The Fitzwalter Privileges

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One curious record of the castle relates to the failure of Lord Fitzwalter to place local delinquents in the stocks he had set up at Castle Baynard. The local citizens were in uproar at this and Fitzwalter being no longer in possession at Castle Baynard, had to take the stocks down.

The Fitzwalters had, however, an even stranger privilege than this: they had the privilege of drowning traitors in the Thames. The "patient" was fastened to a pillar at Wood Wharf, and left there for the tide to flow twice over, and ebb twice from him, while the crowd cheered at the cruel inhumane punishment as though it were a form of entertainment.

Adjoining Baynard's Castle was another tower, built by Edward II, which his son gave to William de Ross of Hamlake in Yorkshire, after having done service in the wars against Scotland and France.

Next page: Destroyed by Fire and Rebuilt

• Baynard's Castle - Introduction
• 1 - What did Castle Baynard look like?
• 2 - Origins of the name 'Bayswater'
• 3 - Matilda the Fair
• 4 - Fitzwalter and King John
• 5 - The Fitzwalter Privileges
• 6 - Destroyed by Fire and Rebuilt
• 7 - Richard III
• 8 - Notable Visitors of Baynard's Castle