Introduction

WHAT IS A CASTLE?

Those of us who live in places where castles never thrived often grow up believing that Disney’s Cinderella Castle, with its palatial staircases, spires rising to the skies, and pristine bejewelled furnishings fit for Prince Charming, firmly represents the medieval eastle. The proliferation of photos of Mad Ludwig’s Neusehwanstein in magazines, books, and even on jigsaw puzzle boxes reinforces that notion. So does bestowing regal names on buildings that are no more than grand mansions, like Hearst Castle at San Simeon or Belcourt Castle in Newport, Rhode Island. While such buildings were certainly pleasure palaces for their owners, built to impress their guests and passersby, none is a castle in the true sense of the term. None dates any earlier than the eighteenth century, and none of the builders intended them as military strongholds. Declaring their flamboyant homes as castles, men like Mad Ludwig of Bavaria, William Randolph Hearst, and Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont intended to send an unspoken message to the world: “Look at me! I am fabulously wealthy, incredibly important, and possess what you should covet but can only hope to achieve.”

When arriving at an authentic castle, uninitiated visitors are sometimes disappointed. They expect to see an occupied, completely intact castle, like Windsor, with its State Apartments fitted for royalty, bearskin-topped guardsmen wearing scarlet jackets standing stoically at attention. Instead, they more often encounter crumbling masses of blocky stone, empt' shells of structures whose original forms have decayed to the point that they ean no longer be easily visualized, or grass}’ humps of bracken-laden earth surrounded by marshy fields and grazing cows. Some people recoil at the notion that indeed all three of these types of structure quality' as true castles, especially when they learn that palatial structures like Scotland’s Balmoral Castle do not.

Chunks of broken-down rock may appear to be all that survi'es of a great stone fortress. In some ways, it seems understandable that the inexperienced onlooker questions that the substance is a castle. However, most ruined castles do retain some defensive and residential features that support their ongoing characterization as castles. Enclosing ditches, portcullis grooves, and drawbar holes all reveal a ruin’s defensive nature, while foundations of buildings lining a curtain wall or fragments of decoration bespeak of past roles as halls, solars, or chapels. Eor example, almost completely demolished at the end of the English Civil War, South Yorkshire’s Pontefract Castle may now seem devoid of the main features that contributed to its reputation as one of the Middle Ages’ grandest fortresses. Yet, closer examination reveals a more glorious past, which featured a multilobed, three-storied, great tower encasing a substantial motte, a dungeon, the historic well chamber—reputedlv Richard IPs prison —in the outer bailey, and an encompassing ditch. Sometimes all that visitors need are a vivid imagination and some basic knowledge about castles in order to comprehend the enormity' of such sites and how they were originallv used. However, amateur detectives exploring Pon-tefraet’s castle will be able to identity' evidence of its residential role, in the form of bread ovens, a hearth, latrine, foundations of a hall and two chapels, and even the discreet!}’ placed well chamber.

Having grown up in the United States and developed an interest in archaeology and historic preservation before adolescence, I visited scores of historic homes, including the magnificent mansions in Newport, Rhode Island. I also wandered Civil War battlefields and explored National Monuments, saw several places where George Washington slept, and even participated in the excavation of a tanner}' site where Baylor’s Dragoons were slaughtered and buried during the American Revolution. I attended lectures on archaeological findings at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City' and visited dozens of other museums. I studied archaeology in undergraduate and graduate schools, obtaining a master’s degree specializing in Historic Preser’ation before entering the U. S. Navy in 1984. Up to that point in my life, my exposure to American “castles” had come in the forms of the Gingerbread Castle, in Hamburg, New’ Jersey, an early theme park based on the Hansel and Gretel fairy tale; Dick’s Castle, then a derelict Residence in Garrison, New York; the mansard-roofed Belcourt Castle, in Newport, Rhode Island; and, of course, Cinderella’s dazzling castle in Orlando, Horida. Even though I recognized them as the classy structures they were built to be, I realized on a gut level that they were not really castles.

Spotting my first castle, Llansteffan, from the window of a passenger train as it loped along the dywi estuary enroute my new military posting in Pembrokeshire in 1985, I felt an immediate surge of adrenaline. That view ultimately led me to jaunts throughout the countryside, initially as a casual visitor, awestruck with the visual impact castles had on me, their aging endurance and the romance they exuded. I could almost hear the stones speak. Soon, I took up full-time castle research and, to date, I have explored well over 300 castles in Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, and Germany. I have explored most of the castles repeatedly and have gained a familiarity with them that verges on intimacy. I admit to having had my own set of preconceptions about castles, not so much based on the fairy-tale fantasies of childhood, but on what many movies suggest—that castles really had only one purpose; to keep out invaders and withstand sieges. However, as I became increasingly familiar with castle architecture, I came to recognize that certain basic features were common to all medieval castles: defensive structures, such as ditches or towers, and residential facilities, most notably, a hall and kitchen, chambers for the lord —and the occasional latrine. I also developed an understanding that, much more important to the castle-builder was the perpetuation of his control over an area and the maintenance of his lordship. The medieval castle fulfilled that goal, as readers will discover herein.

In countries studded with castles, such as Britain, nineteenth-century “Normanized” shams compete for attention with their medieval counterparts. Designed to mimic the mighty fortresses of old, grand residences like Penrhyn and Cyfarthfa castles in Wales are adorned with battlements, fitted with massive towers and neo-Norman interiors, and fronted with gatehouses that threatened and impressed all comers. Yet, transport them back to the Middle Ages, and neither castle would withstand a siege. They were never intended for that purpose. Rather, their owners, many of whom were rich industrialists who had gained their fortunes from the backbreaking production of laborers in coal mines, slate quarries, and ironworks, who earned a mere pittance of what their bosses earned, modeled their stately residences on medieval precursors, which exuded the power, wealth, and success that modern “barons” craved (and in some cases, achieved) during the Industrial Revolution. In Wales, ironmaster William Crawshay, for example, actually planted Cyfarthfa Castle on a grassy knoll near Merthyr Tydfil not only to overawe his workers, who lived in dilapidated cottages nearby, but also to physically remind them of their lowh' position at his feet. Though these are majestic strnctnres in their own right, the castellated residences of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries are not real castles.

From the eleventh to fifteenth centuries, the British landscape sprouted castles almost as c|uickly as the wheat that sustained its burgeoning population. Ultimately, during its heyda’ of castle-building, Britain may have supported several thousand castles. Not all were necessarily active at the same moment in time. Nowadays, the remains of countless castles scatter the British countryside, towering o'er towns, hidden behind farmhouses and pubs, occasionally still barred from access to intruders, and sometimes still privately owned. No matter their present condition, each retains its own per-sonalit}', its unicjue history and architectural tradition, and its distinctive reasons for being. Yet, every castle served the same two overriding purposes, one military, the other residential.