Medieval Castles History and Design.

In the year 1051 an English monk saw some strangers construct something very new and very unusual in his land which he had never seen or could describe in his own words, He finally settled with the word the foreigners themselves used and called it a castle which is the first recorded use of the word in English. These foreigners who built the castle were Frenchmen, friends of the English king, but building the castle made them unpopular and they soon fled back to France. So while the English thought that building castles was very strange, the French believed it was the right thing to do since they had been building them since generations. The reason for the difference of opinion goes back to the Vikings. During the 9^th century the Vikings swept down from scandinavia into northern Europe, In England the strong kings of Wessex resisted the Vikings and eventually drove them back establishing fortified towns as they went. By the end of the century the power of the Vikings was broken but across the channel it was a completely different story. In France there was no united response to the Viking menace, so the kings there were unable to protect their subjects and so their most powerful subjects decided to protect themselves, hence they started to build private fortifications to protect their land and families. They called these private fortifications castella. Although the Vikings were driven away from England, in france they never left. Instead large numbers of them settled on the north coast. The French left this area to the norsman or normans as they said and began to refer to the area as Normandy. These normans soon began to adopt French ways of doing things, the language, Christian religion and French ways of government and they also learnt about castles the very things the French were using to keep the invaders out in the first place. The Vikings turned normans liked the look of these castles, they were tough, impressive and easy to build and before long they started to build castles of their own. The vast majority of these early castles were not made of stone but of earth and wood. Although designs varied a great deal by the time of the norman conquest one dominant type had emerged, the motte and bailey-style.

Wood and earth castles were now suddenly being built all over England by people as asked by the king, to mark their area and for protection.

Then William the conqueror who's slowly winging over England by using his strategy of constructing castles builds the first ever stone and brick castle - Tower of London and marks a new beginning in the history of castle construction.

Castle construction takes a new leap and modern stone castles are introduced. Only lords and affluent men could afford this. Arundel Castle was built during the reign of Edward the Confessor (early 11th century), and it was home to quite a few important figures in the history of Britain. Although the castle was damaged in the Civil War, it was restored in the 18th century. Today, it is the home of the Duke of Norfolk.

By 13^th century Kings were no longer interested in trusting keeps. The revolution in castle design took place then. Investment in huge circuits of walls started to take place. Canarven castle in north wales is a good example.

After this, In late medieval England a new breed of castle was emerging. No longer needed as weapons of conquest, castles now became flashy homes for the nouveau riche. No castle reveals this change perfectly than Bodiam of Sussex.

This age of castles were not built by kings and emperors but by lesser important people like knights. One such knight who owned Bodium was Sir Edward Dalyngrigge. Walls became thinner, moats could be drained easily etc. This was the 14^th century and castles now had gun loops.

By 15^th century castles and fortifications almost became redundant due to long times of peace. lets look at the design of some of these megastructures.