers were dealt with at Rochester instead of at London.

1367 - 1370 Repairs to the keep and defences consequent to the events of 1264 L2262

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Approximate Word count = 1182
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)