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 Development of Castles 13th to 16th century
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| Author | Topic: Development of Castles 13th to 16th century |
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Charlie Member |
posted 08-31-2000 10:26 AM
  
Please can anyone help with my above school project? I'm struggling to find any information On the subject. Thanks Charlie |
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wurdsmiff unregistered |
posted 08-31-2000 12:37 PM
Try the links from the following page, http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum9/HTML/000057.html also see http://www.manitoulin-link.com/medieval/castles.html .....and from the perspective of west central Scotland here's my bit, (edited extract of copyrighted material) In the 12th century it was a deliberate policy of the Scottish Royal House to befriend the Normans of England, renowned as the most efficient and feared warriors of their day. This policy was most vehemently applied by David 1, who was educated in England and raised at their court. There were two distinct waves of settlement as the Normans were brought north and granted lands to strengthen the military and administrative abilities of the Nation. The first wave brought Flemish and Norman settlers to South West Scotland, mainly Galloway and Clydesdale, and the second wave from about 1160 settled mainly north of the Forth. The administrative centre and main residence of each settling lord was the Motte and Bailey Castle. This was a rapidly built and readily defended structure, in the days when Norman Knights on heavy horse, heavily armoured and armed with lances, were the most advanced and powerful tools of war available. It consisted of an earthen mound, often layered alternately with stones to provide stability, built steeply within the perimeter of a deep ditch. Atop this mound would have been a wooden tower as the main residence of the Lord. The whole was surrounded by larger area known as the bailey, containing a living area for the garrison and livestock, again surrounded by a ditch and supporting subsidiary buildings such as a chapel, brewery, and stables. The defences were supplemented by palisades, or wooden walls surrounding both the motte and the bailey, the ditches filled with water creating a moat , or heavy spikes set into the ground so thickly as to provide an impenetrable barrier to charging heavy cavalry. There were many variations to motte & bailey design . For instance, the motte of the Somervilles at Carnwath was excavated, revealing that the tower was accessed via a radial tunnel through the base of the motte , and thence by a central well and ladder to the centre of the block house. The motte of Sir James Graham's castle overlooking the Carron Valley Reservoir was sculpted from a natural spur of the hill, and had a dry moat 33ft wide and 10ft deep. The motte was a rough square of about 75ft each side and would have been accessed by a wooden drawbridge from the hillside. The size and shape of these structures also varied, Maiden Castle at the foot of the Campsie Fells at Lennoxtown was of the traditional Xmas Pudding shape with relatively small summit area, whilst along the road at Kilsyth is Balcastle, a large motte shaped as an upturned frying pan which has a circular summit of about 90ft diameter. Nowadays the remains of these structures provide unusually contoured , though attractive additions to our landscape, mellowed by the action of nature over the centuries. But in their heyday their appearance would have been a blight, appearing as mounds of raw black earth against a gentle green countryside. Add to this a foreboding array of spikes, aimed to threaten those outside from every angle , and the stench of rotten corpses from the nearby Gallowhill, all presenting a fierce and sinister symbol of the power of the lord within. Mottes were built in regions which had traditionally provided unrest and rebellion for the nation, and this is why David 1 had made these areas prime settlement targets for his new Norman aristocracy. These men had to earn their lands. They were held of the Crown in return for military service in the national cause, but they were also to provide stability within the country itself. Galloway particularly , had persistently been a thorn in the side of Scottish rule, having their own lords who reigned as kings, and so as a priority was settled in the first phase. Lanarkshire, it's close neighbour, must have been influenced by the Lords of Galloway , the hilly country in the Upper Clyde region acting as it's north eastern border, and so there was prolific settlement in and around the upper reaches. The names of some of these men remain as those of villages, Roberton from Robert the Fleming, Thankerton and Symington from the brothers Tancard and Simon Loccard, whilst other settlers took their names from the lands, the Coulters and the Carmichaels as example. A note of caution though, there is evidence that at least in the Clydesdale area, mottes were built as temporary residences at least until the fourteenth century. A motte at Moat, 2 miles south of Roberton has been shown to have been built in the Thirteenth or Fourteenth centuries. When excavated it gave up pottery of the 14th C from the ground below, and cannot be attributed as the work of Robert the Fleming. It is thought to have been built by Mary of Stirling , who had supported the anti-Bruce faction throughout the reign of Robert 1 and David 2 , and who had been compelled to provide herself and her retinue with safe lodgings in the area. It is not then until the closing days of the 12th C that the first stone castles of the mediaeval age began to appear. The earliest archaologically confirmed dating of a surviving stone castle in Scotland is Castle Sween, built around 1200, give or take a decade. These early castles consisted simply of a high , thick, curtain wall or enceinte, which supported a parapet from which the entry and walls could be defended. In these earliest structures, the buildings within would initially have consisted of lean-to wooden buildings with the largest functioning as the main hall and Lord's residence. These simple structures were added to as new defensive features were developed and incorporated in response to the increasing sophistication of assault weapons and tactics, a process continuing even today in modern warfare. Initially corner towers would have been added, gatehouses, and then stone keeps, with the result that the remaining examples require close study to reveal how the surviving structure came about over the centuries. These additional features became part and parcel of the design of each new castle, individual buildings reflecting the wealth and social standing of it's lord. Bothwell Castle is an excellent example of this , despite having never been completed to it's original plan. Castles took a great many man hours to build, accumulating in years of construction time. A period of peace was therefore required in order that the structure could be completed without the threat of attack in the interim. It would have been a great investment for a lord to contemplate, peace allowing him to accrue the necessary funds. The actual workforce would have included a number of expensive and highly skilled tradesmen, masons, carpenters, armourers, not to mention a multitude of labourers. In it's original planned form , Bothwell would have become one of the grandest residences in the land. The great keep, or donjon displays stonework of great quality, and it's sheer size is a statement of the status of the deMoravia family. If the Wars of Independance had not interceded, the intended internal area would have exceeded any contemporary Scottish castle. Much of it had reached only foundation level at the time of Edward 1's invasion of 1296. By then all that had been completed was the donjon and adjacent prison tower, with interceding wall. Even in this incomplete condition it took a siege of fourteen months for the Scots to regain Bothwell from English hands in 1298. The Wars of Independance resulted in the deliberate policy of rendering indefensible all castles which could be held by an invader against the Scots. This policy was conceived by Robert 1, Dumbarton and Berwick were to be the only exceptions amongst the Royal castles. The consequence is that only the sections of buildings which were left in a repairable state survive as testament to the skill of the early mediaeval tradesmen. Following the death of " Good King Robert" in 1329 and the subsequent attempt to re-establish a Balliol monarchy, the Scots appear to have relearned the value of fortified residences. Simple keeps were the order of the day in the 14th century. These consisted of a tall square block normally within a courtyard, with exceptionally thick walls and battlements. There were as a rule, three storeys, the basement having no communication with the other floors. The main entrance was by removable stair from the courtyard to the main hall on the first floor, the private quarters on the floor above accessed by a narrow stair built within the structure of the wall. Often additional rooms were created within the walling, these mural chambers serving as smaller guest rooms or as a garderobe (toilet). The roofs were of stone, a parapet providing a fighting platform around the walltops, and slabbing the remainder to protect against attack with fire. As always, the grander the house the greater it's lord, with later additions masking the original building. Mearns, Duntreath and the original keep at Murdostoun represent three excellent examples within my area, whilst Crookston is an exception, illustrating aptly that as symbols of power, the lords castle tended to reflect the wealth available to him. It is worth mentioning at this point that wealth was not necessarily a monetary commodity in these early days, but a direct reflection of political influence, and the fighting manpower available under the lord's superiority. Crookston is unique amongst the castles of this period, having had a massive main central block of at least 3 storeys , further strengthened by four corner towers , providing a rough X-plan. It does not appear to have had a courtyard as such, subsidiary buildings being within the perimeter of the deep and wide ditch which protected it's predecessor, the ringwork of Robert Croc of Neilston. Until 1400, the expense of building stone castles limited their construction and ownership to the upper eshcelons of society. However as part of a systematic reduction of the power of the great lords, the crown passed an act of parliament in 1401 which took the baronies directly though independently under Royal control whenever the superior Earldom fell to the Crown. This division of these great properties allowed the granting of smaller though substantial parcels of land to lesser lords, and heralded an explosion of activity in the construction of lesser houses. These new lords were eager to display their new found status and as a result the traditional Scottish tower house was born. Later, in 1535,another Act of Parliament demanded that each landholder ‘on the borders or inland’ was obliged to build a Barmkin ,a small courtyard, with a tower within if required as residence. The result was a 2 year flurry of activity on the building front. Finance and the standing of the resident Lord determined the complexity and size of the tower house. Initially a single tower ,then more commonly an L-plan from the dawn of the 16th C, later developing added protection and extra living space by additional towers to create the Z-plan,T-plan ,E-plan etc. The tower house is the most frequently occurring variety of Scottish castle. Each was surrounded by a barmkin, which supported lesser buildings such as stables, stores etc. Usually of 3-4 storeys, early access was to a basement with vaulted ceiling, often with no access to the floors above. The main entrance to the simple tower would like the stockier keeps of previous years, have been to the first floor, by a removable stair. The standard arrangement provided one room per floor, the first floor as the hall, and private quarters above. A good example was Drumry Peel, now sadly demolished. L-plan castles provided better defensive ability and improved domestic planning. They began to appear from the early 16thC, either as new builds, or extended single towers. The position of the main entrance within the re-entrant made it possible to place the door at ground floor level, covering fire being given from gunloops at strategic positions on the adjacent walls. Additional defensive features were various, caphouses, bartizans, parapets and open rounds. An iron gate or yett protected the door. The hall would have remained on the first floor, though a more complex arrangement of numerous rooms to each storey was now possible. The increasing sophistication and tastes of the gentry now demanded wine cellars, numerous bedrooms, kitchens, food stores, and separate stair towers. There are many superb examples within the area, such as Jerviston, Jerviswood and Haggs. As these tastes developed, we find that by the latter part of the 16thC, extensions were added to create the more complex structures of E,Z and T-plan, each geometrically enhancing the defensive capability of the building. Following the Union of the Crowns in 1603,defensive features should have became less necessary . Wisely, the Scots were slow to give up the main design motive of their homes. It proved a worthwhile cause as religious war, civil war, and the various Jacobite rebellions prove. By the latter part of the 17thC , fortifications were gradually omitted as comfort and spaciousness became the main driving force. Many of our castles were extended until they eventually became the lesser part of grand mansions, as at Finlaystone. A development of the 15th-16th centuries was the arrival of gunpowder. Financially the viability of defending against artillery was limited. For the vast majority to reflect this new destructive power in the nature of their buildings meant defence by use of small arms ,muskets ,and small canon or mortars. A few wealthy individuals were able to afford defence against larger cannon, creating a new challenge in castle design. Craignethan stands out as a local example. The defensive works of Sir James Hamilton ("The Bastard of Finnart ") were built as a showpiece. In his role as Master of Works to King James V he was in a position of considerable influence and power. Sir James designed and built Craignethan from the old castle of Draffane, to create a state of the art fortress with many unique design features , curiously in a position where all of these defences could be out-flanked by artillery. The ridge opposite would have provided a perfect platform from which the bombards of the day could have strafed the entire site. But then it was built to display what could be done, as this entrepreneurial character endeavoured to amass a personal fortune. The period 1560-1650 brought us the Bastle House, a simple fortified farmhouse which defended stock and inhabitants against the reivers of the borderland and Clydesdale. These structures varied in character a great deal, and so any description is bound to be a generalisation. Their purpose was as that of the brochs, a bolt hole for the community under attack, whilst also used as a main residence of the landholder, and as a barn. The ground floor was the animal shed accessed by a single door, usually wooden, which could be defended from the floor above. In some there was a vaulted ceiling. The upper floor consisted of the living quarters, reached by an internal stair. A garret was standard. There was not normally a courtyard, though a collection of out-buildings clustered around would have formed a yard of sorts. Often there were earthworks or dykes around the whole. The Bastle House was the best building in the farmstead, and represented the working core and main residence. Most have disappeared, though ruins survive in some of the far-flung corners of the upper ward of Clydesdale. Glendorch is one of the more substantial ruins, and had a vaulted ground floor. An example was uncovered at Thorril during the M74 fieldwork project in 1990. Others stood at Snar, Nemphlar, Glenochar and Windgate amongst many. As the period of the fortified house closed, the creation of fortresses built to sustain a full time garrison from the standing army became necessary. The example of Dumbarton stands out, losing much of it's ancient stonework and character in favour of a more martial design. Gun batteries, barracks, and cell blocks replaced the personal touch of the Governor who had on occasion to provide lodging for his Royal patron. In short, it became less of a home, and more a military installation. ------------------ Gordon. |
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Red Dragon Member |
posted 09-19-2000 12:24 AM
Hi. Any help you want on Welsh castles, then e.mail me. red@red-dragon-wales.com or my web site. http://www.red-dragon-wales.com Hwyl Red Dragon |
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