been built by William the Conqueror, immediately on his landing, and before the battle took place ; but it is more probable that he strengthened it, by cutting the ditches on the east and west : which is partly confirmed by the Bayeux tapestry representing a person digging and another superintending the work. The inscription to this part of the tapestry is, " He ordered that a castle should be dug at Hastings . " There can be but little doubt that after the battle he made great additions to it. Grose, in his Antiquities of Sussex, conjectures that it was a fortress long before the arrival of the Normans, while other antiquaries suppose it to have been a Roman fortress . By the elevation of the hill on which the castle stands, it was well adapted to resist an enemy in the ancient mode of warfare ; we may therefore suppose there was some kind of fortress in the time of the Britons. This hypothesis is further strengthened by a passage in the Chronicles of Dover Monastery, which says, that "when Arviragus threw off the Roman yoke, he fortified those parts which were most convenient for their invasion;" and Hastings is mentioned as one of the number. The castle was seized by William Rufus, in September, 1087, before the death of his father was known in England ; its situation rendering it of great importance to him in his designs to gain the crown. The same monarch, in 1093, summoned most of his barons and prelates to do him homage in the castle, before his departure for the war in Normandy.
It was at this time that Anselm earnestly requested the bishops to reconcile him to his sovereign. William dictated the terms : that he should pay five hundred pounds immediately, and engage to pay five hundred more within a certain term. Anselm replied that he was without money himself, and that his vassals, impoverished by the royal exactions, -
