CASTLE, a fortress or place rendered defensible either by nature or art. It frequently signifies with us the principal mansion of a nobleman. In the time of Henry II. there was no less than 1115 castles in England, each of which contained a manor.

Castles, walled with stone, and designed for residence as well as defence, are for the most part, according to Mr Grose, of no higher antiquity than the conquest; for although the Saxons, Romans, and even, according to some writers on antiquity, the ancient Britons, had castles built of stone, yet these were both few in number, and, at that period, through neglect or invasions, either destroyed or so much decayed that little more than their ruins remained. This is asserted by many of our historians and antiquaries, and assigned as a reason for the facility with which William the Norman made himself master of this country.

This circumstance was not overlooked by so good a general as the conqueror; who, in order effectually to guard against invasions from without, as well as to awe his newly-acquired subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom, and likewise to repair and augment the old ones. Besides, as he had parcelled out the lands of the English amongst his followers, they, to protect themselves from the resentment of the despoiled natives, built strongholds and castles on their estates. This caused a considerable increase of these fortresses; and the turbulent and unsettled state of the kingdom in the succeeding reigns served to multiply them prodigiously, every baron or leader of a party building a castle; insomuch that towards the latter end of the reign of King Stephen they amounted to the almost incredible number of 1115.

As the feudal system gathered strength, these castles became the heads of baronies. Each castle was a manor; and its castellan, owner, or governor, the lord of that manor. Markets and fairs were directed to be held there; not only to prevent frauds in the king’s duties or customs, but also as these were esteemed places where the laws of the land were observed, and as such had a very particular privilege. But this good order did not last long; for the lords of castles began to arrogate to themselves a royal power, not only within their castles, but likewise in their environs; exercising judicature both civil and criminal, coining money, and arbitrarily seizing forage and provisions for the subsistence of their garrisons, which they afterwards demanded as a right. At length their insolence and oppression grew to such a pitch, that, according to William of Newbury, “there were in England as many kings, or rather tyrants, as lords of castles and Matthew Paris emphatically styles them nests of devils and dens of thieves. Castles were not solely in the possession of the crown and the lay barons, but even bishops had such fortresses; though it seems to have been contrary to the canons, from a plea made use of in a general council in favour of King Stephen, who had seized upon the strong castles of the Bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury. This prohibition, if such existed, was, however, very little regarded; and in the following reigns many strong places were held, and even defended, by the ecclesiastics; nor was greater obedience afterwards paid to a decree made by the pope at Viterbo, on the fifth of the kalends of June 1220, in which it was ordained that no person in England should keep in his hands more than two of the king’s castles.

The licentious behaviour of the garrisons of these places having become intolerable, it was agreed, in the treaty between King Stephen and Henry II. when only Duke of Normandy, that all the castles built within a certain period should be demolished; in consequence of which many were actually rased, but not the number stipulated.

The few castles in being under the Saxon government were probably, on occasions of war or invasion, garrisoned by the national militia, and at other times slightly guarded by the domestics of the princes or great personages who resided in them; but after the conquest, when all the estates were converted into baronies held by knight’s service, castle-guard, coming under that denomination, was among the duties to which particular tenants were made liable. From these services the bishops and abbots, who till the time of the Normans had held their lands in frank almoign, or free alms, were, by this new regulation, not exempted; they were not, however, like the laity, obliged to render personal service, it being sufficient that they provided fit and able persons to officiate in their stead. This was at first stoutly opposed by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, who being obliged to find some knights to attend King William Rufus in his wars in Wales, complained of it as an innovation and infringement of the rights and immunities of the church.

It was no uncommon thing for the conqueror and the kings of those days to grant estates to men of approved fidelity and valour, on condition that they should perform castle-guard in the royal castles, with a certain number of men, for some specified time; and sometimes they were likewise bound by their tenures to keep in repair and guard some particular tower or bulwark, as was the case at Dover Castle.

In process of time these services were commuted for annual-rents, sometimes styled wardpenny, and waytsee, but commonly castle-guard rents, payable on fixed days, under prodigious penalties called sursizes. At Rochester, if a man failed in the payment of his rent of castle-guard on the feast of St Andrew, his debt was doubled every tide during the time for which the payment was delayed. These were afterwards restrained by an act of parliament made in the reign of King Henry VIII. and finally annihilated, with the tenures by knight’s service, in the time of Charles II. Such castles as were private property were guarded either by mercenary soldiers, or by the tenants of the lord or owner.

Castles which belonged to the crown, or fell to it either by forfeiture or escheat, circumstances that frequently happened in the distracted reigns of the feudal times, were generally committed to the custody of some trusty person, who seems to have been indifferently styled governor and constable. Sometimes also they were put into the possession of the sheriff of the county, who often converted them into prisons. That officer was then accountable at the exchequer for the farm or produce of the lands belonging to the places intrusted to his care, as well as for all other profits; and he was likewise, in case of war or invasion, obliged to victual and furnish them with munitions out of the issues of his county, to which he was directed by writ of privy seal.
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The materials of which castles were built varied according to the places of their erection; but the manner of their construction seems to have been pretty uniform. The outside of the walls was generally built of the stones nearest at hand, laid as regularly as their shapes would admit; and the interior was filled up with the like materials, mixed with a great quantity of fluid mortar, which was called by the-workmen grout-work.

The general shape or plan of these castles depended entirely on the caprice of the architects, or the form of the ground intended to be occupied; neither do they seem to have confined themselves to any particular figure in their towers; square, round, and polygonal oftentimes occurring in the original parts of the same building.

The situation of the castles of the Anglo-Norman kings and barons was most commonly on an eminence, and near a river; a situation on several accounts eligible. The whole site of the castle, which was frequently of great extent and irregular figure, was surrounded by a deep and broad ditch, sometimes filled with water, and sometimes dry, called the fosse. Before the great gate was an outwork, called a barhacan or anternural, which was a strong high wall, surmounted with turrets, designed for the defence of the gate and drawbridge. On the inside of the ditch stood the wall of the castle, about eight or ten feet thick and between twenty and thirty feet high, with a parapet, and a kind of embrasures called crcnnels on the top. On this wall, at proper distances, were built square towers of two or three stories high, which served for lodging some of the principal officers of the proprietor of the castle, and for other purposes; and on the inside were erected lodgings for the common servants or retainers, granaries, storehouses, and other necessary offices. On the top of this wall, and on the flat roofs of these buildings, stood the defenders of the castle, when it was besieged, who thence discharged arrows, darts, and stones on the besiegers. The great gate of the castle stood in the course of this wall, and was strongly fortified with a tower on each side, and rooms over the passage, which was closed with thick folding doors of oak, often plated with iron, and with an iron portcullis or grate let down from above. Within this outward wall was a large open space or court, called, in the largest and most perfect castles, the outer bayle, or ballium, in which stood commonly a church or chapel. On the inside of this outer bayle was another ditch, wall, gate, and towers, inclosing the inner bayle or court, within which the chief tower or keep was built. This was a large square fabric, four or five stories in height, having small windows in prodigiously thick walls, which rendered the apartments within it dark and gloomy. This great tower was the palace of the prince, prelate, or baron, to w h0m the castle belonged, and the residence of the constable or governor. Under ground were dismal dark vaults, for the confinement of prisoners, and sometimes called the dungeon or donjon. In this building also was the great hall, in which the owner displayed his hospitality, by entertaining his numerous friends and followers. At one end of the great halls of castles, palaces, and monasteries, there was a place raised a little above the rest of the floor, called the dais, where the chief table stood, at which persons of the highest rank dined. Though there were unquestionably great variations in the structure of castles, yet the most perfect and magnificent of them seem to have been constructed nearly on the plan here described. Such, for example, was the famous castle of Bedford, as appears from the account of the manner in which it was taken by Henry III. a. d. 1224. The castle fell after four assaults. In the first was taken the barhacan; in the second the outer ballia; in the third attack, the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners, where, with great danger, they possessed themselves of the inner ballia, through a chink; in the fourth assault the miners set fire to the tower, so that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself was rent so as to show visibly some broad chinks; upon which the enemy surrendered.

Before the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, the situation of Scotland was such that every baton’s house was more or less fortified, according to the power or consequence of its lord, or according to the situation of the castle. Near Edinburgh or Stirling, where the inhabitants were somewhat polished in their manners, and overawed by the seat of government, no more was necessary than towers capable of resisting the cursory attacks of robbers and thieves, who never durst stop to make a regular investment, but plundered by surprise, and, if repulsed, instantly fled. But, when further removed, as in Perthshire, Inverness-shire, or Aberdeenshire, then it was necessary to be better defended; and the aids of a peel or dungeon, with outer walls, moat, wet ditch, and bar-nakin, were added, to enable the lord of the keep to resist the formidable attack of his powerful adversary. The history of Scotland, so late as the reign of the Stuart family, affords a number of melancholy instances of inveterate feuds among the greater and lesser barons of that period, when every mode of fortification then in use was seldom adequate to the defence of the castle against the storm or blockade of the enraged chieftain. The third kind of fortresses which we meet with in Scotland consists of those situated on the borders of England, or on the sea-coasts of the kingdom, and in the Western Isles, and in very remote places. Many of the old castles in Scotland were situated on an island in a deep lake, or on a peninsula, which, by a broad deep cut, was made an island. This kind of fortress was only accessible in a hard frost, or by boats, which were not easily transported by a people destitute of good roads and wheel-carriages. In fact they could only be taken by surprise or blockade, the first of which was difficult, and the second tedious; so that, before the use of artillery, they might be deemed almost impregnable. On this account their situation was very desirable in the inland parts of Scotland. On the seacoasts of Scotland we generally find the strongest and most ancient, as well as the most impregnable castles, since these had to defend themselves from the invasion of the foreign enemy, as well as the attacks of the domestic foe. Thus the barons, whose lands extended to the seacoast, perched, like the eagle, on the most inaccessible rocks that lay within their possessions.

Castle, in ancient writers, denotes a town or village surrounded with a ditch and wall, furnished with towers at intervals, and guarded by a body of troops. The word is originally Latin, castellum, a diminutive from castrum. Castellum seems originally to have signified a smaller fort for a little garrison; though Suetonius uses the word where the fortification was large enough to contain a cohort. The castrlla, according to Vegetius, were often like towns, built on the borders of the empire, where there w ere constant guards and defences against the enemy. Horsley considers them as much the same with what were otherwise denominated stations. Castle, or Castle-Steed, is also an appellation given by the country people in the north to the Roman castella, as distinguished from the castra stativa, which they usually call chesters. Horsley represents this as a useful criterion, by which to discover or distinguish a Roman camp or station. There are several of these castella on Severus’s wall. They arc generally sixty feet square; their northern side is formed by the wall itself, which falls in with them; the intervals between them are from six furlongs and a [7:6:235]half to seven; and they seem to have stood closest where the stations are widest. The neighbouring people call them castles, or castle-steeds, by which it seems probable that their ancient Latin name had been castellum. Some modern writers call them mile castles, or military castella ; Horsley sometimes denominates them exploratory castles. In these castella were stationed men whose business was to make incursions into the enemy’s country and give intelligence of their motions.

Castle, in nautical language, is a part of a ship; the forecastle being the elevation at the prow, and the hindcastle the elevation on the stern, over the last deck.