Castle

For other uses, see Castle (disambiguation).

Pierrefonds Castle, France.

Castle has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning. It is usually regarded as being distinct from the general terms fort or fortress in that it describes a building which serves as a residence and commands a specific territory.

Despite this, the word "castle" is sometimes used to mean a citadel (such as the castles of Badajoz and Burgos) or small detached forts d'arrêt in modern times and, traditionally, in Britain it has also been used to refer to prehistoric earthworks (e.g. Maiden Castle).

Definition

Castle comes from the Latin word castellum meaning "fortress". This is a diminutive of the word castrum, which means "fortified place". The word "castle" (castel) was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this new type of fortress, then new to England, brought in by the Norman knights. In Spain, a fortified dwelling on a height for the administering authority retains its Moorish name of alcázar, whilst shiro also figure prominently in Japanese history, where the feudal daimyō inhabited them.

A French castle is a château-fort, for in French a simple château connotes a grand country house at the center of an estate, with non-military, purely residential function. When European castles were opened up and expanded into pleasure dwellings and power houses from the late 15th century, their "castle" designations, relics of the feudal age, often remained attached to the dwelling, resulting in many non-military castles and châteaux.

In Germany there are two names for what would be called a castle in English, Burg and Schloss. A Burg is a medieval structure of military significance, while a Schloss was built after the Middle Ages as a palace and not for defensive purposes. However, these are not usually palaces in the French style, but instead are styled on medieval mountain castles and fairytale notions, and from all appearances are often castles to an English speaker.

In Celtic countries, Caer or castell (Welsh), dún and caisleán (Irish), dùn and caisteal (Scots Gaelic) are used.

Defining factors of a castle

The Norman "White Tower", the keep of the Tower of London, exemplifies all uses of a castle: city defense, a Royal Palace, and a place of refuge in times of crisis.

The chief distinguishing features of castles, as opposed to other defensive structures, can be defined as follows:

• Castles were places of protection from an invading enemy, a place of retreat. This is the purpose behind such stereotypical castle features as portcullises, battlements, and drawbridges.

Malbork Castle, Poland - bigest medieval castle in the world

• Castles were also offensive weapons, built in otherwise hostile territories from which to control surrounding lands, as forward camps. In particular, during the High Middle Ages, castles were often built for territorial expansion and regional control. A castle was a stronghold from which a lord could control surrounding territory.

• Castles were either built as, or evolved into, residences for the monarch or lord who built them.

These three purposes distinguish the castle from other fortresses — which are usually purely defensive (like citadels and city walls) or purely offensive (a military camp) — or edifices that are entirely residential in nature, like palaces. Castles such as the Tower of London served as prisons. Captured nobles could be held to ransom in a castle, and contrary to the popular image, they were usually kept in good condition.

Many later castles were not built primarily for defensive purposes. This can best be seen in castles such as Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, whose defensive appearance was probably built merely to impress; inside the castle is geared towards family living.

The Moorish Alhambra demonstrates an impregnable fortress evolving into a Royal palace after the Reconquista.

Evolution

Castles were built as a defensive measures and offensive weapons, but often over time comfortable homes evolved within the fortified walls, examples of this evolution are the medieval Prince's Palace of Monaco founded as grim fortress in the 13th century, and the even older Windsor Castle. The Alhambra in Al-Andalus incorporated both defensive and residential features, but after the Reconquista unified Spain, its importance shifted and it became a palace under Charles V.

Thus a castle became not only a bastion and place for detention of prisoners but also be a social place where a knight or lord could entertain his peers. As the castle became established as not only a fortress but also a place of residence the aesthetics of the design increased in importance, as the appearance and size began to reflect the prestige and power of the occupier.

Larger castles sometime had entire villages within their walls, often in the outer bailey, these villages were often established when the area defended by the castle came under attack and the inhabitants of the locality would seek safety within the walls.

Architecture and Development

Early castles

Ambleside Roman fort, Cumbria.

Antecedents

From as early as late Neolithic times (Between 8500 B.C.-2500 B.C.), people built hill forts to protect themselves. Many earthworks survive today, along with evidence of the use of palisades to accompany the ditches. The Romans commonly encountered hill forts (called oppida) built by their enemies. Though primitive, they were often effective and required extensive siege engines and other siege warfare techniques to overcome, such as at the Battle of Alesia.

Their own fortifications (castra) varied from the simple temporary earthworks thrown up by armies on the move, to elaborate permanent stone constructions, notably the milecastles of Hadrian's Wall. Plans for Roman forts were generally rectangular with rounded corners. The Roman engineer Vitruvius was the first to note the threefold advantages of round defensive towers; more efficient use of stone, improved defence against battering rams and improved field of fire. It was not until the 13th century that these advantages were rediscovered.

The first castles

The earliest recorded structures universally acknowledged by historians as 'castles' were built in the late 9th century, and included wood, earth and stone structures. Roman fortifications, or, when possible or needed, other edifices, were often turned into castles or similar structures during the early Middle Ages. A famous example is that of the Hadrian's Mausoleum in Rome, which is known to have been used as a fortress as early as 537, during the Gothic War. Other Late antiquity-early Middle Ages castles are known in Brescia and Trento in Italy, Saint-Blaise in Provence and Büraburg and Glauberg in Hesse, the latter probably built by the Alemanni. In Spain, King Liuvigild founded a powerful fortress called Reccopolis in 578, and also the 7th century fortress of Puig Rome, near Girona, has been excavated. At Selinunte, in Sicily, the Byzantines turned two ancient temples into a simple fortress (7th to 8th centuries).

One of the earliest representations of a castle from the Bayeux Tapestry.

Construction of new castles in Europe is attested from the Carolingian era, but their construction seems to have been related mainly to the defence of frontiers and of the main statal properties: the right to build such a structure was in fact a royal privilege. As early as 864, Charles the Bald issued an edict ordering the destruction of all the private structures erected without his permission. However, changes took place from the late 9th century, probably under the pressure of raids by the Vikings and Magyars, and due to the general decline of the Carolingian Empire, and consequent loss of centralized authority, which resulted in a proliferation of castles. There was also frequent fortification of cities, monasteries, ports and rural settlements in this period. In 906, a diacon in Verona asked Berengar I of Italy for the permission to built a castle in Nogara "due to the heathens ravages".

As the Carolingian Empire collapsed into smaller duchies and counties, factions struggling for power in the lack of the supreme authority were in need of military infrastructure, to protect their rights and lands, as well as protection for their followers, who lived on the estates. It is within this historical context that feudalism began to emerge. The early castle formed an integral part of feudalism: it provided a residence for the lord; provided protection for his followers as guaranteed by their feudal oaths of loyalty and allegiance, while the garrison of the castle was made up of the lord's followers, as per their feudal obligations. Many examples of defensive programs as part of feudalism exist. In the 10th century for example, in the Loire Valley, Fulk Nerra embarked on a massive castle-building program to control his county of Anjou, and neighbouring Touraine. In Normandy at around the same time, a military state emerged with a dense network of castles and feudal allegiances. Similar arrangements with regards to defensive and holding of territory also occurred in other parts of Europe around this time. .

Castles were introduced to the British Isles around the early 11th Century, by Norman-French followers of King Edward the Confessor.[1] When William the Conqueror executed the Norman Conquest of England, he brought with him the practice of building a castle to protect and hold the land, by then quite familiar on the mainland of western Europe.

Residential Towers

Some of the earliest recognizable castles were essentially fortified residential halls, enclosed by a defensive wall. Halls which functioned as habitation for an important person, chieftain or lord, and his followers, had existed since the earlier times all over Europe. During the times of uncertainty which followed the collapse of Carolingian authority, it became necessary to more strongly fortify the habitation and possessions. As a result the wooden halls were replaced by much stronger stone buildings as early as the 10th Century. Examples include Langeais and Doué-la-Fontaine.

Motte-and-bailey

The wooden pallisades surmounting mottes were often later replaced in stone, as in this example at Gisors.

Main articles: Encastellation and Motte-and-bailey

The motte-and-bailey is a plan common to many early castles. An essential feature of this type was a circular mound of earth surrounded by a dry ditch and flattened at the top. Around the crest of its summit was placed a timber palisade, a tower, possibly residential. This moated mound was styled in Old French motte (Latin mota), a word still common in French place-names. In addition to the mound, a bailey or basse court of horseshoe shape was usually appended to it, so that the mound stood on the line of the enceinte. The latter housed the domestic quarters, stables, stores, a forge and a water well. These earthworks were dug from the perimeter area, leaving a defensive ditch. In many cases the motte seems to be a later addition to an already existing wooden settlement, surrounded by a wood palisade. Lewes Castle, built by Gulielmus de Warenne, is an unusual example, as it featured two mottes. Wooden castles were built up until the 12th century.

A description of this earlier castle is given in the life of St John, Bishop of Terouanne:

The rich and the noble of that region being much given to feuds and bloodshed, fortify themselves ... and by these strongholds subdue their equals and oppress their inferiors. They heap up a mound as high as they are able, and dig round it as broad a ditch as they can ... Round the summit of the mound they construct a palisade of timber to act as a wall. Inside the palisade they erect a house, or rather a citadel, which looks down on the whole neighbourhood.

Defensive features

Keep

Most castles, even from the earliest times, followed certain standards of design and construction. Generally, the central feature of the castle was the keep, or donjon, the main commanding tower. The primary function of the keep varied, but usually it was a residential structure functioning as a redoubt in times of trouble, but could also be used as a secure storage area, or , later, as a prison. In motte and bailey castles, the keep typically surmounted the motte. Many early castles and certain later ones were nothing more than simple towers. The tower houses of Britain and Ireland, as well as peel towers, are examples of this type. Most, however, required outer walls of some sort. The keep was contained within the walls or attached to the walls. The area delineated by the walls was known as the bailey or the court, and the enclosure known as the enceinte.

Enceinte

The enceinte of the castle is another recognizable feature. Essentially the enciente is the entire fortified enclosure of the castle precincts. In some cases this area was demarcated by a simple defensive wall or barrier. More often the wall was surmounted by a walkway to defend the castle. As with Roman and earlier architecture, projecting flanking towers were usually added to the wall to improve defense. Later castles were built on a concentric plan, where enceinte walls (also called curtain walls) and towers formed two rings around the keep, resulting in an inner and an outer court, pushing the enemy further from the core walls and keep.

Carcassonne, France, showing the classic features of the enceinte walls, defensive ditch, cylindrical flanking towers, a gatehouse, and wooden defensive structures

Gatehouse

The gates were a weak point in the defences of castles, so gatehouses could be strengthened with flanking towers, a turning or removable bridge, doors, and a heavy portcullis. There would often be two portcullises, with arrow slits in the sides of the walls, allowing the defenders to trap the enemy and pick them off.

Additional features

Castles featured an array of defences to delay the attackers' progress towards the keep. Moats and ditches formed the most obvious, as these would have to be filled in before heavy siege engines could be moved towards the walls. Overhanging wooden hoardings could be constructed if a castle was under threat. These covered walkways would allow several lines of fire. Later, permanent fixtures known as "machicolation" were built in stone. Perhaps the most notable feature of castle defence were the crenellations and merlons, which offered relative cover for archers. "Murder holes" and embrasures might be built into the walls and gatehouse so projectiles could be launched at the attackers.

Construction

Construction of a large tower, with scaffolding and masons at work.

Although a minority, stone fortifications had also been built during the early Middle Ages. Sometimes Roman walls and ruins were re-used, as is the case of Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome, built around the Mausoleum of the emperor Hadrian. The most ancient surviving example of stone castle is the tower at Doué-la-Fontaine, built circa 950 in northern France: these castles centered around the donjon took more time and investment to build than wooden castles, but were more fireproof and secure.

They could also be built as a mix of timber and stone, and sometimes stone buildings were built on existing mottes. When a stone wall replaced the timber palisade of the existing structures, it produced what is known as a "shell-keep".

Castle building was a very common task , as boundaries were pushed and territory conquered. The walls would most commonly go up first, in order to protect workers such as stonemasons during later stages of construction. Castles could take many years to complete, although the time needed depended greatly from type, location, resources, time period, construction materials, etc. For example, a castle built on top of a hill would generally take much longer to build than a castle located on terrain that was easier to build upon. While a Norman motte and baily castle could be constructed in a year or less, a large stone castle could take decades. Castles may have also been partially constructed in one generation and later generations filled in and added on.

Later developments

Concentric and linear castles

Main articles: Concentric castle and Linear castle

The donjon was rarely defended until the very end and it gradually lost in importance as the outer "wards" grew stronger. Frederick II's Castel del Monte in Puglia has no keep at all: rising on a strategic alture, it consist of an octagonal structure with eighth polygonal, massive towers.

During the Crusades, opportunities were afforded to western engineers to study the massive fortifications of the Byzantine Empire. This revolutionised the art of castle-building, which henceforward followed recognised principles. The Byzantines did not build large stand-alone fortresses, but their largest cities (especially on the traditionally dangerous Eastern frontier) had enormous fortifications. The First Crusade took the well fortified city of Antioch, and many other Byzantine fortifications that had fallen into Muslim hands. The Crusaders, and particularly the military orders, began building castles, which were needed to defend key points in their new territory. They generally had a good supply of labour for construction, resulting some forty castles in the Holy Land, many in isolated strategic spots, designed to be thinly garrisoned. Of these, Krak des Chevaliers was the largest.

The designers soon realised that a second line of defences should be built within the main enceinte, and a third line or keep inside the second line, while a wall must be flanked by projecting towers. Thus from the Byzantine engineers, European castles derived the principle of mutual defence of all the parts of a fortress.

The donjon of western Europe was regarded as the fortress, the outer walls as accessory defences; in the East each envelope was a fortress in itself, and the keep became merely the last refuge of the garrison, used only when all else had been captured. Indeed the keep, in several crusader castles, is no more than a tower, larger than the rest, built into the enceinte and serving with the rest for its flanking defence, while the fortress was made strongest on the most exposed front. The idea of the flanking towers (which were of a type very different from the slight projections of the shell-keep and rectangular tower) soon penetrated to Europe, and Alnwick Castle (1140-1150) shows the influence of the new system.

Château-Gaillard, buttresses on the inner side of the keep.

In Richard I of England's fortress of Château-Gaillard Les Andelys, the innermost ward was protected by an elaborate system of strong appended defences, which included a strong fte-de-pont covering the Seine bridge. The castle stood upon high ground and consisted of three distinct enceintes or wards besides the keep, which was in this case merely a strong tower forming part of the innermost ward. The donjon was rarely defended until the very end and it gradually lost in importance as the outer "wards" grew stronger. Frederick II's Castel del Monte in Puglia has no keep at all: rising on a strategic alture, it consist of an octagonal structure with eight polygonal towers.

Round towers rather than square towers were now becoming common, with the finest examples of their employment as keeps being at Conisborough in England and at Falaise and Coucy in France. Siege artillery of the 13th century was primitive, but it was realised that against sapping and battering rams, corners in castle stonework were more vulnerable than a uniform curved surface. When Château Gaillard fell to Philip Augustus in 1204 after a strenuous defence, the success was largely due to the skilful employment of mines. An angle of the noble keep of Rochester was undermined and brought down by King John of England in 1215. Even where there was little risk of mining, such as a Krak des Chevaliers, rounded towers were still used.

Krak des Chevaliers: a concentric castle built with both rectangular and rounded towers.

The next development was the extension of the principle of successive lines of defence to form what is called the "concentric" castle, in which each ward was placed wholly within another which enveloped it. This was inspired by the Walls of Constantinople, and thus places built on a flat site became for the first time more formidable than strongholds perched upon rocks and hills, where some points could not be as heavily fortified as others for lack of space. In these cases, the fall of the inner ward by surprise, escalade, or even sometimes by ordinary siege, entailed the fall of the whole castle. The adoption of the concentric system precluded any such mischance, and thus, even though siege engines improved during the 13th and 14th centuries, the defences of strong concentric castle, or naturally inaccessible castles, retained its importance during the Late Middle Ages.

Construction of castles in this period was often connected to the necessity to establish a strong central power against local fragmentation, or in newly conquered lands: examples are the large buildings programs of Edward I of England in Wales, Philip I August of France, the Ezzelino IV da Romano and the Scaligers in northern Italy, Frederick II and Charles I of Anjou in southern Italy (often reusing former Norman or even Byzantine and Lombard structures), King Denis I in Portugal, and notably the Teutonic Knights in their conquest of Pagan lands in Prussia and Poland. In Germany, stone structures appeared in Hesse, Thuringia, Alsace and Saxony, commissioned by the powerful local aristocracy. Structures in northern Germany were usually simpler, often taking advantage of water streams.

Response to advent of gunpowder

The advent of gunpowder in the Middle Ages signalled a change in the purpose of a castle - from it being purely a military building, it became increasingly a residential one. From the Renaissance onward, this loosening of military import allowed for a more aesthetic approach to construction, for example the Castello Estense of Ferrara in Italy, the castles of Valderrobres and Manzanares el Real in Spain and the series of highly decorated castles built (or rebuilt) in France along the Loire starting from the 15th century.

Castello Estense, Ferrara The advent of gunpowder in the Middle Ages signalled a change in the purpose of a castle - from it being purely a military building, it became increasingly a residential one.

Whilst siegecraft had consisted of throwing machines such as trebuchets, the primary aims in the construction of castle walls were height and thickness. However it became almost impossible to follow this ideal to cope with ever more powerful cannons. Existing castles which retained military importance were updated, as far as practically possible, to cope with new siege technologies. One example is the English fortress of Bodiam, built from 1385, provided with opposite slit to allow firing from arquebuses. But inevitably, those fortifications previously deemed impregnable, eventually proved inadequate in the face of gunpowder. These include Friesack Castle (which was reduced in two days (during February 1414), by Frederick I with "Heavy Peg" (Faule Grete), and other guns; Constantinople (the massively strong walls of which were breached in 1453 to the Ottomans after lengthy cannon bombardment); and Nanstein Castle (Franz von Sickingen's stronghold at Landstuhl, was ruined in one day in 1523 by the artillery of Philip of Hesse). Architects of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, many of whom were also renowned as engineers, were called to plan countermeasures; e.g. Guillén Sagrera, Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Leonardo da Vinci. Viollet-le-Duc, in his Annals of a Fortress, gives a full account of the repeated renovations of a fortress (at an imaginary site in the valley of the Doubs), the construction by Charles the Bold of artillery towers at the angles of the castle, the protection of the masonry by earthen outworks, boulevards and demi-boulevards, and, in the 17th century, the final service of the medieval walls and towers as a pure enceinte de sfireti.

The rounded walls of Sarzana Castle showed adaption to gunpowder.

The general adoption of cannons led therefore to the disappearing (or to the loss of importance) of majestic towers and merlons. Walls of new fortresses were thicker and angulated, towers became lower and stouter. Examples of the late type of castle-fortress are that in Sarzana (Italy), that built by Henry VIII of England in Deal and the Imperial Castle of Nurnberg.

In the end, the introduction of gunpowder led to a disappearing of traditional castles, in the meaning of a building detaining both military and political power roles. This transition began in the 14th century and was fully underway by the 15th. In the 16th century the feudal fastness had become an anachronism. Here and there we find old castles serving in secondary roles, as forts d'arret or block-houses in mountain passes and defiles, and in some few cases, as at Dover, they formed the nucleus of purely military places of arms. Normally castles, when they were not let to fell into ruins, became peaceful mansions, or were merged in the fortifications of the town which has grown up around it.

Fortaleza Ozama, Santo Domingo - first castle built in the Americas.

In the Viollet-le-Duc's Annals of a Fortress the site of the feudal castle is occupied by the citadel of the walled town, for once again, with the development of the middle class and of commerce and industry, the art of the engineer came to be displayed chiefly in the fortification of cities. The baronial "castle" assumes pan passu the form of a mansion, retaining indeed for long some capacity for defence, but in the end losing all military characteristics save a few which survived as ornaments.

However, some true castles were built in the Americas by the Spanish and French colonies. The first stage of Spanish fort construction has been termed the "castle period", which lasted from 1492 until the end of the 16th century. Starting with Fortaleza Ozama, "these castles were essentially European medieval castles transposed to America." Among other defensive structures (including forts and citadels), castles were also built in New France towards the end of the 17th century. Where artillery was not as developed as on the battle-fields of Europe, some of Montréal's outlying forts were built like the fortified manor houses of France. Fort Longueuil, built from 1695-1698 by a baronial family, has been described as "the most medieval looking fort built in Canada". The manor house and stables were within a fortified bailey, with a tall round turret in each corner. The "most substantial castle-like fort" near Montréal was Fort Senneville, built in 1692 with square towers connected by thick stone walls, as well as a fortified windmill. Stone forts such as these served as defensive residences, as well as imposing structures to prevent Iroquois incursions.

To guard against artillery and gunfire, increasing use was made of earthen, brick and stone breastworks and redoubts, such as the geometric fortresses of the 17th century French Marquis de Vauban. These soon replaced castles in Europe, and eventually castles in the Americas were superseded by bastions and forts.

Revival castles and the castle as a country house

Neuschwanstein - perhaps the most famous 19th century neo-romantic castle in the world.

From the late 18th century to the early 20th century, as a manifestation of a romantic interest in the Medieval period, and as part of the broader Gothic Revival in architecture, many so-called castles were built, which had no defensive purpose, but incorporated stylistic elements of earlier castles such as castellation and towers. Most of them were country houses. These revival or "mock" castles were particularly common in the British Isles, for example Belvoir Castle, Culzean Castle, and Eastnor Castle. Edwin Lutyens' Castle Drogo was the last flicker of this movement in England. Famous revival castles in other countries include Neuschwanstein in Germany, Miramare in Italy, and Castillo de Chapultepec in Mexico. Emperor Maximilian I of Mexico, born a Habsburg Archduke, and his consort the Empress Carlota, a princess of Belgium, built Miramare Castle as their residence in northern Italy in their early years as viceroys of Lombardy-Venetia. However, after accepting the Mexican Crown, they chose Chapultepec, located in the heart of Mexico City, as their home and government seat. Prior to Maximilian's reign, the site upon which the castle sits was used as a country retreat for the Aztec sovereigns.

See also

• Alcázar (Spanish castles)
• Shiro (Japanese castles)
• Gusuku (Okinawan castles)
• Kremlin (Russian castles)

Main article: List of castles

Sources

• This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. {{cite encyclopedia}}: Missing or empty |title= (help)
• Allen Brown, R. (1970). English Castles. London: Chancellor Press. ISBN 0-907486-06-1.
• Bianchi, Vito (July–October 2006). "I Castelli". Medioevo. 114–117.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: date format (link)
• Cathcart King, D. J. (1983). Castellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands (2 vols). New York: Kraus International Publications. ISBN 0-527-50110-7.
• Cathcart King, D. J. (1991). The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-00350-4.
• Gravett, Christopher (1990). Medieval Siege Warfare. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-947-8.
• Higham, R. (1992). Timber Castles. London: B. T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-2189-4. {{cite book}}: Unknown parameter |coauthors= ignored (|author= suggested) (help)
• Johnson, M. (2002). Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance. London: Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26100-7.
• Kenyon, J. (1991). Medieval Fortifications. Leicester: Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-1392-4.
• Pounds, N. J. G. (1994). The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Social and Political History. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45828-5.
• Thompson, M. W. (1987). The Decline of the Castle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1-85422-608-8.
• Thompson, M. W. (1991). The Rise of the Castle. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37544-4.

External links

• Castle Explorer
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