CHANGES IN HOUSES AND HOUSE-BUILDING
1. 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.
2. 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. 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.
[Illustration: The Round Tower, Windsor Castle]
3. 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.
4. 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.
5. 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.
6. 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.
7. 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
"King-maker", 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.
8. 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.
9. 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."
10. Then there was "trouble"; and the earl thought himself very
fortunate in getting out of the "scrape" by paying a small fine of
£10,000. 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.
11. 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.
=Summary.=--In the time of King Edward III many Norman castles
were altered so as to be more comfortable dwelling-places. Most of
them could hold bands of men-at-arms.
King Henry VII put down these large bands of retainers, and the
new nobles whom he made were not allowed to keep up bands of
men-at-arms. The need for castle-dwellings was gone. The new
nobles were most of them raised from the merchant class. They had
great ideas of comfort, and the age of Tudor houses began.