Military Architecture in England During the Middle Ages

Military Architecture in England During the Middle Ages

Apart from the late Mr G. T. Clarks Medival Military Architecture, published in 1884, the greater portion of which is a series of monographs dealing with individual castles, there has been no attempt, until within the last few years, to apply systematic treatment to this branch of science. Recently, however, more than one book has been published upon the general subject of the castles of England. Mr Alfred Harvey has lately given a lucid account of the growth of the castle, with a valuable essay upon English walled towns; and the present year has seen the appearance of a book in which Mrs Armitage has embodied the result of labours of the utmost importance, extending over many years. In addition to works of a general character, a number of separate monographs, indispensable to students, have been published during the last twenty years, in the transactions of various archological societies. The contributions of Mr W. H. St John Hope to the study of castle architecture take a foremost place among these, with papers such as those by Mr J. Bilson on Gilling castle and by Mr Harold Sands on Bodiam and the Tower of London; and the late Mr Cadwallader Bates unfinished Border Holds of Northumberland contains accounts of Warkworth and Bamburgh, as well as of smaller castles and peles, which must take rank among the classics of the subject. In the present volume an attempt is made to trace the growth of the general principles of medieval fortification, with special reference to castles, in which, within their limited area, the most complete illustration of those principles is given. In order to give greater clearness to the account of their evolution, a prefatory chapter deals generally with earlier types of fortification in Britain, and the critical period of Saxon and Danish warfare is treated in the second chapter with some detail. This leads us to the early Norman castle of earthwork and timber; and the stone fortifications to which this gave place are introduced by a brief account of the progress of siegecraft and siege-engines. The Norman castle and its keep or great tower are then described. The developments of the later part of the twelfth century and the arrangements of the thirteenth-centuryviii castle, with those of the dwelling-house within its enceinte, follow and prepare the way for the castles of the reign of Edward I. which represent the highest effort of military planning. In the last two chapters is related the progress of the transition from the castle to the fortified manor-house, which followed the introduction of fire-arms into warfare and preceded the Renaissance period. It will be seen that the castle is taken as the unit of military architecture throughout; but illustrations are constantly drawn from walled towns, which are, in fact, the castles of communities, and in the eleventh chapter extended allusion is made to the chief features of their plan and defences. In speaking of the walled town, however, as the castle of the community, it must not be forgotten that the castle is, in its origin, the stronghold of a single owner. That origin is still to some extent a vexed question; for the well-known theory of Mr G. T. Clark, that the castle of Norman times was identical with the burh of the Saxon Chronicle, was accepted as a dogma by the antiquaries of twenty-five to fifty years ago, and a theory thus established, however precipitately, is not easily shaken. The patient and thorough work of Mrs Armitage, which deserves the admiration of every scholar, has done much to disturb the foundations on which Mr Clark built his hypothesis; and Mr Neilson, Dr Round, Mr St John Hope, and others, have contributed their share to the discovery of the real character of the evidence, and the formulation of a sounder theory. The present writer has devoted much time to the study of the original authorities for Saxon and Norman military history, and it is his conviction that the weight of documentary evidence is entirely upon the side of the views upheld with so much ability and originality by these recent investigators. At the same time, the earthworks of early castles still present several difficult problems; and the discredit into which Mr Clarks theory has fallen is a warning against the too confident acceptation of the conclusions of a more critical age, and against the danger of forcing exceptions into the service of the rule. ......Buy Now (To Read More)

Product details

Ebook Number: 60518
Author: Thompson, A. Hamilton (Alexander Hamilton)
Release Date: Oct 19, 2019
Format: eBook
Language: English