Castles Essay, Research Paper

By Guneri Tugcu In 1494 the armies of the French king, Charles VIII, invaded

Italy to capture the kingdom of Naples. They swept through the country and

bombarded and destroyed many castles. This invasion signaled the end of the

castle as a stronghold of defense. For centuries it had been the dominant

fortification in Western Europe for the defense of kings, nobility, and

townspeople. Ancient cities were often walled to keep out invaders, and within

the walls there was usually a citadel, a strongly built fortification occupying

the highest or militarily most advantageous position. A castle is much like such

a walled city and its citadel contracted into a smaller space. Castles were

basically fortified locations. The word itself comes from the Latin castellum.

Up to the 6th century fortifications were primarily communities in which most of

the population lived. But in the middle of the 6th century, the armies of the

Byzantine Empire began to build strong forts as defensive positions. For the

next few centuries this castle building was confined to the Byzantine Empire,

but later hordes of Islamic warriors who swept out of Arabia to conquer the

Middle East, North Africa, and much Byzantine territory also started building

such forts. Western Europe, in the depths of the Dark Ages from the 5th through

the 9th century, had no such works. But late in the 9th century, as local lords

and kings began to consolidate power, castle building began probably in France.

Once begun, castle building spread rapidly to other areas. But it was not until

the 12th and 13th centuries, after the Crusaders returned from their wars

against Islam in Palestine, that castles as imposing as those of the Byzantine

or Islamic empires were constructed in Europe. Many of the stone castles of the

late Middle Ages still stand. Some are tourist attractions, in various states of

repair, along the Rhine River from Mainz to Cologne in Germany, dotted about the

French countryside, or perched on hilltops in Spain. The original French castles

had been built on open plains. Later ones, however, were situated on rocky

crags, at river forks, or in some position where advancing enemies would find

approach extremely difficult, if not impossible. The fortifications became more

elaborate with time, with considerable attention paid to making the living

quarters more comfortable. A typical castle was usually guarded on the outskirts

by a surrounding heavy wooden fence of sharp-pointed stakes called a barbican .

It was intended to prevent surprise attacks by delaying the advance of

assailants and giving those within the castle compound time to prepare to resist

and attack. Inside the barbican stretched the lists, or wards: strips of land

that encircled the castle. The lists served as a road in time of peace and as a

trap in war; once within the barbican the enemy was in the range of arrows shot

from the castle walls. In peacetime the lists also served as an exercise ground

for horses and occasionally as tournament grounds. Between the lists and the

towering outer walls of the castle itself was the moat, usually filled with

water. Across it stretched a drawbridge, which was raised every night. At the

castle end of the drawbridge was the portcullis, a large sliding door made of

wooden or iron grillwork hung over the entryway. It moved up and down in grooves

and was raised every day and lowered at night. In times of danger it blocked the

way to the heavy oak gates that served as doors to the castle compound. These

gates were so large that they were rarely opened except on ceremonial occasions.

A smaller door was built into one of them to provide easy entrance and exit for

those who lived in the castle . A person known as the chief porter was charged

with the responsibility of making sure that only friends passed through. The

outer walls of most castles were massively thick, sometimes as much as 15 feet.

At intervals were high towers, each a small fort in itself with provisions to

withstand a long siege. When an attack was expected, wooden balconies were hung

over the outer edges of the wall. During an attack, large stones were thrown or

boiling oil poured from the balconies onto anyone trying to climb the wall. The

wall and the towers had hundreds of narrow openings through which defenders

could shoot arrows and other missiles. Inside the walls was the bailey, or

courtyard. At intervals around the bailey were the stables, a carpentry shop,

the shop of the armorer and blacksmith, barracks for the men-at-arms and for

servants, a chapel, and a storehouse. There was also an oven room where the

bread was baked, a kitchen, a kennel for dogs, and a well and drinking fountain

. The largest building along the wall was the castle owner’s home. It contained

the apartment for the master and his family and a great hall. This great hall

was the center of social life such as wedding feasts, banquets, and knighting

ceremonies. Within the walls there was another structure called the keep, or

donjon (dungeon) . The keep was the focal point of the castle, the place to

which, in times of attack or siege, the whole population of the castle retired

if the outer defenses were failing. The keep had its own walls and was often

protected by a moat as well. It contained private apartments, service rooms,

weapons supplies, and a well to provide water. Most keeps were rectangular

structures from two to four stories high. The entrance doorway was often on the

second floor, with access by a stairway protected by a wall or forebuilding. In

the Middle East the Crusaders from Europe found keeps that were built with round

or multiangular towers to defend them more easily against an enemy coming from

any direction. The round keep became common in Europe after the 12th century.

Some later castles were built in a square and enclosed by one or two lines of

walls. At each corner of the inner line of walls was a strong tower. Powerful

gateways took the place of the keep, and great care was taken in building the

outerworks to make access to the castle difficult. The castles of Conway and

Caernarvon in Wales are both of this type. The terms castle and palace have

often been used interchangeably, but they are not the same. Castles are

fortifications, while palaces have been built for centuries as residences for

kings and nobles . But as castles began to lose their defensive role, they

became residences; and to them were added the customary luxuries. As early as

the 15th century, imposing residential tower houses, designed more for elegance

than defense, were built within castles, such as those at Vincennes near Paris

and Tattershall in England. Historically the palace antedates the castle by

several centuries. Although the word derives from the Palatine Hill in Rome,

where the emperors built their residences, palaces were built for the pharaohs

of ancient Egypt as early as the 16th century BC. Much larger than the Egyptian

palaces were those built in Assyria, which today is Iraq. The palace at

Khorsabad of Sargon II, who ruled from 721 to 705 BC, extended over more than 25

acres. In Rome more than 1 million square feet of the Palatine Hill were devoted

to splendid residences of such emperors as Augustus, Tiberius, and Septimius

Severus. Palace building declined in Europe during the Middle Ages until

prosperity and a measure of safety returned during the Renaissance. Then, in

Italy, every prince and wealthy family had its palazzo. Many are still standing:

the Pitti and Medici palaces in Florence and the palaces along the Grand Canal

in Venice. London has three notable palaces: Buckingham, Whitehall, and St.

James. Many German cities notably Wurzburg and Munich have impressive palaces.

Among those most recently built are those of Ludwig II of Bavaria in the 19th

century. The most famous and most frequently pictured is Neuschwanstein, located

near Fussen. But for many the most appealing is the small Linderhof, a jewel of

rococo design near Oberammergau. Ludwig’s Herrenchiemsee palace on an island in

the lake named Chiemsee was modeled after Louis XIV’s magnificent edifice at

Versailles, near Paris. Versailles has other imitations, including the beautiful

Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna. Palaces will probably be built for as long as there

is wealth enough to pay for them. In the 1980s the sultan of Brunei, Sir Muda

Hassanal Bolkiah Muizzaddin Waddaulah, opened his new palace. Named New Istana,

it contains 1,788 rooms, making it one of the grandest palaces anywhere.

Although castles are no longer readily built, because of the lack of money or

just the lack of need, they will always be appreciated for their beauty,

architecture, and most importantly the land that they helped to defend.