CASTLES
1. The passion for building castles in England had begun before the
Norman Conquest; but during the Norman period a great many castles
(about 1100, it is said) were built in various parts of the country.
They were not all of the same size, strength, or importance. Some were
royal castles, belonging to the king, who placed each one in charge
of a constable or warden. These were necessary for the defence of the
country. We should expect to find important castles, for instance, at
such places as Carlisle, Ludlow, Gloucester, Dover, and London. We can,
too, trace lines of castles along the Scottish and Welsh borders; and
there were no fewer than twenty-five in the county of Monmouth alone.
2. Many castles were placed on the site of Saxon strongholds, and of
strongholds dating from still earlier times. Others were built where
the overlord thought they would be of service to him in protecting
his interests and keeping his tenants in order. So it often came to
pass that the castles were built close to, or in the very heart of, a
town or city. Frequently the castle was at once the protection and the
terror of the neighbourhood.
[Illustration: Norman Castle.--From a drawing in Grose's Military
Antiquities.--1, The Donjon-keep. 2, Chapel. 3, Stables. 4, Inner
Ballium. 5, Outer Ballium. 6, Barbican. 7, Mount, supposed to be the
court-hill, or tribunal, and also the place where justice was
executed. 8, Soldiers' Lodgings.]
3. It is curious to note that some of the greatest castles-builders
of the time were bishops. There was Bishop Gundulph of Rochester, who
built the Keep of Rochester Castle and the White Tower in the Tower
of London. There was Bishop Henry de Blois of Winchester, who built
a number of castles on lands belonging to his bishopric. Strange as
it may seem to us that bishops should be great rulers and leaders
of armies, it did not strike the people of those days as at all
extraordinary or improper. A bishop was as much a ruler as the king,
and had territories to look after and keep in order. In those days he
was quite as able to carry out these duties as the boldest baron of
them all, and could give and take hard knocks with the best of them.
4. The great castle-builders had no love for the traders in towns and
cities; indeed they looked down on that class. But they found them very
useful. Towns attracted traders by land and by water; and every town,
every bridge, and every ferry belonged to some lord or other. No goods
could be brought into or taken from a town, or carried across bridge
or ferry, without paying toll and custom to the overlord. But he had
certain duties to perform in return, in protecting the town and its
trade; and the better the protection the more traders came to pay toll,
and the better it was for everybody concerned.
5. So we find, near many of our ancient towns and cities, a castle, or
its ruins--or perhaps only the site is left--where the lord of the town
kept a number of men to protect the town and district, even when he was
not there himself.
6. If there was no love lost between the lord of the castle and the
townsmen, there was still less between the latter and the soldiers.
The soldiers were inclined to take liberties, and to be insolent and
oppressive. As they had it in their power to "make trouble", if not
kept in good-humour, the townsmen put up with much for the sake of
peace and quietness.
=Summary.=--The Norman period was a great castle-building age:
1100 strongholds were then built in England. Castles were not
all of the same size or importance. There were royal castles,
especially on the border-lands, as at Carlisle, Ludlow,
Gloucester, and Dover. Every noble regarded a castle as a
necessity. Castles were built near towns, partly to protect them,
partly to keep them in order. Castles and towns were necessary
for the protection and encouragement of trade. Townsmen and the
men-at-arms in the castles were very jealous of each other. Some
of the bishops were great castle-builders, because they were great
landholders, not because they were bishops.