Walled fortresses are nothing new in history. The key distinction between a town and a city in ancient times was whether it had a fortified wall around it. Many cities were walled, with protected gates and fighting posts at stations around the wall. In ancient times, there were also army outposts and forts that were walled and trenched.
What was new about European castles was that the castle was the primary home residence of a single family. Local rulers had always lived in big houses, or somewhat fortified houses, but they lived in the midst of their extended family and loyal followers. They didn’t perceive a constant need for armed protection. In 1066, this changed. The Normans, descendants of Danish Vikings, took over Anglo-Saxon England and imposed a large foreign aristocracy.
Early Norman forts were log stockades on hilltops; where there was no convenient hilltop, they built one. But within a few years, the local Norman barons began to build fortified houses of stone, and in this way the basic castle began to take shape.
King William’s chain of castles, beginning at the coast and reaching inward, is shown here.
It took several centuries for the castle way of life to spread into other parts of Europe. Castles were extremely expensive to build, and they were not easily modified once built. As regional wars and aristocratic rebellions occasionally saw castles destroyed, architects learned how to use even more care in castle construction. Each castle was built to withstand the assaults that had taken out the last castles.
Finally, with the rise of effective, permanent national governments, castles were statements of power and fashion. While they still offered minimal defensive fortification, nobody expected them to suffer any real tests. Bricks, glass windows and flower beds became the norm.
In this series, I’ll trace the development of the castle from its earliest to its later forms.