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‘Bastard Feudalism’ and the Later Castles

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 January 2012

W. Douglas Simpson
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Extract

In fig. 1 we have a ground plan of Kildrummy Castle in Mar. The ‘noblest of northern castles’, as Cosmo Innes called this splendid ruin, is of special importance because it appears to be the most northerly example extant in Europe of the thirteenth-century castle of enceinte which on the lay or feudal side was the culminating expression of what has been styled the greatest age of Latin Christendom. Conformably to its type, the castle consists of a high and massive curtain wall, enclosing a courtyard, and defended by round towers, large and boldly salient, at four of the angles, while at the fifth, midway in the south front, is the gatehouse. Along the north front are the principal domestic buildings—hall, kitchen, and camera—while on the east side is a large chapel, projected beyond the curtain, and set askew so as to aim at a correct orientation.

Type
Research Article
Information
The Antiquaries Journal , Volume 26 , Issue 3-4 , October 1946 , pp. 145 - 171
Copyright
Copyright © The Society of Antiquaries of London 1946

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References

page 145 note 1 For Kildrummy Castle see Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. lxii, pp. 36–80; also my The Province of Mar, pp. 143–50.

page 145 note 2 See Proc. Soc. Ant. Scot., vol. lxxii, pp. 73–83.

page 148 note 1 Description du Château de Pierrefonds, 6th ed., p. 18; Dictionnaire de l'Architecture, vol. iii, pp. 152–3.

page 150 note 1 ‘Sie sollten weder bloss Klöster noch Festen sein, sondern eben beide durch die innige Verbindung von Kreuz und Schwert verklären’—von Eichendorff, Joseph, Die Wiederherstellung des Schlosses der deutschen Ordensritter zu Marienburg, ed. 1922, p. 16Google Scholar.

page 150 note 2 For an example of an early, irregular layout see the castle of Balga, Journal Brit. Archaeol. Ass., n.s., vol. xl, pp. 193–9.

page 150 note 3 The standard work on the castles of the Teutonic Order is Conrad Steinbrecht, Die Baukunst des deutschen Ritterordens in Preussen, specially vol. iv. See also Karl-Heinz Clasen, Die mittel-alterliche Kunst im Gebiete des Deutschordens-staates Preussen, vol. i.

page 152 note 1 Contrast the French campaigns of Henry V with those of Edward III and the Black Prince.

page 152 note 2 For the unstable allegiance of such indentured retainers see Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., 4th ser., vol. xxvi, pp. 70–2.

page 152 note 3 The Bodleian Library map of Britain, c. 1300, shows a castle here, labelled ‘Dentaloune’. This is confirmed by a reference to the vil of Castleton in 1335. The footings of a long wall uncovered in the courtyard, and bearing no relation to the existing structure, are probably a remnant of this earlier castle. Apart from later alterations, easily identified by the use of a different stone, the present castle is substantially of one date.

For Tantallon Castle see Royal Commission on Historical Monuments (Scotland), County of East Lothian, pp. 61–7; also the Official Guide (H.M. Ministry of Works), by Richardson, J. S., F.S.A. Scot.Google Scholar Of older accounts, the best is by Dr.Macgibbon, David in Trans. Edinb. Archit. Ass., vol. i, pp. 77–84Google Scholar.

page 154 note 1 These chambers are far from being mere cells. Such is the scale of the building, that in the circular turrets they measure no less than 12 ft. 8 in. by 7 ft. 7 in. Their small windows have neat stone seats.

page 155 note 1 Lindesay, Robert of Pitscottie, Historic and Cronides of Scotland, ed. Mackay, Æ. J. G., vol. i, p. 25Google Scholar.

page 155 note 2 Ibid., pp. 39–40. For a still more vivid and specific picture of Douglas tyranny see also pp. 64–6: ‘Sa fearful was thair name and terribill to everie innocent man that quhan ane mischevous lymmer was apprehendit for ane cryme no man durst produce him to the kingis iustice gif they allegit that he murderest or slew at ane Douglas command.’

page 155 note 3 Ibid., p. 89.

page 155 note 4 The Lawes and Actes of Parliament, maid be King lames the First and his Successors Kinges of Scotland, ed. 1597, f. 107, recto. A similar exemption was sometimes accorded to English sheriffs, See Proc. Privy Council, vol. vi, p. lxxvi.

page 155 note 5 See Trans. Dumfries and Galloway Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Soc., 3rd ser., vol. xxi, pp. 180–204.

page 156 note 1 For Sanquhar see Trans. Dumfries and Galloway Nat. Hist. and Antiq. Soc., ut supra, pp. 258–74; for Morton, ibid., vol. xxii, pp. 26–35; for Rothesay, , Trans. Glasgow Archaeol. Soc., vol. ix, pp. 152–83Google Scholar; vol. x, pp. 78–9.

page 156 note 2 Statutes of the Realm, vol. ii, p. 3, vii; vol. i, p. 256, xiv.

page 156 note 3 Hist. England, 2nd ed., p. 259. There is plenty of evidence to prove the close connexion between lawlessness and the French wars. Thus in 1361 an Act of Parliament directs the justices of the peace ‘enformer et denquere de touz ceux qi ont este pilours et robeours es parties de dela, et sont ore revenuz et vont vagantz et ne voillent travailler come ils soleient avant ces hours’. And two years later, a royal rescript complains of outrages wrought by ‘malefactores et pacis nostre perturbatores, qui nuper de pilagio et latrocinio in partibus exteris vixerunt’. See Engl. Hist. Review, vol. xxvii, pp. 234, 236.

page 156 note 4 Stubbs, , Constitutional History of England, vol. iii, pp. 530–1Google Scholar.

page 157 note 1 See History, n.s., vol. xxv, pp. 223–5; Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., 4th ser., vol. xxvi, pp. 53–79; vol. xxvii, pp. 29–39.

page 157 note 2 In the indentures made between a lord and his retainers, a usual clause is that the latter are bound to ‘be in the household by the lord's command’, or ‘at his will’.

page 157 note 3 Denton, W., England in the Fifteenth Century, pp. 293–4.Google Scholar The last chapter of this book contains the best study of livery and maintenance that I have met.

page 157 note 4 For all this, see J. E. Morris, The Welsh Wars of King Edward I.

page 158 note 1 Op. cit., p. 269.

page 158 note 2 Archaeol. Aeliana, 4th ser., vol. xvi, pp. 31–42. To the evidence collected there, in illustration of the circumstances that led to the castle being built, two further points may be added. One is chronological. The first Scottish invasions of Northumberland took place in the summers of 1311 and 1312; Dunstanburgh begins to be built in May 1313. The second point is a remark of the Lanercost Chronicler: ‘now while the aforesaid things were being done with Piers, the march of England had no defender against the Scots’—Chronicon de Lanercost, Bannatyne Club ed., p. 219. It is as soon as he has finished with Gaveston (June 1312) that Thomas of Lancaster turns his attention to his responsibilities for defending the Scottish march.

page 158 note 3 Anc. Mon. Com., Carmarthenshire, pp. 193–6.

page 158 note 4 Journ. Brit. Arch. Ass., 3rd ser., vol. v, pp. 63–72.

page 159 note 1 This formidable gatehouse—‘as strong a fortress as few be in England’ (Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. iii, p. 508)—is an astounding thing to find in the peaceful home counties in Edward I's reign. It may have been designed against the possibility of a French landing. Or it may be a symbol of the Earl of Gloucester's habitual opposition to the Crown—an attitude that undoubtedly had much to do with his building of Caerphilly Castle.

page 159 note 2 Hist. Mon. Com., Fife, Kinross and Clackmannan, pp. 250–7.

page 159 note 3 Archaeol. Journal, vol. xciii, pp. 180–1.

page 159 note 4 As Harlech is the perfect example of a concentric castle, and (in my judgement) the most masterly piece of castle architecture in Britain, reference may be made here to my paper on ‘Harlech Castle and the Edwardian Castle-plan’ in Archaeologia Cambrensis, vol. xcv, pp. 153–68.

page 160 note 1 In respect alike of its relation to the lord's apartments, and of the precautions taken for its safety, it recalls the north-east tower in Conway Castle.

page 161 note 1 Cal. Patent Rolls, Rich. II, 1385–9, p. 42; Curzon, Lord, Bodiam Castle, p. 26.Google Scholar For the invasion scare see Sussex Archaeological Collections, vol. lxxii, p. 84. Between Pembroke's defeat at La Rochelle in 1372 and Arundel's victory at Cadzand in 1387 the English fleet lost control of the Channel.

page 162 note 1 Denton, , op. cit., pp. 305–6.Google Scholar King Henry's view of the matter is admirably set forth in Chancellor Morton's speech before Parliament in 1489, as reported by Bacon (Historic of the Reigne of King Henry the Seventh, ed. 1622, pp. 58–9): ‘Wherefore his Grace saith: that he seeth that it is not the blood spilt in the field that will save the blood in the city; nor the Marshal's sword that will set this kingdom in perfect peace: but that the true way is to stop the seeds of sedition and rebellion in their beginnings; and for that purpose to devise, confirm, and quicken good and wholesome laws against riots and unlawful assemblies of people, and all combinations and confederacies of them, by liveries, tokens, and other badges of factious dependence; that the peace of the land may by these ordinances, as by bars of iron, be soundly bound in and strengthened, and all force both in court, country, and private houses, be suppressed.’

page 162 note 2 Hist. MSS. Com., Appendix to Vth Report, p. 330: transcribed in extenso by Denton, p. 290. Many similar indentures are printed or summarized in John of Gaunt's Register, 1372–6, vol. i, pp. xxi–xxiii, 288–350, and 1379–83, vol. i, pp. xli, 13–26. In Scotland such agreements were expressively known as ‘bonds of manrent’.

page 162 note 3 Denton, op. cit., p. 289. For this system of subcontracting see Trans. Royal Hist. Soc., 4th ser., vol. xxvii, p. 32.

page 163 note 1 Paston Letters, ed. Gairdner, James, 1904, vol. ii, pp. 297–8Google Scholar.

page 163 note 2 On Friday, 10th December 1507, the attendance at dinner numbered 114, namely 42 gentlefolk, 34 valets or yeomen, and 38 garçons or grooms. Of these, 24 were strangers, the others being of the lord's household. This was apparently quite a normal day. On Christmas day the number dining rose to 299: 95 gentlefolk, 107 yeomen, and 97 grooms; of these 182 were strangers. At Epiphany, 6th January 1508, the extraordinary number of 519 sat down to dinner. This multitude was made up of 134 gentlefolk, 188 yeomen, and 197 grooms. There were 319 strangers. It therefore appears that the normal household ranged between 100 and 200 all told, See Archaeologia, vol. xxv, pp. 311–42.

page 163 note 3 Paston Letters, vol. ii, p. 267.

page 163 note 4 Archaeol. Aeliana, 4th ser., vol. xvii, pp. 75–84.

page 164 note 1 An excellent example is Yanwath in Westmorland. See Trans. Cumb. and Westmorland Antiq. Soc., n.s., vol. xliv, pp. 55–67.

page 164 note 2 Denton, , op. cit., p. 186Google Scholar.

page 164 note 3 The elder brother and owner. His second brother, who commanded at Caister, bore the same name—a not uncommon practice in the Middle Ages.

page 164 note 4 Paston Letters, vol. iv, pp. 306–7.

page 164 note 5 Ibid., vol. v, pp. 56–7.

page 164 note 6 The keeping up of such private armies was a costly business, in which many of the lesser gentry brought themselves to downfall. As a contemporary puts it: ‘that is the gyse of yowr contre men, to spend alle the good they have on men and livery gownys, and hors and harnes, and so beryt owth for j. wylle, and at the laste they am but beggars’—Paston Letters, vol. ii, pp. 329–30. When they reached the stage of beggary, there was nothing left for such squires but to become ‘gentlemanly, comfortable fellows’ on their own. And so the social mischief fed on itself and grew.

page 165 note 1 Hardyng's, JohnChronicle, p. 749Google Scholar.

page 165 note 2 The licence to castellate was granted 9th July 1510. See Brewer, J. S., Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. i, p. 172. no. 1157Google Scholar.

page 165 note 3 The castle with which Thornbury is best compared is Kirby Muxloe in Leicestershire. The building accounts tell us that it was begun in 1480, and, like Thornbury, it was left incomplete by its founder's execution in 1483. The two castles show the same rectangular layout and the same imposing frontage with central gatehouse and angle-towers, At Kirby Muxloe the gatehouse is a formidable structure, quite in the Edwardian tradition. Unfortunately too little remains to enable us to recover Lord Hastings's scheme for the internal arrangements, but it seems clear that the hall and the kitchen were on the rearmost side, opposite the gatehouse. See the Official Guide (H.M.O.W.), by Sir Charles Peers.

page 167 note 1 Ed. 1622, p. 216. King Henry's attitude is very clearly set out in the celebrated story of his visit to the earl of Oxford at Castle Hedingham (ibid., p. 211): ‘At the King's going away, the Earl's servants stood (in a seemly manner) in their livery coats, with cognisances, ranged on both sides, and made the King a lane. The King called the Earl to him, and said, “My lord, I have heard much of your hospitality, but I see it is greater than the speech. These handsome gentlemen and yeomen, which I see on both sides of me, are sure your menial servants.” The Earl smiled, and said: “It may please your Grace, that were not for mine ease. They are most of them my retainers, that are come to do me service at such a time as this, and chiefly to see your Grace.” The King started a little, and said: “By my faith (my lord) I thank you for my good cheer, but I may not endure to have my laws broken in my sight. My attorney must speak with you.” And it is part of the report that the Earl compounded for no less than fifteen thousand marks.’ Note from this story that the purely economic bond between a master and his servants was harmless: the Earl might have hired as many ‘menial servants’ as he liked, and dressed them in his own colours to boot. But the politico-military relationship between a lord and his indentured retainers was illegal, and for this the Earl had to suffer. Of course the distinction between the two classes of servant was easily blurred, and this seems to have happened in Buckingham's household at Thornbury.

page 167 note 2 19 Henry VII, chap. xiv. Statutes of the Realm, vol. ii, pp. 65 8–60.

page 167 note 3 See Gairdner, J., Letters and Papers, Henry VII, vol. i, pp. 233, 239Google Scholar.

page 167 note 4 See the depositions in Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. iii, pt. i, pp. 490–5; do. in Third Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records, pp. 230–2.

page 167 note 5 For Henry's, King survey see Archaeologia, vol. xxv, pp. 311–13.Google Scholar The Elizabethan survey is printed by Britton, John, Architectural Antiquities of Great Britain, vol. iv, pp. 127–9Google Scholar.

page 168 note 1 Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, vol. i, p. 851, no. 5289. The number of persons specified in the royal licence, granted 2nd August 1514—dean, subdean, 8 secular priests, 4 clerks, and 8 choristers—answers to the twenty-two stalls noted in the survey. Even before this foundation, in 1507, the chapel at Thornbury was served by a priest, 18 clerks or singers, and 9 boys. Archaeologia, vol. xxxv, pp. 321, 323.

page 168 note 2 For the probable explanation of this name see Pugin's, Examples of Gothic Architecture, vol. ii, p. 32Google Scholar.

page 169 note 1 As at Kirby Muxloe, the porter's lodge has an observation window to the gatehall.

page 169 note 2 This is well shown in Viscount Montagu's Household Book at Cowdray, 1595: see Sir Hope, William H. St. John, Cowdray and Easebourne Priory, pp. 119–34Google Scholar.

page 170 note 1 Until I had examined Thornbury Castle I had inclined to the prevailing view that in destroying its builder Henry VIII was actuated by pure jealousy and native greed. But when one studies this formidable castle, so obviously designed to house a miniature standing army, and looking across Severn to Wales whence it was alleged that Buckingham drew his armed supporters, one begins to feel that after all Henry may have been justified in thinking that the duke would be safer without his head.

page 170 note 2 ‘Necnon muros et turres illos battelare vel tinellare kernellare et marchecollare.’ ‘This must be almost the latest, if not the latest, example of a licence to crenellate.’ Hope, , op. cit., p. 29Google Scholar.

page 170 note 3 Journal Brit. Archaeol. Ass., n.s., vol. xl, pp. 177–92; 3rd ser., vol. ii, pp. 121–32; Archaeol. Aeliana, 4th ser., vol. xv, pp. 115–36; vol. xix, pp. 93–103; Archaeological Journal, vol. xcvi, pp. 142–58.

page 171 note 1 Braun, H., The English Castle, p. 109Google Scholar.