Castles

The authors of Knights: Chivalry and Violence let readers inside the walls of the medieval period’s most iconic structure.

In ancient and medieval times, the castle was the ultimate symbol of power, dominating its surroundings and marking the landscape with its imposing size and impregnable design. This concise and entertaining short history explores the life of the castle, one that often involved warfare and sieges. The castle was a first and foremost a fortress, the focus of numerous clashes which took place in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Castles became targets of sieges—such as that organized by Prince Louis of France against Dover Castle in 1216—and were forced to adopt greater defensive measures.

Also explored is the evolution of castles from motte-and-bailey to stone keeps in the face of newly developed siege machines and trebuchets. The trebuchet named Warwolf, which Edward I had assembled for his siege of Scotland’s Stirling Castle, reportedly took three months to construct and was almost four hundred feet tall on completion. With features such as “murder holes” for throwing boiling oil at the attackers, the defenders in the castle fought back in earnest. Alongside such violence, the castle functioned as a residence for the nobles and their servants, often totaling several hundred in number. It was the location for extravagant banquets held in the great hall by the lord and lady, and the place where the lord carried out his administrative duties, such as overseeing laws and collecting taxes.