  OF THE EDWARDIAN OR CONCENTRIC CASTLES. EVERY castle, if more than a solitary tower or peel, and having more than a single line of defence, has more or less of a concentric character, but in most, even of the largest of the earlier castles, the secondary defences were of small extent and confined to works for the protection of the entrance, as at Richmond and Coningsborough, and such cannot, with any propriety, be called in a general sense concentric. At Richmond, for example, the original castle was an enclosure within a fortified wall of which the keep formed a part, a small barbican covering the entrance, and so of the purely Norman part of Corfe, of Coningsborough, of Brough, of Bridgnorth, and probably of the original Tower of London. None of these were originally concentric, nor can the term be correctly applied to the original castles of the early part of the reign of Henry III., nor even to some of those built by his son. White Castle, Grosmount, Cilgerran, and even Caernarvon and Conway, are mere enclosures, strengthened and fortified by mural towers and gatehouses upon a single line of wall. Salisbury was concentric by necessity, the earthworks leaving the builders no choice in the matter. The concentric arrangement has been supposed to have been introduced by Prince Edward from Syria. That so able a soldier, and so shrewd an observer, added to his knowledge of the military art by what he saw in Palestine is probable enough, but the system of defence for which his reign became celebrated was in truth introduced into England before the death of Henry and before Edward returned from the East. Caerphilly, one of the most complete examples of the concentric lines of defence, was constructed just before Henry’s death, and was the work, not of the sovereign but of a subject. Nevertheless, so great was Edward’s fame, that the system which, though he did not invent, he adopted, has been designated by his name, and the term Edwardian has been applied to that style of fortress, that took the place both of the round tower and of the walled enclosure, and Edward’s policy, on his return from the East, and accession to the throne, led him not to build, but to pull down castles. In the fourth year of his reign it was enacted: “It is to be enquired of castelles, and also of other buyldings girt with dytches, that the walls, tymber, stone, lead, and other manner of coverynges are worth, and how they may be solde, after the very value of the same walles and buyldinges. And how moche the buyldinges without the dych may be sold for, and what they may be worth, with the gardens, custylages, dove house, and all other issues of the court by the yere.” Probably this mainly related to such unlicensed castles as had escaped the hands of Henry, as none of the older or more important structures were then pulled down. Many of these, indeed, had recently been augmented and embellished, and where it suited his convenience, Edward followed in the same track, strengthening and repairing decayed walls and towers, and adapting them to the changed circumstances of the time. Thus, at Porchester, he rebuilt the inner ward, and much enlarged the contained buildings. The additions to Middleham, an outer ward and gatehouse, are of his reign, and the vast outworks beyond the lake at Kenilworth, and the effect of these and similar alterations was to convert the original castles into those of the concentric type. But it was in North Wales that circumstances called forth Edward’s talent as a military engineer. In that country the strong places were hill camps, unfitted for modern warfare, and out of the line of his operations. He found there neither English mounds nor Norman keeps, and his works are not only on a grand scale, but they are original. To him are entirely due the castles of Conway and Caernarvon, Beaumaris and Harlech. Possibly Bere Castle and Dolbadarn Tower were strengthened by him, but they rather resemble the early works of his father. In Scotland Edward’s works have been mostly destroyed, but his hand may be recognised at Linlithgow, possibly in the castle at Edinburgh, and in the old fortifications of Berwick. The first characteristic of a concentric castle is the arrangement of its lines of defence, one within the other, two or even three deep, with towers at the angles and along the walls, so planned that no part is left entirely to its own defences. A wall cannot be advantageously defended unless so arranged that the exterior base of one part can be seen and commanded from the summit of another. A Norman keep or an Early English round tower could only be defended by the As Caerphilly is both the earliest and the most complete example in Britain of a concentric castle, it will be convenient briefly to point out its principal features. The position was selected to close a pass by which the Welsh were wont to issue from the hill country of Glamorgan into Monmouthshire, the way by the sea coast being barred by Cardiff and the castles of the vale. The spot selected lay between the Taff and the Rhymny, upon a gravel bank rising in a low marshy bottom, having mountainous, or at least very high ground to its north, south, and west. The central part of the bank was occupied by a rectangular enclosure, 70 yards by 53 yards, having at each angle a lofty drum tower, and in the centre of each end a broad and lofty gatehouse. On one side of this inner ward was the hall, 72 feet long by 33 feet wide, placed between the chapel and the private apartments, while the gatehouses also contained apartments second only to the hall in magnitude. This inner ward stood within a second and rather larger area, also rectangular, and 106 yards by 90 yards. This middle ward was provided with smaller gatehouses connected with those within, and was contained within a revetment and parapetted wall which descended 20 feet all round into water. Four parapetted bastions, corresponding to the interior towers, capped the four angles, and the side next the hall contained the kitchen and offices, and a water-gate opening from the hall by a broad passage with space for the stowage of boats. The water by which these two wards were encompassed was on one side a deep and broad lake covering about 16 acres, and on the other side a smaller sheet of water of about 3½ acres. These two waters were connected by cross cuts at each end, traversed, opposite the gatehouses, by drawbridges. One of these dropped upon a tÊte du pont, a sort of hornwork or ravelin of earth, about an acre and a-half in area, and enclosed within a revetment wall duly parapetted, and probably with a stout palisade on the raised ground within. A branch from the lake encircled this work, and a second drawbridge connected it with the ground outside. At the opposite end of the castle another bridge dropped from the middle ward upon the outer ward, a very remarkable work. This was a raised platform nearly 330 yards long by from 14 yards to 36 yards in depth, covering the whole front In a military point of view, Caerphilly is a work of consummate skill. Unfortunately for its historic fame, the settlement of Wales followed so closely upon its erection that it never attained to any great importance. Harlech is a concentric castle, probably designed by the architect of Caerphilly. Here also is an inner rectangular ward, with drum towers at the angles and the hall, and other buildings on two sides. This stands within an outer ward, also rectangular, with parapetted walls and bastions. The inner ward has a large single gatehouse, connected with a second and smaller one in the outer ward, from which a drawbridge spanned a deep and broad ditch quarried in the rock. Harlech stands well, and occupies a bold headland of rock which formerly rose out of the sea, from which it is now separated by a broad tract of low land. Its great peculiarity is a covered staircase cut in the rock, defended seaward by a looped parapet, and closed above and below by small gatehouses. This was the water-gate of the fortress, and opened upon a small quay now occupied by the railway. Beaumaris, another of Edward’s castles, deserves special The additions to the Tower of London, by which its Norman keep and Early English inner ward were converted into a regular concentric castle, are skilfully managed. Here the second ward, as usual, is very narrow, and a broad and deep ditch girdles the whole. One limb of the ditch is, however, represented by the Thames, but between it and the outer wall is a strip of land serving as a quay for the landing of stores, of which the rear is strongly fortified. At each end was a sluice for regulating the water of the ditch, and in the centre a grand and strongly fortified water-tower, with a portcullised canal from the river, known as Traitors’ Gate. The annexed plan of the Tower represents very fairly a composite but concentric castle. When the size of the fortress did not require more than one ward, as at Pennard in Gower, or where the ground was unsuitable, as at Conway and Chepstow, the concentric arrangement was laid aside. At Chepstow the Norman keep stands upon a steep ridge of rock, occupying its whole breadth. The additions, therefore, were necessarily at each end, so that the whole castle, constructed at various times, is an oblong, composed of five wards opening one from the other, with the keep in the centre. Its plan is, as it were, a slice cut right across a concentric castle. In an Edwardian castle the principal feature was the hall, spacious, well lighted, usually with a handsome fireplace and an open timber roof. At Beaumaris it occupies the first floor of a gatehouse; at Ludlow, Durham, Pembroke, and Conway it is built against the curtain. The domestic apartments opened from the dais end of the hall. The accounts of Henry III. often record works in the halls of castles. The kitchen was a very important part of an Edwardian castle. The Norman cookery was probably very simple, and few of their keeps have any discoverable kitchen. The later kitchen was often a great feature in the castle. At Caerphilly, as at Cockermouth, it occupies a large tower. At Ludlow it stood out alone in the court-yard. At Kenilworth its remains are considerable. The oven was often of large size. That at Morlais was 12 feet diameter. The chapel is also an essential part of an Edwardian castle. Many of the Norman keeps contain mural oratories. In Newcastle, Dover, and Middleham there were regular chapels within the forebuilding. At Guildford the oratory is an ?-shaped mural cell. At Caerphilly the chapel opened from the lower end of the hall. At Kenilworth foundations of a large chapel, of Decorated date, have been laid open in the outer ward. At Goderich the chapel is connected with the gatehouse, and at Prudhoe. At Beaumaris, Kidwelly, and Oxwich it occupied a mural tower. At Chepstow the chapel was on a large scale, and in the outer ward. There is also, in Martens tower, a charming Early English oratory. In royal castles, in the reign of Henry III., the chapel often appears in the accounts. In one castle Henry orders a chapel to be constructed 25 feet long, and the head of the oriel was to be in the king’s chamber. At Kennington Castle, the chapel was to be wainscotted and provided with a staircase of plaster 30 feet long and 12 feet wide. Its upper part communicated with the queen’s private chapel, and the household sat below. At Winchester the chapel opened into the queen’s chamber, and at Woodstock was a passage between the two, so that the queen could go and return dryshod. Twelve mats for the worshippers were ordered in St. Thomas’ Chapel in Winchester Castle. Many of the larger castles contained regularly endowed chapels, sometimes, as at Windsor, even collegiate. Pontefract and Hastings were so provided. This was also the practice in Scotland. Dalkeith Castle had a chapel endowed in 1377, and to Lord Moray’s chapel, in Bucharm Castle, were attached certain tithes early in the thirteenth century. At Dunster and elsewhere was a provision that the officiating monks, who came from an adjacent priory, should during a siege perform their services at home. An Edwardian gatehouse is a very imposing structure. It was usually rectangular in plan, always flanked in front by two drum towers, and sometimes in the rear by two others containing well-staircases. In its centre was the portal arch opening into a long straight passage traversing the building. Three loops in each flanking tower commanded the bridge of approach, raked the lateral curtain, and covered a point immediately outside the gate. Above the portal was usually a small window, and above that, at the summit, a machicolation set out on corbels, or in its place a sort of bridge, thrown across from tower to tower a couple of feet in advance of the wall, so that a chase or slot was left, down which stones or even beams could be let fall upon those who might be assailing the gate below. Such an arrangement is seen at Neath, Leybourne, and Pembroke, and is not uncommon. Over the town gate at Coucy and at the barbican gate at Ledes the projection was of timber, and part of it remains. The portal arch, wide enough to admit a wain, or three men-at-arms abreast, was usually of the form known as “drop.” Within, the first defence was a herse or portcullis, and behind it a door of two leaves, opening inwards, and, when closed, held by one or two stout bars of oak, which could be pushed back into cavities in the wall. Behind the door the vaulting was often replaced by a flat roof of timber, through which worked a second portcullis, and then came two lateral doorways opening into porters’ lodges, usually connected with a small prison. At St. Briavels the lodge doors are portcullised. At the end of the boarded space the vault recommenced, and there was a second pair of doors and a second portcullis. These two were intended against assaults from within, each gatehouse being constructed for an independent defence. Usually, in addition to these gates and doors, the vault was pierced with from one to five square or round holes, about a foot across, called “meurtriÈres.” These might serve to hold posts to check the entrance of a body of men, or for thrusting pikes down upon them. They have also been supposed to be intended to allow water to be poured down, supposing the passage filled with bushes set on fire, though it is difficult to see how any quantity of water could be obtained, any more than melted lead or pitch, which are spoken of. The first floor of the larger gatehouses contained a handsome chamber with lateral doors leading to the ramparts of the curtain, and sometimes, as at Caerphilly and the Tower, to an oratory. The portcullises were worked through the floor, and their tackle must have given an air of warlike reality to the room, like The walls of these Edwardian castles varied from 25 to 40 feet in height and were from 6 to 8 feet thick, or even more, to allow of mural galleries, as at Chepstow, Caerphilly, and Beaumaris. Upon their top was a path called the “allure,” or rampart walk, protected in front by an embattled parapet, and in the rear by lower and lighter walls. Frequently there was a loop in each merlon, and each embrasure was fitted with a hanging shutter, both of which are seen at Chepstow. Where the curtain crosses a ward or projects as a spur, as at Caerphilly and Beaumaris, it was embattled on both faces. The ramparts were usually reached from the adjacent mural towers, but sometimes, as at Warwick, by an open staircase of stone. Occasionally, where a wall is too slight to allow of a rampart wall, it was, in time of war, provided with a platform of wood, like a builder’s scaffold. This seems to have been the case with the city wall of York where it bounds the cathedral garden. Mural towers vary much in form and size, but are more usually round, or half-round, or half-round with prolonged sides, than square. Now and then they are polygonal, as at Stokesay, Warwick, Cardiff, and the Bishop’s Gatehouse at Llandaff. Stokesay is of the thirteenth century, but usually these towers are later. Mural towers have seldom much internal projection. In Roman works they are usually solid, but in later castles they are sometimes open in the rear or gorge to prevent their being held when taken by the assailants. The towers of Cologne and Avignon are so open, and at the Tower the Byward and Traitors’ Gate towers are closed only with a wooden brattice. The annexed drawing shows the back view of Traitors’ Gate, with the large arch over the water and the timber-work above it. Where there was an outer ward and a second wall, this was considerably lower than the inner wall, and commanded from it; and the mural towers often became mere bastions, not rising above the curtains. The second ward, besides being too narrow to allow of troops being massed or machines posted for the attack on the inner wall, was traversed by cross walls with gates, so as to isolate any body of assailants who had breached the outer wall. Such cross walls may be seen at Caerphilly and at the Tower. The barbican was sometimes a mere walled space attached in front of the gateway, as at Carlisle, Alnwick, Richmond, or the Bars at York. Sometimes it was a tÊte du pont, detached Spelman defines a barbican or “ante-murale” as “munimen a fronte castri aliter ante murale dictum; etiam foramen in urbium castrorumque moeniis ad trajicienda missilia.” A palisaded embrasure in front of the barbican was known as the “barriers.” They are well represented at the Tower by the stockade covering the entrance. The drawbridge was an important feature in the defence of a castle. In its most simple form it was a platform of timber turning upon two gudgeons or trunnions at the inner end; when up, it concealed the portal, and when down, dropped upon a pier in the ditch or upon the counterscarp. Its span varied from 8 to 12 feet. The contrivances for working it were various. Sometimes chains attached to its outer end passed through holes above the portal, and were worked within by hand or by a counterpoise. Occasionally there was a frame above the bridge, also on trunnions. In the larger castles the arrangements were very elaborate. Sometimes the bridge was the only connexion between the gateway and the opposite pier; at others the parapets or face walls rested on a fixed arch, and the bridge dropped between them. A fine example of this kind of bridge is seen at the Constable’s Gate, Dover Castle. At Goderich the details are tolerably perfect. The ditch was crossed by a stone bridge, apparently of two arches, but only the outer one is permanent. The roadway of the inner one was a drawbridge. At Caerphilly, in the ditch in front of the main gate, is a large stone pier from which a bridge fell each way. Probably it carried a tower of timber. In Henry III.’s accounts is mention of a brÉtasche on the bridge of the great tower at Winchester, and of another, covered with lead, upon the new bridge. The portcullis, the “altera securitas” of the badge of the House of Somerset, always present in the castles of Henry and Edward, was an important part of the defence. It was a strong grating, in the smaller gateways of iron, in the larger of oak, strengthened and shod with iron spikes, and suspended in grooves by two cords or chains, which passed over two sheaves, or sometimes through a single central block, and either were attached to counterpoises or worked, as at the Tower and York gates, by a winch. The grooves are generally Nothing is more remarkable than the provisions for cleanliness in military buildings. At Ludlow, Langley, and Caerphilly Castles are large mural towers appropriated to garderobes. At Goderich they occupy a broad buttress. At Beaumaris the sewers are of very large size, and run within the main curtain like galleries. Such sewers are often supposed to be secret passages, though the garderobes above, and the character of the outlets below, should correct this notion. At Coyty the filth was collected in an enormous vaulted chamber. The ramparts of the curtains are also usually provided with garderobes. Subterranean chambers were not more frequent in England in the thirteenth and fourteenth than in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, and if we have nothing like the magnificent tiers of vaulting in the tower of Coucy, neither have we anything like the wretched cells and oubliettes found in German castles, and of which those of Baden-Baden are examples. The basement chambers of mural towers are, indeed, often below the level of the court-yard, but they are above that of the ditch outside. At Castel Coch, near Cardiff, is about the worst dungeon in Britain, but even this is not underground. The posterns in these castles are often very elaborate. There is a very fine one at Windsor, opening in the castle ditch, and intended for the passage of cavalry. This is probably of the age of Henry III. At Caerphilly are two with regular gatehouses and drawbridges. Sometimes the postern is a small door with a grate. That at Goderich was worked in the floor above, so that it required two men in two several places to open or close the postern. At Caerphilly are two water-posterns; one out of which a boat could be lowered into the lake, the other at the water-level, as at The castles both of Henry and Edward combine the palace with the fortress, but the domestic are always subordinate to the military arrangements. Whether absolutely original, as Caerphilly or Beaumaris, or completions of older works, as Corfe, Dover, and the Tower, they usually present a grand appearance, and the masonry is generally excellent. Very many of our principal towns were walled in during the reigns of Henry and Edward; some—as York, Leicester, Colchester, and Chester—took advantage of the Roman wall. Northampton was walled before 1278. At Winchester the wall was founded upon an early earth-bank. The only licences granted for town walls appear to have been to the men of Harwich and Ipswich, 26 Ed. III.; the Mayor and prud-hommes (probi homines) of Coventry, 37 and 38 Ed. III.; of Salisbury, 46 Ed. III.; and of Winchelsea, 3 Hy.; the defences of Hereford, a very exposed place, seem to have been formed of briars and thorns, placed upon very formidable banks of earth. It sometimes happened that the gatehouses were of masonry, while the rest of the defences were banks of earth stockaded. The fourteenth century was prolific in castles, chiefly of the smaller class, upon the Scottish border and in Scotland. In England Dacre, Dunstanborough, and Spofforth were built early in that century; the Palace Castle of St. David’s was built in 1342, Caesar’s Tower at Warwick about 1360, and Guy’s Tower in 1394, two magnificent works. Gradually, however, pure castles fell into disuse, and such structures as Bolton and Wressill and Sheriff-Hutton took their place, affecting generally the form of a square court, round which the buildings were ranged, and which was entered by a regular gatehouse. In these, however, the castellate character was employed more from custom than from necessity, and the external windows are large, and the walls of very moderate thickness. Many of the royal castles were left to decay, and others were employed as prisons and handed over to the counties. A short Act of the 13 R. II. orders “that the King’s castles and gaols should be joined to the bodies of the counties, and, where severed, should be reunited.” Castle-building was from a very early time considered as a royal prerogative, though in the reigns immediately succeeding the Conquest, it was so great an object to hold the country, that the claim seems to have been allowed to slumber. The wholesale destruction of the adulterine or unlicensed castles which followed upon the death of Stephen showed the revival The following, from the Patent Roll, 15 Hen. VI., 1437, is a part of the licence granted to Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester, and his Duchess, who proposed to build a strong house upon the hill now occupied by the Royal Observatory at Greenwich: “Muris petra et calce includere et firmare, et muros illos kernellare, batellare, et turrellare, ac quandam turrim infra parcum prÆdictum similiter petra et calce de novo construere, edificare, ac tam turrim illam sic de novo constructam et edificatam quam dictum manerium sive mansionem ut prÆmittitur inclusum, firmatum, kernellatum, imbattellatum, et turrellatum, tenere possint sibi et hÆredibus suis prÆdictis in perpetuum.” Innis (“Sketches,” 444) gives a corresponding licence from the Earl of Ross, in 1406, for the building of Kilravock. “Johne of Yle, Erle of Ross ande Lord of the Ilis, to all ande sundry to quhais knawlage thir our present letteris sall come, greeting. Witte us to have gevyn ande grantit, and be thir present letteris gevis ande grantis, our full power ande licence till our luffid cosing, man ande tennand, Huchone de Roos, Baron of Kylravok, to fund, big, ande upmak a toure of fens, with barmkin and bataling, upon quhat place of strynth him best likes, within the barony of Kilrawok, without any contradictioun or demaund, questioun, or any obiection to put in contrar of him or his ayris, be us or our ayris, for the said toure ande barmkyn making, with the bataling, Mr. Innis points out that one of James’s first acts on returning from his English captivity was to order the owners of all castles and manor-places to make them habitable and to live in them; and he adds that it is remarkable “How many Scotch castles date from the half century following the above enactment, and all of one design—a stern, square keep, rudely kernellated, and surmounted with a cap-house, partially surrounded by a barbican or barmkin, affording protection to the inhabitants and their cattle from the hurried inroads of rough-handed neighbours.” MEDIÆVAL MILITARY ARCHITECTURE. DESCRIPTIONS. “ . . . . . Time Has mouldered into beauty many a tower, Which, when it frowned with all its battlements, Was only terrible. . . . . —Mason. |
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