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Corfe Castle was slighted 1646 during the English Civil War. Parliament slighted or proposed to slight more than 100 buildings, including castles, town walls, abbeys, and houses.[1]

Slighting was the deliberate damage of important buildings to reduce their value which can include military and social significance. The destruction of property extended to the contents of buildings and the landscape setting. It is a phenomenon with complex motivations and was often used as a tool of control. Slighting spanned cultures and periods, with particularly well-known examples from the English Civil War in the 17th century.

Meaning and use

Slighting could extend beyond the building, and when Kenilworth Castle was slighted in 1649 the moat was drained.[2]
Slighting could extend beyond the building, and when Kenilworth Castle was slighted in 1649 the moat was drained.[2]

Slighting is the act of deliberately damaging a high-status building, as well as its contents and the surrounding area.[3] Castles are complex structures combining military, social, and administrative uses,[4] and the decision to slight them took these various roles into account and were similarly varied. The purpose of slighting was to reduce the value of the site, whether military, social, or administrative.[3] Destruction often went beyond what was needed to prevent an enemy from using the fortification, indicating the damage was important symbolically.[5]

In some cases it was used as a way of punishing people who had rebelled against royal authority, or could be used to undermine the authority of the owner by demonstrating their inability to protect their property.[6] As part of the peace negotiations bringing the war in England from 1135 to 1154 (known as ‘The Anarchy’) to an end both sides agreed to dismantle fortifications built since the start of the conflict.[7] Similarly, in 1317 Edward II gave orders to dismantle Harbottle Castle in England as part of a treaty with Robert the Bruce.[8] It was uncommon to slight your own fortifications.[9] In one case, during the First War of Scottish Independence, Robert the Bruce systematically slighted Scottish castles, often after capturing them from English control.[10] With the destruction of Eccleshall Castle during the English Civil War, a building belonging to a bishop was targeted; while religion played a part, the act itself was strongly politically motivated.[11]

Methods of destruction

Each method of destruction leaves a distinctive trace. At Newark Castle the use of gunpowder left a crater damage pattern.[12]

A range of methods were used to demolish castles, each affecting the buildings in different ways. Fire might be used especially against timber structures; digging underneath stone structures (known as mining) would cause them to collapse and topple; dismantling a structure by hand was done but time- and labour-intensive as was filling ditches and digging away earthworks; and in later periods gunpowder was sometimes used.[13][14]

Manually dismantling a castle (‘picking’) can be split into two categories: primary damage where the intention was to slight the castle and secondary damage which was incidental through activity such as retrieving reusable materials.[15]

When mining was successful, the tunnel or cavity would collapse which makes it difficult to identify archaeologically. Out of 61 castles identified through archaeology as being slighted in the Middle Ages only five used mining.[16] While surviving mines are rare, one was discovered in the 1930s during excavations at Bungay Castle. It probably dates from around 1174 when the owner rebelled against Henry II.[17]

The effect of slighting

After the siege of Bedford Castle in 1224, Henry III had the garrison executed and the castle slighted.[18][19]

The impact of slighting ranged from almost complete destruction of a site, as can be seen at Deganwy Castle, to a token gesture of destruction.[20] Destruction was often carefully planned rather than indiscriminate, even when carried out on a large scale. In cases of medieval slighting, domestic areas such as free-standing halls and chapels were typically excluded from the destruction.[21]

When a castle had a keep, it was usually the most visible part of the castle and a focus of symbolism.[22] Kenilworth was one of many castles to be slighting during the English Civil War; though its keep was not integral to its military function, the side of the tower most visible to people outside the castle was demolished.[23]

Documentary sources for the medieval period typically have little information on what slighting involved, so archaeology helps to understand which areas of buildings were targeted and how they were demolished.[24][25] For the English Civil War, destruction accounts are still rare but there are some instances such as Sheffield Castle where detailed records survive. At Sheffield military and social concerns combined: there may have been a desire to prevent the Royalist owner from using the fortification against Parliament, and the destruction undermined the owner’s authority. Despite this, the profits from the demolition went to the owner, contrasting with Pontefract Castle where the money went to the townspeople.[26]

The use of destruction to both control and subvert control spans periods and cultures. Slighting was prevalent in the Middle Ages and the 17th century, with notable episodes including ‘the Anarchy’, the revolt of 1173–74, the English Civil War, and France in the 16th and 17th centuries, as well as Japan.[27][28][29]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ Thompson 1987, pp. 179–185.
  2. ^ Steane 1999.
  3. ^ a b Nevell 2019, p. 3.
  4. ^ Johnson 2002, pp. 178–179.
  5. ^ Creighton & Wright 2017, p. 112.
  6. ^ Nevell 2019, pp. 26–28.
  7. ^ Creighton & Wright 2017, p. 111.
  8. ^ Hunter-Blair 1949, p. 145.
  9. ^ Nevell 2019, p. 13.
  10. ^ Cornell 2008, pp. 249–250.
  11. ^ Askew 2016, p. 284.
  12. ^ Rakoczy 2007, pp. 67–68.
  13. ^ Rakoczy 2007, p. 60.
  14. ^ Nevell 2019, pp. 6–11.
  15. ^ Rakoczy 2007, pp. 94–98.
  16. ^ Nevell 2019, pp. 21–22.
  17. ^ Braun 1934, p. 113.
  18. ^ Amt 2002, p. 114.
  19. ^ Baker et al. 1979, p. 11.
  20. ^ Nevell 2019, p. 4.
  21. ^ Nevell 2019, p. 26.
  22. ^ Marshall 2016.
  23. ^ Johnson 2002, p. 174.
  24. ^ Creighton & Wright 2017, p. 114.
  25. ^ Nevell 2019.
  26. ^ Askew 2017, pp. 203–204.
  27. ^ Johnson 2002, p. 173.
  28. ^ Rakoczy 2007, p. 11.
  29. ^ Nevell 2019, p. 22.

Bibliography

  • Amt, Emile (2002), "Besieging Bedford: Military Logistics in 1224", Journal of Medieval Military History, 1: 101–124, doi:10.7722/j.ctt7zssh1.9
  • Askew, Rachel (2016), "Political iconoclasm: the destruction of Eccleshall Castle during the English Civil Wars", Post-Medieval Archaeology, 50 (2): 279–288, doi:10.1080/00794236.2016.1203547
  • Askew, Rachel (2017), "Sheffield Castle and The Aftermath of The English Civil War", Northern History, 52 (2): 189–210, doi:10.1080/0078172X.2017.1337313
  • Baker, David; Baker, Evelyn; Hassall, Jane; Simco, Angela (1979), "The Excavations: Bedford Castle" (PDF), Bedford Archaeology, 13: 7–64
  • Braun, Hugh, "Some notes on Bungay Castle" (PDF), Proceedings of the Suffolk Institute of Archaeology and History, 22: 109–119 Open access icon
  • Cornell, David (2008), "A Kingdom Cleared of Castles: the Role of the Castle in the Campaigns of Robert Bruce", The Scottish Historical Review, 87 (224): 233–257, JSTOR 23074055 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Creighton, Oliver; Wright, Duncan (2017), The Anarchy: War and Status in 12th-Century Landscapes of Conflict, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-1-78138-242-4
  • Hunter-Blair, C. H. (1949), "Knights of Northumberland in 1278 and 1324", Archaeology Aeliana, 27: 122–176
  • Johnson, Matthew (2002), Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance, London: Routledge, ISBN 0-415-25887-1
  • Marshall, Pamela (2016), "Some Thoughts on the Use of the Anglo-Norman Donjon", in Davies, John A.; Riley, Angela; Levesque, Jean-Marie; Lapiche, Charlotte (eds.), Castles and the Anglo-Norman World, Oxford: Oxbow Books, pp. 159–174
  • Nevell, Richard (2019), "The archaeology of slighting: a methodological framework for interpreting castle destruction in the Middle Age", The Archaeological Journal, doi:10.1080/00665983.2019.1590029 {{citation}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
  • Rakoczy, Lila (2007). Archaeology of Destruction: A Reinterpretation of Castle Slightings in the English Civil War (PhD). University of York. OCLC 931130655. {{cite thesis}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help) Open access icon
  • Steane, John (1999), The Archaeology of the Medieval English Monarchy, London: Routledge
  • Thompson, M. W. (1987), The Decline of the Castle, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0521083973

Further reading

Category:Fortifications Category:Medieval studies Category:Demolition Category:Military history Category:Castles Category:Wars of Scottish Independence Category:English Civil War

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