Strong Castle

Definition

The word “Château” indicates a residence strengthened of a man and his mesnie , i.e. its entourage. The castle is defined more by one social criterion (the residence, permanent or temporary, of the family Châtelain E) that by an architectural description. The castle is strengthened so as to be able to resist as well a direct attack as with a seat. It is distinguished from the strong house or ferté as former French ( firmitas of the small landed proprietors) by his more important dimensions and its defense works. The castle is the instrument and the symbol of the local authority: it makes it possible to sit the authority of a lord on a population. In this meaning, the first castles appear at the end of the time Carolingien.

The diffusion of the castle-forts about the year 1000 announces that they are related to a particular type of company, known as “feudal”. The disappearance of the Carolingian State and the regionalization of the capacities, the transfer of the kingly authority towards local authorities (feudalization), cause the insecurity related to the competition of large having and the small chiefs. By supporting the blossoming of many regional authorities and local, which need henchmen, of police forces, this regionalization militarizes the company and supports the erection of many strengthened places. Xe at the beginning of the XVIIe centuries, Europe thus roughcasts castles which all symbolize a capacity on the men and the ground. The stronger the territorial capacity of the regional principalities is, the less there are castles, on the contrary the weaker it is, the more numerous they are early and. Thus, in the Germanic areas (in the east of a Saone-Rhone line) where the emperor remains powerful until XIIIe century, appearance of the castles is later and more limited diffusion (at least until worms the second quarter of XIIe century). In midday and the west of France where the royal capacity is absent and the limited regional authorities of the dukes and the counts, the castles are much more numerous and appear in a way definitely earlier (sometimes as of the end of IXe century, more usually in second half of Xe century). The development of the royalty capétienne limit as of XIIIe century. If the disappearance of the Central state and the forced regionalization of Europe, caused by the interests of the war leaders and large having, gave birth to the castle (with Xe century in the west from France, in XIIe-XIIIe centuries in the Empire: Germany, Is France, Italy), the development of the modern States the fact of disappearing at the XVIIe century. All the owners of castle do not have the same authority seigneuriale. The large princes, counts and dynastes, which exerts a territorial authority, build vast castles to place the many knights and “ministerial” who are their army and their “civils servant”. The small lords must be satisfied with house-strong, a tower or a home in a small enclosure. Thus defined, the criteria appear simple. But the princes have need to hold their country of many military stations, sometimes simple turns, which are defended per few men. In addition, of the lords of village, enriched by the war and the functions (rendered services), the means have of raising prestigious constructions. Certain castles have a special enclosure being used as refuge with the surrounding population. But the function of the castle and the will of the regional capacities are not to defend the population, but to dominate it. The castle defends only the capacity of the lord. As from the time of Philippe-Auguste and Richard Heart-of-Lion (fine of XIIe - beginning of XIIIe centuries), the fortification is more and more often the business of “engineers”. Up to that point, favorable sites were sought and one counted especially on the thickness and the height of the walls. The development of an offensive military architecture (related to the diffusion of the machines of war) makes it possible to be established in any site, is not dependant any more on the relief, and more has as a by-effect the search for an architecture with character palatial. The synthesis between castle and strong becomes more difficult as the castles of Saumur or Ferté-Milon show it or produced severe buildings as in Tarascon. The great majority of the castle-forts was raised by the lords of village; they are thus thestrong ones which has very varied forms (more various than those of the large castles), according to the times and the areas, rather incidentally dependant on the evolution of the art of warfare. The strong house is as old as the castle, but the majority of them were rebuilt during or after the One hundred Year old war. The vocabulary of the castle borrows that of the costume: the high enclosure is the shirt, the low enclosures are the braies (word of Gallic origin indicating the pants). The keep is also called belfry, high tower, main tower. For the other terms, to see the illustration. The medieval documentary resources use a vocabulary various and relatively blur to indicate the castles: the castrum (in the plural castrated ) merges with the castellum ( castella ) to describe a strengthened place.

When and how the first castles appeared?

At the 9th century, the edict of Clowns encourages the construction of fortresses to face the Scandinavian invasions which threaten Western France. The multiplication of the castles answers a context of insecurity: raids Vikings and buckwheat S, then violences of small lords brigands, threaten the peasants and their harvests. These castles are initially under the authority of the Count S and the Duc S, which are the delegates of the king in the “areas” ( pagi ). These representatives constitute Principauté S autonomous and entrust their fortresses to delegates (Vicomte S, Viguier S, Centenier S, officers lords of the manor). In XIe and XIIe centuries, the latter usurp the public prerogatives (to return justice, to raise an army, to collect the taxes). The successional divisions accentuate the crumbling of the capacity. They make build, in an illegal way, the castles: at the end of the 12th century, one counted of them approximately 150 in Provence, 130 in Catalogne, 110 in Picardy.

However, it should well be noted that the obliteration of the public authority, incarnated by the king or the count, was done according to rates/rhythms and intensities different:

  • In certain areas (Center of Francie, Burgundy, Lorraine, Provence, Languedoc,…), the obliteration of the public authority was early and deep. As of second half of the 10th century, the viguiers and the Alleu third seize or receive the round of applause. The apogee of the seigniory lady of the manor ranges between 1030 and 1080. The historian medievist Georges Duby particularly studied the Mâcon are born.
  • Of other areas is held better by the princes or the kings (Normandy, Flanders,…). The castles remain controlled by them or their familiar, except during the crises. Thus, the Count de Flandre interdict as of the end of Xe century the construction of fortresses without its authorization. The Norman case is more complex: the duke entrusts the Viscounts to faithful agents. The Norman Viscounts dealt of justice, the taxes and the army; they often remained at the ducal court and returned accounts to the prince. But with the favor of the crises of succession (death of William the Conqueror in 1087), the lords and the Viscounts benefit from it to become autonomous. The private wars are then current. In 1107, Henri Ier must reaffirm prohibition to build strong towers without its agreement

Evolution of the fortresses in Occident (Xe-XVIIe centuries)

The aspect of the strong castles changed during the Moyen-âge parallel to the evolution of the military techniques and seat (Poliorcétique). The structure and the width of the strong castles also depend on the areas and the capacity of its owner. One can distinguish several stages, in the chronological order:

The enclosure castrale (Xe-XIIe centuries)

The enclosure castrale is, with the feudal mound, the first castle-extremely of the history. It even seems that, according to recent archaeological research in Normandy, it would be former to the mound (before 1066). The fortification often occupies a spur or a headland. A turn-porch protects the entry from it. Probably surmounted palisade, the enclosure is out of ground, that withdrawn from the ditch.

This primitive castle-extremely covered in fact all Western Europe.

The first Castle of Caen, built for the duke William the Conqueror, constitutes of it more the Norman good example. The enclosure locks up 5 ha and wife a spur. Before the foundation of the keep at the 12th century, a large strengthened door formed its defensive element most important. The enclosure castrale was in fact a little everywhere in the campaigns Normans but in faces much more modest than in Caen: The Plessis-Grimoult (Apple-brandy) excavated by Elisabeth Zadora-Rio, Mirville (Seine-Maritime) excavated by Jacques Maho, Bridge-Saint-Pierre (the Eure)… This type of fortification also seems to have cohabited with the type “mound castrale” and to have perduré until the 12th century.

The mound castrale (second half of the 10th century/beginning of the 11th century)

Presentation

It is about an artificial hillock on which a tower surrounded by a palisade and a broad ditch is arranged. The specialists also call them “castle with mound and farmyard”).

Diffusion

The first mounds are arranged at the end of the Carolingian time between the Rhine, the Scheldt and the Loire. The mounds appear more tardily in north of Europe (XIIe century with the Denmark) and with the east of the Elba (13th century) Certain lords set up these fortifications without the authorization of the prince: this movement of usurpation which will lead to the Châtellenie S of the 11th century was earlier in the south of France. In second half of the 11th century, the castle with mound multiplies and becomes more complex in France. It is diffused in Germany and England, after the conquest of the duke Guillaume of Normandy. They then obtain an enclosure built at the top of the mound.

Description

The mound strictly speaking and high-court
Dimensions of the mounds vary from 50 to 200 meters in diameter and a height from 10 to 60 meters. The dwelling of the lord could be at the top of the mound (in a tower) or in the farmyard. The tower was encircled by a palisade or a low wall. In the first times, the tower was out of wood and comprised one or two stages where one found reserves and the room of the lord of the manor and his family; surrounded by a palisade arranged on a ground lifting and of a ditch in top. The entry could be done by portable bridge kept by a door and a tower out of wooden.

Farmyard
The mound castrale is included in a vaster strengthened unit which includes/understands a farmyard, separated by a ditch. This space was sufficiently vast to accommodate the taken refuge population. To the foot of the hillock extended a low court with dwellings, agricultural stable S, buildings and sometimes it (Logis seigneurial).

Construction

The lord required his peasants whom they take part in work because the latter could build their house: one started by tracing the plan on the ground, then one dug a ditch whose remains allowed the erection of a ground rampart. The monticule in itself was raised by successive layers, accumulation of materials brought by carriages or with back of man in hoods. No need for a labor specialized to raise this kind of defense. Built out of ground and wood according to varied plans, the mounds are subjected to the bad weather (the palisades rotted) and to the fires. Much of them disappeared. The Tapisserie of Bayeux is an iconographic source of first importance for the knowledge of the mounds castrales. It can be supplemented by the archaeological data and the air recognition. These wood constructions had the advantage of being able to be quickly rebuilt, after a fire for example. They were used as refuge to the peasants of the neighborhoods, at the time of the Scandinavian invasions.

First fortresses hones some (11th century)

The stone fortification, often a Keep surrounded by ramparts, does not correspond to a stage of the history of the castle-forts. In other words, the stone castles did not succeed the castles out of ground and wooden. The choice of material depended especially on the means of the silent partner.

The first large keeps at rectangular base out of stone appear in the Loire Valley (Langeais, end of the 10th century). One traditionally allots a pioneer role to the count d' Anjou, Foulque Nerra (987-1040). the keeps are adopted in Normandy then in England and Germany during the 11th century. That of Loaches measurement 37 meters in height.

In the empire, in Italy and France of the south, small towers of three or four stages could only be drawn up and be used of refuge or station of guet. They were not protected by a wall.

The golden age of the castle

The apogee of the castle extremely itself is the 12th century. Sometimes one indicates it under the expression “castle Romance”. As from 1150, the techniques castrales adapt to progress of the poliorcétique one:

  • the walls become higher and thicker (Dover towards 1180: up to 7 meters thickness for the keep) to resist the shootings of the catapults. The castles adopt a plan more " ramassé" , more " tassé" in order to reduce surface to be defended.
  • the Courtine obtains turns of flanking as from 1160; they are initially rectangular, semicircular and finally circulars. They increasingly many and are brought closer. The circular towers resist better the Mangonneau X and do not leave any dead firing angle. They require less stone for their construction. They were often capped conical roofs. The keep sees consequently its function of defense being reduced. But it remains the symbol of the capacity seigneurial. It disappears in certain cases (Carcassonne). The buildings of the farmyard gather against the wall.
  • the circular keep (as with the Louvre builds under Philippe Auguste), becomes the general rule after 1150. The lord and his family tend to live in a more comfortable Logis seigneurial located against the interior of the enclosure.
  • the Meurtrière S appear at the end it 12th century to facilitate the shooting with the crossbow.
  • Thanks to the fortune of the princes, the manufacturers use the stone more and more. However, wood is always used for additional defenses: Weephole S, strings, Bretèche S, Hourd S…

Installations of XIIIe century

Lastly, the strong castle obtains a double enclosure at the 13th century: the two ramparts thus release an intermediate space called “Lice S”. Turrets are built not to leave dead angles. A Covered way as well as a broader and deeper ditch are arranged. To be defended against the projectiles flamers, the roofs are covered with Plomb, the floors are replaced by stone vaults. The plan of the castle more tightened and geometrical (square for Louvre). The princes and the kings make surround their towns of enclosures: Rouen, Paris, Laon, Acute-Dead, Layered branches, Angers…

End of the castle-forts

Certain specialists in Castellologie as Gerard Denizeau advances that the 15th century means the end of the castle-forts. Indeed, progress of the Artillerie makes from now on the walls very vulnerable. From 1418, the use of iron balls spreads, much more destroying than the stone balls. The guns of the end of the Guerre One hundred Year old make it possible to accelerate the seats by opening breaches in the wall, more effectively than the sap or the ram. However the death of the castle-extremely was not so abrupt. It continued with to adapt to the evolution of the armament. With Salses, with the Franco-Spanish Border, Aragonese engineer Ramirez has " buried " the castle for better resisting the shaving shootings. The rampart reaches 12 m thickness! With the angles, four circular towers are bored drain-holes. Because the best way of resisting the gun, it is to have oneself of it. It is what is called active defense.

More generally, the old castles are improved to face the Artillerie. The top of the turns accommodates for example platforms on which one installs the guns (Fougères). One builds Barbacane S out of U or prow of ship in front of the entries (Bonaguil, Lassay). One widens the ditches which one defends by a sparrow (Loaches). Or, one multiplies the turns along the curtain. Better, one installs Fausses braies (Gisors, Domfront). The castle-extremely is thus not finished but its apogee is well finished. If, in France, it is still used during the wars of religion in second half of the 16th century, one does not build the new ones. Henri IV confirms their decline by ordering the destruction or the dismantling of many fortresses to prevent that they are used as reference mark to the enemies of the royal authority.

It seems that at the 17th century, the defense of the territory by a network castral is completed. The cities, in particular the city-citadels like Lille, Besancon or Neuf-Brisach, are preferred to stop the adversary. Especially, the sovereigns count more on " their human wall " , i.e. their army in battle. The castle-forts become obsolete. The owners then try to improve their residential function. The drawbridges are replaced by stone bridges. The buildings inside the court are bored mullioned windows. Sometimes, as with Lillebonne in 1709, one builds a new building with the last style and comfortable.

To become ruins of castle-forts

A reflection was committed on the function, the use or the re-use of monuments, particularly of the ruins of castle-forts, which with the abandonment and are threatened of disappearance. Various tendencies were expressed of which none had unfortunately made really state in preliminary of the true questions which are the following ones:
  1. the task is very urgent, of many buildings are threatened of disappearance to short or very medium term.
  2. It acts of a colossal company, because it is necessary to intervene on many sites at the same time, each one being a financial drain.
  3. work must present all the scientific guarantees; and it is also necessary to establish doctrines of use which must become a schedule of conditions making it possible to reinforce their documentary value, primarily by establishing a corpus of reference and authenticity.

How to save in a scientific way quickly the maximum of buildings? The reflections of the “Talks of the Inheritance” which proceeded in Caen in November 1992 on the topic “should the ruins be restored? ” allowed to clarify the problems and to define principles. The tackled subjects were the subject of a debate between civils servant and architect, without a priori (but without the opinion of the users) on the problems of the ruins in general: romantic ruin - ruin symbolic system; conservation - legibility; restitution - invention; re-use - rebuilding.

Four great principles emerged from the debates: respect of the romantic ruins most prestigious; to integrate the “landscape” in the treatment of the ruins, which requires a vigilance under the accesses; to sometimes accept a modification of the statute of certain ruins through uses, more rarely of the well organized re-uses, implying a program and a will of the applicants; to inform the public of the projects of restoration, the aspect “communication” being still definitely insufficient. To answer this waiting, it would be enough initially, in a preoccupation with a transparency of information, to publish the prior studies and to generalize the edition of booklets presenting work of restoration considered.

Functions of the extremely Western castle


Vue panoramic of the entry of the ducal castle of Caen, Normandy

According to Rene Dinkel, author of " The Encyclopedia of the patrimoine" , a medieval castle joins together several architectural functions which appear contradictory. It must translate the royal and princely capacity, the social status of the lord and the need for being defended. In other words, it is at the same time a “palate”, a rich person home who seeks to open towards outside by beautiful frontages, large decorated windows and monumental doors, but it is also a fortification which must be cut off from outside by defending its door, by sheltering behind thick and unpleasing walls roughcast military accessories (slope, loopholes, bretèches, hourds or machicolation, barriers, false-braies, weepholes). All these criteria prevent from giving a simple and universal definition of this type of building.

The castle and its keep represent the authority of the lord; with the crumbling of the public authority at the 10th century, the lords lords of the manor went Masters of the fortresses or set some up without the downstream of the king. They choose a site according to its defensive qualities: a rocky outcrop (Castle-Strapping man), a volcano (Castle of Calmont d' Olt), a hill, a cliff… the castle must be able to monitor a Frontière or a valley, a crossing point.

Xe at the XVIIe centuries, a large castle-extremely is a complex building which is not composed only of one princely home or seigneurial and of walls of defenses. It is a “city” (sometimes qualified as such by the medieval scribes) which includes/understands home of knights or garrison and many servants, a vault for safety, a farm to nourish all this population, workshops of craftsmen (blacksmith, Tisserand, blacksmith, founder, potter…), a baker's oven, a mill with flour, a press, wells or cisterns, vast stores and silos to pile up the vivres there.

Description of the fortifications

The Fortification S consist mainly of one or more Mur S of enclosure, possibly encircled by ditches or ditches. An interior ditch can at the same time ensure a protection against crossing and a water reserve in the event of seat. The walls are built rather high so that an attacker cannot climb them easily even using scales and so that to launch projectiles over is expensive. At the short top of the walls a covered way, on which soldiers can push back an attack while drawing by the crenels, and to ensure their protection behind the merlon S, split of a Meurtrière allowing them to strip Trait S, or to launch various projectiles by the Mâchicoulis. Moreover, turns can be distributed with the angles and on certain portions of walls to defend the access of them by reducing the dead angles of the gunners.

Monitoring

To be secured against a surprised attack, and thus to see arriving the enemy by far, like supervising the surrounding country, the castles are in general established on a height. To facilitate the monitoring, of the watch towers were built to shelter the watchers: it is about a turret built in corbelling on a curtain, with an angle of the wall, or of course a tower. It is the ancestor of the guérite. He covers an area delimited by a border or a valley.

Entry

The main doors are protected by harrow S and possibly a drawbridge making it possible to cross the ditches. The principal access can moreover be protected by a Barbacane, small châtelet, kind of advanced station of the fortification.

The keep

The castle must be able to resist a seat which can last a long time. Thanks to the priest of Ardres (Lambert), we have a precise description of what a Donjon could shelter:

  • the -1 storeroom: where the vivres were stored

  • Rez-de-chaussée: provisions, drinks, Fodder
  • 1st stage: aulic room which is also used as room + small parts
  • 2nd stage: Vault, rooms of the children, the sergeants and the servants
  • Cuisines in a building appendix
  • Escaliers who connect the stages

At the beginning of the Middle Ages the keep is the residence of the lord and of its family, the remainder of the buildings inside the ramparts consists of reserves, barns, cattle sheds organized around a vast court often called farmyard.

Civil defense

With the center of these fortifications, the castle itself has zones of reserves of food and fodder, even of cultivable pieces.

In the event of attack, the peasants of the seigniory and the inhabitants of the borough castral could take refuge inside the enclosure: for this reason the farmyard was immense and comprised a well.

The castle symbol of being able

  • At the time of the Scandinavian invasions, the populations rely on protection of the counts and the dukes. The Carolingian king is too far and impotent vis-a-vis the danger. The insecurity going up, the territorial princes make build fortifications and acquire more and more autonomy vis-a-vis it central capacity.
  • Starting from the end of the 10th century in the south of France, then at the 11th century elsewhere, the guards of the castles get busy with being increasingly independent. These Châtelain S succeeded in even in many places being transmitted the castles of wire father and directing their small territory freely. Only the count of Flanders and the duke of Normandy, except during some time of crisis of succession, managed nevertheless to keep the control of their field. The king of France had to even fight some of these lords of the manor of his field: the chalk-lining of the Puiset in is an example.
  • This capacity is especially symbolized by the keep (blind turn, often round, constituting the ultimate shelter in the event of seat)
The site castral is selected for its qualities of defense but also to benefit from the circulation of the Men and the goods: a road crossroads, close to a bridge, the outlet of a natural procession… the sites in height make it possible to observe and control an area.
  • It is the place of justice seigneuriale or feudal: the room of reception could be used as room of court; the Big room ( Aula in Latin) was also intended for the banquets; the keep could contain a dungeon.
  • convocation with the Ost
  • collection of the royalties
  • in the keep is the Archives seigneuriales, the treasure. The gross tower is the visible symbol of the power of the Master.

The strong castle, tallies of the aristocratic life and place of sociability

  • vault. The vault of the castle is often the place of the most alive worship of the village. A clerk often well-read man is associated for him. The family of the lord attends the various masses and religious ceremonies to with it. Its decoration is the means for the lord of showing his faith and of honouring its ancestors.
  • center of the banal seigniory => justice
  • center of the feudal seigniory => court, feudal justice, ceremonies (Dubbing, Homage), festivals and banquets
  • center of the land seigniory => place where the Redevance S
arrive

To attack a strong castle

Several techniques are used to attack a strong castle. The attack given with scale S making it possible to cross a wall is called echelade . It is rather current, but the most used method is the Sape which consists in causing a breach in an enclosure. For that, sappers protected under wood galleries dig and remove the stones of the wall to cause its collapse. Another operation called mine consists in digging under the base of the wall.

Lastly, a last method is the seat which consists in starving and assoiffer besieged by controlling all the turn of the enclosure. But he asks many men and a regular provisioning of food of besieging, which can be expensive.

List strong castles

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