Raglan Castle
Raglan Castle was built in Wales, but long after Edward I’s pragmatic purpose-built castles like Harlech and Conwy. Raglan had no military purpose when it was built in the 15th century. It took two hundred years for its military potential to be realized.
A knight, Sir William ap Thomas, bought the estate in 1432 and began to build the castle. It began with the Great Tower, a hexagon of five stories. the Great Tower was connected to the Gatehouse by a drawbridge over the moat. The construction decisions copied the serious choices of the 12th century, putting no windows in the lower stories. The Gatehouse, built in 1462, had not one but two portcullises!
Sir William Herbert, who married William ap Thomas’s granddaughter, completed the rest of the castle’s design, with two courts, one for the practical daily-life buildings like the kitchen, and one (the Fountain Court) for the fashionable luxurious life. In Tudor times, they added a magnificent stained glass Oriel Window, “water gardens,” and a bowling lawn.
And then….war came to England. The Earl of Worcester was loyal to King Charles I and in 1646, the Parliamentarian Army laid siege to the castle. The siege lasted three months! No central government is going to tolerate a private home that can resist its power as long as that. When the castle fell, the Roundhead army “slighted” the castle: they deliberately made it unlivable. Burning some of the furnishings, they chose walls to dynamite and pull down so that it could never again be used in resistance.
Chateau de Langeais
This castle (chateau) was built first much longer ago than the 15th century. It still has, on a hill nearby, the ruin of the keep built around 990 by Fulk of Anjou. The keep was enlarged and fortified by later owners including Richard the Lion-Hearted, but it was destroyed during the Hundred Years’ War (1300s).
What we see now was rebuilt in the 15th century, starting in 1465. Louis XI’s son, Charles VIII, married the heiress of Brittany there in 1491. Anne was contractually obliged to marry the successor in the case that she and Charles had no children, and so it was, so she became the wife of Louis XII. But this romantic story all began here in the chateau. There’s a life-size diorama of the marriage set up, since the chateau is now just a museum.
It’s been more than 500 years since the castle’s gatehouse and residence were completed, so by 1886, the mansion was in need of repair. A careful 19th century restoration project was carried out; as you can see from the video, the interior still looks pretty authentic.
Is it a castle or a house? Like other 15th century projects, it’s still both. The castle has a drawbridge that once would have crossed a moat, with water brought in from the Loire. The gatehouse is on a serious military plan, with murder holes and machicolations. But once we get past those things at the front, the back opens up to terrace and gardens, like a house. Of course it used to have a wall all around it, leading up to the old 10th century keep.
But even so, the interior buildings were clearly not built with real warfare in mind. Look at those windows going right down to the ground. As contemporary Chaucer might have put it, “…the chambres and the stables weren wyde…” Lots of room for a family and staff to spread out, no need for anyone to bunk down on the hall floor.
Eltz Castle
This entry created 12/12/2024.