The Last Military Castles
Roughly speaking it may be said that, by the 14 th century, the great period of castellar building in England was over. The country was by then amply furnished with castles and strong kings like the first and third Edwards did not encourage the construction of more. So following the brilliant Edwardian castle-building period there came a reaction that was something like somnolence. For the most part, castle building took the form of a few new creations and many additions and embellishments to existing structures. Except for the chronic state of intermittent warfare on the northern border with Scotland, there was a relative peace in England, though the mere fact that new fortresses were still being constructed demonstrates that security was far from being regarded as normality. The onset of the Hundred Years’ War meant that the fighting men, the potentially troublesome barons and their knights, mercenaries and retainers waged war in France. When they came back, sated with rapine and slaughter, they brought with them the loot of France. Amenity and comfort then became important considerations in British castle building, though the fundamental military requirements were by no means neglected. Indeed the Hundred Years’ War, with its accompanying danger of invasion upon the southern and eastern shores; the militarization of baronial life which resulted from the prolonged conflict with France; the increasing practice among the English nobility of maintaining mercenaries in their private service; and the failing vigor of the late Plantagenet and Lancastrian monarchies, culminating in the Wars of the Roses—all these circumstances led to renewed baronial gangsterism, and to a certain revival of castle building in the later 14th and 15th centuries. In these later castles, one can observe a strong tendency to reduce the size of the structure and to simplify its plan. Instead of large garrisons of half-trained feudal levies, the lords were relying more and more on small permanent troops of professional warriors and mercenaries. It was realized that the multiplication of defensive obstacles, which the designers had hitherto favored, hindered the rapid movement of soldiers around the walls in time of siege. The fact that mercenaries were loyal only so long as their pay was forthcoming also had its effect on castle architecture. In some cases the lord’s residence was isolated from his soldiers’ quarters and defended against mutinous or treacherous followers. A new fashion to emerged characterized by a single rectangular walled enclosure of moderate size, flanked by round or square towers, a less-complicated type of gatehouse, and domestic buildings in the courtyard drawn into a compact and well-articulated quadrangle.
Maxstoke Castle in North Warwickshire, built in 1345, is a fair example of the efficient and convenient square plan. This type of castle design is splendidly illustrated in the castle of Bodiam in Sussex built in 1385. Up in Yorkshire, Bolton Castle in Wensleydale, built at the same time, although more concentrated, displays very much the same design.
Maxstoke Castle plan. Situated to the north of Maxstoke, Warwickshire, this castle was built by Sir William de Clinton, 1st Earl of Huntingdon, in 1345 to a rectangular plan, with octagonal towers at each angle, a gatehouse on the east, and a residential range on the west, the whole surrounded by a broad moat. Additions were made by Humphrey Stafford, 1st Duke of Buckingham, who acquired it in 1437. Today the largely intact castle is privately owned and not opened to the public. The plan shows 1: Kitchen Tower; 2: Service buildings; 3: Great Hall; 4: Chapel; 5: Apartments; 6: Lady Tower; 7: Deadman’s Tower; 8: Gatehouse; 9: Dairy Tower; 10: Wet ditch.
The Edwardian period was the climax of medieval castle building with predominantly military considerarions in mind. During the 14th and 15th centuries there was an increased interest in, and emphasis on, the more domestic aspects of the accommodation provided. Castles had always been domestic to some degree, but domestic considerations came a poor second to those of defense during the 12th and 13th centuries. In the 14th and subsequent centuries, however, the demand for more space and greater comfort was quite evident in the design of new castles and the additions made to existing ones. Although not universal, there was a movement from traditional medieval castle to comfortable manor house. In the new castles the appearance was still very much that of a military stronghold, but internally they tended to become pleasant dwelling places. The terms fortified manor and palace instead of castle became increasingly appropriate as time went by.
Adaptation to Firearms
The introduction of fire-weapons, of course, had consequences on fortifications. Military commanders and engineers were quick to realize that artillery, which so effectively attacked and reduced late medieval strongholds and walled cities, could equally well be used for defense. Gradually the problem of fortification versus firearm appeared to be twofold: how to protect one’s self against enemy fire; and how to use guns from a permanent fortified position. Integrating guns into the defensive arrangement took several shapes. The first step was to adapt existing elements. The long, vertical and narrow loopholes, placed in medieval towers, gatehouses and barbicans, intended to allow shooting with bows and crossbows, were pierced with a round
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Gunports. 1: Cross-and-orb, a medieval arrowslit fitted with a hole; 2: Firing port; 3: Embrasure for cannon with inward part widened enabling gunners to aim their weapon.
Hole enabling the passage of a long-barreled weapon. Eventually enlarged and widened, they became full-scale openings called firing ports, embrasures or portholes, permitting the discharge of firearms. Blocked with shutters when not in use, they were of various sizes depending on the weapons used (small for handguns, and large for cannons) and were often provided with vents and ventilation shafts for clearing choking fumes. In many cases, the new castles built in Britain were provided with gunports, thus revealing the reaction of the designers to the introduction of firearms.
The Last Medieval Castles
Another new feature, introduced from the Low Countries, was (for the first time since the Roman era) the use of brick instead of stone. Brick production proliferated along the English southeast coast due to an influx of Flemish weavers and a reduction in the amount of available stone, leading to a demand for an alternative building material. Splendid instances of brick castles in 15th-century Britain are Herstmonceux in Sussex, Caister-on-Sea in Norfolk, Tattershall in Lincolnshire, and Buckden in Huntingdonshire.
The influence exerted upon the latest phase of English castle-building by revived turmoil, culminating in the Wars of the Roses, was displayed in three notable instances: Raglan, Ashby-de-la-Zouch, and Kirby Muxloe. The castles built in this period were the last true castles to be built in England; they provided security and also separate suites of rooms for the lord and his guests, his domestic staff and servants, and garrison.
Bodiam Castle, situated beside the River Rother near Robertsbridge in East Sussex, was built in the late 14th century by Sir Edward Dalyngrygge (also spelled Dalyngrudge), a veteran of King Edward III’s wars with France, originally as a coastal defense, a refuge affording temporary shelter for the local people. There was indeed need of strongholds along the shores. At that time French corsairs often ravaged the coast of Sussex, raiding towns, villages and manor houses (e. g., the devastating attack on Winchelsea). As raiders from the sea carried no siege equipment, every minute they were held at bay gained time for a relief force to come to the rescue. In 1385, Sir Edward Dalyngrygge was given permission to fortify his house against aggression and possible invasion from France, but then decided to build a new stone castle a short distance away from the house. The castle was completed in 1390. With an almost square construction, Bodiam Castle has a notable symmetry and is surrounded by a wide lily-decked moat. The moat was created from an artificial lake which, in turn, originated from allowing the river to flow into a rectangular area of marshy land. The moat was intended to prevent attackers from gaining access to the base of the castle’s walls, but it also had the effect of making the castle appear larger and more impressive by isolating it in its landscape. At each corner of the curtain wall stands a 65-feet-high, four-story, cylindrical tower, and rectangular towers are located mid-way along each wall. The southern rectangular tower of the Postern Gate at one time carried the drawbridge across the moat. Symmetrically opposite stands the gatehouse, with its twin, rectangular towers consuming one third of the northern wall. A deep arch and parapet connect the towers of the gatehouse. The gunports on the towers were a later edition to the castle. Access to Bodiam Castle today remains via the moat on the north side, passing through the Octagon (an island outwork that had enough space for turning wagons), and the barbican before reaching the gatehouse. The barbican was originally constructed as a two-story gatehouse but only the lower part of the western wall survives. Bodiam Castle has no keep, thus employing the gatehouse as a defense to the bailey within the castle walls. The construction of Bodiam Castle appears to have been a good combination of medieval defense strategies and remarkably comfortable accommodation, thus creating a magnificent fortified dwelling place in an idyllic rural location. The fortifications were never tested to any degree, although during the English Civil War of 1642-46 the interior of the castle was virtually gutted. Bodiam Castle was then left to deteriorate until the early 20th century. In 1917, George Nathaniel, Earl Curzon of Kedleston,
Viceroy of India, undertook a re-building program in order to restore Bodiam Castle to its former medieval appearance.
Bodiam’s gateway is a large structure composed of two flanking towers defended by oiletts for arrows and gunports for light firearms, embattled parapets, and deep machicolations. A huge portcullis still frowns down upon us, and two others opposed the way. There was also a particularly ingenious barbican and outwork with wooden bridges and drawbridges at right angles to each other, contributing to a significant defensive potential.
The castles described below were partly or entirely new foundations of the 14th and 15th centuries, and as such reflected the current attitudes regarding to domestic comfort within fortified premises. Such new castles were, however, greatly outnumbered by existing structures which —for simple economic reasons— it made sense to modify rather than build entirely afresh. In such cases the demand for greater domestic space and comfort was met by additions to the existing structure, and this practice goes a long way to explaining the great variety in the British castles as we see them today. Frequently the additions took the form of an extension of the existing hall or the construction of new towers, which, with their many floor levels, added greatly to the amount of accommodation available. An excellent example of this is provided by the late-14th-century development at Warwick Castle.
Herstmonceux, built slightly later than Bodiam (in c. 1440) demonstrates another stage in the decline of the castle as a military fortification. Situated near Hailsham in Sussex, it was built by Sir Roger Fiennes, a veteran of Agincourt and treasurer of Henry VI. Although Herstmonceux has most of the formal requisites of a fortress (wall - and corner-towers, curtains with battlements and machicolation, a gatehouse and drawbridge, and a large moat), it is a play castle, built by a tired old soldier to remind him of battles long ago, but battles no longer dangerous or vicious. The result is not a defensive structure, but a palatial residence in a self-consciously archaic castle style. Herstmonceux—one of the earliest brick-built castles—is about 200 feet square. Internally, the arrangements were thoroughly domestic, clearly indicating that the builders of Herstmonceux Castle concentrated more on grandeur and comfort than on defense. The castle was dismantled in 1777, leaving the exterior walls standing, and remained a ruin until the early 20th century. Radical restoration work was undertaken by Colonel Claude Lowther in 1913 to transform the ruined building into a residence and it was completed for Sir Paul Latham in 1933 by the distinguished architect Walter Godfrey. In 1957 Herstmonceux Castle became the home of the Royal Greenwich Observatory and it remained so until 1988, when the observatory moved to Cambridge. Today the castle houses the Bader International Study Center. The castle is not open to the public except by tours, but the magnificent 550-acre Elizabethan gardens and the Science Center are open.
Beginning in the second half of the 14th century, the accent shifted to gaiety, grandeur and elaboration. The castle extended outwards in one or more inner and outer courtyards and rings of towered and embattled walls. Buildings were neatly and conviently ranged around the sides of the courtyard inside the castle. They became more specialized in function, profuse in decorations, better lit, and more lavish in their proportions. The keep had been largely abandoned as the living-place of the owner, and was replaced with large vaulted halls, elaborate suites of partitioned rooms and airy apartments. Glass had ceased to be a rarity and the simple narrow
Windows of preceding centuries became a riot of color and curved tracery. Highly decorative coats-of-arms, crests and blazons, finely carved in walls, staircases and above doors, expressed the nobility’s pride and prosperity. In the 15th century the simplicity and economy of early English architecture gave place to a more highly decorated fashion, known as Perpendicular style. This late phase of Gothic architecture in England was characterized by rich visual effects through decoration, by a predominance of vertical lines in stone window tracery, the enlargement of windows to great proportions, upward curves and conversion of the interior stories into a single unified vertical expanse. Fan vaults, ornamental ribs springing from slender
Left: Herstmonceux gatehouse. The substantial gatehouse was composed of two imposing towers rising to 84 feet on either side of the entrance and a drawbridge, whose rainures (5 lots in the gatehouse wall) for the gaffs (lifting arms) are still clearly visible. Along the walls of the castle and situated in each corner are a series of octagonal and semioctagonal towers, each provided with defenses (crenels, machicolation, loopholes and gunports) suitable for firearm or crossbow. The castle never came under attack during its long history, which was a very good thing, because the brick walls were too thin to withstand any serious artillery bombardment for any length of time. Herstmonceux was constructed at a time when castles built as military fortifications were coming to an end. Instead it was designed along the lines of a grand mansion.
Opposite top: Drawbridge with counterweights and gaffs. By the 14th century a bascule arrangement was provided by lifting arms (called gaffs) above and parallel to the bridge deck, whose ends were linked by chains to the lifting end of the bridge; in the raised position the gaffs would fit into slots in the gatehouse wall (called rainures) which can still be seen in many castles. Inside the gatehouse the gaffs were extended to bear counterweights, or they might form the side-timbers of a stout gate, which would be against the roof of the gate-passage when the drawbridge was down, but would close against the gate-arch as the bridge was raised. The cross-section (right) shows how the bridge was operated. By pulling down the counterweight (1), the inner parts of the gaffs pivoted down (2), raising the drawbridge (3); the outer part of the gaffs pivoted up (4) and fitted into rainures or grooves (5) installed for this purpose in the facade of the gatehouse.
Right: Caister-on-Sea, located some 3 miles (4.8 km) from Great Yarmouth in Norfolk, originates from a Romans vicus (settlement) established in the 1st century a. d. near a naval base associated with the Saxon shore. The medieval castle, built in 1432 on the site of an earlier fortified manor house and chapel, is an impressive moated fortress. It was founded by Sir John Falstolf, an immensely rich veteran of the Hundred Years’ War, but also a patron of literature, and a writer on strategy. One of the first major brick buildings in England, Caister is rectangular in plan and included three wards. The remains of the hall and domestic buildings are still standing, flanked by round angle towers. In the inner ward there are three gunports in the lofty six-story northwest tower and several gunports in the high curtain wall. The outer ward is thought to be older, the curtain wall, which lacks strength, is flanked on the angles by open-backed round bastions, complete with arrow loops. The third ward, with its modified Barge House, wide arched water-gate and large round flanking tower was altered by the Paston family in the 15th century and is now known as Caister Hall, which was rebuilt in the 1830s. Today the castle holds the largest private collection of motor vehicles in the country, stretching from 1893 to the present day.
Left: Tattershall, situated northeast of Sleaford in Lincolnshire, was built between 1430 and 1450 by Ralph, third Lord Cromwell, who chose to use brick. About 700,000 bricks were used to build the castle, which has often been described as the finest piece of medieval brickwork in England. It was built as an addition to a 13th-century stone enclosure and a pre-existing hall. Despite its appearance and its martial garniture, Tattershall was not a kind of atavic reversion to the concept of a Norman keep. Like Herstmonceux Castle, it should rather be regarded as a private residence expressing barional pride and magnificence. The castle fell into neglect until 1911, when it was purchased and then restored until 1914 by Lord Curzon of Kedleston, who left it to the National Trust on his death in 1925. Today the castle is still in the care of the National Trust, and it is open to the public.
Right: Donnington Castle. This castle, which should not be confused with Castle Donington in the Northwest of Leicestershire, is sited at the top of a hill overlooking the River Lambourne, a mile north of Newbury in the small village of Donnington, in the county of Berkshire. It was built by its original owner, Richard Abberbury the Elder, under a license granted by King Richard II in 1386. The castle was a rectangular enclosure with a round tower at each corner and two square towers midway along the longest sides. The most impressive part of the castle, and indeed the only part now standing, was the depicted gatehouse. This is a three-story rectangular building with two round towers that flank the entrance and rise another story above the rest of the building.
Columns or pendants, became popular, and these fantastic schemes merged ribs and tracery patterns in a dazzling display of architectural pageantry. The oldest surviving example of this style is probably the choir of Gloucester Cathedral (begun c. 1335). Other major monuments include King’s College Chapel, Cambridge (14461515), and the chapel of Henry VII at Westminster Abbey.
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Raglan Castle (conjectured reconstruction), located 7 miles southwest of Monmouth in the county of Monmouthshire, is one of the last true castles ever to be built in Wales. Construction of the castle began in the 1430s by Sir William ap Thomas, the Blue Knight of Gwent, and continued through 1525. William—a Welsh knight who had fought at the Battle of Agincourt with King Henry V in 1415—was responsible for building the Great Tower at Raglan, which became known as the Yellow Tower of Gwent. William ap Thomas died in 1445 and the castle passed to his son William Herbert, who continued in his father’s footsteps by adding Raglan’s gatehouse, stately apartments, and the machicolations to the top of the gatehouse and the Closet Tower. In 1589, during the time of William Somerset, third Earl of Worcester, the castle entered its last major building phase. Sir William Somerset added a new hammer-beam roof to the hall and a long gallery on the second floor overlooking the Fountain Court. Raglan Castle was besieged during the English Civil War in 1646. Following the siege, the castle was destroyed to the point that it would be indefensible; thus began its period of falling into disrepair. Raglan is now maintained by Cadw (Welsh Historic Monuments) on behalf of the Secretary of State for Wales, and its mighty and imposing ruins are open to the public. The illustration shows how Raglan Castle might have looked before the 1646 siege.
Raglan Castle can be seen for miles around the countryside, and its features (notably the association of the traditional crosslet loopholes and the new-fangled gunports) were designed for serious defense. There is no question here of a mere parade or pride display. There was a first low wall with an entrance known as the White Gate (1). The Great Tower, or the Yellow Tower of Gwent (2), the centerpiece of the castle, is a huge hexagonal donjon. It stands outside the enceinte and is surrounded by its own moat (3), which is crossable by a double drawbridge (4) from the main castle. The Great Tower also has a low enceinte apron-wall (5) at its base just above water level with six small corner towers. The massive gatehouse (6) was fitted with machicolations around the top of the towers and gargoyles on some of the tower corners. Raglan Castle includes two wards: the Pitch Stone Court (7) and the Fountain Court (8), with a series of large buildings of Tudor and Jacobean times including the parlour (9), chapel (10), hall (11), buttery (12), long gallery (13) and pantry (14). The Fountain Court includes the garden terraces (15), grand staircase (16), and a secondary entrance named the South Gate (17). The castle also has two other impressive towers, the Closet Tower (18) and the Kitchen Tower (19), which do not quite seem so large when compared to the Great Tower, but still very formidable to anyone trying to attack the castle. Raglan Castle was designed as a strong fortress with a pronounced military character, but it was also a stately residence that was richly furnished, decorated with luxurious taste, and enclosed in splendid grounds, including orchards and gardens.
This castle is located in the town of Ashby-de-la-Zouch, 18 miles northwest of Leicester, Leicestershire. It originated as a Norman fortified manor house founded in 1160 by Alain de Parrhoet la Zouch. During the next three centuries it was extended. In 1474 it was granted by Edward IV to his chamberlain, William Lord Hastings, as a reward for his loyalty in the Wars of the Roses. William Lord Hastings was one of the principal actors on the Yorkist side in the tangled drama of the Wars of the Roses; he held numerous exalted posts and enjoyed enormous wealth. Like all the nobles of this turbulent period, he kept his own private armed force. William converted Ashby Castle into an impressive fortress. To the original walled courtyard, hall, kitchen and solar block, he added a dominating four-story machicolated square keep, with a seven-story rectangular extension, a chapel and a surrounding curtain wall. The keep, known as the Hastings Tower, was intended to provide William with a self-contained tower house to keep himself, his family and his personal household apart from the crowd of armed retainers whose services he bought with his ample purse. The tower was 90 feet (27 m) high. It was rectangular in shape, measuring about 47 feet (14 m) by 41 feet (12 m) with walls nearly 9 feet (3 m) thick on the ground floor. However, after the king’s death in 1483, Hastings refused to support his successor, Richard III. The king had him beheaded, a scene that was included in Shakespeare’s play Richard III. A Royalist stronghold during the Civil War, Ashby Castle finally fell to Parliament in 1646, and was then partially destroyed to make it unusable. Sir Walter Scott took Ashby-de-la Zouch Castle as the setting for the tournament in his novel Ivanhoe. The impressive ruined castle is now owned by English Heritage and open to the public.
Kirby Muxloe Castle is located in the center of the village of Kirby Muxloe, off Oakcroft Avenue, some 4 miles west of Leicester. Originally it was a fortified manor house founded by the Pakeman family in the 14th century. In 1480, William Lord Hastings founded a quadrangular castle when he was granted license to crenellate. Kirby Muxloe was one of the last quadrangular castles to be built in England. Despite the castle’s having never been completed, the attractive site is an impressive tribute to its builder, William Lord Hastings, who for a time held a position of great power within the realm. The castle was left unfinished after Hastings’s execution by Richard III in 1483. The rectangular platform, encased by a moat, supported a hall and chamber blocks, of which foundations remain. Kirby Muxloe was one of the first English castles to be systematically equipped with gunports and embrasures for the use of firearms. The picturesque moated site is now owned and conserved by English Heritage and open to the public.
Above: Warwick Castle consisted originally of a Norman motte with a shell-keep (1)—now planted with shrubbery—and a large bailey on its northeastern side built by William the Conqueror adjacent to the Anglo-Saxon burh of Warwick. In the later decades of the 14th century a new section of wall was built at the north-eastern end with two defensive points, Guy’s Tower (2) and Caesar’s Tower (3), at each end (providing both security and a considerable amount of accommodation) and a gatehouse (4) with a barbican in the middle. The fortified front represents one of the most recognizable examples of 14th-century military architecture. At the same time a large range of buildings was added to the northeast side of the bailey, including a library (5), great hall (6), dining room (7), chapel (8), as well as other domestic accommodations. Further additions, made in a later period, included the Watergate Tower (9), and another entrance, defended by two structures: Clarence Tower (10) and Bear Tower (11), and a dry ditch (12). Outside the castle, at the foot of Caesar’s Tower, is the Mill Garden (13) created by the banker and horticulturist Arthur Bradley Measures. This is a charming waterside garden, with good views of the south front of the castle, the Old Bridge and the River Avon.
Opposite bottom: Guy’s Tower, Warwick Castle is located some eight miles from Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire. A fortified town (burh) was first established at Warwick by Aethelflaed, widow of King Ethelred, in 914-916. The town was fortified against the threat of Danish invasions. After the Norman conquest in 1066, William I moved northwards from London, to subdue resistance in the Midlands and Northern England. He founded castles at Warwick and Nottingham, run by his Norman barons. The castle at Warwick was founded in 1086 on a sandstone bluff at a bend of the River Avon. From 1088, the castle traditionally belonged to the Earl of Warwick, and it served as a symbol of his power. The castle was taken in 1153 by Henry of Anjou, later Henry II. It has been used to hold prisoners, notably King Edward IV. In the 17th century the grounds around the castle were turned into a garden, but the defenses were enhanced in the 1640s to prepare the castle for action in the English Civil War. Robert Greville, second Baron Brooke, was a Parliamentarian, and Royalist forces laid siege to the castle. Warwick Castle withstood the siege and was later used to hold prisoners taken by the Parliamentarians. The Tus-sauds Group purchased Warwick Castle in 1978 and opened it as a major tourist attraction. It is now protected as a scheduled ancient monument and a Grade I listed building. The depicted Guy’s Tower (128 feet high) was named after Guy of Warwick, a legendary Anglo-Saxon mystic warrior. There is a reference to his story in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales.
World History
