Life in a Medieval Castle (25 page)
Read Life in a Medieval Castle Online
Authors: Joseph Gies
Munzenberg.
Hesse. Built 1174; elliptical enclosure on top of a mountain, with two round towers and a forward tower guarding the west approach; living quarters, chapel and kitchen along the inside of the curtain.
Wildenberg.
Bavaria. Late twelfth century, rectangular enclosure on top of a mountain; square towers guarding the line of approach.
Eltz.
On the Moselle. Begun by the counts of Eltz in 1157, mostly dating from the thirteenth to the sixteenth centuries; the oldest surviving structure is the Platteltz Tower (twelfth or thirteenth century), partly restored after a fire in the 1920s; nearby are the ruins of
Trutzeltz,
the castle of the archbishop of Trier who carried on a protracted feud with the counts of Eltz and finally compelled them to surrender.
Heidenreichstein.
Austria. Built in the twelfth century; a square tower was added in the thirteenth century, a round tower later.
Rapottenstein.
Austria. Built in the twelfth century on a rock outcropping; there are a round tower defending the approaches, a square tower higher up, and residential buildings.
Ortenberg.
Bavaria. Early thirteenth century; three baileys, the inner and middle in a line, the outer bailey in front of both, with a rising approach; the enemy had to pass the length of the outer
bailey under attack from the inner and middle ones, then up a flight of steps and through a barbican and three other gateways before the inner bailey was reached; a trapezoidal keep at the highest point is surrounded closely by the wall of the inner bailey.
Falkenberg.
Bavaria. Built about 1290 on a huge natural pile of boulders overlooking the Waldnaab River; the curtain follows the contour of the rocks; the buildings of the castle are between the curtain and a small internal courtyard containing a square keep.
Hohensalzburg.
Austria. Residence of the archbishop of Salzburg, built in the twelfth century on a rock 400 feet above the Salzach River; modeled after the Crusader castles, later enlarged and remodeled; massive curtain walls, round towers.
THER
E
UROPEAN
C
ASTLES
Pfeffengen
and
Dornach.
Switzerland. Two shell keeps of the twelfth and early thirteenth centuries built within a few miles of each other; in both cases, the shell wall, instead of being built on top of the mound, is built against its vertical sides, containing the mound and rising high above it.
Chillon.
Switzerland. Castle made famous by Byron’s poem; built in the thirteenth century on the site of a ninth-century castle, on a rocky island in a lake, reached by a bridge leading to a gatehouse; the curtain wall follows the contours of the rock, and the buildings of the castle are constructed around the inner court, with a square keep at the end farthest from the bridge.
Castle of the Counts of Flanders.
Ghent. Built in 1180, on the site of an eleventh-century fortress, by Philip of Alsace on his return from Crusade, and modeled on the Crusader castles; on level ground, surrounded by a moat and high curtain walls with round towers; a rectangular keep has a lesser hall on the first floor, the great hall above.
Carrickfergus.
Northern Ireland. Built on the shores of Belfast Loch, c. 1180-1205; square Norman keep joined to curtain walls.
Trim.
Ireland. Built c. 1190-1200, the largest Anglo-Norman castle in Ireland; square keep with projecting wings, thirteenth-century curtain walls with round towers.
RUSADER
C
ASTLES
From a strictly military point of view, the castles built by the Templars, Hospitallers, and other Crusaders are incomparable. Drawing on European, Byzantine, and Muslim models and on their own experience, the Crusaders built strongholds of immense size and ingeniously related defenses in which small garrisons, supplied for as much as five years, could defy large armies.
Saone
(
Sahyun
). Syria. The best-preserved Crusader castle, with a half mile of fortification in the shape of a rough isosceles triangle atop a mountain spur, the two long sides fronting on precipitous cliffs, the base on a 60-foot-wide, 90-foot-deep moat hewn out of the rock, a “needle” of the rock left to act as a bridge pier, with a drawspan to the postern; the square keep built against the curtain wall on the moat side.
Krak des Chevaliers.
Syria. The giant “Citadel [
Krak
] of the Knights,” the most powerful and famous of the Crusader castles, almost as well preserved as Saone; begun early in the twelfth century and strengthened by the Hospitallers in 1142; two concentric walls enclose two baileys, an outer and an inner, the latter high on the spur of Gebel Alawi. Besieged at least twelve times, this castle “stuck like a bone in the throat of the Saracens,” in the words of a Muslim writer; in one siege, that of 1163, the Hospitallers not only held off the army of Nur-ed-Din but sallied out to surprise and defeat it; even in 1271, a lone outpost in a Muslim sea, its garrison down to 300 knights, the Krak held out until the Muslim general Baibars tricked the defenders with a forged order, after which he chivalrously gave the knights safe conduct to the coast.
Anamur.
A seacoast castle in Turkey, with a huge fourteen-sided tower dominating the beach, and three baileys, one facing the land, one the sea, and a third on high ground between the two.
Chastel Pélérin
(“
Pilgrim Castle
”). Israel. Built by the Templars in 1218 and well supplied with artillery and heavily garrisoned when the Muslims besieged it unsuccessfully in 1220, it was never taken, but was abandoned in 1291 after the fall of nearby Acre, and afterward badly damaged by Muslim engineers quarrying it to rebuild the city.
C
HAPTER
I.
The Castle Comes to England
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LLA
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AYET
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EELER
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______,
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RAUN
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B
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HRISTOPHER
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ROWN
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LLEN
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______,
Rochester Castle.
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C
LEATOR
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C
OTTRELL
, L
EONARD
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D
AVIS
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OUGLAS
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AVID
C.,
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______,
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UTTON
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ALPH
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CHAGUË
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OSÉ
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EDDEN
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ENRY
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,
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ORMILLI
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AHN
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ARVEY
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ASKINS
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OMER
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ARNER
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RDERICUS
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EERS
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HARLES
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ERKS
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IPER
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TTO
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ENN
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______,
Three Shell Keeps.
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CHMIDT
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TENTON
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IR
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RANK
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HOMPSON
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OMKEIEFF
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OY
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IDNEY
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OY
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UULSE
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W
ILLIAM OF
M
ALMESBURY
,
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HAPTER
II.
The Lord of the Castle
B
LOCH
, M
ARC
,
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______,
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OUTRUCHE
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OBERT
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C
AM
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ELEN
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C
RONNE
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* D
AVIS
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* D
OUGLAS
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AVID
C.,
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* ______,
William the Conqueror.
G
ALBERT OF
B
RUGES
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ANSHOF
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* H
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ARREN
,
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EETON
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EORGE
W.,
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ORRIS
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ILLIAM
A
LFRED
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* See earlier citation.
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ORGATE
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AINTER
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______,
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______,
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P
ARIS
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ATTHEW
,
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* P
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* S
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M.,
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* S
TENTON
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IR
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RANK
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ILKINSON
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HAPTER
III.
The Castle as a House
* B
RAUN
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UGH
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L
ABARGE
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ARGARET
W
ADE
,
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* P
ARIS
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ATTHEW
,
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ARKER
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URNER
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* P
ERKS
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* T
OMKEIEFF
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* T
OY
, S
IDNEY
,
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* See earlier citation.
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R
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RIGHT
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HAPTER
IV.
The Lady
A
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______,
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