Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT IN MEDIEVAL SOCIETY -•
From its very earliest days, then, the castle was designed as a form of defence, a shelter
for the lord and his retinue and a means of securing control of a region. On his landing
at Pevensey in 1066, William's first act was to have a castle built, and from his victory
at Hastings a rash of motte and bailey castles spread across the land as the incoming
Norman lords took hold ol their new possessions and stamped their authority on them.
Castles continued to be an essential and regular aspect of medieval warfare. As we
have suggested above, sieges were more prevalent than pitched battles and the
campaign strategies of medieval generals invariably had to take into account the
location and strength ol fortifications, both castle and walled town. In border regions,
such as along the Welsh and Scottish March or in the Vexin, the debatable land
between the Duchy of Normandy and the French royal lands of the lie de France,
and in the minor and factional lordships of the Low Countries and Rhine valleys,
castles proliferated. Some remained little more than temporary timber structures like
the motte and baileys hastily thrown up by William's forces, designed to act as refuges
against raiders and bases from which a small garrison might harass their lines, whilst
others grew in size and complexity, their timber palisades being replaced by stone
walls and their tower-topped mottes replaced by massive keeps like the White Tower
in London or the great keep at Rochester.
These grander structures were more than military reluges, however, and their
design and architecture was not wholly focused on the needs ol defence and the threat
of the siege. The castle served as a political and administrative base for the king, baron
or lord. It provided a residence for him and his household, on a more or less permanent
basis, and served as the caput or head ol his lordship. It was in the castle that the
manorial and shire courts were held, where dues and taxes were delivered and paid,
where complaints were brought and justice delivered. The architecture ol the castle
inevitably reflected these functions.
The size of the castle and the complexity of its defences were as much about
projecting an image of the power and strength of its owner as they were about
defending that owner from attack. The castles that Edward I caused to be built after
his campaigns and subjugation of the Welsh were not just bases from which his
garrisons could prevent a resurgence ol the Welsh princes, or bases from which to
launch further campaigns. In their scale and grandeur, they were statements ol his
power and royal authority. Caernarfon Castle's walls were built with great angled
towers and banded stonework that mimicked that of the walls of Constantinople and
reflected that city's symbolism of imperial and ancient power.
A complex series of gateways winding up towards the keep might well make for a
defence in depth, channelling an attacker through a series of kill-zones and under
murder holes and arrow slits. Equally, however, it took the petitioner on a procession
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