Castles and Fortified Cities of Medieval Europe An Illustrated History.pdf

Castles and

Fortified Cities of

Medieval Europe

An Illustrated History

JEAN-DENIS G.G. LEPAGE

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Jefferson, North Carolina, and London

Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

Lepage, Jean-Denis.

Castles and fortified cities of medieval Europe :

an illustrated history / by Jean-Denis G.G. Lepage,

p. cm.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN 0-7864-1092-2 (illustrated case binding : 50# alkaline paper) @

1. Fortification—Europe. 2. Fortification—Middle East.

3. Castles—Europe. 4. Castles—Middle East. 5. Military history, Medieval.

6. Military art and science—Europe—History—Medieval, 500-1500.

I. Title.

UG428.L47 2002

623'.194'0902-dc21

2002001351

British Library cataloguing data are available

No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form

or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying

or recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system,

without permission in writing from the publisher.

Manufactured in the United States of America

McFarland & Company, Inc., Publishers

Box 611, Jefferson, North Carolina 28640

www.mcfarlandpub.com

CONTENTS

Acknowledgments

The Design and Construction of Fortifications 132

The Evolution of Castles and Fortifications

in the 14th Century

Preface

1—The Decline of Fortifications from

the 5 th to the 9th Centuries

134

4—Transitional Fortifications in

the 15th and 16th Centuries

Roman Fortifications

The Barbarian Invasions

Gunpowder and Early Guns

178

The Merovingian Dynasty

The Development and Influence of Firearms

179

The Byzantine Empire

Siege Warfare with Firearms

184

The Arabs and Islam

Transitional Fortifications

186

The Catholic Church

Artillery Fortifications in the

Early 16th Century

The Carolingian Empire

193

The Scandinavian Invasions

The Bastioned System

200

Feudal Society

2—The Revival of Military Architecture from

the 10th to the 12th Centuries

Early Medieval Fortifications

5—European Towns from the

12th to the 16th Century

The Rebirth and Growth of Cities

250

Urban Emancipation

251

The Motte-and-Bailey Castle

Urban Fortifications

256

The First Masonry Donjons

Suburbs

258

Daily Life in Early Castles

Private Urban Fortifications

259

The Evolution of Castles in the 12th Century

Urban Militia

262

The Crusades

The Citadel

265

Medieval Siege Warfare

Medieval Urbanism

275

Garrison and Fighting Force

105

Religious and Public Buildings

291

3—The Evolution and Apogee of Medieval

Castles in the 13th and 14th Centuries

Conclusion

325

The Evolution of Castles in the 13th Century

107

Bibliography

326

The Internal Arrangement of Castles

123

Index

327

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

I would like to thank Eltjo de Lang and Ben Marcato,

Simone and Bernard Lepage, Bebert le Breton, Anne Chauvel,

the abbot Jacques Jouy, Marta Vieira dos Santos,

Jeannette a Stuling and Jean-Pierre Rorive.

PREFACE

Witnesses to centuries past, castles are still to be seen

everywhere in Europe today. Whether standing in ruins,

forgotten in dark forests, or well preserved and trans

formed into hotels, museums, concert halls or offices,

they are places of mystery and greatness, the legacy of a

civilization that lasted for a thousand years. They are

treasures handed down to us from the Middle Ages, the

period conventionally dated from 476, when the Ancient

Roman empire collapsed, to 1453, when the capital of the

Eastern Latin Empire, Constantinople, was taken by the

Turks. Roughly speaking, then, the Middle Ages cover the

period between 500 and 1500.

In the popular imagination, the medieval era has

long been considered a bleak and barbarian period. In

fact, however, the European Middle Ages were not a mil

lennium of unceasing violence and permanent disorder.

It is true that in the early Middle Ages, between the 5th

and the 9th century, civilization, knowledge and art were

in relative decay because of invasions and disorder. But

after the 10th century, three major influences (Ancient

Roman culture, Germanic customs and Christianity) were

working in combination to effect significant change on

medieval society. That combination reached its apogee in

the 13th century.

The brilliant and original medieval civilization was

marked in the 14th century by a series of catastrophes:

wars, epidemics, social and moral crises. In the 15th cen

tury, the European world recovered and underwent tech

nical, social and cultural transformations. The following

period, called the Renaissance, was in many ways a con

tinuation of the Middle Ages but also an important

breakthrough that opened the planet Earth to exploration

and discovery.

Those ten medieval centuries mark a long and

difficult transition between the ancient Roman era and

the modern one. When the Middle Ages came to an end,

tribal and local organizations had vanished, and most

European nations had their own identity, their own lan

guage, their own particularities. Nature had been brought

under man's dominion. The repartition of towns, villages,

communication axes, administrative limits and land

scapes established by the end of the medieval period

would, on the whole, remained the same until the In

dustrial Revolution in the second half of the 19th cen

tury.

During the medieval millennium, the castle was a

common feature of the European landscape. The word

castle (coming from the Latin word castellum) conjures

up a whole range of images, from the sugary Walt Dis

ney picture of a pinnacled fairytale palace to the dark and

sinister lair of Count Dracula. Legends abound of treach

ery, hidden treasures, loyal heroes defeating evil dragons

and wicked barons, gallant knights rescuing damsels in

distress, and besieging forces doused with cascades of

boiling oil. Although some legends are based on histori

cal events, in most such stories the portrayal of castles is

largely fiction. The historical reality of castles is some

what more prosaic.

Originally a castle was an independent, fortified

dwelling place, probably exhaling a strong smell of farm.

Its original purpose was to shelter a lord, his family and

his men as well as to defend a territory. In time of war,

the peasants of the neighborhood could find refuge be

hind its walls. The construction of a castle depended on

private initiative directly connected to feudalism; the

fortified buildings illustrate the decaying political and

military authority and reflect a social order based on lust

for power. In this sense a private "castle," designed for

daily life and occupied by both civilians and warriors, is

quite different from a "fort" (a stronghold built by the

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