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Castles were the products of feudal society as it spread across Europe and into the Crusader kingdoms. Found in France from the mid-10th-c, they reached England as a result of the Norman Conquest, where they were built in large numbers by the new Norman elite. The earliest English castles were normally earthen mounds surrounded by ditches and topped by wooden towers. In 12th-c England, castle-builders increasingly used stone for towers and walls, and in the 13th-c Edward I built a fine series of castles in Wales (eg Caernarfon, Conwy, Harlech). Castles served as residences, seats of justice, administrative centres, and symbolic manifestations of lordly authority. Despite their defensive features, the main value of castles in war was their offensive role in mastering the surrounding countryside. They were often ineffective in frontier defence, and from c.1200 advances in siege warfare and, especially important, the 16th-c development of firearms further reduced their defensive capacity. Later in the Middle Ages, especially in England, increasing emphasis was placed on their non-military roles, with greater concessions to domestic comfort and ornamental display, while growing to accommodate large royal retinues. Many beautiful examples of European castles survive as testimony to their country's history, such as Hradト溝ny Castle, Prague, which was a 9th-c fortress and is now a vast presidential residence.

See also castle (disambiguation).

A castle (from the Latin castellum) is a structure that is fortified for defence against an enemy and generally serves as a military headquarters dominating the surrounding countrysidedictionary.reference.com/search?q=castle. The term is most often applied to a small self-contained fortress, usually of the Middle Ages.

Despite this, "castle" sometimes denotes a citadel (such as the castles of Badajoz and Burgos) or small detached forts d'arrテェt in modern times and, traditionally, in Britain it has also been used to refer to prehistoric earthworks (e.g.

Definition

Castle comes from the Latin word castellum meaning "fortress". 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 whom Edward the Confessor had sent for to defend Herefordshire against the inroads of the Welsh.

Terminology

In Spain, a fortified dwelling on a height for the administering authority retains its Moorish name of alcテ。zar, whilst shiro also figure prominently in Japanese history, where the feudal daimy? inhabited them.

A French castle is a chテ「teau-fort, for in French a simple chテ「teau connotes a grand country house at the center of an estate. 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 un-castlelike castles and chテ「teaux. This is the purpose behind such stereotypically castleish features as portcullises, battlements, and drawbridges.

• Secondly, castles were 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. This can best be seen in castles such as Bodiam Castle in Kent, whose defensive appearance was probably built merely to impress; Central to the castle was the keep, or donjon, the main commanding tower. Later castles were built on a concentric plan, where two heavily towered walls formed two rings around the keep. 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 castles could be constructed in a year or less, a large stone castle could take decades. Examples of this design which have survived to the second millennium are Muchalls Castle and Neidpath Castle. Because of the proliferation of European castles, this article will follow a European timeline.

Early castles

From as early as late Neolithic times, 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 (referred to by Julius Caesar as oppida). Their own fortifications were more elaborate, and varied from the temporary earthworks thrown up by armies on the move, to stone constructions, notably the milecastles of Hadrians Wall.

The Roman engineer Vitruvius was the first to note the three-fold advantages of round defensive towers; more efficiency of use of stone, improved defence against battering rams and improved field of fire. They were built by the Normans.

When William the Conqueror invaded and conquered England, he brought along the practice of building a castle to protect and hold the land. They were an instrinsic element in his strategy for conquest and the original castle he built at Pevensey was brought across as a prefabrication, a detail revealed by the Bayeux Tapestry.

These early castles were called motte and bailey, as they consisted of an earthen mound or motte, frequently topped with a wooden tower. An encircling protective wall (the bailey) afforded additional protection for the owner's animals, buildings and workers.

In the wake of the Norman Conquest of England, Norman kings and their barons constructed a plethora of castles to impress, control, and conquer the native population. This proliferation of castles, which made them iconic of the Middle Ages, is called encastellation. Around the crest of its summit was placed a timber palisade. It is clearly depicted at the time of the Conquest in the Bayeux Tapestry, and was then familiar on the mainland of western Europe.

A description of this earlier castle is given in the life of John, bishop of Terouanne (Ada Sanctorum, quoted by GT Clark, Medieval Mil. St John, bishop of Terouanne, died in 1130, and this castle of Merchem, built by a lord of the town many years before, may be taken as typical of the practice of the 11th century. But in addition to the mound, the citadel of the fortress, there was usually appended to it a bailey or basecourt (and sometimes two) of semilunar or horseshoe shape, so that the mound stood on the line of the enceinte.

The rapidity and ease with which it was possible to construct castles of this type made them characteristic of the Conquest period in England and of the Anglo-Norman settlements in Wales, Ireland and the Scottish lowlands.

Stone structures

In later days a stone wall replaced the timber palisade and produced what is known as the shell-keep, the type met with in the extant castles of Berkeley, Alnwick and Windsor.

But the Normans introduced also two other types of castle. the other was a type wholly distinct, the high rectangular tower of masonry, of which the Tower of London is the best-known example, though that of Colchester was probably constructed in the 11th century also. The whole fortress thus formed was styled a castle, but sometimes more precisely "tower and castle," the former being the citadel, and the latter the walled enclosure, which preserved more strictly the meaning of the Roman castellum.

Reliance was placed by the engineers of that time simply and solely on the inherent strength of the structure, the walls of which defied the battering ram, and could only be undermined at the cost of much time and labour, while the narrow apertures were constructed to exclude arrows or flaming brands.

Concentric and linear castles

At this stage the crusades, and the consequent opportunities afforded to western engineers of studying the solid fortresses of the Byzantine empire, revolutionized the art of castlebuilding, which henceforward follows recognized principles. 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.

But the finest of all castles of the Middle Ages was Richard C?ur de Lion's fortress of Chテ「teau-Gaillard Les Andelys. An angle of the noble keep of Rochester was undermined and brought down by John in 1215.

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; In these cases, the fall of the inner ward by surprise, escalade, vive force, or even by ordinary siege (as was sometimes feasible), entailed the fall of the whole castle. A typical case will be found in the history of Brandenburg and Kingdom of Prussia (Carlyle, Frederick the Great, bk. i.), the impregnable castle of Friesack, held by an intractable feudal noble, Dietrich von Quitzow, being reduced in two days by the elector Frederick I with "Heavy Peg" (Faule Grete) and other guns hired and borrowed (February 1414). In England, the earl of Warwick in 1464 reduced the strong fortress of Bamburgh in a week, and in Germany, Franz von Sickingen's stronghold of Landstuhl, formerly impregnable on its heights, was ruined in one day by the artillery of Philip of Hesse (1523). Very heavy artillery was used for such work, of course, and against lighter natures, some castles and even fortified country-houses or castellated mansions managed to make a stout stand even as late as the great castles erected by Henry VIII, especially those at Deal, Sandown and Walmer (c. 1540), which played some part in the events of the 17th century, and of which Walmer Castle is still the official residence of the lord warden of the Cinque Ports. In the 16th century the feudal fastness had become an anachronism.

In the Scottish highlands of the seventeenth century, as elsewhere, the need for the defensive strength of castles lessened, but the image of power and control remained important at a time when the laird of the castle had considerable judicial powers over his clan and the main hall of the castle served as a local court. Here and there we find old castles serving 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, but normally the castle falls into ruins, becomes a peaceful mansion, or is merged in the fortifications of the town which has grown up around it. Examples of such castellated mansions are seen in Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire, and Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, erected in the 15th century, and nearly all older castles which survived were continually improved and altered to serve as residences. Under its twofold aspect of a fortress and a residence, the medieval castle is inseparably connected with the subjects of fortification (see also siegecraft) and domestic architecture. Castle walls, together with lodgings (keep) suitable for a Lord, as well as lower grade housing within the walls to accommodate some of the key population of the local area, served this purpose.

Castles were also developed to defend key part of the countryside such as a mountain pass or river estuary, and often made use of the natural geography to support the defensive walls through exploitation of cliffs, rivers, hills, and the like. Some well known examples include:

• Edinburgh Castle
  
• Wawel Castle
  
• Prague Castle
  
• Tower of London
  
• Moscow Kremlin
  
• Windsor Castle
  
• Dover Castle
  
• Castel Sant'Angelo in Rome
  
• Castrum Danorum in Tallinn
  

For a more complete list see List of castles.

In addition to the castle walls, other defensive features include towers at the angular direction changes of walls, moats, drawbridges, battlements, portcullises, and concentric walls.

The traditional mechanism used to occupy a castle would normally be to lay siege whereby a surrounding army would camp out of range of attack and wait for the internees to run out of either food or water. Offensive techniques would include the use of catapults, siege engines, battering rams and later mortar and cannon.

Influence of castles in Britain

Such strongholds as existed in England at the time of the Norman Conquest seem to have offered little resistance to William of Normandy, who, in order effectually to guard against invasions from without as well as to awe his newly-acquired subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom, and likewise to repair and augment the old ones. Besides, as he had parcelled out the lands of the English amongst his followers, they, to protect themselves from the resentment of the despoiled natives, built strongholds and castles on their estates, and these were multiplied so rapidly during the troubled reign of King Stephen that the "adulterine" (i.e. unauthorized) castles are said by one writer to have amounted to 1115.

In the first instance, when the interest of the king and of barons was identical, the former had only retained in his hands the castles in the chief towns of the shires, which were entrusted to his sheriffs or constables. It was, therefore, the settled policy of the crown to strengthen the royal castles and increase their number, while jealously keeping in check those of the barons. These in many cases acted as petty sovereigns, and such was their tyranny that the native chronicler describes the castles as "filled with devils and evil men." Henry II, in spite of his power, was warned by the great revolt against him that he must still rely on castles, and the massive keeps of Newcastle upon Tyne and of Dover date from this period.

Under his sons the importance of the chief castles was recognized as so great that the struggle for their control was in the forefront of every contest. When Richard made vast grants at his accession to his brother John, he was careful to reserve the possession of certain castles, and when John rose against the king's minister, William Longchamp, in 1191, the custody of castles was the chief point of dispute throughout their negotiations, and Lincoln was besieged on the king's behalf, as were Tickhill, Windsor and Marlborough subsequently, while the siege of Nottingham had to be completed by Richard himself on his arrival. To John, in turn, as king, the fall of Chテ「teau Gaillard meant the loss of Rouen and of Normandy with it, and when he endeavoured to repudiate the newly-granted Magna Carta, his first step was to prepare the royal castles against attack and make them his centres of resistance. The barons, who had begun their revolt by besieging that of Northampton, now assailed that of Oxford as well and seized that of Rochester. The king recovered Rochester after a severe struggle and captured Tonbridge, but thenceforth there was a war of sieges between John with his mercenaries and Louis with his Frenchmen and the barons, which was specially notable for the great defence of Dover Castle by Hubert de Burgh against Louis. On the final triumph of the royal cause, after John's death, at the Battle of Lincoln, the general pacification was accompanied by a fresh issue of the Great Charter in the autumn of 1217, in which the precedent of Stephen's reign was followed and a special clause inserted that all "adulterine" castles, namely those which had been constructed or rebuilt since the breaking out of war between John and the barons, should be immediately destroyed. And special stress was laid on this in the writs addressed to the sheriffs.

In 1223 Hubert de Burgh, as regent, demanded the surrender to the crown of all royal castles not in official custody, and though he succeeded in this, Falkes de Breautテゥ, John's mercenary, burst into revolt next year, and it cost a great national effort and a siege of nearly two months to reduce Bedford Castle, which he had held. The Provisions of Oxford included a list of the chief royal castles and of their appointed castellans with the oath that they were to take; When war broke out it was Rochester Castle that successfully held Simon de Montfort at bay in 1264, and in Pevensey Castle that the fugitives from the rout of Lewes were able to defy his power. Finally, after his fall at Evesham, it was in Kenilworth Castle that the remnant of his followers made their last stand, holding out nearly five months against all the forces of the crown, till their provisions failed them at the close of 1266.

Thus for two centuries after the Norman Conquest castles had proved of primary consequence in English political struggles, revolts and warfare.

Gallery

Image:SDJ_Harlech_Castle_Gatehouse.jpg|The main gatehouse of Harlech Castle, Wales
Image:Vyborg castle.jpg|The Vyborg Castle
Image:HradcanyPolWiki.jpg|Prague Castle
Image:Craigievar castle 1991.jpg|Craigievar Castle in Aberdeenshire, completed in 1626
Image:Wawel_castle.jpg|Wawel Castle, Poland
Image:Uppsala slott-2.jpg|Uppsala Castle, Sweden
Image:Burg Eltz 1.jpg|Burg Eltz, Germany
Image:Alcazar-Segovia.jpg|The Alcテ。zar of Segovia, Spain
Image:Bran Castle.jpg|Bran Castle, Romania
Image:Wenecja ruins.jpg|The ruins of the 14th century castle in Wenecja near ?nin, Poland
Image:Mota-Castillo de la Mota.jpg|La Mota, mudテゥjar Castle, in Medina del Campo, Spain. Castile means "Land of Castles"
Image:Tarascon Castle.jpg|Front of Tarascon Castle, France
Image:Dol-ksiaz.jpg|Ksi?? Castle, Poland
Image:Hunedoara-castle-side.jpg|Hunyad Castle,Romania
Image:Moszna zamek3.jpg|Castle in Moszna, Poland
Image:Ireland-Cahir Castle.jpg|Cahir Castle in Ireland
Image:Rakvere-castle.jpg|Rakvere castle Rakvere,Estonia

Bibliography

GT Clark, Medieval Military Architecture in England (2 vols.), includes a few French castles and is the standard work on the subject, but inaccurate and superseded on some points by recent research;

See also

• Castle-guard
  
• List of castles
  
• Encastellation
  
• Castellan
  
• Defensive wall
  
• Medieval fortification
  
• Medieval warfare
  
• Motte-and-bailey
  
• Alcテ。zar (Spanish castles)
  
• Shiro (Japanese castles)
  
• Gusuku (Okinawan castles)
  
• Kremlin (Russian castles)
  

Sources

• 1911