Rochester Castle and Magna Carta warfare

The Rochester section follows castle warfare growing out of a constitutional crisis. King John repudiated Magna Carta, while rebel barons refused to return Rochester Castle as agreed. Royal siege engines battered walls roughly four metres thick before miners undermined a tower and used pig fat to fuel the fire that brought it down. The keep's divided design let defenders withdraw into the surviving half, but hunger eventually forced them to eat horses and expel weaker people. Some accounts say John's men cut off the hands and feet of those expelled. After surrender, his soldiers resisted a general massacre because they feared establishing a precedent that might later be used against them. The episode connects political agreements, fortification design, siege engineering, food supply, and the customary limits combatants tried to preserve.