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egal, invincible, romantic, the castle is a central character in many a tale—from Sleeping Beauty to Rapunzel to the darker fiction of Stoker’s Dracula. Who can forget the catalytic scene in which the love of Dracula’s life, upon hearing of her husband’s death, plunges from the tower window to her death? And who hasn’t envisioned the remote, cobweb-laced tower where Sleeping Beauty discovered the bloodthirsty spindle that sent her into her 100-year slumber? Is it any wonder the castle should play a not-so-small role in the modern Medieval romance?

And so, as with any central character, it’s important to know your castle. And not just a general history will do—be specific to your time period, as well as your locale, because castles differed immensely from region to region and throughout their evolution. For example, you wouldn’t want to build a castle under the reign of Henry II without express consent. One of the first things he did upon receiving his throne was to order all castles “not standing in the days of his grandfather to be razed to the ground” (with the exception of a few in key sites). And, should your enemy happen to defeat your garrison and battle their way into your keep, you wouldn’t want to build your stairs in the wrong place or in the wrong style, or hand-to-hand combat could get a little hairy for the wrong person.

Unlike its literary image, the history of the castle is far less romantic. It can be traced to pre-Roman times to its precursors at Troy, Babylon and The Great Wall of China. And then there’s Hadrian’s Wall. After endless attempts to conquer the blue-tattooed natives of Scotland, Roman Emperor Hadrian finally realized, the “Picts weren’t locked in with him, he was locked in with them!” (borrowing from a great line from a not-so-great movie), and he promptly built his wall to keep them out. Standing at its completion at 73.5 miles long and 6’8” thick, the wall was built—as was every other early fortification—to be manned by large garrisons. This is the primary difference between these early fortifications and the “castle” we are concerned with. Left unmanned, these early fortifications were little more effective than the fence in your back yard—an obstacle to be sure, but certainly not insurmountable.

Comparatively, castles were designed to be defended by a much smaller retinue. It was a center of power. To define it, I cede to R.A. Brown, who says it best, “The castle… is the fortified residence of a lord… a manifestation of feudal society and more especially feudal lordship.”  For its origins, we look to Western Europe.  And for its introduction to England, we look to the Normans.

Prior to the Norman conquests, the only known castles in England were likely those established by Norman and French lords already in residence. According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle by Anne Savage, they were considered “foreign” and were deigned “oppressive.” But these early English castles (circa 1066 through 1100) already displayed the rudimentary principles of design that would persist throughout the Middle Ages—the basic design being tower, enclosure and lesser towers to fortify walls. They were primarily built of timber, though not exclusively, and most followed the “motte and bailey” blueprint.

Originally, the motte was the mound, not the moat, deriving from the Norman-French word for turf. Only later was it used to describe the wet ditch. This motte could be anywhere from 50 to 120 feet high, and 50 to 300 feet in diameter at its apex. Atop the motte sat the donjon.

 

 

This fortified building was customarily one to two stories high, and as with the word motte, the original donjon did not allude to a prison at all, but to the keep itself, where the lord and his lady resided.

Surrounding the motte was the ditch, and when feasible this ditch was filled with water. Some utilized other obstacles instead, such as spikes—whatever seemed formidable and most accessible.

By the turn of the Twelfth century, the small number of castles in 1066 England had grown to more than 500—most built of timber. By the next, they had been converted to masonry, and during the course of these years, influenced by The Crusades, new elaborations appeared—merlons (the solid part in a crenellated parapet), crenels (gaps at regular intervals in a parapet) and muertrieres (murder holes) to name a few. motte_and_bailey

Motte and Bailey castle

(original water color by June Blakely)

 

By the late Twelfth Century, castles were again being renovated in light of new technology. At Chepstow, for example, William Marshall was one of the first to use round wall towers (more difficult to scale) and true arrow loops (narrow slits made to accommodate archers so they could send missiles out, but fewer could be returned to harm them). It was only much, much later, after gunpowder was introduced, that round openings were added to arrow loops to accommodate firearms.

In Europe, by the mid Thirteenth Century, castles had settled into forms that suggested their season of evolution was over.  However, in Wales at the end of the century, Edward I was still developing highly sophisticated castles, and yet a full century later, the Scots were still building solid, square keeps that were perfectly suited to their needs.

Key takeaway? Know your castle as well as you do your hero and heroine. The castle has a magnificent history, rife with politics and possibilities, but like the Castles during Edward II’s reign, your story could come tumbling down with the wrong facts.

A few books I’ve enjoyed are: Castle by David Macaulay (book and video), The Castles of Scotland by Maurice Lindsay, anything by R.A. Brown and The Castle in Medieval England and Wales by Colin Platt.

 

Tanya has written 15 books with eight of them medieval romances. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Italian, French, Russian and Chinese. One of this publisher's favorites of Tanya's medievals is Viking's Price. To keep posted on the status of the novel Tanya is currently writing, please visit her at www.tanyaannecrosby.com.

 

Note from the publisher: For your convenience, reference book titles have been linked directly to Amazon.com.

 

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