City of Portsmouth: History
=== Early history ===
The Romans built Portus Adurni (now called Portchester Castle), a fort, at nearby Portchester in the late 3rd century. The city's Old English (Anglo-Saxon) name, "Portesmuða", is derived from port (a haven) and muða (the mouth of a large river or estuary). In the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, a warrior named Port and his two sons killed a noble Briton in Portsmouth in 501. Winston Churchill, in A History of the English-Speaking Peoples, wrote that Port was a pirate who founded Portsmouth in 501.
England's southern coast was vulnerable to Danish Viking invasions during the eighth and ninth centuries, and was conquered by Danish pirates in 787. In 838, during the reign of Æthelwulf, King of Wessex, a Danish fleet landed between Portsmouth and Southampton and plundered the region. Æthelwulf sent Wulfherd and the governor of Dorsetshire to confront the Danes at Portsmouth, where most of their ships were docked. Although the Danes were driven off, Wulfherd was killed. The Danes returned in 1001 and pillaged Portsmouth and the surrounding area, threatening the English with extinction. They were massacred by the English survivors the following year; rebuilding began, although the town experienced further attacks until 1066.
Although Portsmouth was not mentioned in the 1086 Domesday Book, Bocheland (Buckland), Copenore (Copnor), and Frodentone (Fratton) were. According to some sources, it was founded in 1180 by the Anglo-Norman merchant Jean de Gisors.
King Henry II died in 1189; his son, Richard I (who had spent most of his life in France), arrived in Portsmouth en route to his coronation in London. When Richard returned from captivity in Austria in May 1194, he summoned an army and a fleet of 100 ships to the port. Richard gave Portsmouth market-town status with a royal charter on 2 May, authorising an annual fifteen-day free-market fair, weekly markets and a local court to deal with minor matters, and exempted its inhabitants from an £18 annual tax. The 1194 royal charter's 800th anniversary was celebrated in 1994 with ceremonies at the city museum.
King John reaffirmed Richard I's rights and privileges, and established a permanent naval base. The first docks were begun by William of Wrotham in 1212, and John summoned his earls, barons, and military advisers to plan an invasion of Normandy. In 1229, declaring war against France, Henry III assembled a force described by historian Lake Allen as "one of the finest armies that had ever been raised in England". The invasion stalled, and returned from France in October 1231. Henry III summoned troops to invade Guienne in 1242, and Edward I sent supplies for his army in France in 1295. Commercial interests had grown by the following century, and its exports included wool, corn, grain, and livestock.
Edward II ordered all ports on the south coast to assemble their largest vessels at Portsmouth to carry soldiers and horses to the Duchy of Aquitaine in 1324 to strengthen defences. A French fleet commanded by David II of Scotland attacked in the English Channel, ransacked the Isle of Wight and threatened the town. Edward III instructed all maritime towns to build vessels and raise troops to rendezvous at Portsmouth. Two years later, a French fleet led by Nicholas Béhuchet raided Portsmouth and destroyed most of the town; only the stone-built church and hospital survived. After the raid, Edward III exempted the town from national taxes to aid its reconstruction. …