Castles were designed to intimidate, or at least impress, visitors (Figures 24 and 25). Any castle reinforced the impression of overwhelming power and the authority of its owner or his constable (castellan or governor of the castle). In an age of personal government, the architectural
Figure 25. Grand stair, Bishop’s Palace, St. David’s, Wales. Few of the grand palatial stairways still exist, but the Bishop’s Palace boasts of two. The normal medieval stairway was an unimpressive and often difficult tight spiral fit into the wall of the building. Photograph: Karen Leider.
Design of the castle played an important role in the control of the access to the lord and so to power. The increasing complexity of the physical relationship of the hall of justice, the presence chamber, and the private rooms of the lord may have been accidental or calculated but certainly had an effect. The guest or petitioner moved from public to increasingly private space, through corridors, courts with views, waiting rooms, and gates—until the lord is revealed in the great hall seated in a splendid chair on a raised dais. The castle plan was intended to be spatially confusing, both for protection and also to enhance the position of power through the difficulty of access. In time, however, the individual halls became a continuous series of rooms built against the walls and having the appearance and effect of a single building with an inner courtyard.
Matthew Johnson imagines and describes the typical visitor’s arrival at the castle in his book, Behind the Castle Gate. At first sight the castle, whether emerging from the woods of a hunting park or rising in the distance on a hill, created an expectation of grandeur within. Arriving at the gate at last, the visitor waiting to be admitted had time to study the symbolic heraldic imagery decorating the gatehouse or towers. Coats of arms established the lineage and family connections of the lord of the castle. Even the form of admission into the castle depended on one’s place in the social hierarchy. Trumpeters on the walls might greet important visitors who then entered through wide open doors. Lesser people entered quietly through a small door called the wicket, cut into the main door. A wicket gate sometimes even required the visitor to bend over in order to enter. The least important people might be sent around to the postern, which became a back door, not a hidden sally port.
World History
