After an extraordinary display of ostentation, Longchamp
was ousted in his turn. On the arrival of the news of Richard's capture
and imprisonment in Austria, the castle was seized by Prince John; but
it was soon afterwards taken possession of in the king's behalf by the
barons, and consigned to the custody of Eleanor, the queen-dowager.
In John's reign the castle became the scene of a foul and terrible event
William de Braose, a powerful baron, having offended the king, his wife
Maud was ordered to deliver up her son a hostage for her husband. But
instead of complying with the injunction, she rashly returned for
answer--"that she would not entrust her child to the person who could
slay his own nephew." Upon which the ruthless king seized her and her
son, and enclosing them in a recess in the wall of the castle, built them
up within it.
Sorely pressed by the barons in 1215, John sought refuge within the
castle, and in the same year signed the two charters, Magna Charta
and Charta de Foresta, at Runnymede-- a plain between Windsor and
Staines. A curious account of his frantic demeanour, after divesting
himself of so much power and extending so greatly the liberties of the
subject, is given by Holinshed:--"Having acted so far contrary to his
mind, the king was right sorrowful in heart, cursed his mother that bare
him, and the hour in which he was born; wishing that he had received
death by violence of sword or knife instead of natural nourishment.
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