Changes in Houses and House-building
In the time of King Edward III, that is, in the fourteenth
century, there was a great change in the arrangement of castles
and castle-building. We cannot say much about it here, it would
take too long; but the changes made show that there was a desire to
make the castle not merely a strong defence against an enemy, but
also a dwelling-place for the baron, his family, his servants, and
men-at-arms. Many buildings were added for comfort and convenience.
In fact, a castle became a kind of little town.
William of Wykeham, that great master-builder, was not only a
builder of churches and colleges, but a castle-builder as well.
The great Round Tower at Windsor Castle, and other parts of that
building still in use, are his work; but in later times it has
been much restored. The general arrangement of the Tower of London
will give us an idea of the sort of habitation a castle of the
fourteenth century was intended to be. In fact, we may say that
every old castle, which is still inhabited, has considerable
indications of work done in this and the following centuries, to
fit it to be a comfortable dwelling-place as well as a fortress.
A good many houses, too, were protected by walls, and sometimes
even called "castles", though they were not what we usually
understand by the term. Many of these were moated houses, the moat
forming the first line of protection. Then came the battlemented
wall, within which the house proper was built.
The fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were stirring war times,
and the nobles kept up bands of armed men, who lived close to, and
even in, their strong houses and castles. In the fifteenth century,
during the long period of the Wars of the Roses, there was much
work for these "men-at-arms to do". This constant warfare weakened
at length the power of the barons. Sometimes the Yorkist king,
sometimes the Lancastrian king, was in power; and whichever side
got the upper hand the king seized the property of the nobles on
the other side.
As a matter of fact the nobles killed each other off, and when
Henry Tudor, a Lancastrian, became king, there was an enormous
amount of power in his hands; and he used it so as to keep a closer
grip of it.
The towns and the traders had no liking for war, and they were
quite satisfied to see the government of the country in the hands
of a strong king. The new nobles, whom King Henry VII made, had
most of them sprung from the merchant and trading class.
These new men, and even the king's own friends and supporters, were
not allowed to keep bands of armed servants or retainers, able to
turn the scale of a battle against the king. The Earl of Warwick,
the "Kingmaker", had played that game several times; and it was
through Lord Stanley bringing his men over from King Richard III's
side to the side of Henry in this way that he had won the Battle of
Bosworth, and placed the English crown on Henry's head.
After becoming king, Henry VII determined that these bands of armed
men, who would follow the whistle of their lord, must be put down.
He therefore set to work cautiously, but he had his way. The nobles
might no longer keep hosts of servants in livery as they pleased.
The king cut down the numbers, so that he might be in a position to
say to any of his nobles that his good word he did not want, and
his bad word he cared nothing at all about.
You will remember the story of King Henry VII and the Earl of
Oxford. The king went to pay the earl a visit, and his host, to
show him honour, had two long lines of stout retainers, all armed
and dressed in his livery, drawn up to meet him. He did all in his
power to show honour to the king. When the visit was over, the king
said to the earl:
"I thank you, my lord, for your good cheer, but I may not endure to
have my laws broken in my sight; my attorney must speak with you."
Then there was "trouble"; and the earl thought himself very
fortunate in getting out of the "scrape" by paying a small fine of
ten thousand pounds. It was very awkward for a man to be a noble
in Tudor times. He never knew exactly where he was. The king might
be making a great fuss with him one day, clapping him in the Tower
a few days after, and then chopping off his head and ornamenting
London Bridge with it.
Well, this did away with the necessity for big fortified houses
which might contain barracks for soldiers, and so we find that the
new houses, built in Tudor times, were less like fortresses than
they had been before. More attention was now paid to the size and
convenience of the rooms. This sixteenth century was a great time
for the building of large houses; indeed, the new nobles had better
ideas of what a comfortable house was than the older barons had.
[Illustration: _Part of the House called Plas Mawr, Conway, Wales_
_It illustrates the architectural change from the mediæval
fortress to the Tudor mansion which took place in the sixteenth
century_]