Castle a history of the buildings that morris, marc

CONTENTS About the Book About the Author Also by Marc Morris Title Page Dedication Acknowledgements Introduction Humble Origins Towers of Stone Building an Empire An Englishman’s Home Safe as Houses The Castle’s Last Stand Epilogue Further Reading Picture Credits Picture Section Index Copyright About the Book From the author of A Great and Terrible King and The Norman Conquest comes a sweeping and surprising history of some of the most magnificent buildings in Britain Beginning with their introduction in the eleventh century, and ending with their widespread abandonment in the seventeenth, Marc Morris explores many of the country’s most famous castles, as well as some spectacular lesser-known examples At times this is an epic tale, driven by characters like William the Conqueror, King John and Edward I, full of sieges and conquest on an awesome scale But it is also by turns an intimate story of less eminent individuals, whose adventures, struggles and ambitions were reflected in the fortified residences they constructed Be it ever so grand or ever so humble, a castle was first and foremost a home To understand castles – who built them, who lived in them, and why – is to understand the forces that shaped medieval Britain About the Author Marc Morris is an historian and broadcaster He studied and taught history at the universities of London and Oxford, and his doctorate on the thirteenth-century earls of Norfolk was published in 2005 In 2003 he presented the highly acclaimed television series Castle, and wrote its accompanying book Following the success of his biography of King Edward I (A Great and Terrible King , 2008), he has written a new history of the Norman Conquest Also by Marc Morris The Bigod Earls of Norfolk in the Thirteenth Century A Great and Terrible King: Edward I and the Forging of Britain The Norman Conquest To my parents, who took me to a lot of castles ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS written to accompany a TV series, and it is far richer as a result It was a real gift to be given the time – days rather than the usual hours – to contemplate the castles described in the following pages, and be granted unrestricted access to explore them Castles, as I’ve indicated elsewhere, got me into the history business Early visits with my parents sent me to my schoolbooks, my schoolbooks sent me to university, and my university lecturers directed me to the great libraries of London and Oxford You can, however, get lost in libraries Making the TV series helped me find my way back out It was a wonderful opportunity to get back to basics, to revisit the scenes from my childhood, and to be reminded what made history so exciting in the first place My thanks to everyone who made it all possible THIS BOOK WAS INTRODUCTION Kent has more than its fair share of castles, and my parents and schoolteachers conspired to ensure that I was familiar with most of them from a young age Not, you understand, that I needed much encouragement – trips to castles were always my favourite Around every corner, through every doorway, there was the promise of fresh excitement An over-imaginative little boy could easily picture knights in shining armour, damsels in distress, sieges, feasts and tournaments Whether ruinous or restored, castles were magical places Or at least, most of them were Some of them, I’m sorry to say, I found a bit boring Certain castles, I noticed, had lots of cannon, but nowhere for the king to eat his dinner Others, by contrast, had plenty of fancy bedrooms, but nowhere for the soldiers to sleep Either way, one or two of the castles I visited as a child seemed to lack certain important things, and I would return home a little disappointed, though for reasons I couldn’t quite fathom Clearly these buildings didn’t measure up to my idea of what a castle should be So what is a castle? Is there a good definition? The Oxford English Dictionary helpfully tells us that the word itself derives from the medieval Latin word castellum, and ultimately from the classical Latin word castra, meaning ‘camp’ A castle, it goes on to say, is ‘a large building, or set of buildings, fortified for defence against an enemy; a fortress, stronghold’ Many people, I think, would find nothing to disagree with in this statement The word ‘castle’ tends to conjure up images of boiling oil, bows and arrows, catapults and battering rams But is that all there is to it? Are castles just about fighting, or even self-defence? Haven’t the dictionary compilers missed an important point? On the outside of a castle, we expect to see drawbridges and battlements, portcullises and arrow-loops; but what about on the inside? There, surely, we expect to see evidence of luxury and creature comforts There are great halls for banqueting, and huge kitchens to prepare lavish feasts; bedrooms, chambers and chapels, all once sumptuously decorated; stables, granaries, bakeries, breweries – everything, in short, that was necessary to make them perfect residences for their owners So a castle might be a fortress, but it is also, crucially, a home This was the definition famously offered by Professor R Allen Brown in his ground-breaking book, English Castles From the moment it was first published almost sixty years ago, the book established itself as the most influential work on castles, and it is still required reading today for anyone even remotely interested in the subject A castle, to quote Professor Brown, ‘is basically a fortified residence, or a residential fortress’ Castles were not simply buildings into which people retreated when the going got tough; they were places where people spent time willingly When I read the book for the first time, I realised why certain castles had bored me as a boy; the less interesting ones had been either entirely military in purpose, or else they had no defensive capability at all These so-called castles, it turned out, were really nothing more than forts, and mere stately homes According to Brown’s definition, a real castle was a fortress and a stately home rolled into one For many medieval historians – myself included – this textbook definition of a castle seemed to fit the picture perfectly It also explained why we love castles so much For how can a building be warlike and homely at the same time? Luxury demands more space, thinner walls, bigger windows THE COUNTY OF Security, on the other hand, says keep everything crammed inside thick walls, and make the windows small For castle designers, the major challenge was reconciling these two apparently contradictory imperatives For castle enthusiasts, the ingenious ways in which they did so is part of what makes castles so endlessly fascinating Recently, however, castle experts have begun to question this definition The problem with deciding that a castle is a fortress and a home, they say, is that this excludes a lot of castles from the club Take, for example, the subject of Chapter Four – the gorgeous Bodiam Castle in Sussex There is no doubt at all that this was once a classy home for a rich aristocrat But did its owner ever intend to use it as a fortress? Most of the exterior features (as we shall see) seem to be just stuck on for effect The moat, the battlements and the portcullises, all of which might suggest we are dealing with a formidable stronghold, are in actual fact all highly suspect If Bodiam had ever ended up in a really serious fight, chances are it would have been quickly clobbered into submission So does this mean that Bodiam, and other similarly weedy castles, are not really castles at all? The answer must surely be no We can call Bodiam a castle because… well, because it plainly looks like a castle And, more importantly, the people who were around when Bodiam was built also called it a castle: it would be very arrogant of us in the twenty-first century to disqualify Bodiam on the grounds that we knew better than they did Clearly it is not Bodiam Castle that is the problem – it is our definition None of the castles I’ve visited recently seem to be having an identity crisis, but some of the experts I’ve encountered have grave doubts Professor Matthew Johnson has just concluded his new book by confessing that he is ‘less certain than ever about what castles “really are”’ And yet, in spite of the uncertainty among historians, there still seems to be a general consensus about which buildings are castles, and which ones are not What we no longer have is an easy, nononsense, one-size-fits-all definition This, of course, makes it tough if you find yourself writing a book on castles, because, as R Allen Brown rightly said, ‘Any book about castles should begin by saying what they are.’ So, with this advice in mind, here’s what I think A castle was first and foremost a home to its aristocratic owner and his or her household That, I believe, must be our starting point Down to the end of the thirteenth century in England, and slightly later in Wales and Scotland, these noble residences were also strong, defensible buildings that we can reasonably describe as ‘fortresses’ Some of the castles in this book were – indeed, are – tremendously tough buildings, designed to withstand the most deadly assault weapons of the Middle Ages From 1300 onwards, they could afford to be less effective at keeping people out, even to the point of not being defensible at all But, as with Bodiam, what made a castle was not how tough it was, but whether or not it looked like one In order to be considered a castle, a building had to have at least some of the physical attributes that contemporaries associated with castles, such as battlements, portcullises, arrow-loops and drawbridges Whether they actually worked or not was irrelevant They were still essential, because they had come to symbolize something – that the people inside were important, that they had a right to rule others, and that they expected deference, obedience and respect Of course, it is the portcullises and the drawbridges that we all love, especially as children, and I was no exception The older I get, however, it is the thought that castles were homes that really provides the attraction As residences, they possess a richness of historical association that mere fortresses can’t even begin to offer Naturally, as great strongholds, some castles were absolutely decisive in determining the course of British history But other castles, perhaps less strong and The hall at Craigievar, showing the moulded plaster ceiling, and the tiny screens passage at the far end Craigievar Raglan – the main gate The long gallery at Haddon Hall in Derbyshire Pendennis Castle in Cornwall is perhaps better regarded as a fort A victim of the Civil War: Pontefract as it appeared on the eve of the conflict and a view of the site today INDEX The page references in this index correspond to the printed edition from which this ebook was created To find a specific word or phrase from the index, please use the search feature of your ebook reader Aberystwyth Castle 105, 107, 116 Albini, William de 75–6, 80–1, 85, 90 Alfred, King 12–13 Anglo-Saxon Chronicle 8, 23, 47–8 Ardres Castle 20–1 Arundel Castle 166, 265 Bailey, Dr Thomas 233–4, 235, 238, 242, 245, 252, 262 baileys 16, 20, 51, 68, 187 see also motte-and-bailey castles ballistas 81–2 Banbury Castle 250 Barnwell Annalist 81, 85, 89, 90–1 bastles see peles La Batiaz Castle 122–3 Bayeux Castle 17–20 Bayeux Tapestry 17–20, 27, 28, 30, 40 Beauchamp, William 179 Beaumaris Castle 95, 136–9, 140, 143, 146, 265 Bell family, masons 220 Belvoir Castle 260 Berkhamsted Castle 31, 37 Birch, Colonel John 250, 253 Bodiam Castle 3, 5, 142–53, 157–61, 165, 166–78, 265 bombards 193–5, 196 Borthwick Castle 196–202, 210, 220–1, 265–6 Borthwick, William 197, 198–200 Bothwell Castle 186 Bristol Castle 239 Brown, Professor R Allen 2, Builth Castle 105, 107 Bungay Castle 58, 266 Burgh, Hubert de 87, 91 Burgundy, Duke of 194 burhs 13, 14, 31 Caerlaverock Castle 186 Caernarfon Castle 5, 94–5, 110, 113–16, 118, 126–32, 144 attack on 134 repairs 139, 140 slighting 265 Caerphilly Castle 83, 84, 98–101, 106, 146 Caister Castle 161 Cambridge Castle 33 cannon 241, 244 Carew Castle 229 Castle Rising 56, 58, 68 Caus Castle 42 cavalry 22–3 chapels 178 Charles the Bald 14, 15 Charles I 235–9, 246, 255, 259, 263 Charles II 264, 265 Château Gaillard 57 Chaucer, Geoffrey 143, 179–80 Chepstow Castle 54, 55, 229, 239 Chillon Castle 121–2, 126 Cholmondley, Henry 257, 258 Clanvowe, John 179 Clavering Castle Clifford, Roger 108 Cobham, John de 158–9, 162 Colchester Castle 54, 55, 91, 266 concentricity 100 Conisbrough Castle 56, 58 constables 66 Conway Castle 95, 110, 120, 123–4, 126–7, 129, 131–2 attack on 134–6 construction 113–18 great hall 144 slighting 265 Cooling Castle 158–9 corbelling 218 Corbet, Roger 42 Corfe Castle 57, 90, 254 Cornhill, Reginald de 71, 75 cost of castles 58–60, 106, 132, 138 Craigievar Castle 218–21, 232 Crathes Castle 219 Cromwell, Oliver 255–6, 257–9, 263–4 crossbows 78–81 culverins 244 curtain-wall castles see enclosure castles Dafydd ap Gruffudd 108, 110 Dallingridge, Edward 142–3, 150–3, 155, 156–66 170–82 Dallingridge, Elizabeth 151, 176–7 Deganwy Castle 110–12, 135 Dinan Castle 17–20 Dol Castle 17–19 Domesday Book 43–4, 47 Douglas, Archibald ‘the Grim’ 186–7, 191–2 Douglas, James 190, 192–5, 203, 206 Douglas, William 186, 192–3, 203 Dover Castle 44, 57, 58, 91, 99, 265 chambers 68, 70 cost 60 established by William the Conqueror 29, 31 Edinburgh Castle 183–4 Edward the Confessor 7, 8–11, 25, 26 Edward I 95–7, 101–41, 143–4, 154, 183, 214 Edward III 154–5 enclosure castles 143, 186 English Civil Wars 224, 234–59 Ewyas Harold 8, 10, 11 Exchequer 59, 106 Fairfax, Thomas 247–8, 251–3, 256, 262 Farquharsons 211–12 feuding 211–12, 217, 221 Fitz Alan, Richard, Earl of Arundel 165–6, 175–6 Fitz Osbern, William 33, 54 Flint Castle 95, 105, 107, 108, 113, 119 flying bridges 19, 39 Forbes, William 218–20 forebuildings 55, 56 Framlingham Castle 91, 99 Froissart, Jean de 156 galleries 220, 230–2 gatehouses 99, 128, 132, 147–8, 149 Gloucester, Earl of 98, 101, 106, 109 Godwin, Earl 7, 9–11, 25 Goodrich Castle 250, 253 Gower, John 179 Grant, John 207–13 Great Oakham 68 gun-loops 147, 148, 226 Haddon Hall 232 halls 39, 67–9, 144, 170, 172, 210, 220, 228, 230 Hampton Court 227 Hamstead Marshal Castle 29 Hardwick Hall 229 Harlech Castle 95, 110, 118, 124, 126, 129, 131–2, 144 attack on 134 ditches 115 garderobes 123 labour force 117 sea 113 windows 120, 122 Harold II 25, 26–8, 45 Hastings, battle of 27, 28, 45 Hastings Castle 27 Hawarden Castle 108 Hedingham Castle 58, 63–4, 91, 265 chambers 66, 68 dummy floors 70 Hen Domen 36–42, 44, 48, 68 Henry I 57, 58–9 Henry II 57–8, 60, 64, 73, 74, 154 Henry III 91–2, 96, 98, 101, 103, 111, 121 Henry VIII 227 Herbert, Colonel 246 Hereford Castle Heron, William 160 Hever Castle 158 Hooper, Captain John 243, 246, 250 The Hundred Years War 153–6, 157–8, 161, 225, 226 Huntingdon Castle 33 James I of Scotland 195 James II of Scotland 192–6, 203 James III of Scotland 195, 206 James IV of Scotland 206–8, 209, 213, 217 James V of Scotland 217 James VI of Scotland (James I of England) 216–18, 221 John of Fordun 206 John of Gaunt, Duke of Lancaster 163–4, 165, 166, 179 John, King 51, 71–92, 154 Johnson, Dr Samuel 94 Johnson, Professor Matthew keeps 50–93, 187–8 Kenilworth Castle 58, 229 Knowles, Robert 153, 155–6, 179 Lambert of Ardres 20–1 Langeais Castle 15 Lathom House 250 Lincoln Castle 33 Llywelyn ap Gruffudd 97–8, 101–5, 107, 108–10, 112, 114–15 Louis, Prince 74, 85, 91, 92 MacDonalds 205, 206, 208 MacDonald, John 206 machiolations 147–8, 197, 209, 226 Madog ap Llywelyn 134, 136 Magna Carta 72, 73, 74, 76, 92 mangonels 81 Mary Queen of Scots 217 master masons 119, 220 Maurice the Engineer 60 Mervinslaw Pele 214–16 moats 146–7 Monmouth Castle 239 Mons Meg 193–4 Montgomery Castle 260 see also Hen Domen Montgomery, treaty of 98 Morgan, Colonel Thomas 242–5, 246, 252 mortars 248–51, 252 motte-and-bailey castles 16–23, 24, 29–45, 48–9, 51, 185–6 Mouse, William 164 murder-holes 128, 148 muskets 245 Newark Castle 91 Newcastle Castle 58, 60 North, Roger 231, 232 Norwich Castle 56, 57 Nottingham Castle 32, 260 Orderic Vitalis 45–6 Orford Castle 56, 58, 60, 68, 265 Paris, Matthew 80 Patrick, Catherine 212 Paulden, Captain Thomas 256–7, 265 Peak Castle 58 Peasants’ Revolt 162–3 peles 214–16 Pendennis Castle 247 Penshurst Place 158 perriers 82 Peter of Blois 64 Peter of Savoy 122–3, 124 Pevensey Castle 27 Pontefract Castle 256–60 putlog holes 120, 123–4 Raglan Castle 222–6, 228–30, 232–5, 238–54, 261–2, 264–5 Ralph of Coggeshall 77 Ralph of Mantes 9, 22 Rennes Castle 17–19 Rhuddlan Castle 95, 105–7, 108, 110, 113, 115, 119, 132 Richard I (Richard the Lionheart) 57, 71, 73, 74, 81 Richard II 24, 163, 171–2, 175–6, 179 Richard’s Castle Richmond Castle 68, 70 Roaring Meg 248–9, 250, 252, 253 Robert the Bruce 183, 190 Robert of Jumièges 9, 10, 11 Rochester Castle 5, 50–2, 55–6, 58, 59–60, 61–3, 265 chambers 66, 68, 69–70 repairs 92–3 siege 51, 71, 75–8, 80–1, 85–91 stone types 61 Roger of Montgomery 36–7, 39, 41–2, 44, 45, 68 Saillon Castle 122–4 St Georges-d’Esperanche 125 St Georges, Master James of 119–20, 124–7, 131–2, 136–9, 140 Scarborough Castle 58, 70 Scotney Castle 158 Scott, Walter 202–3, 205, 213, 266 Sherborne Castle 239 Skippon, Major-General 246 slighting 261, 265 Somerset, Henry, Marquis of Worcester 223–4, 233–5, 238, 239–43, 245–8, 250–4, 262–3 Somerset, William 228–9, 230, 232–3 Sprigge, Joshua 247 springalds 82 Stephen, King 57, 58 Stirling Castle 183–4 stonemasons 117, 119, 199–200, 220 Tabraham, Chris 188–9 Tantallon Castle 186 Taylor, Arnold 119–26 Threave Castle 187, 188–95, 197, 210, 221 tombs 180–2 tower houses 184–221, 265–6 Tower of London 52–4, 55, 70, 110 trebuchets 81, 82–5, 86 undermining 86–8 Urquhart Castle 207–10, 213, 220–1, 266 Vere, Aubrey de 63 Vikings 12–13, 14, 15 Wallace, William 139, 183 Walter of Guisborough 135 Wars of the Roses 226–7 Warwick Castle 32, 161 William ap Thomas 224–5 William the Conqueror 10, 24–5, 26, 27–9, 31–7, 40, 42–9, 52–5, 154 William of Poitiers 29, 54 Winchester Castle 129 windows 120, 122, 127, 145, 229–30 Windsor Castle 262–3 Wolsey, Cardinal 227 yetts 187, 215, 218 York Castle 29, 32–3, 34 This ebook is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed or publicly performed or used in any way except as specifically permitted in writing by the publishers, as allowed under the terms and conditions under which it was purchased or as strictly permitted by applicable copyright law Any unauthorised distribution or use of this text may be a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly Version 1.0 Epub ISBN 9781446492796 Published by Windmill Books 2012 10 Copyright © Marc Morris, 2003 Marc Morris has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988 to be identified as the author of this work This book is sold subject to the condition that it shall not, by way of trade or otherwise, be lent, resold, hired out, or otherwise circulated without the publisher’s prior consent in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar condition including this condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser First published in 2003 by Pan Macmillan Ltd Windmill Books The Random House Group Limited 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA Addresses for companies within The Random House Group Limited can be found at: www.randomhouse.co.uk/offices.htm The Random House Group Limited Reg No 954009 www.randomhouse.co.uk A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library ISBN 9780099558491 ... earldom in the French art of cavalry warfare, and led them against the Welsh at Hereford, the result was a military disaster ‘Before a spear was thrown,’ sighed the author of the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle,... about the baileys of the castles it depicts A bailey was a large area that housed all the buildings necessary for a medieval household – not just the lord and his immediate family, but also their... very large timbers, and from the scale of these foundations the overall shape of the buildings can be guessed At the foot of the motte, for example, the archaeologists uncovered the remains of a