reatest benefactors the city has had; for, in
addition to increasing the fortifications by means of a massive wall
flanked by towers, he built a castle on the Red Mount, now known as
Rougemont Castle. Although very little of this now remains, a portion of
the ruins is generally known as "Athelstan's Tower", and has a window
with a triangular head, which is certainly of Saxon style and date. In
932 Athelstan rebuilt the Monastery of Our Lady and St. Peter, staffing
it with monks of the Benedictine Order, and presenting them with the
reputed relics of St. Sidwell, a saint who is still somewhat of a puzzle
to ecclesiologists. A few years later the monastery was plundered by the
Danes, when the monks beat a hasty retreat, but returned in 968 on the
entreaty of King Edgar. A mint was shortly established here, wherein the
first coins were struck naming Athelstan "King of England".

The Danes made continuous raids in the neighbourhood, but were
decisively defeated by the West Countrymen in 1001, at Pinhoe, a few
miles from Exeter. From that time until the treacherous massacre of the
Danes in Wessex upon St. Brice's Day in 1002 by Ethelred, this part of
the country was comparatively free from their inroads; but Gunhilda, the
sister of Swegen, King of Denmark, being among the slain, this king came
to avenge her death. He sailed up the Exe, burning and plundering the
villages on its banks, and for four years his army marched in every
direction across Wessex, and was at length induced to withdraw on being
paid a _wergeld_ (war tax) which was first levied on Exeter.

After the Battle of Hastings, Gytha, the mother of Harold, took refuge
in Exeter, and Leofric, the bishop, offered to render homage to William
as Royal suzerain; but the Conqueror would have no half-hearted
submission, so Exeter closed its gates to the Normans. It held out for
eighteen days, when the military science of the Normans, and
particularly the skill they showed in undermining the walls, caused it
to surrender. The resistance won the besiegers' respect and brought
unusually good terms from so ruthless a victor as William. The lives of
the garrison were spared, Gytha was allowed to seek safety by sea, and
it has been said that the victorious troops were withdrawn from the city
gates to prevent them from claiming the licentious privileges so
generally granted to their followers by the Norman kings.

As is fitting for its county town, the first entry in the Devo