The lowest ford upon the Thames is that at Lambeth, which the
Watling Street used. Now there is but one really formidable obstacle
in the whole length of the Watling Street south of the Thames. That
obstacle is the estuary of the Medway, which Rochester guarded and
possessed. Rochester then was first and foremost a great fortress,
just as Piacenza was and is.
What was its fate in the Dark Age that followed the failure of the
Roman administration we do not know; but with the advent of St
Augustine Rochester at once received a Bishop. It was, indeed, the
first post in St Augustine's advance from Canterbury, King Ethelbert
himself building there a church in 597 in honour of St Andrew. It thus
became a spiritual as well as a material fortress. Of its fate after
the Battle of Hastings we know little, but it submitted without
resistance and came into the hands of that Odo of Bayeaux who gave so
much trouble to William Rufus.
It is now that we see Rochester suddenly appear in its true greatness.
Odo, expelled by William, had on the Conqueror's death returned and
successfully obtained of Rufus his estates, among them the Castle of
Rochester, which he had built.
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