THE EDWARDIAN CASTLE AND THE CONCENTRIC PLAN
Castles like Carew, enclosing a rectangular area with round towers at
the angles, were the fruit of the transition in the course of which
the fortified curtain wall took the place of the passive strength of
the keep. At Carew the castle was protected upon its most exposed side
by outer defences of stone; but on all other sides it presented a
single line of defence, flanked by the four formidable angle-towers. A
castle thus defended was, like the early stone castles at Richmond and
elsewhere, a keep in itself; but its wall no longer depended merely
upon its passive strength, but was calculated to resist attacks on
which the builders of Richmond and Ludlow had no means of reckoning.
The castle of the latter half of the thirteenth century, the golden
age of English military architecture, was, then, an enclosure within a
strong and well-flanked curtain wall. The keep, where the site was new,
was dispensed with: where an old plan was altered or enlarged, it took
a secondary position. The castles of this age may be divided into three
separate classes. First, there are castles without keeps, in which
the flanked curtain wall forms the sole line of defence. Secondly,
there are old castles, which, by extension of their site, have adopted
a concentric plan of defence. And thirdly, there are castles newly
planned, in which the defences are formed by two or more concentric
curtain walls.
[Illustration: Carnarvon Castle]
[Illustration: Conway Castle]
I. The grand examples of the first class are the castles of Carnarvon
(253) and Conway (254). Conway was begun in 1285 by the orders of
Edward I. Carnarvon, in which more architectural splendour is shown,
was begun in 1283, and was not finished until 1316-22.[269] Both
castles were built in connection with walled towns, and occupied an
angle of the defences; and both stand on a point of land where a river
meets the sea, so that two faces of the site were defended by water,
while the base was separated from the town by an artificial ditch.
Carnarvon, however, is situated on low ground, and commands the town
only by the height of its curtain and its formidable towers; while the
promontory on which Conway stands is raised high above the greater part
of the town and commands the whole (256).
The plan of both castles is very similar. The enclosure, in both cases
an irregular polygon of an oblong shape, was divided into two wards by
a cross-wall,[270] built at a point where the curtain is slightly drawn
in on both sides, and the site is consequently narrowed. At Conway the
main entrance is in the west or end wall of the lower ward, opposite
the cross-wall. The lower ward, thus entered, is a hexagon in shape,
flanked by six cylindrical or drum towers, one at each of the angles,
and occupies about two-thirds of the enclosure. The remaining third is
the upper ward, an irregular rectangle flanked by four drum towers, the
two towers to the west being common to both wards. The whole enclosure
is thus flanked by eight towers, four at the angles, and two on each of
the sides.
The two wards at Carnarvon (253) were more nearly equal, the upper
ward, placed, as in Conway, at the end next the confluence of the river
and the sea, occupying about two-fifths of the site. The main entrance
to the lower ward, the King’s gateway, is in the middle of the side
wall next the town, and the wall of division between the wards crossed
the enclosure from a point close to the right of the inner entrance.
The curtain of the lower ward was built in five sections, with a tower
at each of the projecting angles between them. With these towers must
be reckoned the two splendid gatehouses, the King’s gatehouse at the
north-west, and Queen Eleanor’s gatehouse at the east angle of the
ward. The curtain of the upper ward was built in four pieces, and this
ward, with its cross-wall, forms an irregular pentagon, at the apex
of which is the famous Eagle tower, at the point where the town wall
joins that of the castle. There are nine towers in all, counting the
two gatehouses, and a turret on each of the north-east and south-east
sections of the curtain. The towers are polygonal in shape, the
straight faces being for the most part very broad, and the angles very
obtuse.[271]
[Illustration: Conway Castle and Town]
Of the two castles, Conway, which stands, as we have seen, on the
better site, was the more economically defended. The leading features
of the plan at Carnarvon are the two large gatehouses and the Eagle
tower at the western angle, which was virtually a strong tower or
keep. The King’s gatehouse formed the main entrance. Queen Eleanor’s
gatehouse stands at the highest point of the castle, and is now
inaccessible from outside: when in use, it must have been approached by
a steeply rising bridge across the ditch.[272] There is also a postern,
through which provisions were, no doubt, brought to the kitchen, in the
basement of the Well tower, which caps the angle of the curtain between
the King’s gatehouse and Eagle tower. At Conway, there was no separate
strong tower, nor was there a real gatehouse: the gateway is in a
narrow end-wall, and the towers on each side are in close connection
with its machicolated rampart-walk. There is also a second and smaller
gateway in the wall at the opposite end of the castle, opening on a
platform at the edge of the rock, from which a stair led to the water.
Where the curtain was so well defended as in these two castles, a
double entrance was a source of strength rather than weakness. The
problem for the enemy was how to distribute his forces, so as to keep
the whole _enceinte_ under observation. To concentrate an attack
upon one gateway was to run the risk of being outflanked and taken
in the rear by a sortie from the other. Strong as Château-Gaillard
and other castles of the transition had been, they had simply met the
prospect of attack with successive lines of defence. Carnarvon and
the castles of the Edwardian period generally were not entirely a
refuge for a besieged garrison: they were shelters which provided a
base of operations for offensive as well as defensive stratagem. The
most imposing feature of the defences of Carnarvon castle is the long
irregular line of the south and south-west wall, fronting the river
Seiont (258). Here the curtain is pierced by three rows of loops,
one above another. The lowest open from a gallery in the thickness
of the wall: the middle row from an upper gallery, which is now open
internally, constructed on the top of the very massive lower wall;
while the top row is pierced in the merlons of the battlements (259).
The wall could be guarded simultaneously by three rows of archers, one
above another—not an inviting prospect to a besieging force. It is
obvious that such a castle, large enough to shelter an army, could also
be held by a relatively small body of men, so excellently was the area
of defence concentrated, and so readily could every part of the curtain
be reached from the interior of the fortress.
[Illustration: Carnarvon]
[Illustration: CARNARVON CASTLE: towers and rampart-walk]
[Illustration: CARNARVON CASTLE: interior]
While the actual defences of the curtain at Conway were more simple
than at Carnarvon, the isolation of the site was greater, and the
possibility of active movement in and out of the stronghold was less.
The attack was bound to be concentrated upon the one main entrance; and
consequently, next to the flanking of the curtain, the chief object
was the defence of the gateway. The end wall, in which the gateway
was pierced, is high above the adjacent town, and the level piece of
ground in front was broken short by a steep edge of cliff, at the
foot of which was the ditch. The entrance was therefore approached
by a well-guarded barbican at right angles to the gateway. This
outwork was reached from the town by passing along a rising causeway
with a drawbridge at the end, which gave access to the gateway of
the barbican, standing in advance of the north-west tower. A short
rising path then led through a doorway closed by a wooden door to the
platform in front of the gateway, along the west side of which, above
the ditch, was continued the outer wall of the barbican, flanked by
three small round towers, open at the gorge. The parapet above the
gateway was machicolated, and the large corbels still project from the
wall.[273] Into a narrow barbican like this, only a small detachment of
an attacking force could venture; indeed, the position is practically
impregnable. The north-west tower commands every inch of the approach;
and the drawbridge, the portcullis and upper gateway of the
barbican, and the oblique entrance to the gateway of the castle, formed
successive and intimidating obstacles. The main gateway was closed by a
portcullis, which was worked from a mural chamber, between the crown of
the arch and the rampart-walk. It may be noted that, while the oblique
entrance at Conway has some likeness to the ingenious entrances at
Beaumaris, the works of Conway have at least two points in common with
Harlech—the corbelling-out of the rampart-walk against the interior
face of the towers (261), and the carrying up of the stairs of the four
eastern towers into turrets above the level of the roof. The lofty
stair-turrets above the roof are also a prominent feature at Carnarvon.
[Illustration: Conway Castle; Rampart-walk]
The arrangements of the rampart-walks at Conway and Carnarvon were of
the usual type. At Conway, where the cross-wall between the wards is
still in existence, there is a walk along the top, so that no part of
the curtain is really distant from another. The domestic buildings
at Carnarvon unfortunately no longer stand; but the position of the
hall and kitchen in the inner ward is still known. Probably, as at
Conway, there was a large hall for the garrison in the outer ward.
The domestic arrangements at Conway can be easily followed, although
the kitchen, against the north curtain of the lower ward, is gone. The
great hall, which is built against the south curtain, and follows the
obtuse angle formed by it, stands above a cellar, but its floor was on
a level with the surface of the ward. Its timber roof was built upon
stone transverse arches, spanning the hall: the east end was screened
off and formed a chapel. The buildings surrounding the smaller or
upper ward formed a separate mansion, distinct from the great hall and
its appendages. The chief features of this set of apartments were the
smaller hall, against the south curtain, the separate withdrawing-rooms
called the King’s and Queen’s chambers, and the small chapel or oratory
in the north-east tower (263). This chapel was entered from the
main stair of the tower, but a straight stair also led to it in the
thickness of the east wall from the postern-gate, and communicated with
a similar stair in the other half of the wall, leading to the King’s
chamber and the lesser hall. Water at Carnarvon was supplied from a
well in the tower west of the kitchen: at Conway a cistern was made
near the south-east corner of the lower ward.
[Illustration: Conway Castle; Fireplace in hall]
[Illustration: Conway Castle; Oratory]
II. There are old castles, however, which were adapted to the new
form of fortification with an ingenuity equal to that shown on new
sites at Conway and Carnarvon. In alluding to the lessons learned by
the Crusaders in the east, we have noticed the concentric form of
fortification which they saw at Constantinople. The city was girt by
a triple wall, each ring of which was higher than the one outside it.
The advantage of this was obvious: while three successive lines of
defence were provided, the three could also be used simultaneously,
each row of defenders discharging its missiles over the heads of the
next. The Crusaders, the variety and ingenuity of whose castle plans
deserve much admiration, profited by the concentric method of walling
a stronghold; and none of their fortresses is so remarkable as Le
Krak des Chevaliers (176), rebuilt early in the thirteenth century,
where the curtain of the inner ward rises high above the curtain of
the outer _enceinte_.[274] Approximations to the concentric plan were
not unknown even in England at an early date. The earthen defences of
Berkhampstead castle (42) are concentric, although no attempt was made
to correlate them by giving the inner banks command of the outer.[275]
In the plan of the cylindrical tower-keep at Launceston, we have a
striking application of the concentric plan to a small area. In France,
Château-Gaillard, where the inner ward is nearly surrounded by the
curtain of the middle ward, was an approach to concentric methods;
but the leading idea was still the exclusion of an enemy by lines
of defence arranged upon an elongated plan, with the donjon as the
culminating point. Even at Coucy, where the defensive provisions are so
elaborate, the donjon is the great point of interest, and the castle
is not concentric in plan. In fact, the concentric plan, although long
known in the east, was not adopted as a basis of planning in the west
until the thirteenth century was far advanced. The fortifications of
Carcassonne, where the plan was applied to a town (264), were begun by
St Louis, and finished by Philip III.: begun earlier than Caerphilly,
their erection covered most of the time in which our chief concentric
castles were built.[276]
[Illustration: Carcassonne; Plan]
The concentric plan may be described as follows. The site on which
the castle was built was surrounded, as usual, by a ditch. The inner
scarp was crowned, and sometimes partly reveted, by a wall, flanked by
towers at the angles and, in the largest castles, on the intermediate
faces. Within this wall, and divided from it by a narrow space of open
ground, rose a second and much higher wall, also flanked by towers
at the angles and on the faces. This inner wall enclosed the main
ward of the castle, the intermediate space forming the outer ward
or “lists.” There was no keep: here, as in the plan of Conway and
Carnarvon, reliance was placed on the curtains. The entrances, however,
were elaborately defended by large gatehouses and by sundry ingenious
devices, as at Beaumaris, for perplexing a foe; and the castle was
sometimes reinforced, as at Caerphilly, by special outer defences
both of earth and stone. An enemy, attacking such a fortress, was
exposed first to a double fire from the two curtains. If he effected an
entrance, he had to fight every step of his way into the inner ward;
while, if he was driven, by determined resistance at the gateway, into
the narrow space of the outer ward, he was not merely in danger from
the archers on the inner wall, but also might find his way blocked
by one of the cross-walls which broke up the space in which he was
confined.
[Illustration: Kidwelly Castle; Plan]
Such a plan, although it might lack some of the advantages of a plan
worked out on a new site, could be applied to the new defences of an
old castle. Both at Dover and the Tower of London during the reign of
Henry III., additions were made which gave each castle a concentric
plan.[277] The effect at Dover was to ring the imposing keep about
with a double wall: the inner circuit, however, is largely of the same
date as the keep, and the outer is spreading and irregular in plan.
At London the defences were more closely planned in harmony, and one
feature of the additions is that, when the buildings are examined close
at hand, the White tower, originally the most important feature of the
fortress, becomes comparatively insignificant in the defensive scheme.
The inner and outer curtains, with their towers, are of more than one
date, from the end of the twelfth to the sixteenth century; but the
most important work was done in the reign of Henry III., during which
the concentric plan of the fortress was developed. The best idea of
the fortifications can be obtained from the open space before the west
front. Between the city and the castle lies the formidable ditch, which
runs round three sides of the fortress, the fourth side being guarded
by the Thames and a narrower ditch. Dug by the Conqueror’s workmen,
the ditch was widened and deepened by Richard I.’s chancellor, William
Longchamp: it originally seems to have admitted water at high tide.
The entrance to the castle is at the south-west angle. A gatehouse,
called the Middle tower, which was covered by an outer ditch[278] and
outwork, stands on the counterscarp of the great ditch, on this side
120 feet broad, and gives access to a stone bridge. This crossed the
ditch to the Byward tower, a gatehouse at the south-west angle of the
outer curtain. This curtain has been much altered, and its angles along
the north face are capped by bastions which belong to the age when
the cannon had taken the place of the catapult. Along its south face,
towards the narrow ditch, the quay, and river beyond, it is flanked by
towers, the chief of which is St Thomas’ tower, the water-gate of the
castle, well known by its name of Traitors’ gate, and, like the Byward
and Middle towers, originally a work of the thirteenth century.[279]
From the bridge leading to the Byward tower, the curtain of the inner
ward, flanked by three towers, the Beauchamp tower in the middle, the
Devereux and Bell towers at the angles,[280] can be seen commanding
the narrow outer ward. This approach was apparently defended by three
rows of archers, like the south curtain of Carnarvon. The highest row
occupied the rampart-walk and towers of the inner curtain. Loops were
made in the face of the same curtain, below the rampart-walk, for a
second row, on the raised ground-level of the inner ward; while a third
row could be stationed behind loops in the outer curtain. The outer
ward varies in breadth, but the passage to the gateway of the inner
ward, along the south face of the inner curtain, is very narrow, and is
flanked by the Bell tower and Wakefield tower.[281] The inner gateway
is in the ground-floor of the Bloody tower, which joins the Wakefield
tower; and is immediately opposite the water-gate in St Thomas’ tower.
At intervals the outer ward was traversed by cross-walls, so that an
unhindered circuit of it was impossible: one of these crosses it on the
east side of the Wakefield tower, and is continued across the ditch to
the river bank.[282] The well-flanked approach from the Byward tower,
arranged so that the gateway to the inner ward must be entered by
a right-angled turn, may be compared with the entrances at Conway
and Beaumaris, or with the earlier approach to the main bailey at
Conisbrough.
[Illustration: Chepstow; Basement chamber]
In some respects, the alterations undertaken at Chepstow (104) towards
the end of the thirteenth century give it a place among concentric
castles. The ridge on which the castle stands, between the town
ditch and a sheer cliff above the Wye, was too narrow for concentric
treatment, and the actual plan shows us four wards on end, each
on higher ground than the last. The first and lowest ward was the
Edwardian addition. The second ward formed the lower part of the
bailey of the early castle. The third ward, at a very narrow point in
the ridge, was almost filled by the great hall, which was virtually
the great tower or keep of this castle; and there is only a narrow
passage mounting the slope between the hall and the low curtain above
the river. The fourth ward, at the highest point, and divided from
the third ward by a deep rift in the rock, contains a wide gateway,
which, as at Kidwelly—the nearest parallel—was the back entrance to
the castle. We have only to imagine the ditch next the town filled up,
and the outer curtain continued so as to embrace the second ward and
great hall, and to unite the first and fourth wards; and we have what
is virtually the plan of Kidwelly (267). Free ingress and egress for
the garrison, so well studied in concentric plans, was provided by the
two gateways at Chepstow. The exposed condition, however, of the lower
ward, at the foot of the ridge, prompted an addition to the plan which
recalls the Eagle tower at Carnarvon, or the strong towers at the later
manor-castles of Raglan and Wingfield. Projecting from the lowest angle
of the curtain, commanding the approach from the town, and covering
the gateway, is the tower now called the Marten tower, rounded to the
field and flat at the gorge. This tower, entered from the ground-level
of the ward, had its own portcullised gateway, and a doorway, also
portcullised, from the first floor to the rampart-walk of the curtain.
Its three floors were very amply planned, and, projecting from the
second floor, and partly built on the battlements of the curtain, is
a small chapel or oratory, with an east window containing geometrical
tracery. The Marten tower is a valuable example of the protection of
a dangerous angle. Its flanking capacities were improved by a spur or
half-pyramid built against the base: this may be compared with the
rectangular plinths of the two western angle-towers at Carew, from
which spurs rise against the rounded surfaces of the towers themselves.
The first ward at Chepstow contains a lesser hall and other domestic
buildings on the side next the river: these, with the vaults below them
(268), contain work of great beauty. All the Edwardian work at Chepstow
has that simplicity and adequacy of design, admitting here and there of
beauties of detail, which is found in the best military work of the age
(249).[283]
[Illustration: Caerphilly Castle; Plan]
III. The castles, however, of the last twenty years of the thirteenth
century, planned with a system of concentric defences, may be taken,
with Carnarvon and Conway, as reaching the highest pitch of military
science attained in medieval England. The earliest of these, Caerphilly
(270), which was begun before the end of the reign of Henry III., was
also the most elaborate.[284] The castle proper was placed in the
middle of a lake, formed by the damming up of two streams; and in
this respect the situation was not unlike that of Kenilworth, which
was defended on the south and west by an artificial lake, and was
irregularly concentric in the ultimate development of its plan.[285]
The sides of the island were enclosed within strong retaining walls,
which rose to form the curtain of the outer ward. This curtain was
low, and was flanked, not by towers, but by curved projections forming
bastions at the angles. Within this outer defence rose the rectangular
inner ward, the lofty curtain of which was flanked by drum towers at
each angle, and by a very large gatehouse with two drum towers in each
of the east and west sides. The outer ward had also a front and back
gatehouse, flanked by small drum towers, in its east and west curtains:
these were directly commanded by the inner gatehouses, and the entrance
was not oblique. The inner ward was spacious and cheerful. In the
centre is the well: the great hall (272), the excellent stonework of
which is sheltered from the weather by a modern roof, was built against
the south curtain, and the chapel was at right angles to it at its
east end. The kitchen was contained in a projecting tower south of the
hall, which blocked the outer ward at this point: beneath the kitchen
was a postern communicating directly with the lake. The place of the
rampart-walk in the curtain next the hall was supplied by a gallery
running in its thickness, and looped to the field. At the east end of
the hall were apartments, through which the rooms in the first floor of
the east gatehouse could be reached.
[Illustration: Caerphilly Castle]
This plan, in which the military and domestic elements were so well
combined, is interesting upon its own account. But more interesting
still were the outer defences by which the castle was surrounded. The
whole east face of the castle on the outer edge of the lake was guarded
by an outer wall, which had in the centre, nearly opposite the inner
gateways, a large gatehouse, and was returned at the ends into clusters
of towers, the larger of which, on the south, covered a postern. A
wet ditch divided this outer line of defence from the village of
Caerphilly, and in its centre was a pier on which the two sections
of the drawbridge met. North of the gatehouse, the outer curtain was
defended simply by the rampart-walk: on the south side, however, there
was a narrow terrace left in the rear of the curtain, by which access
was obtained to the castle mill and other offices. These two portions
of the curtain were separated from each other by the gatehouse and a
dividing wall, which, in case of the capture of one part of the curtain
by besiegers, gave the defenders a distinct advantage. The inner lake
was crossed from the platform in front of the main gatehouse by a
drawbridge, which probably was worked by a counterpoise from the island
side.
[Illustration: Caerphilly Castle; Hall]
[Illustration: Harlech Castle]
[Illustration: Harlech Castle; Gatehouse]
[Illustration: Harlech; Inner side of gatehouse]
The lake on the north side of the castle was divided into an inner and
outer moat by a bank of earth which sprang from the platform of the
outer gatehouse, and curved round the north side of the island. This
bank ended at a second and smaller island, the sides of which were
reveted by a stone wall, covering the west face of the stronghold. This
horn-work or ravelin was connected by drawbridges across the outer
and inner moats with the mainland and with the western gatehouses of
the castle. It is evident that a fortress like this, in which every
resource of the defenders’ art has been brought into action, gave a
besieger very few opportunities. Every entry was guarded: if he once
effected an entrance, defence after defence had to be forced, while the
resources of the several lines of defence could all be used against him
at once. Moreover, he had to be careful to cut all communications off
from the rear entrance and posterns; and this was a difficult matter,
where the defenders of the castle had so much freedom of movement and
could assail him from so many different points. It is not surprising to
learn that the impregnable fortress of Caerphilly is almost without a
history. Constructed to defend the lower valley of the Rhymney and to
cover the coast castles round Cardiff from an attack from the Welsh of
the valleys which slope southwards from the Brecon Beacons, it endured
no important siege;[286] and it was not until the civil war that its
military capacity was really tested—and then only in an age which had
outgrown the methods responsible for its scheme of defence.[287]
Of Edward I.’s castles in North Wales, Harlech (273) and Rhuddlan, with
lofty inner curtains and cylindrical angle-towers, have much in common
with each other and with Caerphilly. The general plan of Harlech is
nearly identical with that of the island defences of Caerphilly. Its
situation on a lofty rock, however, does not call for elaborate outer
defences. The rock was isolated from the mainland by a dry ditch cut
across the east face. A causeway and a drawbridge led to the gatehouse
of the outer ward, which was flanked by bartizans. The wall of the
outer ward, like that at Caerphilly, is low, and has no towers: three
of its angles form bastions, while the other, at the least accessible
point, is simply curved. The unusually lofty curtain of the inner
ward, some 40 feet high, towers above the comparatively slight outer
defences; while the centre of the east side is occupied by the great
gatehouse (274), projecting far back into the inner ward. The entrance
is flanked by two semi-cylindrical towers; and in the rear of the
gatehouse are two round turrets, rising high above the roofs. Rhuddlan,
which stands on the right bank of the Clwyd, had a fairly broad outer
ward defended by a deep and wide ditch on the three faces on which the
site is fairly level. The inner ward had two gatehouses, of equal size
and importance, placed diagonally to each other at the north-east and
south-west angles of the curtain. Each of these was flanked by two
large drum towers; while each of the two remaining angles was capped by
a single tower.
There were at Harlech a hall and other domestic buildings against the
curtains; but the gatehouse was also a complete mansion in itself,
with its own small chapel or oratory above the gateway. There was an
outer stair to the bailey from the main hall of the gatehouse. Exactly
the same arrangement occurs at Kidwelly, while the importance of the
gatehouse as a dwelling reaches its climax in the hall of the northern
gatehouse at Beaumaris.[288] The dual arrangement of a hall, kitchen,
etc., for the garrison, and a private dwelling-house for the constable
or the lord of the castle, has already been noticed at Conway, whilst
its growth has been traced in connection with the castle of Durham.
Harlech presents two or three important points of interest. (1)
The outer ward was not blocked at any point, as at Caerphilly, by
projecting buildings, but was continuous: it was crossed, however, in
at any rate one place, by a wall which barred an enemy’s progress. (2)
Owing to the nature of the site, only one gatehouse was built. But a
small doorway in the centre of the north wall of the inner ward opened
directly opposite a postern, flanked by half-round bastions, in the
outer curtain. From this point an extremely steep path, now hardly
to be traced, followed the edge of the rock, rounded the north-west
bastion of the outer ward, and passed close beneath the west curtain
to the south-west angle of the rock. Here, doubling on itself, it
descended through a gateway into a long passage between the slope of
the rock and the outer wall, and ended at the water-gateway of the
castle, at the foot of the great crag and near the present railway
station. The wall which protected the outer face of this tortuous
passage, formed an outer curtain to the castle, descending the rock
from the south-west angle of the outer ward, continuing round the
foot of the rock on its north side, and climbing it again to meet the
north-east bastion.[289] (3) The rampart-walk had no machicolations
and, as at Conway (261), was continued round the inner faces of the
angle-towers on corbelling. This left the interior of the towers
free, while their doorways and stairs gave them ready command of
the rampart-walk. The walls are not only lofty, but very thick. The
section of the jambs of the hall windows and the small north postern
points to the fact that the lower part of the walls was thickened,
probably as an afterthought, when their present height was determined
upon. The upper part of the walls is homogeneous, and is evidently a
heightening. (4) Although vices in the angle-towers communicated with
the rampart-walk, freedom of action was given to the defenders of the
towers by the provision of a separate stair for those told off to guard
the intermediate ramparts. This stair is reached through the basement
doorway of the south-east tower, and, branching off from the internal
stair a few feet above the entrance, reaches a small external platform.
Here a narrow outer stair, with a rear-wall, is carried up the face
of the flat gorge of the tower, and, turning along the south curtain,
at length reaches the rampart-walk. The planning of this stair, with
its carefully covered ground-floor entrance, is very interesting and
curious.
[Illustration: Beaumaris Castle; Plan]
Nowhere, however, can the beauty of the concentric plan be so well
appreciated as at Beaumaris (278), one of Edward I.’s latest Welsh
castles.[290] The site is flat and low, on a tongue of land at the
northern entrance to the Menai straits. There is no attempt at any
elaborate outer system of defence, such as we see at Caerphilly. The
defences consisted of a ditch, filled with water at high tide, and an
inner and outer curtain, the inner curtain, as usual, commanding the
outer. The inner ward is square: it has a drum tower at each of the
angles, and another in the centre of each of the east and west sides.
The north and south curtains are broken by gatehouses, also flanked
by drum towers.[291] The north gatehouse was the largest, and upon
its first floor was an imposing hall. The curtain of the outer ward,
surrounding the inner curtain, was adapted to the projection of the
intermediate drum towers and the gatehouses of the inner ward by the
construction of each face with a salient angle in the centre (277).
There are no traces of any cross-walls barring the passage of the outer
ward. The outer curtain, which, owing to the flat site, is not the
mere low bastioned wall of Caerphilly or Harlech, has a drum tower at
each angle. On each of the north, east, and west curtains, there are
three smaller drum towers, the central one of which caps the salient.
The plan is thus of a most symmetrical and uniform kind. The south
curtain of the outer ward, however, has no intermediate drum towers,
and its salient is nearly capped by the outer gateway. This gateway,
however, flanked by rectangular towers,[292] is set obliquely to the
wall. Entering the outer ward, immediately on our right is the small
rectangular barbican, pierced with cross-loops, which covers the inner
gateway, so that two right-angled turns must be made before the inner
ward is entered (277).
[Illustration: Beaumaris Castle]
This entrance, most carefully protected, shows even higher skill than
the barbican of Conway and the elaborate passage from the water-gate at
Harlech. But there are two further remarkable defences in this castle.
We have seen that, as at Caerphilly, there is a large gatehouse at
either end of the inner ward. The rear gatehouse, which, as already
noted, is the more important, has no barbican. The rear gateway of
the outer ward is set obliquely to it, in the north curtain east of
the salient, and is simply a large postern in the wall. Outside it,
however, the wall is reinforced by four buttresses, each of which is
pierced by a loop; the outer buttresses are looped to the field, the
inner towards the gateway. The westernmost buttress projects beyond
the rest, and it is clear that the design was intended to conceal and
protect the postern from attack, and that the western side, in the
direction of the interior of Anglesey, was that on which an attack
was most to be expected. The other defence is the spur-wall, which,
running almost at right angles to the south wall of the outer ward,
shut off the main entrance and the beach on which it opened from the
beach on the eastern side of the castle. The wall is pierced by a
passage, is looped in both faces, and is flanked by a half-round tower
on the west face.
Although, at first sight, the towers of Beaumaris, on its absolutely
level site, look low and unimportant, and present an extraordinary
contrast to those of Harlech, Carnarvon, or Conway, the area of the
castle is actually large, and no other Edwardian castle presents
so perfectly scientific a system of defence. The outer curtain, in
addition to the rampart-walk, has loops pierced at regular intervals
in its lower portion; the rampart-walk is partly carried by continuous
corbelling upon the inner face of the wall. The inner curtain,
moreover, is pierced, on the level of the first floor of the gatehouses
and towers, by a continuous vaulted passage, looped to the field. This
extends round the whole ward, and is broken only at the north-west
angle, where it meets the northern gatehouse. Everywhere in the walls
of the castle where a loop could be of use, it was made. Of the points
noticed, both the entrances are unusual, and the design of the postern
at the rear seems to be unique. The spur-wall, though less elaborately
treated, is found covering a main entrance at Kidwelly and elsewhere;
and the long passages in the thickness of the wall are found in
portions of the defences at Caerphilly and Carnarvon. The towers at
Beaumaris are entered by straight stairs from the gorge; and throughout
the castle, in the gatehouses, great hall, and basements of the
towers, the method of carrying a wooden roof upon detached stone ribs
prevailed, which is very noticeable also at Conway and Harlech.
Kidwelly castle[293] (267), another late thirteenth-century building,
stands on a steep hill, the east side of which slopes abruptly to
the Gwendraeth Fach river. The castle is on the opposite side of the
river to the town of Kidwelly, and a long base-court, of which part
of the gatehouse remains, descended the slope towards the bridge. At
the head of this ascent a barbican and drawbridge formed the approach
to a strong gatehouse, flanked by two battering towers, and further
protected by a spur-wall across the end of the ditch. The gatehouse is
in the extreme south-east angle of the outer ward, which, describing
a wide curve, covers three sides of the nearly square inner ward, and
is separated from the suburb of Kidwelly on this side the river by the
ditch. The site was narrow, as at Chepstow, and the eastward slope so
steep that the outer ward was not completed along this side, but its
curtain was continued by the eastern drum towers and curtain of the
inner ward. Three half-round towers were made in the curving curtain of
the outer ward; at the opposite extremity to the gatehouse, near the
north-east angle, a postern, flanked by small drum towers, gave access
to a northern earthwork, which may be compared with the horn-work at
Caerphilly, but had no retaining wall.
Kidwelly, with its outworks in front and rear, at once recalls
Caerphilly. The irregularly concentric plan, with the inner ward on
one side of the interior of the outer, is very unusual, but provides
a link between the concentric plan and the extension of the early
plan of Chepstow. The provision of both front and rear gateways is a
feature of Caerphilly, Chepstow, Beaumaris, and Conway; and, as at
Caerphilly, Rhuddlan, and Beaumaris, the inner ward also has front
and rear entrances. These, however, at Kidwelly, are mere doorways in
the wall. The inner ward was small, with very large and perfect drum
towers at its angles: the domestic buildings arranged on either side
of it left only a narrow passage through the middle. A tower, of which
the two upper stories formed the chapel, was built out upon the east
slope, from the corner of the ward next the south-east drum tower. The
gatehouse, then, which here, as at Harlech and Beaumaris, contains a
large hall and other apartments, and, in addition to a vice to the
upper floors, has an outer stair and landing against its north face,
was on the outer, not the inner, line of defence, and was protected by
the ditch, the barbican, and the base-court beyond. There are remains
of buildings, probably intended for the garrison, in the outer ward.
The basement of the gatehouse, which is below the level of the ward,
contains vaulted chambers. In one of these is a lower vault, which has
had a domed roof, and may have been used for stores or a reservoir: in
another there appear to be indications of the mouth of a well.
[Illustration: Kidwelly Castle; Tower at south-west angle of inner ward]
The defensive precautions taken at Kidwelly were not so thorough as in
the other great Welsh castles of the time, and the chief reliance of
the builders was in the strength of their walls and towers. The outer
curtain has the peculiarity, rare in English castles of the date, of
possessing a stair built against it from the level of the ward.[294]
The inner ward has several curious features. The stair to the curtain
was a straight flight of steps protected by the west wall of the main
entrance from the outer ward. A path along the back of the rampart of
the south curtain led into the south-west drum tower, from the second
floor of which the rampart-walk was gained. The walk, though much
overgrown by ivy and other weeds, still keeps its rear-wall, and is
continued through the towers and round the inner ward. The two western
drum towers are interesting. The upper part of that on the north, where
it faces the ward, is not a simple curve, but is broken into two convex
curves, with a recess between: the reason of this is not apparent.[295]
The south-west tower (281), standing at an angle from which it commands
the inner face of the great gatehouse, has the most unusual peculiarity
of having all its stages covered with vaulting: the vaults themselves
are shallow domes, rather rudely constructed. It is probable that the
engineers may have intended to establish a catapult on the tower in
time of siege. The situation of the tower would have been excellently
suited for that purpose, but its unusual strength may be due merely
to its position in the line of attack. The basements of all the towers
are vaulted, but that of this particular tower, instead of being
entered from the ward or one of the domestic buildings directly, is
entered by a long and dark passage in the thickness of the south wall,
from the left-hand side of the doorway of the inner ward. The unusual
precautions taken with regard to this tower and its entrances give it a
prominent position in an account of the castle; and, although it is no
larger or loftier than the other angle-towers of the inner ward, it has
something of the special importance of Marten’s tower at Chepstow or
the Eagle tower at Carnarvon.
[Illustration: Carcassonne]
Although the Edwardian castle in Wales has many points of interest,
and provides a highly-developed scheme of defence, yet its devices
are simple when compared with the highest achievements of French
fortification. The elaborate care bestowed upon the outer defences
of Caerphilly, and the variety of ingenuity manifested at Beaumaris,
are exceptions to this general statement; while the general plan of
Carnarvon is as imposing as that of any castle in Europe. But such
carefully contrived approaches as the barbican of Conway and the
long ascent from the water-gate at Harlech take a second place when
compared with such a work as the outer approach to the castle of
Carcassonne, as restored with approximate faithfulness in the drawings
of Viollet-le-Duc (283). The castle stood within the inner wall of
the town, occupying a rectangular site on the south-west side of this
masterpiece of concentric planning. The entrance from the town was
guarded by a semicircular barbican; but the approach which called
for the most watchful defence was that from the foot of the hill, on
the edge of which the city stands. Where the hill meets the plain,
therefore, below the castle, a great barbican was constructed, within
the outer palisade and ditch of which was a great round tower, not
unlike the great tower on the mount at Windsor, surrounded by a wet
ditch. The centre of this _châtelet_ was open to the sky: the walls
were pierced with two rows of loops below the rampart. This tower
guarded the entrance to a walled and carefully protected ascent,
which, after making a right-angled turn, led upwards in a straight
passage,[296] commanded by the rampart of the outer curtain of the
town. Where it met the curtain, it turned to the right, along the foot
of the wall, and so reached a gateway into the outer ward or “lists” of
the town. But here the passage, passing through a covered vestibule,
turned back on its own course, and entered an inner barbican, with two
upper stages. Not until this was passed, were the lists entered, and
the chief gateway of the castle, in the inner curtain, reached. As we
trace this passage, we recall the ascent at Harlech and the traps set
for an enemy at Beaumaris; but their combination here is on a scale
undreamed of in those fortresses, minutely calculated though their
planning was.
[Illustration: Domfront; Casemates]
The wall-galleries, again, at Carnarvon and Beaumaris, are a device
of great utility, unusual in English castles, and are planned at
Carnarvon with exceptional skill; while, at Caerphilly, the gallery in
the south wall, between the hall and the moat, is a solution of the
defence of a point which the somewhat crowded plan of the domestic
buildings threatened to leave unguarded. But the covered gallery
below the ramparts was not a prominent feature of medieval defence in
England. On the other hand, it was used freely in France. Two examples
of the defensive use of covered galleries may be given here. One is
from Domfront, where, as at Coucy, the castle was separated from the
walled town by a very formidable ditch. On the side next the castle,
the rock was covered by a retaining wall flanked by two round towers at
the ends, and a polygonal tower near the centre. At some time in the
middle ages, probably late in the thirteenth century, the rock behind
the wall was pierced by a long gallery, communicating with all three
towers, and by stairs at intervals with the upper ward above. Loops
were made in the retaining wall, so that the approach upon this side
was thus provided with a line of defence below the level of the towers
and curtain. The gallery is not on one level throughout, but forms a
series of separate vaulted casemates, connected with one another by
short flights of stairs[297] (284).
In the second case, at Coucy, we have a case of a closed gallery,
without loops, which was designed as a counter-mine against the efforts
of the sappers of an attacking force. Remains of such galleries exist
in more than one part of the castle, forming a remarkable addition to
defences which, by themselves, were strong enough to discourage attack.
Towards the end of the fourteenth century, the curtain of the donjon,
the strongest tower in Europe, was thickened by the addition of a talus
or battering base, which was pierced by a passage. The main object of
this work was to cover in a spring which had its source in the ditch at
the foot of the curtain: the passage communicated at one end with an
earlier and well-guarded passage leading from the domestic buildings to
a postern in the wall which crossed the west end of the ditch, while,
at the other, it communicated by a stair with the rampart-walk of the
curtain and gatehouse of the inner ward. But it did not merely form a
convenient means of access to the spring. It afforded an opportunity
to the defenders of counteracting the miners of the enemy; while, if
the miners pierced their way through the talus, they would be met by
the thick curtain on the other side of the passage. The passage itself,
well protected at both ends, would be commanded by the defence; while
the spring in the middle, to those not acquainted with the geography of
the place, would form a dangerous barrier in the darkness.
To such finished achievements of military art as these, which have
been quoted as specimen examples, our English castles can afford no
exact parallel. In the military, as in the ecclesiastical architecture
of France, principles were worked out with a logical precision and
completeness, which, in its practical effect, provokes our wonder.
The effort manifested in the Edwardian castle is more humble; the
achievement more limited. This, however, is true rather of the scale
of the castle and the details of its defence than of the general idea.
The main object, of flanking the curtain effectually and completely,
is as fully realised as in any foreign example; while it may be safely
said that in no country were the advantages of concentric lines of
defence better exhibited than in the Welsh castles, whose main features
have been indicated in this chapter. The walls of Carcassonne may
provide us with the concentric plan on its largest scale; but the
Welsh castles show at least an equal understanding of the value of
concentric fortifications. The difference lies in the fact that the
French engineer proceeded to strengthen his defences by the addition of
intricate refinements and subtle devices; while the Englishman stopped
short at this point, and was satisfied when his aim of providing and
combining adequate towers and walls of defence was achieved.