The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.Armitage, Ella Sophia
History
The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.
Armitage, Ella Sophia
Architecture, Norman; Castles -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500; Normans -- Great Britain
The new type of keepless castle never entirely displaced the old
keep-and-bailey type. We have already seen that keeps of the old sort
continued to be built till the end of the Middle Ages. Hawarden Castle
has a good example of a 14th-century round keep; Warkworth a most
remarkable specimen of the 15th, the plan being a square tower with
polygonal turrets set on each face.[1202] In France and Germany also
the old type appears to have persisted.[1203]
We have already trespassed beyond the limits of our subject; but as we
offer this chapter more as a programme of work than as a categorical
outline, we trust it may not be without use to the student who may feel
disposed to take up this much-neglected subject.
A few words must yet be said about the state of the law relating to
castles. Nothing explicit has come down to us on this subject from the
11th century in England, but it is clear that the feudal system which
William introduced, and which required that all lands should revert to
the king on the death of the holder, forbade the building of any castle
without the king's license, and, further, allowed only a life tenure
in each case. The Council of Lillebonne in 1080 had laid it down in
express terms that no one should build a castle in Normandy without the
permission of the duke;[1204] and William, after his great victory
over his revolted barons, had enforced the right of garrisoning their
castles. He was not able to do this in England, while he must have
desired to check the building of private castles as far as possible. On
the other hand, he had to face the dilemma that no Norman land-holder
would be safe in his usurped estates without the shelter of a castle.
In this situation we have the elements of the civil strife which burst
forth in Stephen's reign, and which was ended by what we may call the
anti-castle policy of Henry II.[1205]
The rights secured by this able king were often recklessly sold by his
successors, but in the reign of Henry III. it was evidently illegal
even to fortify an ordinary house with a ditch and stockade without
royal permission.[1206]
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