	In 1201, King John gave the Three Castles to Hubert de Burgh. Hubert was a minor landowner who had become John's household chamberlain when he was still a prince, and went on to become an increasingly powerful royal official once John inherited the throne. At this time, White Castle was primarily a military fortification, holding a garrison and stores of arrows and crossbow bolts. It was relatively exposed to the elements and had, at best, only basic accommodation; the historian Cathcart King describes the conditions in the castle as likely to have been "miserable", "squalid" and "unpleasant". 