Castles in the United Kingdom
Encyclopedia
Castles have played an important military, economic and social role in Great Britain
and Ireland
since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castle
s had been built in England in the 1050s the Normans
began to build motte and bailey and ringwork
s castles in large numbers to control their newly occupied territories in England and the Welsh Marches
. During the 12th century the Normans began to build more castles in stone, with characteristic square keep
s that played both military and political roles. Royal castles were used to control key towns and the economically important forest
s, whilst baron
ial castles were used by the Norman lords to control their widespread estates. David I
invited Anglo-Norman lords into Scotland in the early 12th century to help him colonise and control areas of his kingdom such as Galloway
; the new lords brought castle technologies with them and wooden castles began to be established over the south of the kingdom. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1170s, under Henry II
, castles were established there too.
Castles continued to grow in military sophistication and comfort during the 12th century, leading to a sharp increase in the complexity and length of siege
s in England. Whilst in Ireland and Wales castle architecture continued to follow that of England, after the death of Alexander III
the trend in Scotland moved away from the construction of larger castles towards the use of smaller tower house
s. The tower house style would also be adopted in the north of England and Ireland in later years. In North Wales
Edward I
built a sequence of militarily powerful castles after the destruction of the last Welsh polities in the 1270s. By the 14th century castles were combining defences with luxurious, sophisticated living arrangements and heavily landscaped gardens and parks.
Many royal and baronial castles were left to decline, so that by the 15th century only a few were maintained for defensive purposes. A small number of castles in England and Scotland were developed into Renaissance Era
palaces that hosted lavish feasts and celebrations amid their elaborate architecture. Such structures were, however, beyond the means of all but royalty and the richest of the late-medieval barons. Although gunpowder weapons were used to defend castles from the late 14th century onwards it became clear during the 16th century that, provided artillery could be transported and brought to bear on a besieged castle, gunpowder weapons could also play an important attack role. The defences of coastal castles around the British Isles were improved to deal with this threat, but investment in their upkeep once again declined at the end of the 16th century. Nevertheless, in the widespread civil and religious conflict
s across the British Isles during the 1640s and 1650s, castles played a key role in England. Modern defences were quickly built alongside existing medieval fortifications and, in many cases, castles successfully withstood more than one siege. In Ireland the introduction of heavy siege artillery by Oliver Cromwell
in 1649 brought a rapid end to the utility of castles in the war, while in Scotland the popular tower houses proved unsuitable for defending against civil war artillery – although major castles such as Edinburgh put up strong resistance. At the end of the war many castles were slighted
to prevent future use.
Military use of castles rapidly decreased over subsequent years, although some were adapted for use by garrisons in Scotland and key border locations for many years to come, including during the Second World War. Other castles were used as county jail
s, until parliamentary legislation in the 19th closed most of them down. For a period in the early 18th century castles were shunned in favour of Palladian architecture
, until they re-emerged as an important cultural and social feature of England, Wales and Scotland and were frequently "improved" during the 18th and 19th centuries. Such renovations raised concerns over their protection so that today castles across the British Isles are safeguarded by legislation. Primarily used as tourist attraction
s, castles form a key part of the national heritage industry
. Historians and archaeologists
continue to develop our understanding of British castles, while vigorous academic debates in recent years have questioned the interpretation of physical and documentary material surrounding their original construction and use.
" derives from the Latin
word castellum and is used to refer to the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. The presence of castles in Britain and Ireland dates primarily from the Norman invasion of 1066
. Before the arrival of the Normans
the Anglo-Saxons
had built burh
s, fortified structures with their origins in 9th-century Wessex
. Most of these, especially in urban areas, were large enough to be best described as fortified townships rather than private dwellings and are therefore not usually classed as castles. Rural burhs were smaller and usually consisted of a wooden hall with a wall enclosing various domestic buildings along with an entrance tower called a burh-geat, which was apparently used for ceremonial purposes. Although rural burhs were relatively secure their role was primarily ceremonial and they too are not normally classed as castles. There were, however, a small number of castles built in England during the 1050s, probably by Norman knights in the service of Edward the Confessor
. These include Hereford
, Clavering
, Richard's Castle
and possibly Ewyas Harold Castle
and Dover
.
William, Duke of Normandy
, invaded England in 1066 and one of his first actions after landing was to build Hastings Castle
to protect his supply routes. Following their victory at the battle of Hastings
the Normans began three phases of castle building. The first of these were the establishment, by the new king, of a number of royal castles in key strategic locations. This royal castle programme focused on controlling the towns and cities of England and the associated lines of communication: including Cambridge
, Huntingdon
, Lincoln
, Nottingham
, Warwick
and York
. Of the castles built by William the Conqueror two-thirds were built in towns and cities, often those with the former Anglo-Saxon mint
s. These urban castles could make use of the existing town's walls and fortifications, but typically required the demolition of local houses to make space for them. This could cause extensive damage: records suggest that in Lincoln 166 houses were destroyed, with 113 in Norwich and 27 in Cambridge. Some of these castles were deliberately built on top of important local buildings, such as the burhs or halls of local nobles, and might be constructed so as to imitate aspects of the previous buildings – such as the gatehouse at Rougemont Castle
in Exeter
, which closely resembled the previous Anglo-Saxon burh tower – this was probably done to demonstrate to the local population that they now answered to their new Norman rulers.
The second and third waves of castle building were led by the major magnates, and then by the more junior knights on their new estates. The apportionment of the conquered lands by the king influenced where these castles were built. In a few key locations the king gave his followers compact groups of estates including the six rapes of Sussex
and the three earldoms of Chester
, Shrewsbury
and Hereford
; intended to protect the line of communication with Normandy
and the Welsh border respectively. In these areas a baron's castles were clustered relatively tightly together, but in most of England the nobles' estates, and therefore their castles, were more widely dispersed. As the Normans pushed on into South Wales
they advanced up the valleys building castles as they went and often using the larger castles of the neighbouring earldoms as a base.
As a result, castle building by the Norman nobility across England and the Marches lacked a grand strategic plan, reflecting local circumstances such as military factors and the layout of existing estates and church lands. Castles were often situated along the old Roman roads
that still formed the backbone for travel across the country, both in order to control the lines of communication and to ensure easy movement between different estates. Many castles were built close to inland river ports and those built on the coast were usually located at the mouths of rivers or in ports; Pevensey
and Portchester
being rare exceptions. Some groups of castles were located so as to be mutually reinforcing – for example the castles of Littledean Camp
, Glasshouse Woods and Howle Hill Camp were intended to act as an integrated defence for the area around Gloucester
and Gloucester Castle
for Gloucester city itself, whilst Windsor
was one of a ring of castles built around London, each approximately a day's march apart. Some regional patterns in castle building can also be seen – relatively few castles were built in East Anglia compared to the west of England or the Marches; this was probably due to the relatively settled and prosperous nature of the east of England and reflected a shortage of available serf
s, or unfree labour
.
Not all of the castles were occupied simultaneously. Some were built during the invasions and then abandoned whilst other new castles were constructed elsewhere, especially along the western borders. Recent estimates suggest that out of all of those constructed, there were only between 500 and 600 castles occupied at any one time in the post-conquest period.
, in which earth would be piled up into a mound (called a motte) to support a wooden tower, and a wider enclosed area built alongside it (called a bailey); Stafford Castle
is a typical example of a post-invasion motte castle. Another widespread design was the ringwork
in which earth would be built up in a circular or oval shape and topped with a wooden rampart; Folkestone Castle
is a good example of a Norman ringwork, in this case built on top of a hill although most post-invasion castles were usually sited on lower ground. Around 80% of Norman castles in this period followed the motte-and-bailey pattern, but ringworks were particularly popular in certain areas, such as south-west England and south Wales. One theory put forward to explain this variation is that ringworks were easier to build in these shallow-soil areas than the larger mottes.
The White Tower
in London and the keep of Colchester Castle
were the only stone castles to be built in England immediately after the conquest, both with the characteristic square Norman keep
. Both these castles were built in the Romanesque
style and were intended to impress as well as provide military protection. In Wales the first wave of the Norman castles were again made of wood, in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs, with the exception of the stone built Chepstow Castle
. Chepstow too was heavily influenced by Romanesque design, reusing numerous materials from the nearby Venta Silurum
to produce what historian Robert Liddiard has termed "a play upon images from Antiquity".
The size of these castles varied depending on the geography of the site, the decisions of the builder and the available resources. Analysis of the size of mottes has shown some distinctive regional variation; East Anglia
, for example, saw much larger mottes being built than the Midlands
or London
. Whilst motte-and-bailey and ringwork castles took great effort to build, they required relatively few skilled craftsmen allowing them to be raised using forced labour from the local estates; this, in addition to the speed with which they could be built – a single season, made them particularly attractive immediately after the conquest. The larger earthworks, particularly mottes, required an exponentially greater quantity of manpower than their smaller equivalents and consequently tended to be either royal, or belong to the most powerful barons who could muster the required construction effort. Despite motte-and-bailey and ringworks being common designs amongst Norman castles, each fortification was slightly different – some castles were designed with two baileys attached to a single motte, and some ringworks were built with additional towers added on; yet other castles were built as ringworks and later converted to motte-and-bailey structures.
.
Several early stone keeps had been built after the conquest, with somewhere between ten and fifteen in existence by 1100, and more followed in the 12th century until around 100 had been built by 1216. Typically these were four sided designs with the corners reinforced by pilaster
buttress
es. Keeps were up to four storeys high, with the entrance on the first storey to prevent the door from being easily broken down. The strength of the design typically came from the thickness of the walls: usually made of rag-stone
, as in the case of Dover Castle
, these walls could be up to 24 feet (7.3 metres) thick. The larger keeps were subdivided by an internal wall whilst the smaller versions, such as that at Goodrich
, had a single, slightly cramped chamber on each floor. Stone keeps required skilled craftsmen to build them; unlike unfree labour or serfs, these men had to be paid and stone keeps were therefore expensive. They were also relatively slow to erect – a keep's walls could usually only be raised by a maximum of 12 feet (3.6 metres) a year, the keep at Scarborough
was typical in taking ten years to build.
Norman stone keeps played both a military and a political role. Most of the keeps were physically extremely robust and, whilst they were not designed as an intended location for the final defence of a castle, they were often placed near weak points in the walls to provide supporting fire. Many keeps made compromises to purely military utility:Norwich Castle
included elaborate blind arcading
on the outside of the building, in a Roman style, and appears to had a ceremonial entrance route; The interior of the keep at Hedingham
could have hosted impressive ceremonies and events, but contained numerous flaws from a military perspective. Similarly there has been extensive debate over the role of Orford Castle
whose expensive, three-cornered design most closely echoes imperial Byzantine
palaces and may have been intended by Henry II
to be more symbolic than military in nature.
Another improvement from the 12th century onwards was the creation of shell keep
s, involving replacing the wooden keep on the motte with a circular stone wall. Buildings could be built around the inside of the shell, producing a small inner courtyard. Restormel Castle
is a classic example of this development with a perfectly circular wall and a square entrance tower while the later Launceston Castle
, although more ovoid than circular, is another good example of the design and one of the most formidable castles of the period. Round castles were unusually popular throughout Cornwall and Devon. Although the circular design held military advantages, these only really mattered in the 13th century onwards; the origins of 12th-century circular design were the circular design of the mottes; indeed, some designs were less than circular in order to accommodate irregular mottes, such as that at Windsor Castle
.
English castles during the period were divided into those royal castles owned by the king, and baronial castles controlled by the Anglo-Norman lords. According to chronicler William of Newburgh
royal castles formed the "bones of the kingdom". A number of royal castles were also designated as shrieval
castles, forming the administrative hub for a particular county – for example Winchester Castle
served as the centre of Hampshire
. These castles formed a base for the royal sheriff
, responsible for enforcing royal justice in the relevant shire; the role of the sheriff became stronger and clearer as the century progressed.
A number of royal castles were linked to forests and other key resources. Royal forests in the early medieval period were subject to special royal jurisdiction; forest law was, as historian Robert Huscroft describes it, "harsh and arbitrary, a matter purely for the King's will" and forests were expected to supply the king with hunting grounds, raw materials, goods and money. Forests were typically tied to castles, both to assist with the enforcement of the law and to store the goods being extracted from the local economy: Peveril Castle
was linked to the Peak Forest
and the local lead mining there; St Briavels was tied to the Forest of Dean
; and Knaresborough
, Rockingham
and Pickering
to their eponymous forests respectively. In the south-west, where the Crown oversaw the lead mining industry, castles such as Restormel
played an important role running the local stannery
courts.
Baronial castles were of varying size and sophistication; some were classed as a caput
, or the key stronghold of a given lord, and were usually larger and better fortified than the norm and usually held the local baronial honorial courts. The king continued to exercise the right to occupy and use any castle in the kingdom in response to external threats, in those cases he would staff the occupied castles with his own men; the king also retained the right to authorise the construction of new castles through the issuing of licenses to crenellate. It was possible for bishops to build or control castles, such as the important Devizes Castle
linked to the Bishop of Salisbury
, although this practice was challenged on occasion. In the 12th century the practice of castle-guard
s emerged in England and Wales, under which lands were assigned to local lords on condition that the recipient provided a certain number of knights or sergeants for the defence of a named castle. In some cases, such as at Dover
, this arrangement became quite sophisticated with particular castle towers being named after particular families owing castle-guard duty.
The links between castles and the surrounding lands and estates was particularly important during this period. Many castles, both royal and baronial, had deer parks
or chases
attached to them for the purposes of hunting. These usually stretched away from the village or borough associated with the castle, but occasionally a castle was placed in the centre of a park, such as at Sandal
.
broke out in England and raged between 1139 and 1153, forming a turbulent period in which the rival factions of King Stephen
and the Empress Matilda
struggled for power. Open battles were relatively rare during the war, with campaigns instead focusing on a sequence of raids and sieges as commanders attempted to gain control over the vital castles that controlled the territory in the rival regions. Siege technology during the Anarchy centred on basic stone-throwing machines such as ballista
e and mangonel
s, supported by siege tower
s and mining, combined with blockade and, occasionally, direct assault.
The phase of the conflict known as "the Castle War" saw both sides focusing on defeating the other through sieges, such as Stephen's attempts to take Wallingford
, the most easterly fortress in Matilda's push towards London, or Geoffrey de Mandeville
's attempts to seize East Anglia by taking Cambridge Castle
.
Both sides responded to the challenge of the conflict by building many new castles, sometimes as sets of strategic fortifications. In the south-west Matilda's supporters built a range of castles to protect the territory, usually motte and bailey designs such as those at Winchcombe
, Upper Slaughter
, or Bampton
. Similarly, Stephen built a new chain of fen-edge castles at Burwell, Lidgate
, Rampton
, Caxton, and Swavesey
– each about six to nine miles (ten to fifteen km) apart – in order to protect his lands around Cambridge. Many of these castles were termed "adulterine" (unauthorised), because no formal permission was given for their construction. Contemporary chroniclers saw this as a matter of concern; Robert of Torigny suggested that as many as 1,115 such castles had been built during the conflict, although this was probably an exaggeration as elsewhere he suggests an alternative figure of 126. Another feature of the war was the creation of many "counter-castles". These had been used in English conflicts for several years before the civil war and involved building a basic castle during a siege, alongside the main target of attack. Typically these would be built in either a ringwork or a motte-and-bailey design between 200 to 300 yards (180 to 270 metres) away from the target, just beyond the range of a bow. Counter-castles could be used to either act as firing platforms for siege weaponry, or as bases for controlling the region in their own right. Most counter-castles were destroyed after their use but in some cases the earthworks survived, such as the counter-castles called Jew's Mount and Mount Pelham built by Stephen in 1141 outside Oxford Castle
.
Matilda's son Henry II
assumed the throne at the end of the war and immediately announced his intention to eliminate the adulterine castles that had sprung up during the war, but it is unclear how successful this effort was. Robert of Torigny recorded that 375 were destroyed, without giving the details behind the figure; recent studies of selected regions have suggested that fewer castles were probably destroyed than once thought and that many may simply have been abandoned at the end of the conflict. Certainly many of the new castles were transitory in nature: Historian Oliver Creighton observes that 56% of those castles known to have been built during Stephen's reign have "entirely vanished".
spent time at the court of Henry I in the south, until he became the Earl of Huntingdon
, and returned to Scotland with the intention of extending royal power across the country and modernising Scotland's military technology, including the introduction of castles. The Scottish king encouraged Norman and French nobles to settle in Scotland, introducing a feudal mode of landholding and the use of castles as a way of controlling the contested lowlands. The quasi-independent polity of Galloway, which had resisted the rule of David and his predecessors, was a particular focus for this colonisation. The size of these Scottish castles, primarily wooden motte-and-bailey
constructions, varied considerably from larger designs, such as the Bass of Inverurie
, to smaller castles like Balmaclellan
. As historian Lise Hull has suggested, the creation of castles in Scotland was "less to do with conquest" and more to do with "establishing a governing system".
The Norman expansion into Wales slowed in the 12th century, but remained an ongoing threat to the remaining native rulers. In response the Welsh princes and lords began to build their own castles, usually in wood. There are indications that this may have begun from 1111 onwards under Prince Cadwgan ap Bleddyn
with the first documentary evidence of a native Welsh castle being at Cymmer in 1116. These timber castles, including Tomen y Rhodywdd, Tomen y Faerdre
and Gaer Penrhôs
, were of equivalent quality to the Norman fortifications in the area and it can prove difficult to distinguish the builders of some sites from the archaeological evidence alone. At the end of the 12th century the Welsh rulers began to build castles in stone, primarily in the principality of North Wales.
Ireland remained ruled by native kings into the 12th century, largely without the use of castles. There was a history of Irish fortifications called ráth
s, a type of ringfort
, some of which were very heavily defended but which are not usually considered to be castles in the usual sense of the word. The kings of Connacht constructed fortifications from 1124 which they called caistel or caislen, from the Latin and French for castle, and there has been considerable academic debate over how far these resembled European castles.
The Norman invasion of Ireland began between 1166 and 1171, under first Richard de Clare
and then Henry II of England
, with the occupation of southern and eastern Ireland by a number of Anglo-Norman barons. The rapid Norman success depended on key economic and military advantages; their cavalry enabled Norman successes in battles, and castles enabled them to control the newly conquered territories. The new lords rapidly built castles to protect their possessions, many of these were motte-and-bailey constructions; in Louth at least 23 of these were built. It remains uncertain how many ringwork castles were built in Ireland by the Anglo-Normans. Other castles, such as Trim
and Carrickfergus
, were built in stone as the caput centres for major barons. Analysis of these stone castles suggests that building in stone was not simply a military decision; indeed, several of the castles contain serious defensive flaws. Instead the designs, including their focus on large stone keeps, were intended both to increase the prestige of the baronial owners and to provide adequate space for the administrative apparatus of the new territories. Unlike in Wales the indigenous Irish lords do not appear to have constructed their own castles in any significant number during the period.
and the Tower of London
were expanded in a concentric
design in what Cathcart King has labelled the early development of "scientific fortification".
The developments spread to Anglo-Norman possessions in Ireland where this English style of castles dominated throughout the 13th century, although the deteriorating Irish economy of the 14th century brought this wave of building to an end. In Scotland Alexander II
and Alexander III
undertook a number of castle building projects in the modern style, although Alexander III's early death sparked conflict in Scotland and English intervention under Edward I
in 1296. In the ensuing wars of Scottish Independence
castle building in Scotland altered path, turning away from building larger, more conventional castles with curtain walls. The Scots instead adopted the policy of slighting
, or deliberately destroying, castles captured in Scotland from the English to prevent their re-use in subsequent invasions – most of the new Scottish castles built by nobles were of the tower house design; the few larger castles built in Scotland were typically royal castles, built by the Scottish kings.
Some of these changes were driven by developments in military technology. Before 1190 mining was used rarely and the siege engines of the time were largely incapable of damaging the thicker castle walls. The introduction of the trebuchet
began to change this situation; it was able to throw much heavier balls, with remarkable accuracy, and reconstructed devices have been shown to be able to knock holes in walls. Trebuchets were first recorded in England in 1217, and were probably used the year before as well. Richard I
used them in his sieges during the Third Crusade
and appears to have started to alter his castle designs to accommodate the new technology on his return to Europe. The trebuchet seems to have encouraged the shift towards round and polygonal towers and curved walls. In addition to having less or no dead zones, and being easier to defend against mining, these castle designs were also much less easy to attack with trebuchets as the curved surfaces could deflect some of the force of the shot.
Castles saw an increasing use of arrowslits by the 13th century, especially in England, almost certainly linked to the introduction of crossbows. These arrowslits were combined with firing positions from the tops of the towers, initially protected by wooden hoarding
until stone machicolation
s were introduced in England in the late 13th century. The crossbow
was an important military advance on the older short bow and was the favoured weapon by the time of Richard I; many crossbows and vast numbers of quarrels were needed to supply royal forces, in turn requiring larger scale iron production. In England, crossbows were primarily built at the Tower of London
but St Briavels Castle, with the local Forest of Dean
available to provide raw materials, became the national centre for quarrel manufacture. In Scotland, Edinburgh Castle
became the centre for the production of bows, crossbows and siege engines for the king.
One result of this was that English castle sieges grew in complexity and scale. During the First Barons' War
from 1215 to 1217, the prominent sieges of Dover
and Windsor Castle
showed the ability of more modern designs to withstand attack; King John
's successful siege of Rochester
required an elaborate and sophisticated assault, reportedly costing around 60,000 marks, or £40,000.Both the mark and the pound sterling were accountancy terms in this period; a mark was worth around two-thirds of a pound. The siege of Bedford Castle
in 1224 required Henry III
to bring siege engines, engineers, crossbow bolts, equipment and labourers from across all of England. The Siege of Kenilworth Castle
in 1266, during the Second Barons' War
, was larger and longer still; protected by extensive water defences which prevented mining the castle withstood the attack of the future Edward I
, despite the prince targeting the weaker parts of the castle walls, employing huge siege tower
s and attempting a night attack using barges brought from Chester
. The costs of the siege exhausted the revenues of ten English counties. Sieges in Scotland were initially smaller in scale, with the first recorded such event being the 1230 siege of Rothesay Castle
where the besieging Norwegians were able to break down the relatively weak stone walls with axes after only three days. When Edward I invaded Scotland he brought with him the siege capabilities which had evolved south of the border: Edinburgh Castle
fell within three days, and Roxburgh
, Jedburgh
, Dunbar
, Stirling
, Lanark
and Dumbarton
castles surrendered to the king. Subsequent English sieges, such as the attacks on Bothwell
and Stirling, again used considerable resources including giant siege engines and extensive teams of miners and masons.
A number of royal castles, from the 12th century onwards, formed an essential network of royal storehouses in the 13th century for a wide range of goods including food, drink, weapons, armour and raw materials. Castles such as Southampton
, Winchester
, Bristol
and the Tower of London
were used to import, store and distribute royal wines. The English royal castles also became used as gaols – the Assize of Clarendon
in 1166 insisted that royal sheriffs establish their own gaols and, in the coming years, county gaols were placed in all the shrieval royal castles. Conditions in these gaols were poor and claims of poor treatment and starvation were common; Northampton Castle
appears to have seen some of the worst abuses.
The development of the baronial castles in England were affected by the economic changes during the period. During the 13th and 14th centuries the average incomes of the English barons increased but wealth became concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of individuals, with a greater discrepancy in incomes. At the same time the costs of maintaining and staffing a modern castle were increasing. The result was that although there were around 400 castles in England in 1216, the number of castles continued to diminish over the coming years; even the wealthier barons were inclined to let some castles slide into disuse and to focus their resources on the remaining stock. The castle-guard
system faded into abeyance in England, being replaced by financial rents, although it continued in the Welsh Marches well into the 13th century and saw some limited use during Edward I's occupation of Scotland in the early 14th century.
The remaining English castles became increasingly comfortable. Their interiors were often painted and decorated with tapestries
, which would be transported from castle to castle as nobles travelled around the country. There were an increasing number of garderobe
s built inside castles, whilst in the wealthier castles the floors could be tile
d and the windows furnished with Sussex Weald glass, allowing the introduction of window seat
s for reading. Food could be transported to castles across relatively long distances; fish was brought to Okehampton Castle
from the sea some 25 miles (40 km) away, for example. Venison
remained the most heavily consumed food in most castles, particularly those surrounded by extensive parks or forests such as Barnard Castle
, while prime cuts of venison were imported to those castles that lacked hunting grounds, such as Launceston
.
By the late 13th century some castles were built within carefully "designed landscapes", sometimes drawing a distinction between an inner core of a herber, a small enclosed garden complete with orchards and small ponds, and an outer region with larger ponds and high status buildings such as "religious buildings, rabbit warrens, mills and settlements", potentially set within a park. A gloriette
, or a suite of small rooms, might be built within the castle to allow the result to be properly appreciated, or a viewing point constructed outside. At Leeds Castle
the redesigned castle of the 1280s was placed within a large water garden, whilst at Ravensworth
at the end of the 14th century an artificial lake was enclosed by a park to produce an aesthetically and symbolically pleasing entrance to the fortification. The wider parklands and forests were increasingly managed and the proportion of the smaller fallow deer
consumed by castle inhabitants in England increased as a result.
in Snowdonia, to more substantial castles like Deganwy Castle
and the largest, Castell y Bere
. Native Welsh castles typically maximised the defensive benefits of high, mountainous sites, often being built in an irregular shape to fit a rocky peak. Most had deep ditches cut out of the rock to protect the main castle. The Welsh castles were usually built with a relatively short keep, used as living accommodation for princes and nobility, and with distinctive rectangular watch-towers along the walls. In comparison to Norman castles the gatehouses were much weaker in design, with almost no use of portcullises or spiral staircases, and the stonework of the outer walls was also generally inferior to Norman built castles. The very last native Welsh castles, built in the 1260s, more closely resemble Norman designs; in the case of Dinas Bran
including a round keep and Norman gatehouse defences.
In 1277 Edward I
launched a final invasion of the remaining native Welsh strongholds in North Wales, intending to establish his rule over the region on a permanent basis. As part of this occupation he instructed his leading nobles to construct eight new castles across the region; Aberystwyth
and Builth in mid-Wales and Beaumaris
, Conwy
, Caernarfon
, Flint
, Harlech
and Rhuddlan Castle
in North Wales. Historian R. Allen Brown has described these as "amongst the finest achievements of medieval military architecture [in England and Wales]". The castles varied in design but were typically characterised by powerful mural towers along the castle walls, with multiple, over-lapping firing points and large and extremely well defended barbicans. The castles were intended to be used by the king when in the region and included extensive high-status accommodation. Edward also established various new English towns, and in several cases the new castles were designed to be used alongside the fortified town walls as part of an integrated defence. Historian Richard Morris has suggested that "the impression is firmly given of an elite group of men-of-war, long-standing comrades in arms of the king, indulging in an orgy of military architectural expression on an almost unlimited budget".
James of Saint George, a famous architect and engineer from Savoy
, was probably responsible for the bulk of the construction work across the region. The castles were extremely costly to build and required labourers, masons, carpenters, diggers, and building resources to be gathered by local sheriffs from across England, mustered at Chester and Bristol, before being sent on to North Wales in the spring, returning home each winter. The number of workers involved placed a significant drain on the country's national labour force. The total financial cost cannot be calculated with certainty, but estimates suggest that Edward's castle building program cost at least £80,000 – four times the total royal expenditure on castles between 1154 and 1189.
The Edwardian castles also made strong symbolic statements about the nature of the new occupation. For example Caernarvon was decorated with carved eagles, equipped with polygonal towers and expensive banded masonry, all designed to imitate the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, then the idealised image of imperial power. The actual site of the castle may also have been important as it was positioned close to the former Roman fort of Segontium
. The elaborate gatehouse, with an excessive five sets of doors and six portcullises, also appears to have been designed to impress visitors and to invoke an image of an Arthurian castle, then believed to have been Byzantine in character.
began to redesign his favourite castles, including Winchester
and Windsor
, building larger halls, grander chapels, installing glass windows and decorating the palaces with painted walls and furniture. This marked the beginning of a trend towards the development of grand castles designed for elaborate, elite living. Life in earlier keeps had been focused around a single great hall, with privacy for the owner's family provided by using an upper floor for their own living accommodation. By the 14th century nobles were travelling less, bringing much larger households with them when they did travel and entertaining visitors with equally large retinues. Castles such as Goodrich
were redesigned in the 1320s to provide greater residential privacy and comfort for the ruling family, whilst retaining strong defensive features and a capacity to hold over 130 residents at the castle. The design influenced subsequent conversions at Berkeley
and by the time that Bolton Castle
was being built, in the 1380s, it was designed to hold up to eight different noble households, each with their own facilities. Royal castles such as Beaumaris
, although designed with defence in mind, were designed to hold up to eleven different households at any one time.
Kings and the most wealthy lords could afford to redesign castles to produce palace-fortresses. Edward III
spent £51,000 on renovating Windsor Castle; this was over one and a half times Edward's typical annual income. In the words of Steven Brindle the result was a "great and apparently architecturally unified palace ... uniform in all sorts of ways, as to roof line, window heights, cornice line, floor and ceiling heights", echoing older designs but without any real defensive value. The wealthy John of Gaunt redesigned the heart of Kenilworth Castle
, like Windsor the work emphasised a unifying, rectangular design and the separation of ground floor service areas from the upper stories and a contrast of austere exteriors with lavish interiors, especially on the 1st floor of the inner bailey buildings. By the end of the 14th century a distinctive English perpendicular style had emerged.
In the south of England private castles were being built by newly emerging, wealthly families; like the work at Windsor, these castles drew on the architectural themes of earlier martial designs, but were not intended to form a serious defence against attack. These new castles were heavily influenced by French designs, involving a rectangular or semi-rectangular castle with corner towers, gatehouses and moat; the walls effectively enclosing a comfortable courtyard plan not dissimilar to that of a unfortified manor. Bodiam Castle
built in the 1380s possessed a moat, towers and gunports but, rather than being a genuine military fortification, the castle was primarily intended to be admired by visitors and used as a luxurious dwelling – the chivalric architecture implicitly invoking comparisons with Edward I's great castle at Beaumaris
.
In the north of England improvements in the security of the Scottish border, and the rise of major noble families such as the Percies
and the Nevilles
, encouraged a surge in castle building at the end of the 14th century. Palace-fortresses such as Raby
, Bolton
and Warkworth Castle
took the quadrangular castle styles of the south and combined them with exceptionally large key towers or keeps to form a distinctive northern style. Built by major noble houses these castles were typically even more opulent than those built by the nouveau riche
of the south. They marked what historian Anthony Emery has described as a "second peak of castle building in England and Wales", after the Edwardian designs at the end of the 14th century.
eventually established 600 pound (272 kilo) guns at the Tower of London and the 15,366 pound (6,970 kilo) heavy Mons Meg
bombard
was installed at Edinburgh Castle
.
Early cannons had only a limited range, were unreliable and in addition early stone cannon balls were relatively ineffective when fired at against stone castle walls. As a result, early cannon proved most useful for defence, particularly against infantry assaults or to fire at the crews of enemy trebuchets. Indeed, early cannons could be quite dangerous to their own soldiers; James II of Scotland
was killed besieging Roxburgh Castle
in 1460 when one of his cannons, called "Lion", exploded next to him. The expense of early cannons meant that they were primarily a weapon deployed by royalty rather than the nobility.
Cannons in English castles were initially deployed along the south coast where the Channel ports, essential for English trade and military operations in Europe, were increasingly threatened by French raids. Carisbrooke
, Corfe
, Dover
, Porchester, Saltwood
and Southampton Castle
received cannon during the late 14th century, small circular "keyhole" gunports being built in the walls to accommodate the new weapons. Carisbrooke Castle
was subject to an unsuccessful French siege in 1377; the Crown reacting by equipping the castle with cannon and a mill for producing gunpowder in 1379. Some further English castles along the Welsh borders and Scotland were similarly equipped, with the Tower of London and Pontefract Castle
acting as supply depots for the new weapons. In Scotland the first cannon for a castle appears to have been bought for Edinburgh in 1384, which also became an arsenal for the new devices.
, Leeds
, Rockingham
and Moor End
were kept up as comfortable accommodation; Nottingham
and York
formed the backbone for royal authority in the north, and Chester
, Gloucester
and Bristol
forming the equivalents in the west. Even major fortifications such as the castles of North Wales and the border castles of Carlisle
, Bamburgh
and Newcastle-upon-Tyne saw funding and maintenance reduced. Many royal castles continued to have a role as the county gaol, with the gatehouse frequently being used as the principal facility.
The ranks of the baronage continued to reduce in the 15th century, producing a smaller elite of wealthier lords but reducing the comparative wealth of the majority. and many baronial castles fell into similar decline. John Leland's 16th century accounts of English castles are replete with descriptions of castles being "sore decayed", their defences "in ruine" or, where the walls might still be in good repair, the "logginges within" were "decayed". English castles did not play a decisive role during the Wars of the Roses
, fought between 1455 and 1485, which were primarily in the form of pitched battle
s between the rival factions of the Lancastrians
and the Yorkists
.
The 15th and 16th centuries saw a small number of British castles develop into still grander structures, often drawing on the Renaissance
views on architecture that were increasing in popularity on the continent. Tower keeps, large solid keeps used for private accommodation, probably inspired by those in France had started to appear in the 14th century at Dudley
and Warkworth
. In the 15th century the fashion spread with the creation of very expensive, French-influenced palatial castles featuring complex tower keeps at Wardour
, Tattershall and Raglan Castle
. In central and eastern England castles began to be built in brick, with Caister
, Kirby Muxloe
and Tattershall forming examples of this new style. North of the border the construction of Holyrood Great Tower
between 1528 and 1532 picked up on this English tradition, but incorporated additional French influences to produce a highly secure but comfortable castle, guarded by a gun park.
Royal builders in Scotland led the way in adopting further European Renaissance styles in castle design. James IV
and James V
used exceptional one-off revenues, such as the forfeiture
of key lands, to establish their power across their kingdom in various ways including constructing grander castles such as Linlithgow
, almost invariably by extending and modifying existing fortifications. These Scottish castle palaces drew on Italian Renaissance designs, in particular the fashionable design of a quadrangular court with stair-turrets on each corner, using harl
ing to giving them a clean, Italian appearance. Later the castles drew on Renaissance designs in France, such as the work at Falkland
and Stirling Castle
. The shift in architectural focus reflected changing political alliances, as James V had formed a close alliance with France during his reign. In the words of architectural historian John Dunbar the results were the "earliest examples of coherent Renaissance design in Britain".
These changes also included shifts in social and cultural beliefs. The period saw the disintegration of the older feudal order, the destruction of the monasteries
and widespread economic changes, altering the links between castles and the surrounding estates. Within castles, the Renaissance saw the introduction of the idea of public and private spaces, placing new value on castles having private spaces for the lord or his guests away from public view. Although the elite in Britain and Ireland continued to maintain and build castles in the style of the late medieval period there was a growing understanding through the Renaissance, absent in the 14th century, that domestic castles were fundamentally different from the military fortifications being built to deal with the spread of gunpowder artillery. Castles continued to be built and reworked in what cultural historian Matthew Johnson has described as a "conscious attempt to invoke values seen as being under threat". The results, as at Kenilworth Castle
for example, could include huge castles deliberately redesigned to appear old and sporting chivalric features, but complete with private chambers, Italian loggia
s and modern luxury accommodation.
Although the size of noble households shrank slightly during the 16th century, the number of guests at the largest castle events continued to grow. 2,000 came to a feast at Cawood Castle
in 1466, whilst the Duke of Buckingham
routinely entertained up to 519 people at Thornbury Castle
at the start of the 16th century. When Elizabeth I
visited Kenilworth in 1575 she brought an entourage of 31 barons and 400 staff for a visit that lasted an exceptional 19 days; Leicester
, the castle's owner, entertained the Queen and much of the neighbouring region with pageants, fireworks, bear baiting
, mystery play
s, hunting and lavish banquets. With this scale of living and entertainment the need to find more space in older castles became a major issue in both England and Scotland.
Tower houses were a common feature of British and Irish castle building in the late medieval period: over 3,000 were constructed in Ireland, around 800 in Scotland and over 250 in England. A tower house would typically be a tall, square, stone-built, crenelated building; Scottish and Ulster tower houses were often also surrounded by a barmkyn
or bawn
, a walled courtyard designed to hold valuable animals securely, but not necessarily intended for serious defence. Many of the gateways in these buildings were guarded with yett
s, grill-like doors made out of metal bars. Smaller versions of tower houses in northern England and southern Scotland were known as Peel tower
s, or pele houses, and were built along both sides of the border regions. In Scotland a number were built in Scottish towns. It was originally argued that Irish tower houses were based on the Scottish design, but the pattern of development of such castles in Ireland does not support this hypothesis.
The defences of tower houses were primarily aimed to provide protection against smaller raiding parties and were not intended to put up significant opposition to an organised military assault, leading historian Stuart Reid to characterise them as "defensible rather then defensive". Gunports for heavier guns were built into some Scottish tower houses by the 16th century but it was more common to use lighter gunpowder weapons, such as muskets, to defend Scottish tower houses. Unlike Scotland, Irish tower houses were only defended with relatively light handguns and frequently reused older arrowloops, rather than more modern designs, in order to save money.
Analysis of the construction of tower houses has focused on two key driving forces. The first is that the construction of these castles appears to have been linked to period of instability and insecurity in the areas concerned. In Scotland James IV
's forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles
in 1494 led to an immediate burst of castle building across the region and, over the longer term, an increased degree of clan warfare, whilst the subsequent wars with England in the 1540s added to the level of insecurity over the rest of the century. Irish tower houses were built from the end of the 14th century onward as the countryside disintegrated into the unstable control of a large number of small lordships and Henry VI
promoted their construction with financial rewards in a bid to improve security. English tower houses were built along the frontier with Scotland in a dangerous and insecure period. Secondly, and paradoxically, appears to have been the periods of relative prosperity. Contemporary historian William Camden
observed of the northern English and the Scots, "there is not a man amongst them of a better sort that hath not his little tower or pile", and many tower houses seem to have been built as much as status symbols as defensive structures. Along the English-Scottish borders the construction pattern follows the relative prosperity of the different side: the English lords built tower houses primarily in the early 15th century, when northern England was particularly prosperous, whilst their Scottish equivalents built them in late 15th and early 16th centuries, boom periods in the economy of Scotland. In Ireland the growth of tower houses during the 15th century mirrors the rise of cattle herding and the resulting wealth that this brought to many of the lesser lords in Ireland.
Cannons continued to be improved during the 15th and 16th centuries. Castle loopholes
were adapted to allow cannons and other firearms to be used in a defensive role, but offensively gunpowder weapons still remained relatively unreliable. England had lagged behind Europe in adapting to this new form of warfare; Dartmouth
and Kingswear Castle
s, built in the 1490s to defend the River Dart
, and Bayard's Cover
, designed in 1510 to defend Dartmouth harbour itself, were amongst the few English castles designed in the continental style during the period, and even these lagged behind the cutting edge of European design. Scottish castles were more advanced in this regard, partially as a result of the stronger French architectural influences. Ravenscraig Castle
in Scotland, for example, was an early attempt in the 1460s to deploy a combination of "letter box" gun-ports and low-curved stone towers for artillery weapons. These letter box gun-ports, common in Europe, rapidly spread across Scotland but were rarely used in England during the 15th century. Scotland also led the way in adopting the new caponier
design for castle ditches, as constructed at Craignethan Castle
.
Henry VIII
became concerned with the threat of French invasion during 1539 and was familiar with the more modern continental designs. He responded to the threat by building a famous sequence of forts, called the Device Forts
or Henrician Castles, along the south coast of England specifically designed to be equipped with, and to defend against, gunpowder artillery. These forts still lacked some of the more modern continental features, such as angled bastions. Each fort had a slightly different design, but as a group they shared common features, with the fortification formed around a number of compact lobes, often in a quatrefoil
or trefoil
shape, designed to give the guns a 360 degree angle of fire. The forts were usually tiered to allow the guns to fire over one another and had features such as vents to disperse the gunpowder smoke. It is probable that many of the forts were also originally protected by earth bulwarks, although these have not survived. The resulting forts have been described by historian Christopher Duffy as having "an air at once sturdy and festive, rather like a squashed wedding cake".
These coastal defences marked a shift away from castles, which were both military fortifications and domestic buildings, towards forts, which were garrisoned but not domestic; often the 1540s are chosen as a transition date for the study of castles as a consequence. The subsequent years also marked almost the end of indigenous English fortification design – by the 1580s English castle improvements were almost entirely dominated by imported European experts. The superiority of Scottish castle design also diminished; the Half Moon battery built at Edinburgh Castle
in 1574, for example, was already badly dated in continental terms by the time it was built. The limited number of modern fortifications built in Ireland, such as those with the first gunports retrofitted to Carrickfergus Castle
in the 1560s and at Corkbeg in Cork Harbour
and built in the 1570s in fear of an invasion, were equally unexceptional by European standards.
Nonetheless, improved gunpowder artillery played a part in the reconquest of Ireland in the 1530s, where the successful English siege of Maynooth Castle
in 1530 demonstrated power of new siege guns. There were still relatively few guns in Ireland however and, during the Nine Years' War
at the end of the century, the Irish were proved relatively unskilled in siege warfare with artillery used mainly by the English. In both Ireland and Scotland the challenge was how to transport artillery pieces to castle sieges; the poor state of Scottish roads required expensive trains of pack horses, which only the king could afford, and in Ireland the river network had to be frequently used to transport the weapons inland. In these circumstances older castles could frequently remain viable defensive features, although the siege of Cahir Castle
in 1599 and the attack on Dunyvaig Castle
on Islay in 1614 proved that if artillery could be brought to bear, previously impregnable castle walls might fall relatively quickly.
and Southampton Castle
. A royal inspection in 1609 highlighted that the Edwardian castles of North Wales, including Conwy
, Beaumaris
and Caernarfon
were "[u]tterlie decayed".; a subsequent inspection of various English counties in 1635 found a similar picture: Lincoln
, Kendal
, York, Nottingham
, Bristol
, Queenborough, Southampton
and Rochester
were amongst those in a state of dilapidation. In 1642 one pamphlet described many English castles as "muche decayed" and as requiring "much provision" for "warlike defence". Those maintained as private homes; such as Arundel
, Berkeley
, Carlisle
and Winchester
were in much better condition, but not necessarily defendable in a conflict; whilst some such as Bolsover
were redesigned as more modern dwellings in a Palladian
style. A handful of coastal forts and castles, amongst them Dover Castle
, remained in good military condition with adequate defences.
In 1642 the English Civil War
broke out, initially between supporters of Parliament and the Royalist supporters of Charles I
. The war expanded to include Ireland and Scotland, and dragged on into three separate conflicts in England itself. The war was the first prolonged conflict in Britain to involve the use of artillery and gunpowder. English castles were used for various purposes during the conflict. York Castle
formed a key part of the city defences, with a military governor; rural castles such as Goodrich
could be used a bases for raiding and for control of the surrounding countryside; larger castles, such as Windsor
, became used for holding prisoners of war or as military headquarters. During the war castles were frequently brought back into fresh use: existing defences would be renovated, whilst walls would be "countermured
", or backed by earth, in order to protect from cannons. Towers and keeps were filled with earth to make gun platforms, such as at Carlisle
and Oxford Castle
. New earth bastions could be added to existing designs, such as at Cambridge
and Carew Castle
and at the otherwise unfortified Basing House
the surrounding Norman ringwork
was brought back into commission. The costs could be considerable, with the work at Skipton Castle
coming to over £1000.
Sieges became a prominent part of the war with over 300 occurring during the period, many of them involving castles. Indeed, as Robert Liddiard suggests, the "military role of some castles in the seventeenth century is out of all proportion to their medieval histories". Artillery formed an essential part of these sieges, with the "characteristic military action" according to military historian Stephen Bull, being "an attack on a fortified strongpoint" supported by artillery. The ratio of artillery pieces to defenders varied considerably in sieges, but in all cases there were more guns than in previous conflicts; up to one artillery piece for every nine defenders was not unknown in extreme cases, such as near Pendennis Castle
. The growth in the number and size of siege artillery favoured those who had the resources to purchase and deploy these weapons. Artillery had improved by the 1640s but was still not always decisive, as the lighter cannon of the period found it hard to penetrate earth and timber bulwarks and defences – demonstrated in the siege of Corfe
. Mortar
s, able to lob fire over the taller walls, proved particularly effective against castles – in particular those more compact ones with smaller courtyards and open areas, such as at Stirling Castle
.
The heavy artillery introduced in England eventually spread to the rest of the British Isles. Although up to a thousand Irish soldiers who had served in Europe returned during the war, bringing with them experience of siege warfare from the Thirty Years' War
in Europe, it was the arrival of Oliver Cromwell
's train of siege guns in 1649 that transformed the conflict, and the fate of local castles. None of the Irish castles could withstand these Parliamentary weapons and most quickly surrendered. In 1650 Cromwell invaded Scotland and again his heavily artillery proved decisive.
in 1649, Parliament took steps to prevent another royalist uprising. Many castles, particularly in prominent royalist regions, were slighted
, or damaged so as to prevent them from having any further military utility. Around 150 fortifications were slighted in this period, including 38 town walls and a great many castles. Slighting was quite expensive and took some considerable effort to carry out, so damage was usually done in the most cost efficient fashion with only selected walls being destroyed. In some cases the damage was almost total, such as Pontefract Castle
which had been involved in three major sieges and in this case at the request of the townsfolk who wished to avoid further conflict.
By the time that Charles II
was restored to the throne in 1660, the major palace-fortresses in England that had survived slighting were typically in a poor state. As historian Simon Thurley has described, the shifting "functional requirements, patterns of movement, modes of transport, aesthetic taste and standards of comfort" amongst royal circles were also changing the qualities being sought in a successful castle. Palladian architecture
was growing in popularity, which sat awkwardly with the typical design of a medieval castle. Furthermore the fashionable French court etiquette at the time required a substantial number of enfilade
d rooms, in order to satisfy court protocol, and it was impractical to fit these rooms into many older buildings. A shortage of funds curtailed Charles II's attempts to remodel his remaining castles and the redesign of Windsor
was the only one to be fully completed in the Restoration years.
Many castles still retained a defensive role. Castles in England, such as Chepstow
and York Castle
, were repaired and garrisoned by the king. As military technologies progressed the costs of upgrading older castles could be prohibitive – the estimated £30,000 required for the potential conversion of York in 1682, approximately £4,050,000 in 2009 terms, gives a scale of the potential costs. Castles played a minimal role in the Glorious Revolution
of 1688, although some fortifications such as Dover Castle
were attacked by mobs unhappy with the religious beliefs of their Catholic governors, and the sieges of King John's Castle in Limerick
formed part of the endgame to the war in Ireland. In the north of Britain security problems persisted in Scotland. Cromwellian forces had built a number of new modern forts and barracks, but the royal castles of Edinburgh
, Dumbarton
and Stirling, along with Dunstaffnage
, Dunollie
and Ruthven Castle, also continued in use as practical fortifications. Tower houses were being built up until the 1640s; after the Restoration the fortified tower house fell out of fashion, but the weak state of the Scottish economy was such that whilst many larger properties were simply abandoned, the more modest castles continued to be used and adapted as houses, rather than rebuilt. In Ireland tower houses and castles remained in use until after the Glorious Revolution, when events led to a dramatic shift in land ownership and a boom in the building of Palladian country houses; in many cases using timbers stripped from the older, abandoned generation of castles and tower houses.
. Various royal castles were maintained during the period either as part of the English border defences, like Carlisle
, or forming part of the internal security measures in Scotland itself, like Stirling Castle
. Stirling was able to withstand the Jacobite attack in 1745, although Carlisle was taken; the siege of Blair Castle
, at the end of the rebellion in 1746, was the final castle siege to occur in the British Isles. In the aftermath of the conflict Corgaff
and many others castles were used as barracks for the forces sent to garrison the Highlands
. Some castles, such as Portchester
, were used for holding prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars
at the end of the century and were re-equipped in case of a popular uprising during this revolutionary period. In Ireland Dublin Castle
was rebuilt following a fire and reaffirmed as the centre of British administrative and military power.
Many castles remained in use as county gaols, run by gaolers as effectively private businesses; frequently this involved the gatehouse being maintained as the main prison building, as at Cambridge
, Bridgnorth
, Lancaster
, Newcastle and St Briavels. During the 1770s the prison reformer John Howard
conducted his famous survey of prisons and gaols, culminating in his 1777 work The State of the Prisons. This documented the poor quality of these castle facilities; prisoners in Norwich Castle
lived in a dungeon, with the floor frequently covered by an inch of water; Oxford
was "close and offensive"; Worcester
was so subject to gaol-fever
that the castle surgeon would not enter the prison; Gloucester
was "wretched in the extreme". Howard's work caused a shift in public opinion against the use of these older castle facilities as gaols.
By the middle of the century medieval ruined castles had become fashionable once again. They were considered an interesting counterpoint to the now conventional Palladian classical architecture, and a way of giving a degree of medieval allure to their new owners. Historian Oliver Creighton suggests that the ideal image of a castle by the 1750s included "broken, soft silhouettes and [a] decayed, rough appearance". In some cases the countryside surrounding existing castles was remodelled to highlight the ruins, as at Henderskelfe Castle
, or at "Capability" Brown's reworking of Wardour Castle
. Alternatively, ruins might be repaired and reinforced to present a more suitable appearance, as at Harewood Castle
. In other cases mottes, such as that at Groby Castle
, were reused as the bases for dramatic follies
, or alternatively entirely new castle follies could be created; either from scratch or by reusing original stonework, as occurred during the building of Conygar Tower
for which various parts of Dunster Castle
were cannibalised.
At the same time castles were becoming tourist attractions for the first time. By the 1740s Windsor Castle had become an early tourist attraction; wealthier visitors who could afford to pay the castle keeper could enter, see curiosities such as the castle's narwhal
horn, and by the 1750s buy the first guidebooks. The first guidebook to Kenilworth Castle followed in 1777 with many later editions following in the coming decades. By the 1780s and 1790s visitors were beginning to progress as far as Chepstow
, where an attractive female guide escorted tourists around the ruins as part of the popular Wye Tour. In Scotland Blair Castle
became a popular attraction on account of its landscaped gardens, as did Stirling Castle
with its romantic connections. Caernarfon
in North Wales appealed to many visitors, especially artists. Irish castles proved less popular, partially because contemporary tourists regarded the country as being somewhat backward and the ruins therefore failed to provide the necessary romantic contrast with modern life.
The appreciation of castles developed as the century progressed. During the 1770s and 1780s the concept of the picturesque
ruin was popularised by the English clergyman William Gilpin
. Gilpin published several works on his journeys through Britain, expounding the concept of the "correctly picturesque" landscape. Such a landscape, Gilpin argued, usually required a building such as a castle or other ruin to add "consequence" to the natural picture. Paintings in this style usually portrayed castles as indistinct, faintly coloured objects in the distance; in writing, the picturesque account eschewed detail in favour of bold first impressions on the sense. The ruins of Goodrich
particularly appealed to Gilpin and his followers; Conwy
was, however, too well preserved and uninteresting. By contrast the artistic work of antiquarians James Bentham
and James Essex
at the end of the century, whilst stopping short of being genuine archaeology, was detailed and precise enough to provide a substantial base of architectural fine detail on medieval castle features and enabled the work of architects such as Wyatt.
The military utility of the remaining castles in Britain and Ireland continued to dimish. Some castles became regimental depot
s, including Carlisle Castle
and Chester Castle
. Carrickfergus Castle
was re-equipped with gunports in order to provide coastal defences at the end of the Napoleonic period. Political instability was a major issue during the early 19th century and the popularity of the Chartist movement
led to proposals to refortify the Tower of London in the event of civil unrest. In Ireland Dublin Castle
played an increasing role in Ireland as Fenian
pressures for independence grew during the century.
The operation of local prisons in locations such as castles had been criticised, since John Howard's work in the 1770s, and pressure for reform continued to grow in the 1850s and 1860s. Reform of the legislation surrounding bankruptcy and debt
in 1869 largely removed the threat of imprisonment for unpaid debts, and in the process eliminated the purpose of the debtor's prison
s in castles such as St Briavels. Efforts were made to regularise conditions in local prisons but without much success, and these failures led to prison reform in 1877
which nationalised British prisons, including prisons at castles like York
. Compensation was paid to the former owners, although in cases such as York where the facilities were considered so poor as to require complete reconstruction, this payment was denied. In the short term this led to a 39% reduction in the number of prisons in England, including some famous castle prisons such as Norwich
; over the coming years, centralisation and changes in prison design led to the closure of most remaining castle prisons.
opened for tourists in 1828 with 40,000 visitors in their first year; by 1858 the numbers had grown to over 100,000 a year. Attractions such as Warwick Castle
received 6,000 visitors during 1825 to 1826, many of them travelling from the growing industrial towns in the nearby Midlands, whilst Victorian tourists recorded being charged six-pence to wander around the ruins of Goodrich Castle
. The spread of the railway system across Wales and the Marches strongly influenced the flow of tourists to the region's castles. In Scotland tourist tours became increasingly popular during the 19th century, usually starting at Edinburgh complete with Edinburgh Castle
, and then spending up to two weeks further north, taking advantage of the expanding rail and steamer network. Blair Castle
remained popular, but additional castles joined the circuit – Cawdor Castle
became popular once the railway line reached north to Fort William
.
Purchasing and reading guidebooks became an increasingly important part of visiting castles; by the 1820s visitors could buy an early guidebook
at Goodrich outlining the castle's history, the first guidebook to the Tower of London was published in 1841 and Scottish castle guidebooks became well known for providing long historical accounts of their sites, often drawing on the plots of Romantic novels for the details. Indeed, Sir Walter Scott
's historical novels Ivanhoe
and Kenilworth
helped to establish the popular Victorian image of a Gothic medieval castle. Scott's novels set in Scotland also popularised several northern castles, including Tantallon
which was featured in Marmion. Histories of Ireland began to stress the role of castles in the rise of Protestantism and "British values" in Ireland, although tourism remained limited.
One response to this popularity was in commissioning the construction of replica castles. These were particularly popular at beginning of the 19th century, and again later in the Victorian period. Design manuals were published offering details of how to recreate the appearance of an original Gothic castles in a new build, leading to a flurry of work, such as Eastnor
in 1815, the fake Norman
castle of Penryhn
between 1827 to 1837 and the imitation Edwardian
castle of Goodrich Court
in 1828. The later Victorians built the Welsh Castell Coch
in the 1880s as a fantasy Gothic construction and the last such replica, Castle Drogo
, was built as late as 1911.
Another response was to improve existing castles, bringing their often chaotic historic features into line with a more integrated architectural aesthetic in a style often termed Gothic Revivalism
. There were numerous attempts to restore or rebuild castles so as to produce a consistently Gothic style, informed by genuine medieval details, a movement in which the architect Anthony Salvin
was particularly prominent – as illustrated by his reworking of Alnwick
and much of Windsor Castle
. A similar trend can be seen at Rothesay
where William Burges
renovated the older castle to produce a more "authentic" design, heavily influenced by the work of the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
. North of the border this resulted in the distinctive style of Scots Baronial Style architecture, which took French and traditional medieval Scottish features and reinvented them in a baroque style. The style also proved popular in Ireland with George Jones
' Oliver Castle
in the 1850s, for example, forming a good example of the fashion. As with Gothic Revivalism, Scots Baronial architects frequently "improved" existing castles: Floors Castle
was transformed in 1838 by William Playfair
who added grand turrets and cupolas. In a similar way the 16th century tower house of Lauriston Castle
was turned into the Victorian ideal of a "rambling medieval house". The style spread south and the famous architect Edward Blore
added a Scots Baronial touch to his work at Windsor.
With this pace of change concerns had begun to grow by the middle of the century about the threat to medieval buildings in Britain, and in 1877 William Morris
established the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
. One result of public pressure was the passing of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882, but the provisions of the act focused on unoccupied prehistoric structures and medieval buildings such as castles were exempted from it leaving no legal protection.
Dublin Castle
remained the centre of the British administration, military and intelligence operations in Ireland until the transfer of power and the castle to the Irish Free State
in 1922. During the Second World War the Tower of London
was used to hold and execute suspected spies, and was used to briefly detain Rudolf Hess
, Adolf Hitler
's deputy, in 1941. Edinburgh Castle
was used as a prisoner of war facility, whilst Windsor Castle
was stripped of more delicate royal treasures and used to guard the British royal family
from the dangers of the Blitz
. Some coastal castles were used to support naval operations: Dover Castle
's medieval fortifications used as basis for defences across the Dover Strait; Pitreavie Castle
in Scotland was used to support the Royal Navy; and Carrickfergus Castle
in Ireland was used as a coastal defence base. Some castles, such as Cambridge
and Pevensey
, were brought into local defence plans in case of a German invasion. A handful of these castles retained a military role after the war; Dover was used as a nuclear war command centre
into the 1950s, whilst Pitreavie was used by NATO until the turn of the 21st century.
The strong cultural interest in British castles persisted in the 20th century. In some cases this had destructive consequences as wealthy collectors bought and removed architectural features and other historical artefacts from castles for their own collections, a practice that produced significant official concern. Some of the more significant cases included St Donat's Castle
, bought by William Randolph Hearst
in 1925 and then decorated with numerous medieval buildings removed from their original sites around Britain, and the case of Hornby
, where many parts of the castle were sold off and sent to buyers in the United States. Partially as a result of these events, increasing legal powers were introduced to protect castles – acts of parliament in 1900 and 1910 widened the terms of the earlier legislation on national monuments to allow the inclusion of castles. An act of Parliament in 1913 introduced preservation orders for the first time and these powers were extended in 1931
. Similarly, after the end of the Irish Civil War
, the new Irish state took early action to extend and strengthen the previous British legislation to protect Irish national monuments.
Around the beginning of the century there were a number of major restoration projects on British castles. Before the outbreak of the First World War work was undertaken at Chepstow
, Bodiam
, Caernarfon
and Tattershal; after the end of the war various major state funded restoration projects occurred in the 1920s with Pembroke
, Caerphilly
and Goodrich
amongst the largest of these. This work typically centred on cutting back the vegetation encroaching on castle ruins, especially ivy, and removing damaged or unstable stonework; castles such as Beaumaris
saw their moats cleaned and reflooded. Some castles such as Eilean Donan
in Scotland were substantially rebuilt in the inter-war years. The early UK film industry took an interest in castles as potential sets, starting with Ivanhoe
filmed at Chepstow Castle
in 1913 and starring US leading actor King Baggot
.
After the Second World War picturesque ruins of castles became unfashionable. The conservation preference was to restore castles so as to produce what Oliver Creighton and Robert Higham have described as a "meticulously cared for fabric, neat lawns and [a] highly regulated, visitor-friendly environment", although the reconstruction or reproduction of the original appearance of castles was discouraged. As a result the stonework and walls of today's castles, used as tourist attractions, are usually in much better condition than would have been the case in the medieval period. Preserving the broader landscapes of the past also rose in importance, reflected in the decision by the UNESCO World Heritage Site
programme to internationally recognise several British castles including Beaumaris
, Caernarfon
, Conwy
, Harlech
, Durham
and the Tower of London
as deserving of special international cultural significance in the 1980s.
Several major bodies now own most castles. The single largest group of English castles are now those owned by English Heritage
, created out of the former Ministry of Works in 1983. The National Trust
increasingly acquired castle properties in England in the 1950s, and is the second largest single owner, followed by the various English local authorities and finally a small number of private owners. Royal castles such as the Tower of London and Windsor are owned by the Occupied Royal Palaces Estate on behalf of the nation. Similar organisations exist in Scotland, where the National Trust for Scotland
was established 1931, and in Ireland, where An Taisce
was created in 1948 to working alongside the Irish Ministry of Works to maintain castles and other sites. Some new organisations have emerged in recent years to manage castles, such as the Landmark Trust
and the Irish Landmark Trust, which have restored a number of castles in Britain and Ireland over the last few decades.
Castles remain highly popular attractions: in 2009 nearly 2.4 million people visited the Tower of London, 1.2 million visited Edinburgh Castle
, 559,000 visited Leeds Castle
and 349,000 visited Dover Castle
. Ireland, which for many years had not exploited the tourist potential of its castle heritage, began to encourage more tourists in the 1960s and 1970s and Irish castles are now a core part of the Irish tourist industry. British and Irish castles are today also closely linked to the international film industry
, with tourist visits to castles now often involving not simply a visit to an historic site, but also a visit to the location of a popular film.
The management and handling of Britain's historic castles has at times been contentious. Castles in the late 20th and early 21st century are usually considered part of the heritage industry, in which historic sites and events are commercially presented as visitor attractions. Some academics, such as David Lowenthal, have critiqued the way in which these histories are constantly culturally and socially reconstructed and condemned the "commercial debasement" of sites such at the Tower of London. The challenge of how to manage these historic properties has often required very practical decisions. At one end of the spectrum owners and architects have had to deal with the practical challenges of repairing smaller decaying castles used as private houses, such as that at Picton Castle
where damp proved a considerable problem. At the other end of the scale the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992 opened up a national debate about how the burnt out castle wing should be replaced, the degree to which modern designs should be introduced and who should pay the £37 million costs (£50.2 million in 2009 terms). At Kenilworth
the speculative and commercial reconstruction of the castle gardens in an Elizabethan style led to a vigorous academic debate over the interpretation of archaeological and historical evidence. Trends in conservation have altered and, in contrast to the prevailing post-war approach to conservation, recent work at castles such as Wigmore
, acquired by English Heritage in 1995, have attempted to minimise the degree of intervention to the site.
and John Parker concluded that British castles had been built for the purposes of military defence, but believed that their history was pre-Conquest – concluding that the mottes across the countryside had been built by either the Romans
or Celts.
The study of castles by historians and archaeologists developed considerably during the 20th century. The early 20th century historian and archaeologist Ella Armitage
published a ground-breaking book in 1912, arguing convincingly that British castles were in fact a Norman introduction, whilst historian Alexander Thompson also published in the same year, charting the course of the military development of English castles through the Middle Ages. The Victoria County History
of England began to document the country's castles on an unprecedented scale, providing an additional resource for historical analysis.
After the Second World War the historical analysis of British castles was dominated by Arnold Taylor, R. Allen Brown and D. J. Cathcart King. These academics made use of a growing amount of archaeological evidence, as the 1940s saw an increasing number of excavations of motte and bailey castles, and the number of castle excavations as a whole went on to double during the 1960s. With an increasing number of castle sites under threat in urban areas, a public scandal in 1972 surrounding the development of the Baynard's Castle
site in London contributed to reforms and a re-prioritisation of funding for rescue archaeology
. Despite this the number of castle excavations fell between 1974 and 1984, with the archaeological work focusing on conducting excavations on a greater number of small scale, but fewer large scale sites. The study of British castles remained primarily focused on analysing their military role, however, drawing on the evolutionary model of improvements suggested by Thompson earlier in the century.
In the 1990s a wide-reaching reassessment of the interpretation of British castles took place. A vigorous academic discussion over the history and meanings behind Bodiam Castle
began a debate, which concluded that many features of castles previously seen as primarily military in nature were in fact constructed for reasons of status and political power. As historian Robert Liddiard has described it, the older paradigm of "Norman militarism" as the driving force behind the formation of Britain's castles was replaced by a model of "peaceable power". The next twenty years was characterised by an increasing number of major publications on castle studies, examining the social and political aspects of the fortifications, as well as their role in the historical landscape. Although not unchallenged, this "revisionist" perspective remains the dominant theme in the academic literature today.
Great Britain
Great Britain or Britain is an island situated to the northwest of Continental Europe. It is the ninth largest island in the world, and the largest European island, as well as the largest of the British Isles...
and Ireland
Ireland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
since their introduction following the Norman invasion of England in 1066. Although a small number of castle
Castle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
s had been built in England in the 1050s the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
began to build motte and bailey and ringwork
Ringwork
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles minus the motte...
s castles in large numbers to control their newly occupied territories in England and the Welsh Marches
Welsh Marches
The Welsh Marches is a term which, in modern usage, denotes an imprecisely defined area along and around the border between England and Wales in the United Kingdom. The precise meaning of the term has varied at different periods...
. During the 12th century the Normans began to build more castles in stone, with characteristic square keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
s that played both military and political roles. Royal castles were used to control key towns and the economically important forest
Forest
A forest, also referred to as a wood or the woods, is an area with a high density of trees. As with cities, depending where you are in the world, what is considered a forest may vary significantly in size and have various classification according to how and what of the forest is composed...
s, whilst baron
Baron
Baron is a title of nobility. The word baron comes from Old French baron, itself from Old High German and Latin baro meaning " man, warrior"; it merged with cognate Old English beorn meaning "nobleman"...
ial castles were used by the Norman lords to control their widespread estates. David I
David I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
invited Anglo-Norman lords into Scotland in the early 12th century to help him colonise and control areas of his kingdom such as Galloway
Galloway
Galloway is an area in southwestern Scotland. It usually refers to the former counties of Wigtownshire and Kirkcudbrightshire...
; the new lords brought castle technologies with them and wooden castles began to be established over the south of the kingdom. Following the Norman invasion of Ireland in the 1170s, under Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, castles were established there too.
Castles continued to grow in military sophistication and comfort during the 12th century, leading to a sharp increase in the complexity and length of siege
Siege
A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...
s in England. Whilst in Ireland and Wales castle architecture continued to follow that of England, after the death of Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
the trend in Scotland moved away from the construction of larger castles towards the use of smaller tower house
Tower house
A tower house is a particular type of stone structure, built for defensive purposes as well as habitation.-History:Tower houses began to appear in the Middle Ages, especially in mountain or limited access areas, in order to command and defend strategic points with reduced forces...
s. The tower house style would also be adopted in the north of England and Ireland in later years. In North Wales
North Wales
North Wales is the northernmost unofficial region of Wales. It is bordered to the south by the counties of Ceredigion and Powys in Mid Wales and to the east by the counties of Shropshire in the West Midlands and Cheshire in North West England...
Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
built a sequence of militarily powerful castles after the destruction of the last Welsh polities in the 1270s. By the 14th century castles were combining defences with luxurious, sophisticated living arrangements and heavily landscaped gardens and parks.
Many royal and baronial castles were left to decline, so that by the 15th century only a few were maintained for defensive purposes. A small number of castles in England and Scotland were developed into Renaissance Era
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
palaces that hosted lavish feasts and celebrations amid their elaborate architecture. Such structures were, however, beyond the means of all but royalty and the richest of the late-medieval barons. Although gunpowder weapons were used to defend castles from the late 14th century onwards it became clear during the 16th century that, provided artillery could be transported and brought to bear on a besieged castle, gunpowder weapons could also play an important attack role. The defences of coastal castles around the British Isles were improved to deal with this threat, but investment in their upkeep once again declined at the end of the 16th century. Nevertheless, in the widespread civil and religious conflict
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
The Wars of the Three Kingdoms formed an intertwined series of conflicts that took place in England, Ireland, and Scotland between 1639 and 1651 after these three countries had come under the "Personal Rule" of the same monarch...
s across the British Isles during the 1640s and 1650s, castles played a key role in England. Modern defences were quickly built alongside existing medieval fortifications and, in many cases, castles successfully withstood more than one siege. In Ireland the introduction of heavy siege artillery by Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
in 1649 brought a rapid end to the utility of castles in the war, while in Scotland the popular tower houses proved unsuitable for defending against civil war artillery – although major castles such as Edinburgh put up strong resistance. At the end of the war many castles were slighted
Slighting
A slighting is the deliberate destruction, partial or complete, of a fortification without opposition. During the English Civil War this was to render it unusable as a fort.-Middle Ages:...
to prevent future use.
Military use of castles rapidly decreased over subsequent years, although some were adapted for use by garrisons in Scotland and key border locations for many years to come, including during the Second World War. Other castles were used as county jail
Jail
A jail is a short-term detention facility in the United States and Canada.Jail may also refer to:In entertainment:*Jail , a 1966 Malayalam movie*Jail , a 2009 Bollywood movie...
s, until parliamentary legislation in the 19th closed most of them down. For a period in the early 18th century castles were shunned in favour of Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
, until they re-emerged as an important cultural and social feature of England, Wales and Scotland and were frequently "improved" during the 18th and 19th centuries. Such renovations raised concerns over their protection so that today castles across the British Isles are safeguarded by legislation. Primarily used as tourist attraction
Tourist attraction
A tourist attraction is a place of interest where tourists visit, typically for its inherent or exhibited cultural value, historical significance, natural or built beauty, or amusement opportunities....
s, castles form a key part of the national heritage industry
Cultural heritage
Cultural heritage is the legacy of physical artifacts and intangible attributes of a group or society that are inherited from past generations, maintained in the present and bestowed for the benefit of future generations...
. Historians and archaeologists
Archaeology
Archaeology, or archeology , is the study of human society, primarily through the recovery and analysis of the material culture and environmental data that they have left behind, which includes artifacts, architecture, biofacts and cultural landscapes...
continue to develop our understanding of British castles, while vigorous academic debates in recent years have questioned the interpretation of physical and documentary material surrounding their original construction and use.
Anglo-Saxon fortifications
The English word "castleCastle
A castle is a type of fortified structure built in Europe and the Middle East during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars debate the scope of the word castle, but usually consider it to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble...
" derives from the Latin
Latin
Latin is an Italic language originally spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. It, along with most European languages, is a descendant of the ancient Proto-Indo-European language. Although it is considered a dead language, a number of scholars and members of the Christian clergy speak it fluently, and...
word castellum and is used to refer to the private fortified residence of a lord or noble. The presence of castles in Britain and Ireland dates primarily from the Norman invasion of 1066
Norman conquest of England
The Norman conquest of England began on 28 September 1066 with the invasion of England by William, Duke of Normandy. William became known as William the Conqueror after his victory at the Battle of Hastings on 14 October 1066, defeating King Harold II of England...
. Before the arrival of the Normans
Normans
The Normans were the people who gave their name to Normandy, a region in northern France. They were descended from Norse Viking conquerors of the territory and the native population of Frankish and Gallo-Roman stock...
the Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxons
Anglo-Saxon is a term used by historians to designate the Germanic tribes who invaded and settled the south and east of Great Britain beginning in the early 5th century AD, and the period from their creation of the English nation to the Norman conquest. The Anglo-Saxon Era denotes the period of...
had built burh
Burh
A Burh is an Old English name for a fortified town or other defended site, sometimes centred upon a hill fort though always intended as a place of permanent settlement, its origin was in military defence; "it represented only a stage, though a vitally important one, in the evolution of the...
s, fortified structures with their origins in 9th-century Wessex
Wessex
The Kingdom of Wessex or Kingdom of the West Saxons was an Anglo-Saxon kingdom of the West Saxons, in South West England, from the 6th century, until the emergence of a united English state in the 10th century, under the Wessex dynasty. It was to be an earldom after Canute the Great's conquest...
. Most of these, especially in urban areas, were large enough to be best described as fortified townships rather than private dwellings and are therefore not usually classed as castles. Rural burhs were smaller and usually consisted of a wooden hall with a wall enclosing various domestic buildings along with an entrance tower called a burh-geat, which was apparently used for ceremonial purposes. Although rural burhs were relatively secure their role was primarily ceremonial and they too are not normally classed as castles. There were, however, a small number of castles built in England during the 1050s, probably by Norman knights in the service of Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor
Edward the Confessor also known as St. Edward the Confessor , son of Æthelred the Unready and Emma of Normandy, was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England and is usually regarded as the last king of the House of Wessex, ruling from 1042 to 1066....
. These include Hereford
Hereford Castle
Hereford Castle was a castle in the cathedral city of Hereford in Herefordshire, England.- Pre Norman Castle :It stood on a site to the south and east of the modern city overlooking the River Wye...
, Clavering
Clavering Castle
Clavering Castle remains are situated in the small parish village of Clavering in the County of Essex, 50m north of the church of St Mary and St Clement on the southern bank of the River Stort, some 10 km south-west of Bishop's Stortford .-Pre-Conquest:...
, Richard's Castle
Richard's Castle
Richard's Castle is a village, castle and two civil parishes on the border of the counties of Herefordshire and Shropshire in England.The village lies on the B4361, 5½ miles south of the historic market town of Ludlow...
and possibly Ewyas Harold Castle
Ewyas Harold Castle
Ewyas Harold Castle was a castle in the village of Ewyas Harold in Herefordshire, England.The first castle on the site is believed to be one of the very few which were built before the Norman conquest under the Saxons, probably in 1048, on the site of an earlier fortification, possibly by Osbern...
and Dover
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
.
Invasion
Duke of Normandy
The Duke of Normandy is the title of the reigning monarch of the British Crown Dependancies of the Bailiwick of Guernsey and the Bailiwick of Jersey. The title traces its roots to the Duchy of Normandy . Whether the reigning sovereign is a male or female, they are always titled as the "Duke of...
, invaded England in 1066 and one of his first actions after landing was to build Hastings Castle
Hastings Castle
Hastings Castle is situated in the town of Hastings, East Sussex .Before or immediately after landing in England in 1066 William of Normandy ordered three fortifications to be built, Pevensey Castle in September 1066, Hastings and Dover, a few days after the battle. Hastings Castle was originally...
to protect his supply routes. Following their victory at the battle of Hastings
Battle of Hastings
The Battle of Hastings occurred on 14 October 1066 during the Norman conquest of England, between the Norman-French army of Duke William II of Normandy and the English army under King Harold II...
the Normans began three phases of castle building. The first of these were the establishment, by the new king, of a number of royal castles in key strategic locations. This royal castle programme focused on controlling the towns and cities of England and the associated lines of communication: including Cambridge
Cambridge Castle
Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in the town of the same name in Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conflicts of the Anarchy, the First and...
, Huntingdon
Huntingdon Castle
Huntingdon Castle was situated in the town of Huntingdon in Cambridgeshire .The site was originally occupied by the Saxons. In 1068 a Norman motte and bailey castle was built for William the Conqueror. During the Anarchy the castle was held by David, King of Scotland through his marriage to...
, Lincoln
Lincoln Castle
Lincoln Castle is a major castle constructed in Lincoln, England during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes. It is only one of two such castles in the country, the other being at Lewes in Sussex...
, Nottingham
Nottingham Castle
Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "'Castle Rock'", with cliffs high to the south and west. In the Middle Ages it was a major royal fortress and occasional royal residence...
, Warwick
Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century,...
and York
York Castle
York Castle in the city of York, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruinous keep of the medieval Norman castle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's...
. Of the castles built by William the Conqueror two-thirds were built in towns and cities, often those with the former Anglo-Saxon mint
Mint (coin)
A mint is an industrial facility which manufactures coins for currency.The history of mints correlates closely with the history of coins. One difference is that the history of the mint is usually closely tied to the political situation of an era...
s. These urban castles could make use of the existing town's walls and fortifications, but typically required the demolition of local houses to make space for them. This could cause extensive damage: records suggest that in Lincoln 166 houses were destroyed, with 113 in Norwich and 27 in Cambridge. Some of these castles were deliberately built on top of important local buildings, such as the burhs or halls of local nobles, and might be constructed so as to imitate aspects of the previous buildings – such as the gatehouse at Rougemont Castle
Rougemont Castle
Rougemont Castle is the historic castle of Exeter.The castle was first built in 1068 to help William the Conqueror maintain control over the city. It is perched on an ancient volcanic plug, overlaying remains of the Roman city of Isca Dumnoniorum...
in Exeter
Exeter
Exeter is a historic city in Devon, England. It lies within the ceremonial county of Devon, of which it is the county town as well as the home of Devon County Council. Currently the administrative area has the status of a non-metropolitan district, and is therefore under the administration of the...
, which closely resembled the previous Anglo-Saxon burh tower – this was probably done to demonstrate to the local population that they now answered to their new Norman rulers.
The second and third waves of castle building were led by the major magnates, and then by the more junior knights on their new estates. The apportionment of the conquered lands by the king influenced where these castles were built. In a few key locations the king gave his followers compact groups of estates including the six rapes of Sussex
Sussex
Sussex , from the Old English Sūþsēaxe , is an historic county in South East England corresponding roughly in area to the ancient Kingdom of Sussex. It is bounded on the north by Surrey, east by Kent, south by the English Channel, and west by Hampshire, and is divided for local government into West...
and the three earldoms of Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
, Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury is the county town of Shropshire, in the West Midlands region of England. Lying on the River Severn, it is a civil parish home to some 70,000 inhabitants, and is the primary settlement and headquarters of Shropshire Council...
and Hereford
Hereford
Hereford is a cathedral city, civil parish and county town of Herefordshire, England. It lies on the River Wye, approximately east of the border with Wales, southwest of Worcester, and northwest of Gloucester...
; intended to protect the line of communication with Normandy
Normandy
Normandy is a geographical region corresponding to the former Duchy of Normandy. It is in France.The continental territory covers 30,627 km² and forms the preponderant part of Normandy and roughly 5% of the territory of France. It is divided for administrative purposes into two régions:...
and the Welsh border respectively. In these areas a baron's castles were clustered relatively tightly together, but in most of England the nobles' estates, and therefore their castles, were more widely dispersed. As the Normans pushed on into South Wales
Norman invasion of Wales
The Norman invasion of Wales began shortly after the Norman conquest of England under William the Conqueror, who believed England to be his birthright...
they advanced up the valleys building castles as they went and often using the larger castles of the neighbouring earldoms as a base.
Roman roads in Britain
Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the vast standing Roman army , constituted the three most impressive features of the Roman Empire. In Britain, as in other provinces, the Romans constructed a comprehensive network of paved trunk roads Roman roads, together with Roman aqueducts and the...
that still formed the backbone for travel across the country, both in order to control the lines of communication and to ensure easy movement between different estates. Many castles were built close to inland river ports and those built on the coast were usually located at the mouths of rivers or in ports; Pevensey
Pevensey Castle
Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a Scheduled Monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors.-Roman fort:...
and Portchester
Portchester Castle
Portchester Castle is a medieval castle built within a former Roman fort at Portchester to the east of Fareham in the English county of Hampshire. Probably founded in the late 11th century, Portchester was a baronial castle that was taken under royal control in 1154. The monarchy controlled...
being rare exceptions. Some groups of castles were located so as to be mutually reinforcing – for example the castles of Littledean Camp
Littledean Camp
Littledean was a castle near the village of Lydney in Gloucestershire, England, notable for its unique early Norman design.Although once thought to have had Roman origins, 20th century archaeology has shown that the castle was built in the 11th century following the Norman invasion of 1066. The...
, Glasshouse Woods and Howle Hill Camp were intended to act as an integrated defence for the area around Gloucester
Gloucester
Gloucester is a city, district and county town of Gloucestershire in the South West region of England. Gloucester lies close to the Welsh border, and on the River Severn, approximately north-east of Bristol, and south-southwest of Birmingham....
and Gloucester Castle
Gloucester Castle
Gloucester Castle was a castle in the cathedral city of Gloucester in the county of Gloucestershire.- Early Norman Motte & Bailey Castle :It began as a motte castle during the reign of William the Conqueror when 16 houses were demolished to make way for it. It was enlarged by William Rufus who...
for Gloucester city itself, whilst Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
was one of a ring of castles built around London, each approximately a day's march apart. Some regional patterns in castle building can also be seen – relatively few castles were built in East Anglia compared to the west of England or the Marches; this was probably due to the relatively settled and prosperous nature of the east of England and reflected a shortage of available serf
SERF
A spin exchange relaxation-free magnetometer is a type of magnetometer developed at Princeton University in the early 2000s. SERF magnetometers measure magnetic fields by using lasers to detect the interaction between alkali metal atoms in a vapor and the magnetic field.The name for the technique...
s, or unfree labour
Unfree labour
Unfree labour includes all forms of slavery as well as all other related institutions .-Payment for unfree labour:If payment occurs, it may be in one or more of the following forms:...
.
Not all of the castles were occupied simultaneously. Some were built during the invasions and then abandoned whilst other new castles were constructed elsewhere, especially along the western borders. Recent estimates suggest that out of all of those constructed, there were only between 500 and 600 castles occupied at any one time in the post-conquest period.
Architecture
There was a large degree of variation in the size and exact shape of the castles built in England and Wales after the invasion. One popular form of castle was the motte and baileyMotte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
, in which earth would be piled up into a mound (called a motte) to support a wooden tower, and a wider enclosed area built alongside it (called a bailey); Stafford Castle
Stafford Castle
Stafford Castle lies two miles to the west of Stafford, just off the A518 Stafford-to-Newport Road, and can be seen from the M6 motorway. The stone building is an important early example of a 19th century Gothic Revival Keep. The structure was built on the foundations of its medieval predecessor...
is a typical example of a post-invasion motte castle. Another widespread design was the ringwork
Ringwork
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles minus the motte...
in which earth would be built up in a circular or oval shape and topped with a wooden rampart; Folkestone Castle
Folkestone Castle
Folkestone Castle stood on a spur of the North Downs to the north of the town of Folkestone, Kent .This was Norman castle on a natural mound which was in existence in the late 11th and 12th centuries...
is a good example of a Norman ringwork, in this case built on top of a hill although most post-invasion castles were usually sited on lower ground. Around 80% of Norman castles in this period followed the motte-and-bailey pattern, but ringworks were particularly popular in certain areas, such as south-west England and south Wales. One theory put forward to explain this variation is that ringworks were easier to build in these shallow-soil areas than the larger mottes.
The White Tower
White Tower (Tower of London)
The White Tower is a central tower, the old keep, at the Tower of London.-History:The castle which later became known as the Tower of London was built by William the Conqueror in 1066. It began as a timber fortification enclosed by a palisade. In the next decade work began on the White Tower, the...
in London and the keep of Colchester Castle
Colchester Castle
Colchester Castle in Colchester, Essex is an example of a largely complete Norman castle. It is a Grade I listed building.-Construction:At one and a half times the size of the Tower of London's White Tower, Colchester's keep is the largest ever built in Britain and the largest surviving example in...
were the only stone castles to be built in England immediately after the conquest, both with the characteristic square Norman keep
Keep
A keep is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the...
. Both these castles were built in the Romanesque
Romanesque architecture
Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...
style and were intended to impress as well as provide military protection. In Wales the first wave of the Norman castles were again made of wood, in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs, with the exception of the stone built Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
. Chepstow too was heavily influenced by Romanesque design, reusing numerous materials from the nearby Venta Silurum
Venta Silurum
Venta Silurum was a town in the Roman province of Britannia or Britain. Today it consists of remains in the village of Caerwent in Monmouthshire, south east Wales. Much of it has been archaeologically excavated and is on display to the public....
to produce what historian Robert Liddiard has termed "a play upon images from Antiquity".
The size of these castles varied depending on the geography of the site, the decisions of the builder and the available resources. Analysis of the size of mottes has shown some distinctive regional variation; East Anglia
East Anglia
East Anglia is a traditional name for a region of eastern England, named after an ancient Anglo-Saxon kingdom, the Kingdom of the East Angles. The Angles took their name from their homeland Angeln, in northern Germany. East Anglia initially consisted of Norfolk and Suffolk, but upon the marriage of...
, for example, saw much larger mottes being built than the Midlands
English Midlands
The Midlands, or the English Midlands, is the traditional name for the area comprising central England that broadly corresponds to the early medieval Kingdom of Mercia. It borders Southern England, Northern England, East Anglia and Wales. Its largest city is Birmingham, and it was an important...
or London
London
London is the capital city of :England and the :United Kingdom, the largest metropolitan area in the United Kingdom, and the largest urban zone in the European Union by most measures. Located on the River Thames, London has been a major settlement for two millennia, its history going back to its...
. Whilst motte-and-bailey and ringwork castles took great effort to build, they required relatively few skilled craftsmen allowing them to be raised using forced labour from the local estates; this, in addition to the speed with which they could be built – a single season, made them particularly attractive immediately after the conquest. The larger earthworks, particularly mottes, required an exponentially greater quantity of manpower than their smaller equivalents and consequently tended to be either royal, or belong to the most powerful barons who could muster the required construction effort. Despite motte-and-bailey and ringworks being common designs amongst Norman castles, each fortification was slightly different – some castles were designed with two baileys attached to a single motte, and some ringworks were built with additional towers added on; yet other castles were built as ringworks and later converted to motte-and-bailey structures.
Developments in castle design
From the early 12th century onwards the Normans began to build new castles in stone and convert existing timber designs. This was initially a slow process, picking up speed towards the second half of the century. Traditionally this transition was believed to have been driven by the more crude nature of wooden fortifications, the limited life of timber in wooden castles and its vulnerability to fire; recent archaeological studies have however shown that many wooden castles were as robust and as complex as their stone equivalents. Some wooden castles were not converted into stone for many years and instead expanded in wood, such as at Hen DomenHen Domen
Hen Domen, Welsh, meaning "old mound", is the site of a medieval timber motte-and-bailey castle in Powys, Wales. It is the site of the original Montgomery Castle and was built by Roger de Montgomery in 1070....
.
Several early stone keeps had been built after the conquest, with somewhere between ten and fifteen in existence by 1100, and more followed in the 12th century until around 100 had been built by 1216. Typically these were four sided designs with the corners reinforced by pilaster
Pilaster
A pilaster is a slightly-projecting column built into or applied to the face of a wall. Most commonly flattened or rectangular in form, pilasters can also take a half-round form or the shape of any type of column, including tortile....
buttress
Buttress
A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall...
es. Keeps were up to four storeys high, with the entrance on the first storey to prevent the door from being easily broken down. The strength of the design typically came from the thickness of the walls: usually made of rag-stone
Rag-stone
Rag-stone is a name given by some architectural writers to work done with stones which are quarried in thin pieces, such as the Horsham sandstone, Yorkshire stone, the slate stones, but this is more properly flag or slab work. By rag-stone, near London, is meant an excellent material from the...
, as in the case of Dover Castle
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
, these walls could be up to 24 feet (7.3 metres) thick. The larger keeps were subdivided by an internal wall whilst the smaller versions, such as that at Goodrich
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a now ruinous Norman medieval castle situated to the north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye...
, had a single, slightly cramped chamber on each floor. Stone keeps required skilled craftsmen to build them; unlike unfree labour or serfs, these men had to be paid and stone keeps were therefore expensive. They were also relatively slow to erect – a keep's walls could usually only be raised by a maximum of 12 feet (3.6 metres) a year, the keep at Scarborough
Scarborough Castle
Scarborough Castle is a former medieval Royal fortress situated on a rocky promontory overlooking the North Sea and Scarborough, North Yorkshire, England...
was typical in taking ten years to build.
Norman stone keeps played both a military and a political role. Most of the keeps were physically extremely robust and, whilst they were not designed as an intended location for the final defence of a castle, they were often placed near weak points in the walls to provide supporting fire. Many keeps made compromises to purely military utility:Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...
included elaborate blind arcading
Blind arcade
A blind arcade is an arcade that is composed of a series of arches that has no actual openings and that is applied to the surface of a wall as a decorative element: i.e. the arches are not windows or openings but are part of the masonry face. It is designed as an ornamental architectural element,...
on the outside of the building, in a Roman style, and appears to had a ceremonial entrance route; The interior of the keep at Hedingham
Hedingham Castle
Hedingham Castle in Essex, England, is a Norman motte and bailey castle with a stone keep. For four centuries it was the primary seat of the de Vere family, Earls of Oxford.-Description:...
could have hosted impressive ceremonies and events, but contained numerous flaws from a military perspective. Similarly there has been extensive debate over the role of Orford Castle
Orford Castle
Orford Castle is a castle in the village of Orford, Suffolk, England, located 12 miles northeast of Ipswich, with views over the Orford Ness. It was built between 1165 and 1173 by Henry II of England to consolidate royal power in the region. The well-preserved keep, described by historian R...
whose expensive, three-cornered design most closely echoes imperial Byzantine
Byzantine architecture
Byzantine architecture is the architecture of the Byzantine Empire. The empire gradually emerged as a distinct artistic and cultural entity from what is today referred to as the Roman Empire after AD 330, when the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire east from Rome to...
palaces and may have been intended by Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
to be more symbolic than military in nature.
Another improvement from the 12th century onwards was the creation of shell keep
Shell keep
A shell keep is a style of medieval fortification, best described as a stone structure circling the top of a motte.In English castle morphology, shell keeps are perceived as the successors to motte-and-bailey castles, with the wooden fence around the top of the motte replaced by a stone wall...
s, involving replacing the wooden keep on the motte with a circular stone wall. Buildings could be built around the inside of the shell, producing a small inner courtyard. Restormel Castle
Restormel Castle
Restormel Castle is situated on the River Fowey near Lostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is one of the four chief Norman castles of Cornwall, the others being Launceston, Tintagel and Trematon. The castle is notable for its perfectly circular design...
is a classic example of this development with a perfectly circular wall and a square entrance tower while the later Launceston Castle
Launceston Castle
Launceston Castle is located in the town of Launceston, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. .-Early history:The castle is a Norman motte and bailey earthwork castle raised by Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman conquest, possibly as early as 1067...
, although more ovoid than circular, is another good example of the design and one of the most formidable castles of the period. Round castles were unusually popular throughout Cornwall and Devon. Although the circular design held military advantages, these only really mattered in the 13th century onwards; the origins of 12th-century circular design were the circular design of the mottes; indeed, some designs were less than circular in order to accommodate irregular mottes, such as that at Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
.
Economy and society
William of Newburgh
William of Newburgh or Newbury , also known as William Parvus, was a 12th-century English historian and Augustinian canon from Bridlington, Yorkshire.-Biography:...
royal castles formed the "bones of the kingdom". A number of royal castles were also designated as shrieval
High Sheriff
A high sheriff is, or was, a law enforcement officer in the United Kingdom, Canada and the United States.In England and Wales, the office is unpaid and partly ceremonial, appointed by the Crown through a warrant from the Privy Council. In Cornwall, the High Sheriff is appointed by the Duke of...
castles, forming the administrative hub for a particular county – for example Winchester Castle
Winchester Castle
Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall exists now; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester.-Great Hall:...
served as the centre of Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
. These castles formed a base for the royal sheriff
Sheriff
A sheriff is in principle a legal official with responsibility for a county. In practice, the specific combination of legal, political, and ceremonial duties of a sheriff varies greatly from country to country....
, responsible for enforcing royal justice in the relevant shire; the role of the sheriff became stronger and clearer as the century progressed.
A number of royal castles were linked to forests and other key resources. Royal forests in the early medieval period were subject to special royal jurisdiction; forest law was, as historian Robert Huscroft describes it, "harsh and arbitrary, a matter purely for the King's will" and forests were expected to supply the king with hunting grounds, raw materials, goods and money. Forests were typically tied to castles, both to assist with the enforcement of the law and to store the goods being extracted from the local economy: Peveril Castle
Peveril Castle
Peveril Castle is a medieval building overlooking the village of Castleton in the English county of Derbyshire. Its site provides views across the Hope Valley and Cave Dale. The castle is named after its founder, William Peveril, who held lands in Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire on behalf of the king...
was linked to the Peak Forest
Peak Forest
Peak Forest is a small village on the main road the from Chapel-en-le-Frith to Chesterfield in England.The village grew from the earlier settlement of Dam at the conjunction of Perrydale and Damdale. There is an inn, a village shop and a Primary School...
and the local lead mining there; St Briavels was tied to the Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...
; and Knaresborough
Knaresborough Castle
Knaresborough Castle is a ruined fortress overlooking the River Nidd in the town of Knaresborough, North Yorkshire, England.-History:The castle was first built by a Norman baron in c.1100 on a cliff above the River Nidd. There is documentary evidence dating from 1130 referring to works carried out...
, Rockingham
Rockingham Castle
Rockingham Castle is a former royal castle and hunting lodge in Rockingham Forest a mile to the north of Corby, Northamptonshire.-History:The site on which the castle stands has been used in the Iron Age, Roman period and by the invading Saxons also used by the Normans, Tudors and also used in the...
and Pickering
Pickering Castle
Pickering Castle is a motte-and-bailey fortification in Pickering, North Yorkshire, England.- Design :Pickering castle was originally a timber and earth motte and bailey castle. It was developed into a stone motte and bailey castle which had a stone shell keep. The current inner ward was originally...
to their eponymous forests respectively. In the south-west, where the Crown oversaw the lead mining industry, castles such as Restormel
Restormel Castle
Restormel Castle is situated on the River Fowey near Lostwithiel, Cornwall, United Kingdom. It is one of the four chief Norman castles of Cornwall, the others being Launceston, Tintagel and Trematon. The castle is notable for its perfectly circular design...
played an important role running the local stannery
Stannary Courts and Parliaments
The Stannary Parliaments and Stannary Courts were legislative and legal institutions in Cornwall and in Devon , England. The Stannary Courts administered equity for the region's tin-miners and tin mining interests, and they were also courts of record for the towns dependent on the mines...
courts.
Baronial castles were of varying size and sophistication; some were classed as a caput
Caput
The Latin word caput, meaning literally "head" and by metonymy "top", has been borrowed in a variety of English words, including capital, captain, and decapitate...
, or the key stronghold of a given lord, and were usually larger and better fortified than the norm and usually held the local baronial honorial courts. The king continued to exercise the right to occupy and use any castle in the kingdom in response to external threats, in those cases he would staff the occupied castles with his own men; the king also retained the right to authorise the construction of new castles through the issuing of licenses to crenellate. It was possible for bishops to build or control castles, such as the important Devizes Castle
Devizes Castle
Devizes Castle was in the town of Devizes, Wiltshire, England .The first motte and bailey castle on this site was built in 1080 by Osmund, Bishop of Salisbury. This castle burnt down in 1113 and was rebuilt in stone by Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, by 1120. He occupied it under Henry I and later...
linked to the Bishop of Salisbury
Bishop of Salisbury
The Bishop of Salisbury is the ordinary of the Church of England's Diocese of Salisbury in the Province of Canterbury.The diocese covers much of the counties of Wiltshire and Dorset...
, although this practice was challenged on occasion. In the 12th century the practice of castle-guard
Castle-guard
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffedknights...
s emerged in England and Wales, under which lands were assigned to local lords on condition that the recipient provided a certain number of knights or sergeants for the defence of a named castle. In some cases, such as at Dover
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
, this arrangement became quite sophisticated with particular castle towers being named after particular families owing castle-guard duty.
The links between castles and the surrounding lands and estates was particularly important during this period. Many castles, both royal and baronial, had deer parks
Medieval deer park
A medieval deer park was an enclosed area containing deer. It was bounded by a ditch and bank with a wooden park pale on top of the bank. The ditch was typically on the inside, thus allowing deer to enter the park but preventing them from leaving.-History:...
or chases
Chase (land)
In the United Kingdom a chase is a type of common land used for hunting to which there are no specifically designated officers and laws, but there are reserved hunting rights for one or more persons. Similarly, a Royal Chase is a type of Crown Estate by the same description, but where certain...
attached to them for the purposes of hunting. These usually stretched away from the village or borough associated with the castle, but occasionally a castle was placed in the centre of a park, such as at Sandal
Sandal Castle
Sandal Castle is a ruined medieval castle in Sandal Magna, a suburb of the city of Wakefield in West Yorkshire, overlooking the River Calder. It was the site of royal intrigue, the opening of one of William Shakespeare's plays, and was the source for a common children's nursery rhyme.-The...
.
The Anarchy
Civil warThe Anarchy
The Anarchy or The Nineteen-Year Winter was a period of English history during the reign of King Stephen, which was characterised by civil war and unsettled government...
broke out in England and raged between 1139 and 1153, forming a turbulent period in which the rival factions of King Stephen
Stephen of England
Stephen , often referred to as Stephen of Blois , was a grandson of William the Conqueror. He was King of England from 1135 to his death, and also the Count of Boulogne by right of his wife. Stephen's reign was marked by the Anarchy, a civil war with his cousin and rival, the Empress Matilda...
and the Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda
Empress Matilda , also known as Matilda of England or Maude, was the daughter and heir of King Henry I of England. Matilda and her younger brother, William Adelin, were the only legitimate children of King Henry to survive to adulthood...
struggled for power. Open battles were relatively rare during the war, with campaigns instead focusing on a sequence of raids and sieges as commanders attempted to gain control over the vital castles that controlled the territory in the rival regions. Siege technology during the Anarchy centred on basic stone-throwing machines such as ballista
Ballista
The ballista , plural ballistae, was an ancient missile weapon which launched a large projectile at a distant target....
e and mangonel
Mangonel
A mangonel was a type of catapult or siege engine used in the medieval period to throw projectiles at a castle's walls. The exact meaning of the term is debatable, and several possibilities have been suggested. Mangonel may also be indirectly referring to the 'mangon' a French hard stone found in...
s, supported by siege tower
Siege tower
A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on...
s and mining, combined with blockade and, occasionally, direct assault.
The phase of the conflict known as "the Castle War" saw both sides focusing on defeating the other through sieges, such as Stephen's attempts to take Wallingford
Wallingford Castle
Wallingford Castle was a major medieval castle situated in Wallingford in the English county of Oxfordshire , adjacent to the River Thames...
, the most easterly fortress in Matilda's push towards London, or Geoffrey de Mandeville
Geoffrey de Mandeville, 1st Earl of Essex
Geoffrey de Mandeville II, 1st Earl of Essex was one of the prominent players during the reign of King Stephen of England. His biographer, the 19th-century historian J. H...
's attempts to seize East Anglia by taking Cambridge Castle
Cambridge Castle
Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in the town of the same name in Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conflicts of the Anarchy, the First and...
.
Both sides responded to the challenge of the conflict by building many new castles, sometimes as sets of strategic fortifications. In the south-west Matilda's supporters built a range of castles to protect the territory, usually motte and bailey designs such as those at Winchcombe
Winchcombe Castle
Winchcome Castle was a castle in the town of Winchcombe in Gloucestershire, England.The motte and bailey castle was built during the chaos of the Anarchy in the 12th century. The castle was built either in 1140 or 1144 in the north-east of Winchcombe, then a key region of the conflict, and rested...
, Upper Slaughter
Upper Slaughter
Upper Slaughter is a village in the English county of Gloucestershire located in the Cotswold district located south west of the town of Stow-on-the-Wold. Nearby places include Lower Slaughter, Bourton-on-the-Water and Daylesford....
, or Bampton
Bampton Castle, Oxfordshire
Bampton Castle was in the village of Bampton, Oxfordshire .Differing accounts of its origin exist. One states that in about 1142 AD during the reign of Stephen, Matilda built a motte castle...
. Similarly, Stephen built a new chain of fen-edge castles at Burwell, Lidgate
Lidgate
Lidgate is a small village and a civil parish in the St Edmundsbury District, in the English county of Suffolk. Lidgate is located on the B1063 road in between the towns of Newmarket and Clare. Lidgate has a place of worship and a castle called Lidgate Castle. The population of Lidgate is around...
, Rampton
Rampton, Cambridgeshire
Rampton is a village in Cambridgeshire, England. Situated on the edge of The Fens six miles to the north of Cambridge, it is a relatively small village of only around 400 people but has a thriving community.-History:...
, Caxton, and Swavesey
Swavesey
Swavesey is a village lying on the Greenwich Meridian in Cambridgeshire, England, with an approximate population of 2,480. The village is situated 9 miles to the north west of Cambridge and 3 miles south east of St...
– each about six to nine miles (ten to fifteen km) apart – in order to protect his lands around Cambridge. Many of these castles were termed "adulterine" (unauthorised), because no formal permission was given for their construction. Contemporary chroniclers saw this as a matter of concern; Robert of Torigny suggested that as many as 1,115 such castles had been built during the conflict, although this was probably an exaggeration as elsewhere he suggests an alternative figure of 126. Another feature of the war was the creation of many "counter-castles". These had been used in English conflicts for several years before the civil war and involved building a basic castle during a siege, alongside the main target of attack. Typically these would be built in either a ringwork or a motte-and-bailey design between 200 to 300 yards (180 to 270 metres) away from the target, just beyond the range of a bow. Counter-castles could be used to either act as firing platforms for siege weaponry, or as bases for controlling the region in their own right. Most counter-castles were destroyed after their use but in some cases the earthworks survived, such as the counter-castles called Jew's Mount and Mount Pelham built by Stephen in 1141 outside Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle situated on the west edge of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. The original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced with stone in the 11th century and played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy...
.
Matilda's son Henry II
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
assumed the throne at the end of the war and immediately announced his intention to eliminate the adulterine castles that had sprung up during the war, but it is unclear how successful this effort was. Robert of Torigny recorded that 375 were destroyed, without giving the details behind the figure; recent studies of selected regions have suggested that fewer castles were probably destroyed than once thought and that many may simply have been abandoned at the end of the conflict. Certainly many of the new castles were transitory in nature: Historian Oliver Creighton observes that 56% of those castles known to have been built during Stephen's reign have "entirely vanished".
The spread of castles in Scotland, Wales and Ireland
Castles in Scotland emerged as a consequence of the centralising of royal authority in the 12th century. Prior to the 1120s there is very little evidence of castles having existed in Scotland, which had remained less politically centralised than in England with the north still ruled by the kings of Norway. David I of ScotlandDavid I of Scotland
David I or Dabíd mac Maíl Choluim was a 12th-century ruler who was Prince of the Cumbrians and later King of the Scots...
spent time at the court of Henry I in the south, until he became the Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon
Earl of Huntingdon is a title which has been created several times in the Peerage of England. The title is associated with the ruling house of Scotland, and latterly with the Hastings family.-Early history:...
, and returned to Scotland with the intention of extending royal power across the country and modernising Scotland's military technology, including the introduction of castles. The Scottish king encouraged Norman and French nobles to settle in Scotland, introducing a feudal mode of landholding and the use of castles as a way of controlling the contested lowlands. The quasi-independent polity of Galloway, which had resisted the rule of David and his predecessors, was a particular focus for this colonisation. The size of these Scottish castles, primarily wooden motte-and-bailey
Motte-and-bailey
A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle, with a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade...
constructions, varied considerably from larger designs, such as the Bass of Inverurie
Inverurie
Inverurie is a Royal Burgh and town in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, approximately north west of Aberdeen on the A96 road and is served by Inverurie railway station on the Aberdeen to Inverness Line...
, to smaller castles like Balmaclellan
Balmaclellan
Balmaclellan is a small hillside village of stone houses with slate roofs in a fold of the Galloway hills in south-west Scotland...
. As historian Lise Hull has suggested, the creation of castles in Scotland was "less to do with conquest" and more to do with "establishing a governing system".
The Norman expansion into Wales slowed in the 12th century, but remained an ongoing threat to the remaining native rulers. In response the Welsh princes and lords began to build their own castles, usually in wood. There are indications that this may have begun from 1111 onwards under Prince Cadwgan ap Bleddyn
Cadwgan ap Bleddyn
Cadwgan ap Bleddyn was a prince of Powys in eastern Wales.Cadwgan was the second son of Bleddyn ap Cynfyn who was king of both Powys and Gwynedd. When Bleddyn was killed in 1075, Powys was divided between three of his sons, Cadwgan, Iorwerth and Maredudd. Cadwgan is first heard of in 1088 when he...
with the first documentary evidence of a native Welsh castle being at Cymmer in 1116. These timber castles, including Tomen y Rhodywdd, Tomen y Faerdre
Llanarmon-yn-Ial
Llanarmon-yn-Iâl is a village, and local government community, in Denbighshire, Wales, lying in limestone country in the valley of the River Alyn.- Location :...
and Gaer Penrhôs
Gaer Penrhôs
Gaer Penrhôs, in Ceredigion, Wales, was a ringwork castle at the summit of a steep hill near the village of Llanrhystud; now all that remains are the outlines of its ringworks...
, were of equivalent quality to the Norman fortifications in the area and it can prove difficult to distinguish the builders of some sites from the archaeological evidence alone. At the end of the 12th century the Welsh rulers began to build castles in stone, primarily in the principality of North Wales.
Rath
-Things:*Rath, as an alternative spelling of Rat, a German advisory or ruling council, see, e.g., Parlamentarischer Rat*Ráth, Irish ringfort, fortified earthen works* Rath, a plane in the Magic: The Gathering trading card game...
s, a type of ringfort
Ringfort
Ringforts are circular fortified settlements that were mostly built during the Iron Age , although some were built as late as the Early Middle Ages . They are found in Northern Europe, especially in Ireland...
, some of which were very heavily defended but which are not usually considered to be castles in the usual sense of the word. The kings of Connacht constructed fortifications from 1124 which they called caistel or caislen, from the Latin and French for castle, and there has been considerable academic debate over how far these resembled European castles.
The Norman invasion of Ireland began between 1166 and 1171, under first Richard de Clare
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke
Richard de Clare, 2nd Earl of Pembroke , Lord of Leinster, Justiciar of Ireland . Like his father, he was also commonly known as Strongbow...
and then Henry II of England
Henry II of England
Henry II ruled as King of England , Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Count of Nantes, Lord of Ireland and, at various times, controlled parts of Wales, Scotland and western France. Henry, the great-grandson of William the Conqueror, was the...
, with the occupation of southern and eastern Ireland by a number of Anglo-Norman barons. The rapid Norman success depended on key economic and military advantages; their cavalry enabled Norman successes in battles, and castles enabled them to control the newly conquered territories. The new lords rapidly built castles to protect their possessions, many of these were motte-and-bailey constructions; in Louth at least 23 of these were built. It remains uncertain how many ringwork castles were built in Ireland by the Anglo-Normans. Other castles, such as Trim
Trim Castle
Trim Castle , Trim, County Meath, Ireland, on the shores of the Boyne has an area of 30,000 m². It is the remains of Ireland's largest Anglo-Norman castle...
and Carrickfergus
Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle is a Norman castle in Northern Ireland, situated in the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough. Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French, the castle played an important military role until 1928 and remains one of the best...
, were built in stone as the caput centres for major barons. Analysis of these stone castles suggests that building in stone was not simply a military decision; indeed, several of the castles contain serious defensive flaws. Instead the designs, including their focus on large stone keeps, were intended both to increase the prestige of the baronial owners and to provide adequate space for the administrative apparatus of the new territories. Unlike in Wales the indigenous Irish lords do not appear to have constructed their own castles in any significant number during the period.
Military developments
Castle design in Britain continued to change towards the end of the 12th century. After Henry II mottes ceased to be built in most of England, although they continued to be erected in Wales and along the Marches. Square keeps remained popular across much of England in contrast to the circular keeps increasingly prevailing in France; in the Marches, however, circular keep designs became more popular. Castles began to take on a more regular, enclosed shape, ideally quadrilateral or at least polygonal in design, especially in the more prosperous south. Flanking towers, initially square and latterly curved, were introduced along the walls and gatehouses began to grow in size and complexity, with portcullises being introduced for the first time. Castles such as DoverDover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
and the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
were expanded in a concentric
Concentric castle
A concentric castle is a castle with two or more concentric curtain walls, such that the outer wall is lower than the inner and can be defended from it. The word concentric does not imply that these castles were circular; in fact if taken too literally the term "concentric" is quite misleading...
design in what Cathcart King has labelled the early development of "scientific fortification".
The developments spread to Anglo-Norman possessions in Ireland where this English style of castles dominated throughout the 13th century, although the deteriorating Irish economy of the 14th century brought this wave of building to an end. In Scotland Alexander II
Alexander II of Scotland
Alexander II was King of Scots from1214 to his death.-Early life:...
and Alexander III
Alexander III of Scotland
Alexander III was King of Scots from 1249 to his death.-Life:...
undertook a number of castle building projects in the modern style, although Alexander III's early death sparked conflict in Scotland and English intervention under Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
in 1296. In the ensuing wars of Scottish Independence
Wars of Scottish Independence
The Wars of Scottish Independence were a series of military campaigns fought between the independent Kingdom of Scotland and the Kingdom of England in the late 13th and early 14th centuries....
castle building in Scotland altered path, turning away from building larger, more conventional castles with curtain walls. The Scots instead adopted the policy of slighting
Slighting
A slighting is the deliberate destruction, partial or complete, of a fortification without opposition. During the English Civil War this was to render it unusable as a fort.-Middle Ages:...
, or deliberately destroying, castles captured in Scotland from the English to prevent their re-use in subsequent invasions – most of the new Scottish castles built by nobles were of the tower house design; the few larger castles built in Scotland were typically royal castles, built by the Scottish kings.
Trebuchet
A trebuchet is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of...
began to change this situation; it was able to throw much heavier balls, with remarkable accuracy, and reconstructed devices have been shown to be able to knock holes in walls. Trebuchets were first recorded in England in 1217, and were probably used the year before as well. Richard I
Richard I of England
Richard I was King of England from 6 July 1189 until his death. He also ruled as Duke of Normandy, Duke of Aquitaine, Duke of Gascony, Lord of Cyprus, Count of Anjou, Count of Maine, Count of Nantes, and Overlord of Brittany at various times during the same period...
used them in his sieges during the Third Crusade
Third Crusade
The Third Crusade , also known as the Kings' Crusade, was an attempt by European leaders to reconquer the Holy Land from Saladin...
and appears to have started to alter his castle designs to accommodate the new technology on his return to Europe. The trebuchet seems to have encouraged the shift towards round and polygonal towers and curved walls. In addition to having less or no dead zones, and being easier to defend against mining, these castle designs were also much less easy to attack with trebuchets as the curved surfaces could deflect some of the force of the shot.
Castles saw an increasing use of arrowslits by the 13th century, especially in England, almost certainly linked to the introduction of crossbows. These arrowslits were combined with firing positions from the tops of the towers, initially protected by wooden hoarding
Hoarding (castles)
A hoarding was a temporary wooden construction that was placed on the exterior of the ramparts of a castle during a siege.The purpose of a hoarding was to allow the defenders to improve their field of fire along the length of a wall and, most particularly, directly downwards to the wall base.The...
until stone machicolation
Machicolation
A machicolation is a floor opening between the supporting corbels of a battlement, through which stones, or other objects, could be dropped on attackers at the base of a defensive wall. The design was developed in the Middle Ages when the Norman crusaders returned. A machicolated battlement...
s were introduced in England in the late 13th century. The crossbow
Crossbow
A crossbow is a weapon consisting of a bow mounted on a stock that shoots projectiles, often called bolts or quarrels. The medieval crossbow was called by many names, most of which derived from the word ballista, a torsion engine resembling a crossbow in appearance.Historically, crossbows played a...
was an important military advance on the older short bow and was the favoured weapon by the time of Richard I; many crossbows and vast numbers of quarrels were needed to supply royal forces, in turn requiring larger scale iron production. In England, crossbows were primarily built at the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
but St Briavels Castle, with the local Forest of Dean
Forest of Dean
The Forest of Dean is a geographical, historical and cultural region in the western part of the county of Gloucestershire, England. The forest is a roughly triangular plateau bounded by the River Wye to the west and north, the River Severn to the south, and the City of Gloucester to the east.The...
available to provide raw materials, became the national centre for quarrel manufacture. In Scotland, Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
became the centre for the production of bows, crossbows and siege engines for the king.
One result of this was that English castle sieges grew in complexity and scale. During the First Barons' War
First Barons' War
The First Barons' War was a civil war in the Kingdom of England, between a group of rebellious barons—led by Robert Fitzwalter and supported by a French army under the future Louis VIII of France—and King John of England...
from 1215 to 1217, the prominent sieges of Dover
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
and Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
showed the ability of more modern designs to withstand attack; King John
John of England
John , also known as John Lackland , was King of England from 6 April 1199 until his death...
's successful siege of Rochester
Rochester Castle
Rochester Castle stands on the east bank of the River Medway in Rochester, Kent, England. The 12th-century keep or stone tower, which is the castle's most prominent feature, is one of the best preserved in England or France. Located along the River Medway and Watling Street, Rochester was a...
required an elaborate and sophisticated assault, reportedly costing around 60,000 marks, or £40,000.Both the mark and the pound sterling were accountancy terms in this period; a mark was worth around two-thirds of a pound. The siege of Bedford Castle
Bedford Castle
Bedford Castle was a large medieval castle in Bedford, England. Built after 1100 by Henry I, the castle played a prominent part in both the civil war of the Anarchy and the First Barons' War. The castle was significantly extended in stone, although the final plan of the castle remains uncertain...
in 1224 required Henry III
Henry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
to bring siege engines, engineers, crossbow bolts, equipment and labourers from across all of England. The Siege of Kenilworth Castle
Siege of Kenilworth
The Siege of Kenilworth was a six-month siege on the Kenilworth Castle and a battle of the Second Barons' War. The siege was a part of an English civil war fought from 1264 to 1267 by the forces of Simon de Montfort against the Royalist forces led by Prince Edward .The siege was one of few castle...
in 1266, during the Second Barons' War
Second Barons' War
The Second Barons' War was a civil war in England between the forces of a number of barons led by Simon de Montfort, against the Royalist forces led by Prince Edward , in the name of Henry III.-Causes:...
, was larger and longer still; protected by extensive water defences which prevented mining the castle withstood the attack of the future Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
, despite the prince targeting the weaker parts of the castle walls, employing huge siege tower
Siege tower
A siege tower is a specialized siege engine, constructed to protect assailants and ladders while approaching the defensive walls of a fortification. The tower was often rectangular with four wheels with its height roughly equal to that of the wall or sometimes higher to allow archers to stand on...
s and attempting a night attack using barges brought from Chester
Chester
Chester is a city in Cheshire, England. Lying on the River Dee, close to the border with Wales, it is home to 77,040 inhabitants, and is the largest and most populous settlement of the wider unitary authority area of Cheshire West and Chester, which had a population of 328,100 according to the...
. The costs of the siege exhausted the revenues of ten English counties. Sieges in Scotland were initially smaller in scale, with the first recorded such event being the 1230 siege of Rothesay Castle
Rothesay Castle
Rothesay Castle is a ruined castle in Rothesay, the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in western Scotland. Located at , the castle has been described as "one of the most remarkable in Scotland", for its long history dating back to the beginning of the 13th century, and its unusual circular...
where the besieging Norwegians were able to break down the relatively weak stone walls with axes after only three days. When Edward I invaded Scotland he brought with him the siege capabilities which had evolved south of the border: Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
fell within three days, and Roxburgh
Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle was a castle sited near Kelso, in the Borders region of Scotland, in the former Roxburghshire.-History:The castle was founded by King David I. In 1174 it was surrendered to England after the capture of William I at Alnwick, and was often in English hands thereafter. The Scots made...
, Jedburgh
Jedburgh Castle
Jedburgh Castle was a castle at Jedburgh in Scotland. It was fought over during the Wars of Scottish Independence, and was demolished by the Scots in 1409.-Jedburgh Castle Jail:...
, Dunbar
Dunbar Castle
Dunbar Castle is the remnants of one of the most mighty fortresses in Scotland, situated over the harbour of the town of Dunbar, in East Lothian.-Early history:...
, Stirling
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
, Lanark
Lanark
Lanark is a small town in the central belt of Scotland. Its population of 8,253 makes it the 100th largest settlement in Scotland. The name is believed to come from the Cumbric Lanerc meaning "clear space, glade"....
and Dumbarton
Dumbarton Castle
Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Great Britain. It overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton, and sits on a plug of volcanic basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is high.-Iron Age:...
castles surrendered to the king. Subsequent English sieges, such as the attacks on Bothwell
Bothwell Castle
Bothwell Castle is a large medieval castle sited on a high, steep bank, above a bend in the River Clyde, in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located between Uddingston and Bothwell, about south-east of Glasgow. Construction of the castle was begun in the 13th century by the ancestors of Clan...
and Stirling, again used considerable resources including giant siege engines and extensive teams of miners and masons.
Economy and society
Southampton Castle
Southampton Castle was located in the town of Southampton in Hampshire, England. Constructed after the Norman conquest of England, it was located in the north-west corner of the town overlooking the River Test, initially as a wooden motte and bailey design...
, Winchester
Winchester Castle
Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall exists now; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester.-Great Hall:...
, Bristol
Bristol Castle
Bristol Castle was a Norman castle built for the defence of Bristol. Remains can be seen today in Castle Park near the Broadmead Shopping Centre, including the sally port.-History:...
and the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
were used to import, store and distribute royal wines. The English royal castles also became used as gaols – the Assize of Clarendon
Assize of Clarendon
The Assize of Clarendon was an 1166 act of Henry II of England that began the transformation of English law from such systems for deciding the prevailing party in a case as trial by ordeal or trial by battle to an evidentiary model, in which evidence and inspection was made by laymen...
in 1166 insisted that royal sheriffs establish their own gaols and, in the coming years, county gaols were placed in all the shrieval royal castles. Conditions in these gaols were poor and claims of poor treatment and starvation were common; Northampton Castle
Northampton Castle
Northampton Castle was built under the stewardship of Simon de Senlis, the first Earl of Northampton, in 1084. It took several years to complete, as there is no mention of it in the Domesday Book, a great survey of England completed in 1086....
appears to have seen some of the worst abuses.
The development of the baronial castles in England were affected by the economic changes during the period. During the 13th and 14th centuries the average incomes of the English barons increased but wealth became concentrated in the hands of a smaller number of individuals, with a greater discrepancy in incomes. At the same time the costs of maintaining and staffing a modern castle were increasing. The result was that although there were around 400 castles in England in 1216, the number of castles continued to diminish over the coming years; even the wealthier barons were inclined to let some castles slide into disuse and to focus their resources on the remaining stock. The castle-guard
Castle-guard
Castle-guard was an arrangement under the feudal system, by which the duty of finding knights to guard royal castles was imposed on certain manors, knight's fees or baronies. The greater barons provided for the guard of their castles by exacting a similar duty from their sub-enfeoffedknights...
system faded into abeyance in England, being replaced by financial rents, although it continued in the Welsh Marches well into the 13th century and saw some limited use during Edward I's occupation of Scotland in the early 14th century.
The remaining English castles became increasingly comfortable. Their interiors were often painted and decorated with tapestries
Tapestry
Tapestry is a form of textile art, traditionally woven on a vertical loom, however it can also be woven on a floor loom as well. It is composed of two sets of interlaced threads, those running parallel to the length and those parallel to the width ; the warp threads are set up under tension on a...
, which would be transported from castle to castle as nobles travelled around the country. There were an increasing number of garderobe
Garderobe
The term garderobe describes a place where clothes and other items are stored, and also a medieval toilet. In European public places, a garderobe denotes the cloakroom, wardrobe, alcove or an armoire. In Danish, Dutch, German and Spanish garderobe can mean a cloakroom. In Latvian it means checkroom...
s built inside castles, whilst in the wealthier castles the floors could be tile
Tile
A tile is a manufactured piece of hard-wearing material such as ceramic, stone, metal, or even glass. Tiles are generally used for covering roofs, floors, walls, showers, or other objects such as tabletops...
d and the windows furnished with Sussex Weald glass, allowing the introduction of window seat
Window seat
A window seat is a miniature sofa without a back, intended to fill the recess of a window. In the latter part of the 18th century, when tall narrow sash windows were almost universal, the window seat was in high favor, and was no doubt in keeping with the formalism of Georgian interiors. It...
s for reading. Food could be transported to castles across relatively long distances; fish was brought to Okehampton Castle
Okehampton Castle
Okehampton Castle is a ruined motte and bailey castle situated in Devon, England.The castle has Norman origins and dates from the late 11th century...
from the sea some 25 miles (40 km) away, for example. Venison
Venison
Venison is the meat of a game animal, especially a deer but also other animals such as antelope, wild boar, etc.-Etymology:The word derives from the Latin vēnor...
remained the most heavily consumed food in most castles, particularly those surrounded by extensive parks or forests such as Barnard Castle
Barnard Castle (castle)
Barnard Castle is a ruined medieval castle situated in the town of the same name in County Durham. It is a Scheduled Ancient Monument, and was designated as a Grade I listed building in 1950...
, while prime cuts of venison were imported to those castles that lacked hunting grounds, such as Launceston
Launceston Castle
Launceston Castle is located in the town of Launceston, Cornwall, England, United Kingdom. .-Early history:The castle is a Norman motte and bailey earthwork castle raised by Robert, Count of Mortain, half-brother of William the Conqueror shortly after the Norman conquest, possibly as early as 1067...
.
By the late 13th century some castles were built within carefully "designed landscapes", sometimes drawing a distinction between an inner core of a herber, a small enclosed garden complete with orchards and small ponds, and an outer region with larger ponds and high status buildings such as "religious buildings, rabbit warrens, mills and settlements", potentially set within a park. A gloriette
Gloriette
A gloriette is a building in a garden erected on a site that is elevated with respect to the surroundings...
, or a suite of small rooms, might be built within the castle to allow the result to be properly appreciated, or a viewing point constructed outside. At Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle, southeast of Maidstone, Kent, England, dates back to 1119, though a Saxon fort stood on the same site from the 9th century. The castle is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds....
the redesigned castle of the 1280s was placed within a large water garden, whilst at Ravensworth
Ravensworth
Ravensworth is a small village and civil parish in the Richmondshire district of North Yorkshire, England. It is approximately north-west of Richmond and from Darlington. It is situated in the Holmedale valley and is in the ward of Gilling West...
at the end of the 14th century an artificial lake was enclosed by a park to produce an aesthetically and symbolically pleasing entrance to the fortification. The wider parklands and forests were increasingly managed and the proportion of the smaller fallow deer
Fallow Deer
The Fallow Deer is a ruminant mammal belonging to the family Cervidae. This common species is native to western Eurasia, but has been introduced widely elsewhere. It often includes the rarer Persian Fallow Deer as a subspecies , while others treat it as an entirely different species The Fallow...
consumed by castle inhabitants in England increased as a result.
Welsh principalities and Edwardian castles
During the 13th century the native Welsh princes built a number of stone castles. The size of these varied considerably from smaller fortifications, such as Dinas EmrysDinas Emrys
Dinas Emrys is a rocky and wooded hillock near Beddgelert in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. Rising some 250 ft above the floor of the Glaslyn river valley, it overlooks the southern end of Llyn Dinas in Snowdonia. Little remains of the castle structures that once stood here, save its stone...
in Snowdonia, to more substantial castles like Deganwy Castle
Deganwy Castle
Deganwy Castle was an early stronghold of Gwynedd and lies at the mouth of the River Conwy in Conwy, north Wales...
and the largest, Castell y Bere
Castell y Bere
Castell y Bere is a native Welsh castle near Llanfihangel-y-pennant in Gwynedd, Wales. Constructed by Llywelyn the Great in the 1220s, the stone castle was intended to maintain his authority over the local people and to defend the south-west part of the princedom of Gwynedd...
. Native Welsh castles typically maximised the defensive benefits of high, mountainous sites, often being built in an irregular shape to fit a rocky peak. Most had deep ditches cut out of the rock to protect the main castle. The Welsh castles were usually built with a relatively short keep, used as living accommodation for princes and nobility, and with distinctive rectangular watch-towers along the walls. In comparison to Norman castles the gatehouses were much weaker in design, with almost no use of portcullises or spiral staircases, and the stonework of the outer walls was also generally inferior to Norman built castles. The very last native Welsh castles, built in the 1260s, more closely resemble Norman designs; in the case of Dinas Bran
Castell Dinas Bran
Castell Dinas Brân is a medieval castle standing high on a hill above the town of Llangollen in Denbighshire, Wales. It is also the site of an Iron Age hill fort.-Early history:...
including a round keep and Norman gatehouse defences.
In 1277 Edward I
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
launched a final invasion of the remaining native Welsh strongholds in North Wales, intending to establish his rule over the region on a permanent basis. As part of this occupation he instructed his leading nobles to construct eight new castles across the region; Aberystwyth
Aberystwyth Castle
Aberystwyth Castle is an Edwardian fortress located in Aberystwyth, Ceredigion, Mid Wales that was built during the First Welsh War in the late 13th century. It was begun during Edward I's first Welsh campaign at the same time as work started at Flint, Rhuddlan and Builth...
and Builth in mid-Wales and Beaumaris
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...
, Conwy
Conwy Castle
Conwy Castle is a castle in Conwy, on the north coast of Wales.It was built between 1283 and 1289 during King Edward I's second campaign in North Wales....
, Caernarfon
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
, Flint
Flint Castle
Flint Castle located in Flint, Flintshire, was the first of a series of castles built during King Edward I's campaign to conquer Wales.The site was chosen for its strategic position in North East Wales...
, Harlech
Harlech Castle
Harlech Castle, located in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, is a concentric castle, constructed atop a cliff close to the Irish Sea. Architecturally, it is particularly notable for its massive gatehouse....
and Rhuddlan Castle
Rhuddlan Castle
Rhuddlan Castle is a castle located in Rhuddlan, Denbighshire, Wales. It was erected by Edward I in 1277 following the First Welsh War.-Construction:Rhuddlan was planned as a concentric castle...
in North Wales. Historian R. Allen Brown has described these as "amongst the finest achievements of medieval military architecture [in England and Wales]". The castles varied in design but were typically characterised by powerful mural towers along the castle walls, with multiple, over-lapping firing points and large and extremely well defended barbicans. The castles were intended to be used by the king when in the region and included extensive high-status accommodation. Edward also established various new English towns, and in several cases the new castles were designed to be used alongside the fortified town walls as part of an integrated defence. Historian Richard Morris has suggested that "the impression is firmly given of an elite group of men-of-war, long-standing comrades in arms of the king, indulging in an orgy of military architectural expression on an almost unlimited budget".
Savoy
Savoy is a region of France. It comprises roughly the territory of the Western Alps situated between Lake Geneva in the north and Monaco and the Mediterranean coast in the south....
, was probably responsible for the bulk of the construction work across the region. The castles were extremely costly to build and required labourers, masons, carpenters, diggers, and building resources to be gathered by local sheriffs from across England, mustered at Chester and Bristol, before being sent on to North Wales in the spring, returning home each winter. The number of workers involved placed a significant drain on the country's national labour force. The total financial cost cannot be calculated with certainty, but estimates suggest that Edward's castle building program cost at least £80,000 – four times the total royal expenditure on castles between 1154 and 1189.
The Edwardian castles also made strong symbolic statements about the nature of the new occupation. For example Caernarvon was decorated with carved eagles, equipped with polygonal towers and expensive banded masonry, all designed to imitate the Theodosian Walls of Constantinople, then the idealised image of imperial power. The actual site of the castle may also have been important as it was positioned close to the former Roman fort of Segontium
Segontium
Segontium is a Roman fort for a Roman auxiliary force, located on the outskirts of Caernarfon in Gwynedd, north Wales.It probably takes its name from the nearby River Seiont, and may be related to the Segontiaci, a British tribe mentioned by Julius Caesar. The fort was founded by Agricola in 77 or...
. The elaborate gatehouse, with an excessive five sets of doors and six portcullises, also appears to have been designed to impress visitors and to invoke an image of an Arthurian castle, then believed to have been Byzantine in character.
Palace-fortresses
In the middle of the 13th century Henry IIIHenry III of England
Henry III was the son and successor of John as King of England, reigning for 56 years from 1216 until his death. His contemporaries knew him as Henry of Winchester. He was the first child king in England since the reign of Æthelred the Unready...
began to redesign his favourite castles, including Winchester
Winchester Castle
Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall exists now; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester.-Great Hall:...
and Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
, building larger halls, grander chapels, installing glass windows and decorating the palaces with painted walls and furniture. This marked the beginning of a trend towards the development of grand castles designed for elaborate, elite living. Life in earlier keeps had been focused around a single great hall, with privacy for the owner's family provided by using an upper floor for their own living accommodation. By the 14th century nobles were travelling less, bringing much larger households with them when they did travel and entertaining visitors with equally large retinues. Castles such as Goodrich
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a now ruinous Norman medieval castle situated to the north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye...
were redesigned in the 1320s to provide greater residential privacy and comfort for the ruling family, whilst retaining strong defensive features and a capacity to hold over 130 residents at the castle. The design influenced subsequent conversions at Berkeley
Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, UK . The castle's origins date back to the 11th century and it has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.The castle has remained within the Berkeley family since they reconstructed it in the...
and by the time that Bolton Castle
Bolton Castle
Bolton Castle in North Yorkshire, is located in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales . The nearby village Castle Bolton takes its name from the castle. The castle is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War, but much of it remains...
was being built, in the 1380s, it was designed to hold up to eight different noble households, each with their own facilities. Royal castles such as Beaumaris
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...
, although designed with defence in mind, were designed to hold up to eleven different households at any one time.
Kings and the most wealthy lords could afford to redesign castles to produce palace-fortresses. Edward III
Edward III of England
Edward III was King of England from 1327 until his death and is noted for his military success. Restoring royal authority after the disastrous reign of his father, Edward II, Edward III went on to transform the Kingdom of England into one of the most formidable military powers in Europe...
spent £51,000 on renovating Windsor Castle; this was over one and a half times Edward's typical annual income. In the words of Steven Brindle the result was a "great and apparently architecturally unified palace ... uniform in all sorts of ways, as to roof line, window heights, cornice line, floor and ceiling heights", echoing older designs but without any real defensive value. The wealthy John of Gaunt redesigned the heart of Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is located in the town of the same name in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through to Tudor times, the castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant...
, like Windsor the work emphasised a unifying, rectangular design and the separation of ground floor service areas from the upper stories and a contrast of austere exteriors with lavish interiors, especially on the 1st floor of the inner bailey buildings. By the end of the 14th century a distinctive English perpendicular style had emerged.
In the south of England private castles were being built by newly emerging, wealthly families; like the work at Windsor, these castles drew on the architectural themes of earlier martial designs, but were not intended to form a serious defence against attack. These new castles were heavily influenced by French designs, involving a rectangular or semi-rectangular castle with corner towers, gatehouses and moat; the walls effectively enclosing a comfortable courtyard plan not dissimilar to that of a unfortified manor. Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War...
built in the 1380s possessed a moat, towers and gunports but, rather than being a genuine military fortification, the castle was primarily intended to be admired by visitors and used as a luxurious dwelling – the chivalric architecture implicitly invoking comparisons with Edward I's great castle at Beaumaris
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...
.
In the north of England improvements in the security of the Scottish border, and the rise of major noble families such as the Percies
Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland
Henry Percy, 1st Earl of Northumberland, 4th Baron Percy, titular King of Mann, KG, Lord Marshal was the son of Henry de Percy, 3rd Baron Percy and a descendent of Henry III of England. His mother was Mary of Lancaster, daughter of Henry, 3rd Earl of Lancaster, son of Edmund, Earl of Leicester and...
and the Nevilles
House of Neville
The House of Neville is a noble house of early medieval origin, which was a leading force in English politics in the later middle ages...
, encouraged a surge in castle building at the end of the 14th century. Palace-fortresses such as Raby
Raby Castle
Raby Castle is situated near Staindrop in County Durham and is one of the largest inhabited castles in England. The Grade I listed building has opulent eighteenth and nineteenth century interiors inside a largely unchanged, late medieval shell. It is the home and seat of John Vane, 11th Baron...
, Bolton
Bolton Castle
Bolton Castle in North Yorkshire, is located in Wensleydale in the Yorkshire Dales . The nearby village Castle Bolton takes its name from the castle. The castle is a Grade I listed building and a Scheduled Ancient Monument. The castle was damaged in the English Civil War, but much of it remains...
and Warkworth Castle
Warkworth Castle
Warkworth Castle is a ruined medieval building in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. The town and castle occupy a loop of the River Coquet, less than a mile from England's north-east coast...
took the quadrangular castle styles of the south and combined them with exceptionally large key towers or keeps to form a distinctive northern style. Built by major noble houses these castles were typically even more opulent than those built by the nouveau riche
Nouveau riche
The nouveau riche , or new money, comprise those who have acquired considerable wealth within their own generation...
of the south. They marked what historian Anthony Emery has described as a "second peak of castle building in England and Wales", after the Edwardian designs at the end of the 14th century.
Introduction of gunpowder
Early gunpowder weapons were introduced to England from the 1320s onwards and began to appear in Scotland by the 1330s. By the 1340s the English Crown was regularly spending money on them and the new technology began to be installed in English castles by the 1360s and 1370s, and in Scottish castles by the 1380s. Cannons were made in various sizes, from smaller hand cannons to larger guns firing stone balls up to 7.6 inches (19 cm) wide. Medium sized weapons weighing around 20 kg each were more useful for the defence of castles, although Richard IIRichard II of England
Richard II was King of England, a member of the House of Plantagenet and the last of its main-line kings. He ruled from 1377 until he was deposed in 1399. Richard was a son of Edward, the Black Prince, and was born during the reign of his grandfather, Edward III...
eventually established 600 pound (272 kilo) guns at the Tower of London and the 15,366 pound (6,970 kilo) heavy Mons Meg
Mons Meg
Mons Meg is a medieval bombard which can be classed as a supergun, now located at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years...
bombard
Bombard (weapon)
A bombard is a large-caliber, muzzle-loading medieval cannon or mortar, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls. The name bombarde was first noted and sketched in a French historical text around 1380. The modern term bombardment derives from this.Bombards were usually used during...
was installed at Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
.
Early cannons had only a limited range, were unreliable and in addition early stone cannon balls were relatively ineffective when fired at against stone castle walls. As a result, early cannon proved most useful for defence, particularly against infantry assaults or to fire at the crews of enemy trebuchets. Indeed, early cannons could be quite dangerous to their own soldiers; James II of Scotland
James II of Scotland
James II reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death.He was the son of James I, King of Scots, and Joan Beaufort...
was killed besieging Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle
Roxburgh Castle was a castle sited near Kelso, in the Borders region of Scotland, in the former Roxburghshire.-History:The castle was founded by King David I. In 1174 it was surrendered to England after the capture of William I at Alnwick, and was often in English hands thereafter. The Scots made...
in 1460 when one of his cannons, called "Lion", exploded next to him. The expense of early cannons meant that they were primarily a weapon deployed by royalty rather than the nobility.
Cannons in English castles were initially deployed along the south coast where the Channel ports, essential for English trade and military operations in Europe, were increasingly threatened by French raids. Carisbrooke
Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke, near Newport, Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial.-Early history:...
, Corfe
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight...
, Dover
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
, Porchester, Saltwood
Saltwood Castle
Saltwood Castle is a castle in Saltwood village—which derives its name from the castle—1 mile north of Hythe, Kent, England.The castle is known as the site where the plot was hatched to assassinate Thomas Becket...
and Southampton Castle
Southampton Castle
Southampton Castle was located in the town of Southampton in Hampshire, England. Constructed after the Norman conquest of England, it was located in the north-west corner of the town overlooking the River Test, initially as a wooden motte and bailey design...
received cannon during the late 14th century, small circular "keyhole" gunports being built in the walls to accommodate the new weapons. Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle
Carisbrooke Castle is a historic motte-and-bailey castle located in the village of Carisbrooke, near Newport, Isle of Wight, England. Charles I was imprisoned at the castle in the months prior to his trial.-Early history:...
was subject to an unsuccessful French siege in 1377; the Crown reacting by equipping the castle with cannon and a mill for producing gunpowder in 1379. Some further English castles along the Welsh borders and Scotland were similarly equipped, with the Tower of London and Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle is a castle in the town of Pontefract, in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was the site of the demise of Richard II of England, and later the place of a series of famous sieges during the English Civil War-History:...
acting as supply depots for the new weapons. In Scotland the first cannon for a castle appears to have been bought for Edinburgh in 1384, which also became an arsenal for the new devices.
Decline of English castles
By the 15th century very few castles were well maintained by their owners. Many royal castles were receiving insufficient investment to allow them to be maintained – roofs leaked, stone work crumbled, lead or wood was stolen. The Crown was increasingly selective about which royal castles it maintained, with others left to decay. By the 15th century only WindsorWindsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
, Leeds
Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle, southeast of Maidstone, Kent, England, dates back to 1119, though a Saxon fort stood on the same site from the 9th century. The castle is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds....
, Rockingham
Rockingham Castle
Rockingham Castle is a former royal castle and hunting lodge in Rockingham Forest a mile to the north of Corby, Northamptonshire.-History:The site on which the castle stands has been used in the Iron Age, Roman period and by the invading Saxons also used by the Normans, Tudors and also used in the...
and Moor End
Moor End Castle
The site of Moor End Castle is situated opposite Moor End Farm, along Moor End Road in the civil parish of Yardley Gobion, within the historic county of Northamptonshire .The castle was created in 1347 when Thomas de Ferrers was given licence to...
were kept up as comfortable accommodation; Nottingham
Nottingham Castle
Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "'Castle Rock'", with cliffs high to the south and west. In the Middle Ages it was a major royal fortress and occasional royal residence...
and York
York Castle
York Castle in the city of York, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruinous keep of the medieval Norman castle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's...
formed the backbone for royal authority in the north, and Chester
Chester Castle
Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls . The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the medieval castle together with the...
, Gloucester
Gloucester Castle
Gloucester Castle was a castle in the cathedral city of Gloucester in the county of Gloucestershire.- Early Norman Motte & Bailey Castle :It began as a motte castle during the reign of William the Conqueror when 16 houses were demolished to make way for it. It was enlarged by William Rufus who...
and Bristol
Bristol Castle
Bristol Castle was a Norman castle built for the defence of Bristol. Remains can be seen today in Castle Park near the Broadmead Shopping Centre, including the sally port.-History:...
forming the equivalents in the west. Even major fortifications such as the castles of North Wales and the border castles of Carlisle
Carlisle Castle
Carlisle Castle is situated in Carlisle, in the English county of Cumbria, near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history. Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland, it...
, Bamburgh
Bamburgh Castle
Bamburgh Castle is an imposing castle located on the coast at Bamburgh in Northumberland, England. It is a Grade I listed building.-History:...
and Newcastle-upon-Tyne saw funding and maintenance reduced. Many royal castles continued to have a role as the county gaol, with the gatehouse frequently being used as the principal facility.
The ranks of the baronage continued to reduce in the 15th century, producing a smaller elite of wealthier lords but reducing the comparative wealth of the majority. and many baronial castles fell into similar decline. John Leland's 16th century accounts of English castles are replete with descriptions of castles being "sore decayed", their defences "in ruine" or, where the walls might still be in good repair, the "logginges within" were "decayed". English castles did not play a decisive role during the Wars of the Roses
Wars of the Roses
The Wars of the Roses were a series of dynastic civil wars for the throne of England fought between supporters of two rival branches of the royal House of Plantagenet: the houses of Lancaster and York...
, fought between 1455 and 1485, which were primarily in the form of pitched battle
Pitched battle
A pitched battle is a battle where both sides choose to fight at a chosen location and time and where either side has the option to disengage either before the battle starts, or shortly after the first armed exchanges....
s between the rival factions of the Lancastrians
House of Lancaster
The House of Lancaster was a branch of the royal House of Plantagenet. It was one of the opposing factions involved in the Wars of the Roses, an intermittent civil war which affected England and Wales during the 15th century...
and the Yorkists
House of York
The House of York was a branch of the English royal House of Plantagenet, three members of which became English kings in the late 15th century. The House of York was descended in the paternal line from Edmund of Langley, 1st Duke of York, the fourth surviving son of Edward III, but also represented...
.
Renaissance palaces
Renaissance architecture
Renaissance architecture is the architecture of the period between the early 15th and early 17th centuries in different regions of Europe, demonstrating a conscious revival and development of certain elements of ancient Greek and Roman thought and material culture. Stylistically, Renaissance...
views on architecture that were increasing in popularity on the continent. Tower keeps, large solid keeps used for private accommodation, probably inspired by those in France had started to appear in the 14th century at Dudley
Dudley Castle
Dudley Castle is a ruined castle in the town of Dudley, West Midlands, England. Dudley Zoo is located in its grounds. The location, Castle Hill, is an outcrop of Wenlock Group limestone that was extensively quarried during the Industrial Revolution, and which now along with Wren's Nest Hill is a...
and Warkworth
Warkworth Castle
Warkworth Castle is a ruined medieval building in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. The town and castle occupy a loop of the River Coquet, less than a mile from England's north-east coast...
. In the 15th century the fashion spread with the creation of very expensive, French-influenced palatial castles featuring complex tower keeps at Wardour
Wardour Castle
Wardour Castle is located at Wardour, near Tisbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Salisbury. The original castle was partially destroyed during the Civil War...
, Tattershall and Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle is a late medieval castle located just north of the village of Raglan in the county of Monmouthshire in south east Wales. The modern castle dates from between the 15th and early 17th-centuries, when the successive ruling families of the Herberts and the Somersets created a luxurious,...
. In central and eastern England castles began to be built in brick, with Caister
Caister Castle
Caister Castle is a 15th-century moated castle situated in the parish of West Caister, some north of the town of Great Yarmouth in the English county of Norfolk ....
, Kirby Muxloe
Kirby Muxloe Castle
Kirby Muxloe Castle, known also as Kirby Castle is an unfinished 15th century fortified manor house in Kirby Muxloe, Leicestershire, England .It was begun in 1480 by William Hastings, 1st Baron Hastings, during the period of the Wars of the Roses...
and Tattershall forming examples of this new style. North of the border the construction of Holyrood Great Tower
Holyrood Palace
The Palace of Holyroodhouse, commonly referred to as Holyrood Palace, is the official residence of the monarch in Scotland. The palace stands at the bottom of the Royal Mile in Edinburgh, at the opposite end to Edinburgh Castle...
between 1528 and 1532 picked up on this English tradition, but incorporated additional French influences to produce a highly secure but comfortable castle, guarded by a gun park.
Royal builders in Scotland led the way in adopting further European Renaissance styles in castle design. James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
and James V
James V of Scotland
James V was King of Scots from 9 September 1513 until his death, which followed the Scottish defeat at the Battle of Solway Moss...
used exceptional one-off revenues, such as the forfeiture
Asset forfeiture
Asset forfeiture is confiscation, by the State, of assets which are either the alleged proceeds of crime or the alleged instrumentalities of crime, and more recently, alleged terrorism. Instrumentalities of crime are property that was allegedly used to facilitate crime, for example cars...
of key lands, to establish their power across their kingdom in various ways including constructing grander castles such as Linlithgow
Linlithgow Palace
The ruins of Linlithgow Palace are situated in the town of Linlithgow, West Lothian, Scotland, west of Edinburgh. The palace was one of the principal residences of the monarchs of Scotland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Although maintained after Scotland's monarchs left for England in 1603, the...
, almost invariably by extending and modifying existing fortifications. These Scottish castle palaces drew on Italian Renaissance designs, in particular the fashionable design of a quadrangular court with stair-turrets on each corner, using harl
Harl
Harling is a Scottish term describing an exterior building surfacing technique. The theory of harling is to produce a long-lasting weatherproof shield for a stone building. A pigment can be embedded in the harled material, thus obviating the need for repainting...
ing to giving them a clean, Italian appearance. Later the castles drew on Renaissance designs in France, such as the work at Falkland
Falkland Palace
Falkland Palace in Falkland, Fife, Scotland, is a former royal palace of the Scottish Kings. Today it is in the care of the National Trust for Scotland, and serves as a tourist attraction.-Early years:...
and Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
. The shift in architectural focus reflected changing political alliances, as James V had formed a close alliance with France during his reign. In the words of architectural historian John Dunbar the results were the "earliest examples of coherent Renaissance design in Britain".
These changes also included shifts in social and cultural beliefs. The period saw the disintegration of the older feudal order, the destruction of the monasteries
Dissolution of the Monasteries
The Dissolution of the Monasteries, sometimes referred to as the Suppression of the Monasteries, was the set of administrative and legal processes between 1536 and 1541 by which Henry VIII disbanded monasteries, priories, convents and friaries in England, Wales and Ireland; appropriated their...
and widespread economic changes, altering the links between castles and the surrounding estates. Within castles, the Renaissance saw the introduction of the idea of public and private spaces, placing new value on castles having private spaces for the lord or his guests away from public view. Although the elite in Britain and Ireland continued to maintain and build castles in the style of the late medieval period there was a growing understanding through the Renaissance, absent in the 14th century, that domestic castles were fundamentally different from the military fortifications being built to deal with the spread of gunpowder artillery. Castles continued to be built and reworked in what cultural historian Matthew Johnson has described as a "conscious attempt to invoke values seen as being under threat". The results, as at Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is located in the town of the same name in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through to Tudor times, the castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant...
for example, could include huge castles deliberately redesigned to appear old and sporting chivalric features, but complete with private chambers, Italian loggia
Loggia
Loggia is the name given to an architectural feature, originally of Minoan design. They are often a gallery or corridor at ground level, sometimes higher, on the facade of a building and open to the air on one side, where it is supported by columns or pierced openings in the wall...
s and modern luxury accommodation.
Although the size of noble households shrank slightly during the 16th century, the number of guests at the largest castle events continued to grow. 2,000 came to a feast at Cawood Castle
Cawood Castle
Cawood Castle was a palace for the Archbishops of York. The remains of the castle are located in Cawood, a village in North Yorkshire, England.-History:...
in 1466, whilst the Duke of Buckingham
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham
Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham, KG was an English nobleman. He was the son of Henry Stafford, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and the former Lady Catherine Woodville, daughter of the 1st Earl Rivers and sister-in-law of King Edward IV.-Early life:Stafford was born at Brecknock Castle in Wales...
routinely entertained up to 519 people at Thornbury Castle
Thornbury Castle
Thornbury Castle is a castle in Thornbury, South Gloucestershire, England. It was begun in 1511 as a home for Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham. It is not a true castle , but rather an early example of a Tudor country house, with minimal defensive attributes. It is now a grade I listed...
at the start of the 16th century. When Elizabeth I
Elizabeth I of England
Elizabeth I was queen regnant of England and Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death. Sometimes called The Virgin Queen, Gloriana, or Good Queen Bess, Elizabeth was the fifth and last monarch of the Tudor dynasty...
visited Kenilworth in 1575 she brought an entourage of 31 barons and 400 staff for a visit that lasted an exceptional 19 days; Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester
Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, KG was an English nobleman and the favourite and close friend of Elizabeth I from her first year on the throne until his death...
, the castle's owner, entertained the Queen and much of the neighbouring region with pageants, fireworks, bear baiting
Bear-baiting
Bear-baiting is a blood sport involving the worrying or tormenting of bears.-Bear-baiting in England:Bear-baiting was popular in England until the nineteenth century. From the sixteenth century, many herds of bears were maintained for baiting...
, mystery play
Mystery play
Mystery plays and miracle plays are among the earliest formally developed plays in medieval Europe. Medieval mystery plays focused on the representation of Bible stories in churches as tableaux with accompanying antiphonal song...
s, hunting and lavish banquets. With this scale of living and entertainment the need to find more space in older castles became a major issue in both England and Scotland.
Tower houses
Barmkin
Barmkin, also spelled barmekin or barnekin, is a Scots word which refers to a form of medieval and later defensive enclosure, typically found around smaller castles, tower houses, pele towers, and bastle houses in Scotland, and the north of England. It has been suggested that etymologically the...
or bawn
Bawn
A bawn is the defensive wall surrounding an Irish tower house. It is the anglicised version of the Irish word badhún meaning "cattle-stronghold" or "cattle-enclosure". The Irish word for "cow" is bó and its plural is ba...
, a walled courtyard designed to hold valuable animals securely, but not necessarily intended for serious defence. Many of the gateways in these buildings were guarded with yett
Yett
A yett is a gate or grille of latticed wrought iron bars used for defensive purposes in castles and tower houses...
s, grill-like doors made out of metal bars. Smaller versions of tower houses in northern England and southern Scotland were known as Peel tower
Peel tower
Peel towers are small fortified keeps or tower houses, built along the English and Scottish borders in the Scottish Marches and North of England, intended as watch towers where signal fires could be lit by the garrison to warn of approaching danger...
s, or pele houses, and were built along both sides of the border regions. In Scotland a number were built in Scottish towns. It was originally argued that Irish tower houses were based on the Scottish design, but the pattern of development of such castles in Ireland does not support this hypothesis.
The defences of tower houses were primarily aimed to provide protection against smaller raiding parties and were not intended to put up significant opposition to an organised military assault, leading historian Stuart Reid to characterise them as "defensible rather then defensive". Gunports for heavier guns were built into some Scottish tower houses by the 16th century but it was more common to use lighter gunpowder weapons, such as muskets, to defend Scottish tower houses. Unlike Scotland, Irish tower houses were only defended with relatively light handguns and frequently reused older arrowloops, rather than more modern designs, in order to save money.
Analysis of the construction of tower houses has focused on two key driving forces. The first is that the construction of these castles appears to have been linked to period of instability and insecurity in the areas concerned. In Scotland James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
's forfeiture of the Lordship of the Isles
Lord of the Isles
The designation Lord of the Isles is today a title of Scottish nobility with historical roots that go back beyond the Kingdom of Scotland. It emerged from a series of hybrid Viking/Gaelic rulers of the west coast and islands of Scotland in the Middle Ages, who wielded sea-power with fleets of...
in 1494 led to an immediate burst of castle building across the region and, over the longer term, an increased degree of clan warfare, whilst the subsequent wars with England in the 1540s added to the level of insecurity over the rest of the century. Irish tower houses were built from the end of the 14th century onward as the countryside disintegrated into the unstable control of a large number of small lordships and Henry VI
Henry VI of England
Henry VI was King of England from 1422 to 1461 and again from 1470 to 1471, and disputed King of France from 1422 to 1453. Until 1437, his realm was governed by regents. Contemporaneous accounts described him as peaceful and pious, not suited for the violent dynastic civil wars, known as the Wars...
promoted their construction with financial rewards in a bid to improve security. English tower houses were built along the frontier with Scotland in a dangerous and insecure period. Secondly, and paradoxically, appears to have been the periods of relative prosperity. Contemporary historian William Camden
William Camden
William Camden was an English antiquarian, historian, topographer, and officer of arms. He wrote the first chorographical survey of the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and the first detailed historical account of the reign of Elizabeth I of England.- Early years :Camden was born in London...
observed of the northern English and the Scots, "there is not a man amongst them of a better sort that hath not his little tower or pile", and many tower houses seem to have been built as much as status symbols as defensive structures. Along the English-Scottish borders the construction pattern follows the relative prosperity of the different side: the English lords built tower houses primarily in the early 15th century, when northern England was particularly prosperous, whilst their Scottish equivalents built them in late 15th and early 16th centuries, boom periods in the economy of Scotland. In Ireland the growth of tower houses during the 15th century mirrors the rise of cattle herding and the resulting wealth that this brought to many of the lesser lords in Ireland.
Further development of gunpowder artillery
Embrasure
In military architecture, an embrasure is the opening in a crenellation or battlement between the two raised solid portions or merlons, sometimes called a crenel or crenelle...
were adapted to allow cannons and other firearms to be used in a defensive role, but offensively gunpowder weapons still remained relatively unreliable. England had lagged behind Europe in adapting to this new form of warfare; Dartmouth
Dartmouth Castle
Dartmouth Castle is one of a pair of forts, the other being Kingswear Castle, that guard the mouth of the Dart Estuary in Devon, England .A small fortalice was built in 1388 under the direction of John Hawley...
and Kingswear Castle
Kingswear Castle
Kingswear Castle was built between 1491 and 1502 as a coastal artillery tower for use with heavy cannon. It is located in Devon, England.Owing to the limited range of cannon at the time, the fort at Kingswear was designed to work alongside Dartmouth Castle on the opposite bank, so that between them...
s, built in the 1490s to defend the River Dart
River Dart
The River Dart is a river in Devon, England which rises high on Dartmoor, and releases to the sea at Dartmouth. Its valley and surrounding area is a place of great natural beauty.-Watercourse:...
, and Bayard's Cover
Bayard's Cove Fort
Bayard's Cover Fort is a small early Tudor artillery fort, built to defend the harbour entrance at Dartmouth, Devon, England.The tower was a third means of defence for the port, providing additional fire to protect the port should any enemy ships have broken past Dartmouth Castle and Kingswear...
, designed in 1510 to defend Dartmouth harbour itself, were amongst the few English castles designed in the continental style during the period, and even these lagged behind the cutting edge of European design. Scottish castles were more advanced in this regard, partially as a result of the stronger French architectural influences. Ravenscraig Castle
Ravenscraig Castle
Ravenscraig Castle is a ruined castle located in Kirkcaldy which dates from around 1460. The castle is an early example of artillery defence in Scotland...
in Scotland, for example, was an early attempt in the 1460s to deploy a combination of "letter box" gun-ports and low-curved stone towers for artillery weapons. These letter box gun-ports, common in Europe, rapidly spread across Scotland but were rarely used in England during the 15th century. Scotland also led the way in adopting the new caponier
Caponier
A caponier is a type of fortification structure. The word originates from the French word "caponnière" - which strictly means capon-cote i.e. chickenhouse.The fire coming from the feature A caponier is a type of fortification structure. The word originates from the French word "caponnière" -...
design for castle ditches, as constructed at Craignethan Castle
Craignethan Castle
Craignethan Castle is a ruined castle in South Lanarkshire, Scotland. It is located above the River Nethan, a tributary of the River Clyde, at . The castle is two miles west of the village of Crossford, and 4.5 miles north-west of Lanark...
.
Henry VIII
Henry VIII of England
Henry VIII was King of England from 21 April 1509 until his death. He was Lord, and later King, of Ireland, as well as continuing the nominal claim by the English monarchs to the Kingdom of France...
became concerned with the threat of French invasion during 1539 and was familiar with the more modern continental designs. He responded to the threat by building a famous sequence of forts, called the Device Forts
Device Forts
The Device Forts, also known as Henrician Castles, are a series of artillery fortifications built to defend the southern coast of England by Henry VIII. After his divorce of Catherine of Aragon England was left politically isolated, and the peace of Nice between France and Spain in 1538 aroused...
or Henrician Castles, along the south coast of England specifically designed to be equipped with, and to defend against, gunpowder artillery. These forts still lacked some of the more modern continental features, such as angled bastions. Each fort had a slightly different design, but as a group they shared common features, with the fortification formed around a number of compact lobes, often in a quatrefoil
Quatrefoil
The word quatrefoil etymologically means "four leaves", and applies to general four-lobed shapes in various contexts.-In heraldry:In heraldic terminology, a quatrefoil is a representation of a flower with four petals, or a leaf with four leaflets . It is sometimes shown "slipped", i.e. with an...
or trefoil
Trefoil
Trefoil is a graphic form composed of the outline of three overlapping rings used in architecture and Christian symbolism...
shape, designed to give the guns a 360 degree angle of fire. The forts were usually tiered to allow the guns to fire over one another and had features such as vents to disperse the gunpowder smoke. It is probable that many of the forts were also originally protected by earth bulwarks, although these have not survived. The resulting forts have been described by historian Christopher Duffy as having "an air at once sturdy and festive, rather like a squashed wedding cake".
These coastal defences marked a shift away from castles, which were both military fortifications and domestic buildings, towards forts, which were garrisoned but not domestic; often the 1540s are chosen as a transition date for the study of castles as a consequence. The subsequent years also marked almost the end of indigenous English fortification design – by the 1580s English castle improvements were almost entirely dominated by imported European experts. The superiority of Scottish castle design also diminished; the Half Moon battery built at Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
in 1574, for example, was already badly dated in continental terms by the time it was built. The limited number of modern fortifications built in Ireland, such as those with the first gunports retrofitted to Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle is a Norman castle in Northern Ireland, situated in the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough. Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French, the castle played an important military role until 1928 and remains one of the best...
in the 1560s and at Corkbeg in Cork Harbour
Cork Harbour
Cork Harbour is a natural harbour and river estuary at the mouth of the River Lee in County Cork, Ireland. It is one of several which lay claim to the title of "second largest natural harbour in the world by navigational area" . Other contenders include Halifax Harbour in Canada, and Poole Harbour...
and built in the 1570s in fear of an invasion, were equally unexceptional by European standards.
Nonetheless, improved gunpowder artillery played a part in the reconquest of Ireland in the 1530s, where the successful English siege of Maynooth Castle
Maynooth Castle
Maynooth Castle is a castle in Maynooth, County Kildare, Ireland.The castle was built before the middle of the 13th century and was the home of the Fitzgerald family from 1176 until the 1534 rebellion of Silken Thomas, the son of the ninth Earl of Kildare...
in 1530 demonstrated power of new siege guns. There were still relatively few guns in Ireland however and, during the Nine Years' War
Nine Years' War (Ireland)
The Nine Years' War or Tyrone's Rebellion took place in Ireland from 1594 to 1603. It was fought between the forces of Gaelic Irish chieftains Hugh O'Neill of Tír Eoghain, Hugh Roe O'Donnell of Tír Chonaill and their allies, against English rule in Ireland. The war was fought in all parts of the...
at the end of the century, the Irish were proved relatively unskilled in siege warfare with artillery used mainly by the English. In both Ireland and Scotland the challenge was how to transport artillery pieces to castle sieges; the poor state of Scottish roads required expensive trains of pack horses, which only the king could afford, and in Ireland the river network had to be frequently used to transport the weapons inland. In these circumstances older castles could frequently remain viable defensive features, although the siege of Cahir Castle
Siege of Cahir Castle
The Siege of Cahir Castle took place in Munster, in southern Ireland in 1599, during the campaign of the Earl of Essex against the rebels in the Nine Years War . Although the castle was considered the strongest fortress in the country, Essex took it after only a few days of artillery bombardment...
in 1599 and the attack on Dunyvaig Castle
Dunyvaig Castle
Dunyvaig Castle, is located on the south side of Islay, on the shore of Lagavulin Bay, from Port Ellen. The castle was once a naval base of the Lord of the Isles, chiefs of Clan Donald. It was held by the chiefs of the Clan MacDonald of Dunnyveg....
on Islay in 1614 proved that if artillery could be brought to bear, previously impregnable castle walls might fall relatively quickly.
Wars of the Three Kingdoms
In 1603 James VI of Scotland inherited the crown of England, bringing a period of peace between the two countries. The royal court left for London and, as a result – with the exceptions of occasional visits, building work on royal castles north of the border largely ceased. Investment in English castles, especially royal castles, declined dramatically. James sold off many royal castles in England to property developers, including YorkYork Castle
York Castle in the city of York, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruinous keep of the medieval Norman castle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's...
and Southampton Castle
Southampton Castle
Southampton Castle was located in the town of Southampton in Hampshire, England. Constructed after the Norman conquest of England, it was located in the north-west corner of the town overlooking the River Test, initially as a wooden motte and bailey design...
. A royal inspection in 1609 highlighted that the Edwardian castles of North Wales, including Conwy
Conwy Castle
Conwy Castle is a castle in Conwy, on the north coast of Wales.It was built between 1283 and 1289 during King Edward I's second campaign in North Wales....
, Beaumaris
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...
and Caernarfon
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
were "[u]tterlie decayed".; a subsequent inspection of various English counties in 1635 found a similar picture: Lincoln
Lincoln Castle
Lincoln Castle is a major castle constructed in Lincoln, England during the late 11th century by William the Conqueror on the site of a pre-existing Roman fortress. The castle is unusual in that it has two mottes. It is only one of two such castles in the country, the other being at Lewes in Sussex...
, Kendal
Kendal Castle
Kendal Castle is situated on a mound-like hill, known as a drumlin, to the east of the town of Kendal, Cumbria, in northern England.- History :The castle was probably built in the late 12th century as the home of the Lancaster family who were Barons of Kendal...
, York, Nottingham
Nottingham Castle
Nottingham Castle is a castle in Nottingham, England. It is located in a commanding position on a natural promontory known as "'Castle Rock'", with cliffs high to the south and west. In the Middle Ages it was a major royal fortress and occasional royal residence...
, Bristol
Bristol Castle
Bristol Castle was a Norman castle built for the defence of Bristol. Remains can be seen today in Castle Park near the Broadmead Shopping Centre, including the sally port.-History:...
, Queenborough, Southampton
Southampton Castle
Southampton Castle was located in the town of Southampton in Hampshire, England. Constructed after the Norman conquest of England, it was located in the north-west corner of the town overlooking the River Test, initially as a wooden motte and bailey design...
and Rochester
Rochester Castle
Rochester Castle stands on the east bank of the River Medway in Rochester, Kent, England. The 12th-century keep or stone tower, which is the castle's most prominent feature, is one of the best preserved in England or France. Located along the River Medway and Watling Street, Rochester was a...
were amongst those in a state of dilapidation. In 1642 one pamphlet described many English castles as "muche decayed" and as requiring "much provision" for "warlike defence". Those maintained as private homes; such as Arundel
Arundel Castle
Arundel Castle in Arundel, West Sussex, England is a restored medieval castle. It was founded by Roger de Montgomery on Christmas Day 1067. Roger became the first to hold the earldom of Arundel by the graces of William the Conqueror...
, Berkeley
Berkeley Castle
Berkeley Castle is a castle in the town of Berkeley, Gloucestershire, UK . The castle's origins date back to the 11th century and it has been designated by English Heritage as a grade I listed building.The castle has remained within the Berkeley family since they reconstructed it in the...
, Carlisle
Carlisle Castle
Carlisle Castle is situated in Carlisle, in the English county of Cumbria, near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history. Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland, it...
and Winchester
Winchester Castle
Winchester Castle is a medieval building in Hampshire, England. It was founded in 1067. Only the Great Hall exists now; it houses a museum of the history of Winchester.-Great Hall:...
were in much better condition, but not necessarily defendable in a conflict; whilst some such as Bolsover
Bolsover Castle
Bolsover Castle is a castle in Bolsover, Derbyshire, England .-History:It was built by the Peverel family in the 12th century and became Crown property in 1155 when the third William Peverel fled into exile...
were redesigned as more modern dwellings in a Palladian
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
style. A handful of coastal forts and castles, amongst them Dover Castle
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
, remained in good military condition with adequate defences.
In 1642 the English Civil War
English Civil War
The English Civil War was a series of armed conflicts and political machinations between Parliamentarians and Royalists...
broke out, initially between supporters of Parliament and the Royalist supporters of Charles I
Charles I of England
Charles I was King of England, King of Scotland, and King of Ireland from 27 March 1625 until his execution in 1649. Charles engaged in a struggle for power with the Parliament of England, attempting to obtain royal revenue whilst Parliament sought to curb his Royal prerogative which Charles...
. The war expanded to include Ireland and Scotland, and dragged on into three separate conflicts in England itself. The war was the first prolonged conflict in Britain to involve the use of artillery and gunpowder. English castles were used for various purposes during the conflict. York Castle
York Castle
York Castle in the city of York, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruinous keep of the medieval Norman castle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's...
formed a key part of the city defences, with a military governor; rural castles such as Goodrich
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a now ruinous Norman medieval castle situated to the north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye...
could be used a bases for raiding and for control of the surrounding countryside; larger castles, such as Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
, became used for holding prisoners of war or as military headquarters. During the war castles were frequently brought back into fresh use: existing defences would be renovated, whilst walls would be "countermured
Contramure
In military fortification, a contramure, or countermure, is a wall raised behind another, to supply its place when breached or destroyed.The term was also used to refer to an outer wall, built around the wall of a city....
", or backed by earth, in order to protect from cannons. Towers and keeps were filled with earth to make gun platforms, such as at Carlisle
Carlisle Castle
Carlisle Castle is situated in Carlisle, in the English county of Cumbria, near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history. Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland, it...
and Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle situated on the west edge of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. The original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced with stone in the 11th century and played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy...
. New earth bastions could be added to existing designs, such as at Cambridge
Cambridge Castle
Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in the town of the same name in Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conflicts of the Anarchy, the First and...
and Carew Castle
Carew Castle
Carew Castle is a castle in the civil parish of Carew in the Welsh county of Pembrokeshire. The famous Carew family take their name from the place, and still own the castle, although it is leased to the Pembrokeshire Coast National Park, which administers the site.-Construction:The present castle,...
and at the otherwise unfortified Basing House
Basing House
Basing House was a major Tudor palace and castle in the village of Old Basing in the English county of Hampshire. It once rivaled Hampton Court Palace in its size and opulence. Today only its foundations and earthworks remain...
the surrounding Norman ringwork
Ringwork
A ringwork is a form of fortified defensive structure, usually circular or oval in shape. Ringworks are essentially motte-and-bailey castles minus the motte...
was brought back into commission. The costs could be considerable, with the work at Skipton Castle
Skipton Castle
Skipton Castle is situated within the town of Skipton, North Yorkshire, England. The castle has been preserved for over 900 years, built in 1090 by Robert de Romille, a Norman baron.- History :...
coming to over £1000.
Sieges became a prominent part of the war with over 300 occurring during the period, many of them involving castles. Indeed, as Robert Liddiard suggests, the "military role of some castles in the seventeenth century is out of all proportion to their medieval histories". Artillery formed an essential part of these sieges, with the "characteristic military action" according to military historian Stephen Bull, being "an attack on a fortified strongpoint" supported by artillery. The ratio of artillery pieces to defenders varied considerably in sieges, but in all cases there were more guns than in previous conflicts; up to one artillery piece for every nine defenders was not unknown in extreme cases, such as near Pendennis Castle
Pendennis Castle
Pendennis Castle is a Henrician castle, also known as one of Henry VIII's Device Forts, in the English county of Cornwall. It was built in 1539 for King Henry VIII to guard the entrance to the River Fal on its west bank, near Falmouth. St Mawes Castle is its opposite number on the east bank and...
. The growth in the number and size of siege artillery favoured those who had the resources to purchase and deploy these weapons. Artillery had improved by the 1640s but was still not always decisive, as the lighter cannon of the period found it hard to penetrate earth and timber bulwarks and defences – demonstrated in the siege of Corfe
Corfe Castle
Corfe Castle is a village and civil parish in the English county of Dorset. It is the site of a ruined castle of the same name. The village and castle stand over a gap in the Purbeck Hills on the route between Wareham and Swanage. The village lies in the gap below the castle, and is some eight...
. Mortar
Mortar (weapon)
A mortar is an indirect fire weapon that fires explosive projectiles known as bombs at low velocities, short ranges, and high-arcing ballistic trajectories. It is typically muzzle-loading and has a barrel length less than 15 times its caliber....
s, able to lob fire over the taller walls, proved particularly effective against castles – in particular those more compact ones with smaller courtyards and open areas, such as at Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
.
The heavy artillery introduced in England eventually spread to the rest of the British Isles. Although up to a thousand Irish soldiers who had served in Europe returned during the war, bringing with them experience of siege warfare from the Thirty Years' War
Thirty Years' War
The Thirty Years' War was fought primarily in what is now Germany, and at various points involved most countries in Europe. It was one of the most destructive conflicts in European history....
in Europe, it was the arrival of Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell
Oliver Cromwell was an English military and political leader who overthrew the English monarchy and temporarily turned England into a republican Commonwealth, and served as Lord Protector of England, Scotland, and Ireland....
's train of siege guns in 1649 that transformed the conflict, and the fate of local castles. None of the Irish castles could withstand these Parliamentary weapons and most quickly surrendered. In 1650 Cromwell invaded Scotland and again his heavily artillery proved decisive.
The Restoration
At the end of the Second English Civil WarSecond English Civil War
The Second English Civil War was the second of three wars known as the English Civil War which refers to the series of armed conflicts and political machinations which took place between Parliamentarians and Royalists from 1642 until 1652 and also include the First English Civil War and the...
in 1649, Parliament took steps to prevent another royalist uprising. Many castles, particularly in prominent royalist regions, were slighted
Slighting
A slighting is the deliberate destruction, partial or complete, of a fortification without opposition. During the English Civil War this was to render it unusable as a fort.-Middle Ages:...
, or damaged so as to prevent them from having any further military utility. Around 150 fortifications were slighted in this period, including 38 town walls and a great many castles. Slighting was quite expensive and took some considerable effort to carry out, so damage was usually done in the most cost efficient fashion with only selected walls being destroyed. In some cases the damage was almost total, such as Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle
Pontefract Castle is a castle in the town of Pontefract, in the City of Wakefield, West Yorkshire, England. It was the site of the demise of Richard II of England, and later the place of a series of famous sieges during the English Civil War-History:...
which had been involved in three major sieges and in this case at the request of the townsfolk who wished to avoid further conflict.
By the time that Charles II
Charles II of England
Charles II was monarch of the three kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland.Charles II's father, King Charles I, was executed at Whitehall on 30 January 1649, at the climax of the English Civil War...
was restored to the throne in 1660, the major palace-fortresses in England that had survived slighting were typically in a poor state. As historian Simon Thurley has described, the shifting "functional requirements, patterns of movement, modes of transport, aesthetic taste and standards of comfort" amongst royal circles were also changing the qualities being sought in a successful castle. Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture
Palladian architecture is a European style of architecture derived from the designs of the Venetian architect Andrea Palladio . The term "Palladian" normally refers to buildings in a style inspired by Palladio's own work; that which is recognised as Palladian architecture today is an evolution of...
was growing in popularity, which sat awkwardly with the typical design of a medieval castle. Furthermore the fashionable French court etiquette at the time required a substantial number of enfilade
Enfilade (architecture)
In architecture, an enfilade is a suite of rooms formally aligned with each other. This was a common feature in grand European architecture from the Baroque period onwards, although there are earlier examples, such as the Vatican stanze...
d rooms, in order to satisfy court protocol, and it was impractical to fit these rooms into many older buildings. A shortage of funds curtailed Charles II's attempts to remodel his remaining castles and the redesign of Windsor
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
was the only one to be fully completed in the Restoration years.
Many castles still retained a defensive role. Castles in England, such as Chepstow
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
and York Castle
York Castle
York Castle in the city of York, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruinous keep of the medieval Norman castle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's...
, were repaired and garrisoned by the king. As military technologies progressed the costs of upgrading older castles could be prohibitive – the estimated £30,000 required for the potential conversion of York in 1682, approximately £4,050,000 in 2009 terms, gives a scale of the potential costs. Castles played a minimal role in the Glorious Revolution
Glorious Revolution
The Glorious Revolution, also called the Revolution of 1688, is the overthrow of King James II of England by a union of English Parliamentarians with the Dutch stadtholder William III of Orange-Nassau...
of 1688, although some fortifications such as Dover Castle
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
were attacked by mobs unhappy with the religious beliefs of their Catholic governors, and the sieges of King John's Castle in Limerick
Limerick
Limerick is the third largest city in the Republic of Ireland, and the principal city of County Limerick and Ireland's Mid-West Region. It is the fifth most populous city in all of Ireland. When taking the extra-municipal suburbs into account, Limerick is the third largest conurbation in the...
formed part of the endgame to the war in Ireland. In the north of Britain security problems persisted in Scotland. Cromwellian forces had built a number of new modern forts and barracks, but the royal castles of Edinburgh
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
, Dumbarton
Dumbarton Castle
Dumbarton Castle has the longest recorded history of any stronghold in Great Britain. It overlooks the Scottish town of Dumbarton, and sits on a plug of volcanic basalt known as Dumbarton Rock which is high.-Iron Age:...
and Stirling, along with Dunstaffnage
Dunstaffnage Castle
Dunstaffnage Castle is a partially ruined castle in Argyll and Bute, western Scotland. It lies N.N.E. of Oban, situated on a platform of conglomerate rock on a promontory at the south-west of the entrance to Loch Etive, and is surrounded on three sides by the sea.The castle dates back to the 13th...
, Dunollie
Dunollie Castle
Dunollie Castle is a small ruin located on a hill north of the town of Oban, on the west coast Scotland. It commands a view of the town, harbour and, outlying isles. The ruin is accessible by a short, steep path. There is no entrance fee, there is a small layby at the foot of the hill...
and Ruthven Castle, also continued in use as practical fortifications. Tower houses were being built up until the 1640s; after the Restoration the fortified tower house fell out of fashion, but the weak state of the Scottish economy was such that whilst many larger properties were simply abandoned, the more modest castles continued to be used and adapted as houses, rather than rebuilt. In Ireland tower houses and castles remained in use until after the Glorious Revolution, when events led to a dramatic shift in land ownership and a boom in the building of Palladian country houses; in many cases using timbers stripped from the older, abandoned generation of castles and tower houses.
Military and governmental use
Some castles in Britain and Ireland continued to have modest military utility into the 18th century. Up until 1745 a sequence of Jacobite risings threatened the Crown in Scotland, culminating in the rebellion in 1745Jacobite Rising of 1745
The Jacobite rising of 1745, often referred to as "The 'Forty-Five," was the attempt by Charles Edward Stuart to regain the British throne for the exiled House of Stuart. The rising occurred during the War of the Austrian Succession when most of the British Army was on the European continent...
. Various royal castles were maintained during the period either as part of the English border defences, like Carlisle
Carlisle Castle
Carlisle Castle is situated in Carlisle, in the English county of Cumbria, near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history. Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland, it...
, or forming part of the internal security measures in Scotland itself, like Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
. Stirling was able to withstand the Jacobite attack in 1745, although Carlisle was taken; the siege of Blair Castle
Blair Castle
Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the home of the Clan Murray family, who hold the title of Duke of Atholl, though the current Duke, John Murray, lives in South Africa....
, at the end of the rebellion in 1746, was the final castle siege to occur in the British Isles. In the aftermath of the conflict Corgaff
Corgarff Castle
Corgarff Castle is a castle in Corgarff, Aberdeenshire, Scotland.Through much of its history Corgarff has been of strategic importance, guarding the quickest route from Deeside to Speyside, a route later followed by the military road from Blairgowrie to Fort George...
and many others castles were used as barracks for the forces sent to garrison the Highlands
Scottish Highlands
The Highlands is an historic region of Scotland. The area is sometimes referred to as the "Scottish Highlands". It was culturally distinguishable from the Lowlands from the later Middle Ages into the modern period, when Lowland Scots replaced Scottish Gaelic throughout most of the Lowlands...
. Some castles, such as Portchester
Portchester Castle
Portchester Castle is a medieval castle built within a former Roman fort at Portchester to the east of Fareham in the English county of Hampshire. Probably founded in the late 11th century, Portchester was a baronial castle that was taken under royal control in 1154. The monarchy controlled...
, were used for holding prisoners of war during the Napoleonic Wars
Napoleonic Wars
The Napoleonic Wars were a series of wars declared against Napoleon's French Empire by opposing coalitions that ran from 1803 to 1815. As a continuation of the wars sparked by the French Revolution of 1789, they revolutionised European armies and played out on an unprecedented scale, mainly due to...
at the end of the century and were re-equipped in case of a popular uprising during this revolutionary period. In Ireland Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
was rebuilt following a fire and reaffirmed as the centre of British administrative and military power.
Many castles remained in use as county gaols, run by gaolers as effectively private businesses; frequently this involved the gatehouse being maintained as the main prison building, as at Cambridge
Cambridge Castle
Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in the town of the same name in Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conflicts of the Anarchy, the First and...
, Bridgnorth
Bridgnorth Castle
Bridgnorth Castle is in the town of Bridgnorth, Shropshire beside the River Severn .The castle was founded in 1101 by Robert de Belleme, the son of the French Earl, Roger de Montgomery, who succeeded his father to become the Earl of Shrewsbury...
, Lancaster
Lancaster Castle
Lancaster Castle is a medieval castle located in Lancaster in the English county of Lancashire. Its early history is unclear, but may have been founded in the 11th century on the site of a Roman fort overlooking a crossing of the River Lune. In 1164, the Honour of Lancaster, including the...
, Newcastle and St Briavels. During the 1770s the prison reformer John Howard
John Howard (prison reformer)
John Howard was a philanthropist and the first English prison reformer.-Birth and early life:Howard was born in Lower Clapton, London. His father, also John, was a wealthy upholsterer at Smithfield Market in the city...
conducted his famous survey of prisons and gaols, culminating in his 1777 work The State of the Prisons. This documented the poor quality of these castle facilities; prisoners in Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...
lived in a dungeon, with the floor frequently covered by an inch of water; Oxford
Oxford Castle
Oxford Castle is a large, partly ruined Norman medieval castle situated on the west edge of Oxford in Oxfordshire, England. The original moated, wooden motte and bailey castle was replaced with stone in the 11th century and played an important role in the conflict of the Anarchy...
was "close and offensive"; Worcester
Worcester Castle
Worcester Castle was a Norman fortification built between 1068 and 1069 in Worcester, England by Urse d'Abetot on behalf of William the Conqueror. The castle had a motte-and-bailey design and was located on the south side of the old Anglo-Saxon city, cutting into the grounds of Worcester Cathedral...
was so subject to gaol-fever
Typhus
Epidemic typhus is a form of typhus so named because the disease often causes epidemics following wars and natural disasters...
that the castle surgeon would not enter the prison; Gloucester
Gloucester Castle
Gloucester Castle was a castle in the cathedral city of Gloucester in the county of Gloucestershire.- Early Norman Motte & Bailey Castle :It began as a motte castle during the reign of William the Conqueror when 16 houses were demolished to make way for it. It was enlarged by William Rufus who...
was "wretched in the extreme". Howard's work caused a shift in public opinion against the use of these older castle facilities as gaols.
Social and cultural use
Castle Howard
Castle Howard is a stately home in North Yorkshire, England, north of York. One of the grandest private residences in Britain, most of it was built between 1699 and 1712 for the 3rd Earl of Carlisle, to a design by Sir John Vanbrugh...
, or at "Capability" Brown's reworking of Wardour Castle
Wardour Castle
Wardour Castle is located at Wardour, near Tisbury in the English county of Wiltshire, about west of Salisbury. The original castle was partially destroyed during the Civil War...
. Alternatively, ruins might be repaired and reinforced to present a more suitable appearance, as at Harewood Castle
Harewood Castle
Harewood Castle is a 12th-century stone hall house and courtyard fortress, located on the Harewood Estate, Harewood, in Leeds, West Yorkshire, England . Harewood Castle is a grade I listed building.-History:...
. In other cases mottes, such as that at Groby Castle
Groby Castle
Groby Castle was situated in the large village of Groby to the north-west of the city of Leicester.-History:After the Norman Conquest, the area came into the possession of Hugh de Grantmesnil. Groby was one of 67 manors Grantmesnil held in Leicestershire according to the Domesday Book...
, were reused as the bases for dramatic follies
Folly
In architecture, a folly is a building constructed primarily for decoration, but either suggesting by its appearance some other purpose, or merely so extravagant that it transcends the normal range of garden ornaments or other class of building to which it belongs...
, or alternatively entirely new castle follies could be created; either from scratch or by reusing original stonework, as occurred during the building of Conygar Tower
Conygar Tower
The Conygar Tower in Dunster, Somerset, England was built in 1775 and has been designated as a Grade II listed building.It is a circular, 3 storey folly tower built of red sandstone, situated on a hill overlooking the village. It was commissioned by Henry Luttrell and designed by Richard Phelps and...
for which various parts of Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle
Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a country house, in the village of Dunster, Somerset, England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo-Saxon period. After the Norman conquest of England in the 11th century,...
were cannibalised.
At the same time castles were becoming tourist attractions for the first time. By the 1740s Windsor Castle had become an early tourist attraction; wealthier visitors who could afford to pay the castle keeper could enter, see curiosities such as the castle's narwhal
Narwhal
The narwhal, Monodon monoceros, is a medium-sized toothed whale that lives year-round in the Arctic. One of two living species of whale in the Monodontidae family, along with the beluga whale, the narwhal males are distinguished by a characteristic long, straight, helical tusk extending from their...
horn, and by the 1750s buy the first guidebooks. The first guidebook to Kenilworth Castle followed in 1777 with many later editions following in the coming decades. By the 1780s and 1790s visitors were beginning to progress as far as Chepstow
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
, where an attractive female guide escorted tourists around the ruins as part of the popular Wye Tour. In Scotland Blair Castle
Blair Castle
Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the home of the Clan Murray family, who hold the title of Duke of Atholl, though the current Duke, John Murray, lives in South Africa....
became a popular attraction on account of its landscaped gardens, as did Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle
Stirling Castle, located in Stirling, is one of the largest and most important castles, both historically and architecturally, in Scotland. The castle sits atop Castle Hill, an intrusive crag, which forms part of the Stirling Sill geological formation. It is surrounded on three sides by steep...
with its romantic connections. Caernarfon
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
in North Wales appealed to many visitors, especially artists. Irish castles proved less popular, partially because contemporary tourists regarded the country as being somewhat backward and the ruins therefore failed to provide the necessary romantic contrast with modern life.
The appreciation of castles developed as the century progressed. During the 1770s and 1780s the concept of the picturesque
Picturesque
Picturesque is an aesthetic ideal introduced into English cultural debate in 1782 by William Gilpin in Observations on the River Wye, and Several Parts of South Wales, etc. Relative Chiefly to Picturesque Beauty; made in the Summer of the Year 1770, a practical book which instructed England's...
ruin was popularised by the English clergyman William Gilpin
William Gilpin (clergyman)
The Reverend William Gilpin was an English artist, clergyman, schoolmaster, and author, best known as one of the originators of the idea of the picturesque.-Early life:...
. Gilpin published several works on his journeys through Britain, expounding the concept of the "correctly picturesque" landscape. Such a landscape, Gilpin argued, usually required a building such as a castle or other ruin to add "consequence" to the natural picture. Paintings in this style usually portrayed castles as indistinct, faintly coloured objects in the distance; in writing, the picturesque account eschewed detail in favour of bold first impressions on the sense. The ruins of Goodrich
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a now ruinous Norman medieval castle situated to the north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye...
particularly appealed to Gilpin and his followers; Conwy
Conwy Castle
Conwy Castle is a castle in Conwy, on the north coast of Wales.It was built between 1283 and 1289 during King Edward I's second campaign in North Wales....
was, however, too well preserved and uninteresting. By contrast the artistic work of antiquarians James Bentham
James Bentham
James Bentham was an English clergyman and historian of Ely.-Life:From a clerical family, he was the fourth son of the Rev. Samuel Bentham, vicar of Witchford near Ely, and brother of Edward Bentham. From Ely grammar school, he was admitted 26 March 1727 to Trinity College, Cambridge, where he...
and James Essex
James Essex
-Professional life:Essex was the son of a builder who had fitted the sash windows and wainscot in the Senate House , under James Gibbs; and also worked on the hall of Queens' College, Cambridge . He died in February 1749....
at the end of the century, whilst stopping short of being genuine archaeology, was detailed and precise enough to provide a substantial base of architectural fine detail on medieval castle features and enabled the work of architects such as Wyatt.
Military and governmental use
Regimental depot
The regimental depot of a regiment is the regimental headquarters and normally also the place where recruits are assembled and trained. It is also where soldiers and officers awaiting discharge or postings are based, and where injured soldiers return to full fitness after discharge from hospital...
s, including Carlisle Castle
Carlisle Castle
Carlisle Castle is situated in Carlisle, in the English county of Cumbria, near the ruins of Hadrian's Wall. The castle is over 900 years old and has been the scene of many historical episodes in British history. Given the proximity of Carlisle to the border between England and Scotland, it...
and Chester Castle
Chester Castle
Chester Castle is in the city of Chester, Cheshire, England. It is sited at the southwest extremity of the area bounded by the city walls . The castle stands on an eminence overlooking the River Dee. In the castle complex are the remaining parts of the medieval castle together with the...
. Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle is a Norman castle in Northern Ireland, situated in the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough. Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French, the castle played an important military role until 1928 and remains one of the best...
was re-equipped with gunports in order to provide coastal defences at the end of the Napoleonic period. Political instability was a major issue during the early 19th century and the popularity of the Chartist movement
Chartism
Chartism was a movement for political and social reform in the United Kingdom during the mid-19th century, between 1838 and 1859. It takes its name from the People's Charter of 1838. Chartism was possibly the first mass working class labour movement in the world...
led to proposals to refortify the Tower of London in the event of civil unrest. In Ireland Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
played an increasing role in Ireland as Fenian
Fenian
The Fenians , both the Fenian Brotherhood and Irish Republican Brotherhood , were fraternal organisations dedicated to the establishment of an independent Irish Republic in the 19th and early 20th century. The name "Fenians" was first applied by John O'Mahony to the members of the Irish republican...
pressures for independence grew during the century.
The operation of local prisons in locations such as castles had been criticised, since John Howard's work in the 1770s, and pressure for reform continued to grow in the 1850s and 1860s. Reform of the legislation surrounding bankruptcy and debt
Debtors' Act of 1869
The Debtors' Act of 1869 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that aimed to reform the powers of courts to detain debtors.-Detail:...
in 1869 largely removed the threat of imprisonment for unpaid debts, and in the process eliminated the purpose of the debtor's prison
Debtor's prison
A debtors' prison is a prison for those who are unable to pay a debt.Prior to the mid 19th century debtors' prisons were a common way to deal with unpaid debt.-Debt bondage in ancient Greece and Rome:...
s in castles such as St Briavels. Efforts were made to regularise conditions in local prisons but without much success, and these failures led to prison reform in 1877
Prison Act 1877
The Prison Act of 1877 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland that aimed to alter the way in which British prisons were operated.-Detail:...
which nationalised British prisons, including prisons at castles like York
York Castle
York Castle in the city of York, England, is a fortified complex comprising, over the last nine centuries, a sequence of castles, prisons, law courts and other buildings on the south side of the River Foss. The now-ruinous keep of the medieval Norman castle is sometimes referred to as Clifford's...
. Compensation was paid to the former owners, although in cases such as York where the facilities were considered so poor as to require complete reconstruction, this payment was denied. In the short term this led to a 39% reduction in the number of prisons in England, including some famous castle prisons such as Norwich
Norwich Castle
Norwich Castle is a medieval royal fortification in the city of Norwich, in the English county of Norfolk. It was founded in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest of England when William the Conqueror ordered its construction because he wished to have a fortified place in the important city of...
; over the coming years, centralisation and changes in prison design led to the closure of most remaining castle prisons.
Social and cultural use
Many castles saw increased visitors by tourists, helped by better transport links and the growth of the railways. The armouries at the Tower of LondonTower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
opened for tourists in 1828 with 40,000 visitors in their first year; by 1858 the numbers had grown to over 100,000 a year. Attractions such as Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle
Warwick Castle is a medieval castle in Warwick, the county town of Warwickshire, England. It sits on a bend on the River Avon. The castle was built by William the Conqueror in 1068 within or adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. It was used as a fortification until the early 17th century,...
received 6,000 visitors during 1825 to 1826, many of them travelling from the growing industrial towns in the nearby Midlands, whilst Victorian tourists recorded being charged six-pence to wander around the ruins of Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a now ruinous Norman medieval castle situated to the north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye...
. The spread of the railway system across Wales and the Marches strongly influenced the flow of tourists to the region's castles. In Scotland tourist tours became increasingly popular during the 19th century, usually starting at Edinburgh complete with Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
, and then spending up to two weeks further north, taking advantage of the expanding rail and steamer network. Blair Castle
Blair Castle
Blair Castle stands in its grounds near the village of Blair Atholl in Perthshire in Scotland. It is the home of the Clan Murray family, who hold the title of Duke of Atholl, though the current Duke, John Murray, lives in South Africa....
remained popular, but additional castles joined the circuit – Cawdor Castle
Cawdor Castle
Cawdor Castle is a tower house set amid gardens in the parish of Cawdor, approximately 10 miles east of Inverness and 5 miles southwest of Nairn in Scotland, United Kingdom. It belonged to the Clan Calder. It still serves as home to the Dowager Countess Cawdor, stepmother of Colin Robert Vaughan...
became popular once the railway line reached north to Fort William
Fort William, Scotland
Fort William is the second largest settlement in the highlands of Scotland and the largest town: only the city of Inverness is larger.Fort William is a major tourist centre with Glen Coe just to the south, Aonach Mòr to the north and Glenfinnan to the west, on the Road to the Isles...
.
Purchasing and reading guidebooks became an increasingly important part of visiting castles; by the 1820s visitors could buy an early guidebook
GUIdebook
GUIdebook is a website that contains screenshots of computer software.It shows a visual history of the software's user interface. It includes operating systems like Mac OS and Windows, desktop environments like GNOME and KDE, portable operating systems like Newton OS and Windows CE, and...
at Goodrich outlining the castle's history, the first guidebook to the Tower of London was published in 1841 and Scottish castle guidebooks became well known for providing long historical accounts of their sites, often drawing on the plots of Romantic novels for the details. Indeed, Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
's historical novels Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe is a historical fiction novel by Sir Walter Scott in 1819, and set in 12th-century England. Ivanhoe is sometimes credited for increasing interest in Romanticism and Medievalism; John Henry Newman claimed Scott "had first turned men's minds in the direction of the middle ages," while...
and Kenilworth
Kenilworth (novel)
Kenilworth. A Romance is a historical novel by Sir Walter Scott, first published on 8 January 1821.-Plot introduction:Kenilworth is apparently set in 1575, and centers on the secret marriage of Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester, and Amy Robsart, daughter of Sir Hugh Robsart...
helped to establish the popular Victorian image of a Gothic medieval castle. Scott's novels set in Scotland also popularised several northern castles, including Tantallon
Tantallon Castle
Tantallon Castle is a mid-14th-century fortress, located east of North Berwick, in East Lothian, Scotland. It sits atop a promontory opposite the Bass Rock, looking out onto the Firth of Forth...
which was featured in Marmion. Histories of Ireland began to stress the role of castles in the rise of Protestantism and "British values" in Ireland, although tourism remained limited.
Eastnor Castle
Eastnor Castle is a 19th century mock castle, two miles from the town of Ledbury in Herefordshire, England, by the village of Eastnor. It was founded by John Cocks, 1st Earl Somers as his stately home and continues to be inhabited by his descendents. Currently in residence is the family of...
in 1815, the fake Norman
Norman architecture
About|Romanesque architecture, primarily English|other buildings in Normandy|Architecture of Normandy.File:Durham Cathedral. Nave by James Valentine c.1890.jpg|thumb|200px|The nave of Durham Cathedral demonstrates the characteristic round arched style, though use of shallow pointed arches above the...
castle of Penryhn
Penrhyn Castle
Penrhyn Castle is a country house in Llandegai, Bangor, Gwynedd, North Wales, in the form of a Norman castle. It was originally a medieval fortified manor house, founded by Ednyfed Fychan. In 1438, Ioan ap Gruffudd was granted a licence to crenellate and he founded the stone castle and added a...
between 1827 to 1837 and the imitation Edwardian
Edward I of England
Edward I , also known as Edward Longshanks and the Hammer of the Scots, was King of England from 1272 to 1307. The first son of Henry III, Edward was involved early in the political intrigues of his father's reign, which included an outright rebellion by the English barons...
castle of Goodrich Court
Goodrich Court
Goodrich Court was a 19th century, neo-gothic castle built by the antiquarian Sir Samuel Rush Meyrick in Goodrich, Herefordshire in 1828.Samuel Meyrick was a noted antiquarian with a strong interest in Welsh history and claimed, incorrectly, to be related to the Welsh prince Owain Gwynedd. Meyrick...
in 1828. The later Victorians built the Welsh Castell Coch
Castell Coch
Castell Coch is a 19th-century Gothic Revival castle built on the remains of a genuine 13th-century fortification. It is situated on a steep hillside high above the village of Tongwynlais, to the north of Cardiff in Wales, and is a Grade I listed building as of 28 January 1963.Designed by William...
in the 1880s as a fantasy Gothic construction and the last such replica, Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo
Castle Drogo is a country house near Drewsteignton, Devon, England. It was built in the 1910s and 1920s for Julius Drewe to designs by architect Edwin Lutyens, and is a Grade I listed building...
, was built as late as 1911.
Another response was to improve existing castles, bringing their often chaotic historic features into line with a more integrated architectural aesthetic in a style often termed Gothic Revivalism
Gothic Revival architecture
The Gothic Revival is an architectural movement that began in the 1740s in England...
. There were numerous attempts to restore or rebuild castles so as to produce a consistently Gothic style, informed by genuine medieval details, a movement in which the architect Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin
Anthony Salvin was an English architect. He gained a reputation as an expert on medieval buildings and applied this expertise to his new buildings and his restorations...
was particularly prominent – as illustrated by his reworking of Alnwick
Alnwick Castle
Alnwick Castle is a castle and stately home in the town of the same name in the English county of Northumberland. It is the residence of the Duke of Northumberland, built following the Norman conquest, and renovated and remodelled a number of times. It is a Grade I listed building.-History:Alnwick...
and much of Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
. A similar trend can be seen at Rothesay
Rothesay Castle
Rothesay Castle is a ruined castle in Rothesay, the principal town on the Isle of Bute, in western Scotland. Located at , the castle has been described as "one of the most remarkable in Scotland", for its long history dating back to the beginning of the 13th century, and its unusual circular...
where William Burges
William Burges (architect)
William Burges was an English architect and designer. Amongst the greatest of the Victorian art-architects, Burges sought in his work an escape from 19th century industrialisation and a return to the values, architectural and social, of an imagined mediaeval England...
renovated the older castle to produce a more "authentic" design, heavily influenced by the work of the French architect Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Viollet-le-Duc
Eugène Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc was a French architect and theorist, famous for his interpretive "restorations" of medieval buildings. Born in Paris, he was a major Gothic Revival architect.-Early years:...
. North of the border this resulted in the distinctive style of Scots Baronial Style architecture, which took French and traditional medieval Scottish features and reinvented them in a baroque style. The style also proved popular in Ireland with George Jones
George Fowler Jones
George Fowler Jones, was an architect , who was born in Aberdeen, Scotland, but based for most of his working life in York.-Biography and work:...
' Oliver Castle
Oliver Castle
Oliver Castle was a small tower house, located in the upper Tweed Valley in the Scottish Borders, within the bounds of the village of Tweedsmuir. The castle was originally part of the line of peel towers along the Tweed Valley. It was replaced in the seventeenth century by a house on the same site,...
in the 1850s, for example, forming a good example of the fashion. As with Gothic Revivalism, Scots Baronial architects frequently "improved" existing castles: Floors Castle
Floors Castle
Floors Castle, on the western outskirts of Kelso, south-east Scotland, is the seat of the Duke of Roxburghe. Despite its name it is a country house, rather than a fortress. It was built in the 1720s by the architect William Adam for the 1st Duke, possibly incorporating an earlier tower house...
was transformed in 1838 by William Playfair
William Henry Playfair
William Henry Playfair FRSE was one of the greatest Scottish architects of the 19th century, designer of many of Edinburgh's neo-classical landmarks in the New Town....
who added grand turrets and cupolas. In a similar way the 16th century tower house of Lauriston Castle
Lauriston Castle
Lauriston Castle is a 16th century tower house with 19th century extensions overlooking the Firth of Forth, in Edinburgh, Scotland.-History:...
was turned into the Victorian ideal of a "rambling medieval house". The style spread south and the famous architect Edward Blore
Edward Blore
Edward Blore was a 19th century British landscape and architectural artist, architect and antiquary. He was born in Edinburgh, Scotland ....
added a Scots Baronial touch to his work at Windsor.
With this pace of change concerns had begun to grow by the middle of the century about the threat to medieval buildings in Britain, and in 1877 William Morris
William Morris
William Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
established the Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings
The Society for the Protection of Ancient Buildings was founded by William Morris, Philip Webb and J.J.Stevenson, and other notable members of the Pre Raphaelite brotherhood, in 1877, to oppose what they saw as the insensitive renovation of ancient buildings then occurring in Victorian...
. One result of public pressure was the passing of the Ancient Monuments Protection Act 1882, but the provisions of the act focused on unoccupied prehistoric structures and medieval buildings such as castles were exempted from it leaving no legal protection.
1900–1945
During the first half of the century several castles were maintained, or brought back into military use. During the Irish War of IndependenceIrish War of Independence
The Irish War of Independence , Anglo-Irish War, Black and Tan War, or Tan War was a guerrilla war mounted by the Irish Republican Army against the British government and its forces in Ireland. It began in January 1919, following the Irish Republic's declaration of independence. Both sides agreed...
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle
Dublin Castle off Dame Street, Dublin, Ireland, was until 1922 the fortified seat of British rule in Ireland, and is now a major Irish government complex. Most of it dates from the 18th century, though a castle has stood on the site since the days of King John, the first Lord of Ireland...
remained the centre of the British administration, military and intelligence operations in Ireland until the transfer of power and the castle to the Irish Free State
Irish Free State
The Irish Free State was the state established as a Dominion on 6 December 1922 under the Anglo-Irish Treaty, signed by the British government and Irish representatives exactly twelve months beforehand...
in 1922. During the Second World War the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
was used to hold and execute suspected spies, and was used to briefly detain Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Hess
Rudolf Walter Richard Hess was a prominent Nazi politician who was Adolf Hitler's deputy in the Nazi Party during the 1930s and early 1940s...
, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's deputy, in 1941. Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
was used as a prisoner of war facility, whilst Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle
Windsor Castle is a medieval castle and royal residence in Windsor in the English county of Berkshire, notable for its long association with the British royal family and its architecture. The original castle was built after the Norman invasion by William the Conqueror. Since the time of Henry I it...
was stripped of more delicate royal treasures and used to guard the British royal family
British Royal Family
The British Royal Family is the group of close relatives of the monarch of the United Kingdom. The term is also commonly applied to the same group of people as the relations of the monarch in her or his role as sovereign of any of the other Commonwealth realms, thus sometimes at variance with...
from the dangers of the Blitz
The Blitz
The Blitz was the sustained strategic bombing of Britain by Nazi Germany between 7 September 1940 and 10 May 1941, during the Second World War. The city of London was bombed by the Luftwaffe for 76 consecutive nights and many towns and cities across the country followed...
. Some coastal castles were used to support naval operations: Dover Castle
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
's medieval fortifications used as basis for defences across the Dover Strait; Pitreavie Castle
Pitreavie Castle
Pitreavie Castle is a country house, located between Rosyth and Dunfermline in Fife, Scotland. It was built in the early 17th century, and was extensively remodelled in 1885. The house remained in private hands until 1938, when it was acquired by the Air Ministry, and became RAF Pitreavie Castle...
in Scotland was used to support the Royal Navy; and Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle
Carrickfergus Castle is a Norman castle in Northern Ireland, situated in the town of Carrickfergus in County Antrim, on the northern shore of Belfast Lough. Besieged in turn by the Scots, Irish, English and French, the castle played an important military role until 1928 and remains one of the best...
in Ireland was used as a coastal defence base. Some castles, such as Cambridge
Cambridge Castle
Cambridge Castle, locally also known as Castle Mound, is located in the town of the same name in Cambridgeshire, England. Originally built after the Norman conquest to control the strategically important route to the north of England, it played a role in the conflicts of the Anarchy, the First and...
and Pevensey
Pevensey Castle
Pevensey Castle is a medieval castle and former Roman fort at Pevensey in the English county of East Sussex. The site is a Scheduled Monument in the care of English Heritage and is open to visitors.-Roman fort:...
, were brought into local defence plans in case of a German invasion. A handful of these castles retained a military role after the war; Dover was used as a nuclear war command centre
Fallout shelter
A fallout shelter is an enclosed space specially designed to protect occupants from radioactive debris or fallout resulting from a nuclear explosion. Many such shelters were constructed as civil defense measures during the Cold War....
into the 1950s, whilst Pitreavie was used by NATO until the turn of the 21st century.
The strong cultural interest in British castles persisted in the 20th century. In some cases this had destructive consequences as wealthy collectors bought and removed architectural features and other historical artefacts from castles for their own collections, a practice that produced significant official concern. Some of the more significant cases included St Donat's Castle
St Donat's Castle
St Donat's Castle is a medieval castle in the Vale of Glamorgan, Wales, overlooking the Bristol Channel in the village of St Donat's near Llantwit Major, and about 25km west of Cardiff...
, bought by William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst
William Randolph Hearst was an American business magnate and leading newspaper publisher. Hearst entered the publishing business in 1887, after taking control of The San Francisco Examiner from his father...
in 1925 and then decorated with numerous medieval buildings removed from their original sites around Britain, and the case of Hornby
Hornby Castle, Yorkshire
Hornby Castle, Yorkshire was a fourteenth and fifteenth-century courtyard castle in Swaledale. It was largely rebuilt in the fifteenth century by William Conyers, 1st Baron Conyers after the Conyers family had inherited it, but retained the fourteenth-century St...
, where many parts of the castle were sold off and sent to buyers in the United States. Partially as a result of these events, increasing legal powers were introduced to protect castles – acts of parliament in 1900 and 1910 widened the terms of the earlier legislation on national monuments to allow the inclusion of castles. An act of Parliament in 1913 introduced preservation orders for the first time and these powers were extended in 1931
Ancient Monuments Act 1931
The Ancient Monuments Act 1931 was an Act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom that aimed to improve the protection afforded to ancient monuments in Britain.-Details:...
. Similarly, after the end of the Irish Civil War
Irish Civil War
The Irish Civil War was a conflict that accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State as an entity independent from the United Kingdom within the British Empire....
, the new Irish state took early action to extend and strengthen the previous British legislation to protect Irish national monuments.
Around the beginning of the century there were a number of major restoration projects on British castles. Before the outbreak of the First World War work was undertaken at Chepstow
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
, Bodiam
Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War...
, Caernarfon
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
and Tattershal; after the end of the war various major state funded restoration projects occurred in the 1920s with Pembroke
Pembroke Castle
Pembroke Castle is a medieval castle in Pembroke, West Wales. Standing beside the River Cleddau, it underwent major restoration work in the early 20th century. The castle was the original seat of the Earldom of Pembroke....
, Caerphilly
Caerphilly Castle
Caerphilly Castle is a medieval castle that dominates the centre of the town of Caerphilly in south Wales. It is the largest castle in Wales and the second largest in Britain after Windsor Castle...
and Goodrich
Goodrich Castle
Goodrich Castle is a now ruinous Norman medieval castle situated to the north of the village of Goodrich in Herefordshire, England, controlling a key location between Monmouth and Ross-on-Wye...
amongst the largest of these. This work typically centred on cutting back the vegetation encroaching on castle ruins, especially ivy, and removing damaged or unstable stonework; castles such as Beaumaris
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...
saw their moats cleaned and reflooded. Some castles such as Eilean Donan
Eilean Donan
Eilean Donan is a small island in Loch Duich in the western Highlands of Scotland. It is connected to the mainland by a footbridge and lies about half a mile from the village of Dornie. Eilean Donan is named after Donnán of Eigg, a Celtic saint martyred in 617...
in Scotland were substantially rebuilt in the inter-war years. The early UK film industry took an interest in castles as potential sets, starting with Ivanhoe
Ivanhoe (1913 U.S. film)
Ivanhoe is a 1913 silent adventure/drama motion picture starring King Baggot, Leah Baird, Herbert Brenon, Evelyn Hope, and Walter Craven.Directed by Herbert Brenon and produced by Carl Laemmle's Independent Moving Pictures after IMP was absorbed into the newly founded Universal, which was the...
filmed at Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle
Chepstow Castle , located in Chepstow, Monmouthshire in Wales, on top of cliffs overlooking the River Wye, is the oldest surviving post-Roman stone fortification in Britain...
in 1913 and starring US leading actor King Baggot
King Baggot
William King Baggot was an American actor, director and screenwriter. He was an internationally famous movie star of the silent era...
.
1945–21st century
World Heritage Site
A UNESCO World Heritage Site is a place that is listed by the UNESCO as of special cultural or physical significance...
programme to internationally recognise several British castles including Beaumaris
Beaumaris Castle
Beaumaris Castle, located in the town of the same name on the Isle of Anglesey in Wales, was built as part of King Edward I's campaign to conquer the north of Wales. It was designed by James of St. George and was begun in 1295, but never completed...
, Caernarfon
Caernarfon Castle
Caernarfon Castle is a medieval building in Gwynedd, north-west Wales. There was a motte-and-bailey castle in the town of Caernarfon from the late 11th century until 1283 when King Edward I of England began replacing it with the current stone structure...
, Conwy
Conwy Castle
Conwy Castle is a castle in Conwy, on the north coast of Wales.It was built between 1283 and 1289 during King Edward I's second campaign in North Wales....
, Harlech
Harlech Castle
Harlech Castle, located in Harlech, Gwynedd, Wales, is a concentric castle, constructed atop a cliff close to the Irish Sea. Architecturally, it is particularly notable for its massive gatehouse....
, Durham
Durham Castle
Durham Castle is a Norman castle in the city of Durham, England, which has been wholly occupied since 1840 by University College, Durham. It is open to the general public to visit, but only through guided tours, since it is in use as a working building and is home to over 100 students...
and the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
as deserving of special international cultural significance in the 1980s.
Several major bodies now own most castles. The single largest group of English castles are now those owned by English Heritage
English Heritage
English Heritage . is an executive non-departmental public body of the British Government sponsored by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport...
, created out of the former Ministry of Works in 1983. The National Trust
National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
The National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, usually known as the National Trust, is a conservation organisation in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
increasingly acquired castle properties in England in the 1950s, and is the second largest single owner, followed by the various English local authorities and finally a small number of private owners. Royal castles such as the Tower of London and Windsor are owned by the Occupied Royal Palaces Estate on behalf of the nation. Similar organisations exist in Scotland, where the National Trust for Scotland
National Trust for Scotland
The National Trust for Scotland for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty, commonly known as the National Trust for Scotland describes itself as the conservation charity that protects and promotes Scotland's natural and cultural heritage for present and future generations to...
was established 1931, and in Ireland, where An Taisce
An Taisce
An Taisce , also known as the National Trust for Ireland, was established in 1948 with a similar mission to that of the National Trust in England, Wales and Northern Ireland...
was created in 1948 to working alongside the Irish Ministry of Works to maintain castles and other sites. Some new organisations have emerged in recent years to manage castles, such as the Landmark Trust
Landmark Trust
The Landmark Trust is a British building conservation charity, founded in 1965 by Sir John and Lady Smith, that rescues buildings of historic interest or architectural merit and then gives them a new life by making them available for holiday rental...
and the Irish Landmark Trust, which have restored a number of castles in Britain and Ireland over the last few decades.
Castles remain highly popular attractions: in 2009 nearly 2.4 million people visited the Tower of London, 1.2 million visited Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
, 559,000 visited Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle
Leeds Castle, southeast of Maidstone, Kent, England, dates back to 1119, though a Saxon fort stood on the same site from the 9th century. The castle is built on islands in a lake formed by the River Len to the east of the village of Leeds....
and 349,000 visited Dover Castle
Dover Castle
Dover Castle is a medieval castle in the town of the same name in the English county of Kent. It was founded in the 12th century and has been described as the "Key to England" due to its defensive significance throughout history...
. Ireland, which for many years had not exploited the tourist potential of its castle heritage, began to encourage more tourists in the 1960s and 1970s and Irish castles are now a core part of the Irish tourist industry. British and Irish castles are today also closely linked to the international film industry
Film industry
The film industry consists of the technological and commercial institutions of filmmaking: i.e. film production companies, film studios, cinematography, film production, screenwriting, pre-production, post production, film festivals, distribution; and actors, film directors and other film crew...
, with tourist visits to castles now often involving not simply a visit to an historic site, but also a visit to the location of a popular film.
Picton Castle
Picton Castle is a medieval castle near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales. Originally built at the end of the 13th century by Sir John Wogan and is still inhabited by his descendants, the Philipps family ....
where damp proved a considerable problem. At the other end of the scale the fire at Windsor Castle in 1992 opened up a national debate about how the burnt out castle wing should be replaced, the degree to which modern designs should be introduced and who should pay the £37 million costs (£50.2 million in 2009 terms). At Kenilworth
Kenilworth Castle
Kenilworth Castle is located in the town of the same name in Warwickshire, England. Constructed from Norman through to Tudor times, the castle has been described by architectural historian Anthony Emery as "the finest surviving example of a semi-royal palace of the later middle ages, significant...
the speculative and commercial reconstruction of the castle gardens in an Elizabethan style led to a vigorous academic debate over the interpretation of archaeological and historical evidence. Trends in conservation have altered and, in contrast to the prevailing post-war approach to conservation, recent work at castles such as Wigmore
Wigmore Castle
Wigmore Castle is a ruined castle which is barely visible from the village of Wigmore in the northwest region of Herefordshire, England.- History :...
, acquired by English Heritage in 1995, have attempted to minimise the degree of intervention to the site.
Historiography
The earliest histories of British and Irish castles were recorded, albeit in a somewhat fragmented fashion, by John Leland in the 16th century and, by the 19th century, historical analysis of castles had become popular. Victorian historians such as George ClarkG. T. Clark
Colonel George Thomas Clark was a British engineer and antiquary, particularly associated with the management of the Dowlais Iron Company.-Early life:...
and John Parker concluded that British castles had been built for the purposes of military defence, but believed that their history was pre-Conquest – concluding that the mottes across the countryside had been built by either the Romans
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
or Celts.
The study of castles by historians and archaeologists developed considerably during the 20th century. The early 20th century historian and archaeologist Ella Armitage
Ella Sophia Armitage
Ella Sophia Armitage was an English historian and archaeologist. She was born Ella Sophia Bulley in Liverpool, the second daughter of Samuel Marshall Bulley, a cotton merchant, and Mary Rachel Raffles. In October 1871 she was one of the first students to enter Newnham College, Cambridge, and in...
published a ground-breaking book in 1912, arguing convincingly that British castles were in fact a Norman introduction, whilst historian Alexander Thompson also published in the same year, charting the course of the military development of English castles through the Middle Ages. The Victoria County History
Victoria County History
The Victoria History of the Counties of England, commonly known as the Victoria County History or the VCH, is an English history project which began in 1899 and was dedicated to Queen Victoria with the aim of creating an encyclopaedic history of each of the historic counties of...
of England began to document the country's castles on an unprecedented scale, providing an additional resource for historical analysis.
After the Second World War the historical analysis of British castles was dominated by Arnold Taylor, R. Allen Brown and D. J. Cathcart King. These academics made use of a growing amount of archaeological evidence, as the 1940s saw an increasing number of excavations of motte and bailey castles, and the number of castle excavations as a whole went on to double during the 1960s. With an increasing number of castle sites under threat in urban areas, a public scandal in 1972 surrounding the development of the Baynard's Castle
Baynard's Castle
Baynard's Castle refers to buildings on two neighbouring sites in London, between where Blackfriars station and St Paul's Cathedral now stand. The first was a Norman fortification constructed by Ralph Baynard and demolished by King John in 1213. The second was a medieval palace built a short...
site in London contributed to reforms and a re-prioritisation of funding for rescue archaeology
Rescue archaeology
Rescue archaeology, sometimes called "preventive" or "salvage" archaeology, is archaeological survey and excavation carried out in areas threatened by, or revealed by, construction or other development...
. Despite this the number of castle excavations fell between 1974 and 1984, with the archaeological work focusing on conducting excavations on a greater number of small scale, but fewer large scale sites. The study of British castles remained primarily focused on analysing their military role, however, drawing on the evolutionary model of improvements suggested by Thompson earlier in the century.
In the 1990s a wide-reaching reassessment of the interpretation of British castles took place. A vigorous academic discussion over the history and meanings behind Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle
Bodiam Castle is a 14th-century moated castle near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, England. It was built in 1385 by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge, a former knight of Edward III, with the permission of Richard II, ostensibly to defend the area against French invasion during the Hundred Years' War...
began a debate, which concluded that many features of castles previously seen as primarily military in nature were in fact constructed for reasons of status and political power. As historian Robert Liddiard has described it, the older paradigm of "Norman militarism" as the driving force behind the formation of Britain's castles was replaced by a model of "peaceable power". The next twenty years was characterised by an increasing number of major publications on castle studies, examining the social and political aspects of the fortifications, as well as their role in the historical landscape. Although not unchallenged, this "revisionist" perspective remains the dominant theme in the academic literature today.