Castle
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Castle has a history of scholarly debate surrounding its exact meaning. It is usually regarded as being distinct from the general term fortress in that it describes a building which serves as a residence and commands a specific territory.
Despite this, "castle" sometimes denotes a citadel (such as the castles of Badajoz and Burgos) or small detached forts d'arrêt in modern times and, traditionally, in Britain it has also been used to refer to prehistoric earthworks (e.g. Maiden Castle).
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[edit] Definition
Castle comes from the Latin word castellum meaning "fortress". This is a diminutive of the word castrum, which means "fortified place". The word "castle" (castel) was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote this new type of fortress, then new to England, brought in by the Norman knights. In Spain, a fortified dwelling on a height for the administering authority retains its Moorish name of alcázar, whilst shiro also figure prominently in Japanese history, where the feudal daimyō inhabited them.
A French castle is a château-fort, for in French a simple château connotes a grand country house at the center of an estate, with non-military, purely residential function. When European castles were opened up and expanded into pleasure dwellings and power houses from the late 15th century, their "castle" designations, relics of the feudal age, often remained attached to the dwelling, resulting in many non-military castles and châteaux.
In Germany there are two names for what would be called a castle in English, Burg and Schloss. A Burg is a medieval structure of military significance, while a Schloss was built after the Middle Ages as a palace and not for defensive purposes. However, these are not usually palaces in the French style, but instead are styled on medieval mountain castles and fairytale notions, and from all appearances are often castles to an English speaker.
Caer is the Welsh term for a castle, seen in the place names Caernarfon and Caerphilly. Irish dún and Scots Gaelic dùn are used to refer to early forts, although caisleán (Irish) and caisteal (Scots Gaelic) are used to refer to stone castles. This is used in the Irish proverb: "De réir a chéile a thógtar na caisleáin" — "It takes time to build castles".
[edit] Purpose
Castles were built not only as a defensive measure and offensive weapon, but also as a home. They were used for the storage of food and the detention of prisoners. A castle would also be a social place where a knight or lord could entertain his peers. Castles were expensive, and were built to look impressive, increasing the perceived power of the builder or occupier. Castles were made by their owners for specific purposes, but often evolved new purposes over time. Some of the larger castles would have the entire village within their battlements. Although castles were associated with nobility and most peasants lived outside the castle walls, in times when the lands were under invasion, all people were taken in the castle in order to provide their protection.
The main distinguishing features of castles, as opposed to other defensive structures, can be defined as follows:
- Firstly, castles were places of protection from an invading enemy, a place of retreat. This is the purpose behind such stereotypical castle features as portcullises, battlements, and drawbridges.
- Secondly, castles were offensive weapons, built in otherwise hostile territories from which to control surrounding lands, as forward camps. In particular, during the High Middle Ages, castles were often built for territorial expansion and regional control. A castle was a stronghold from which a lord could control surrounding territory.
- Lastly, castles were either built as, or evolved into, residences for the monarch or lord who built them.
These three purposes distinguish the castle from other fortresses — which are usually purely defensive (like citadels and city walls) or purely offensive (a military camp) — or edifices that are entirely residential in nature, like palaces. Castles such as the Tower of London served as prisons. Captured nobles could be held to ransom in a castle, and contrary to the popular image, they were usually kept in good condition.[1]
Many later castles were not built primarily for defensive purposes. This can best be seen in castles such as Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, whose defensive appearance was probably built merely to impress; inside the castle is geared towards family living.
[edit] Design
[edit] Defensive features
Most castles, from the earliest times, followed certain standards of design and construction. Central to the castle was the keep, or "donjon", the main commanding tower.[1] Many early castles and certain later ones were nothing more than simple towers. The tower houses of Britain and Ireland, such as Blarney Castle, are examples of this type. Most, however, required outer walls of some sort. The tower was contained within the walls or attached to the walls. There was often more than one set of walls, creating inner and outer courts, the latter known as a bailey. Later castles were built on a concentric plan, where two heavily towered walls formed two rings around the keep.
Castles often featured an array of defences to delay the attackers' progress towards the keep. Moats and ditches formed the most obvious, as these would have to be filled in before heavy siege engines could be moved towards the walls.[2] The gate was a weak point in the defences, so this could be strengthened with flanking towers and a heavy portcullis. In Russian castles, a single tower with a double gate running through it ("nadvratnaa bashnya") would be used instead.[3] "Murder holes" and embrasures might be built into the walls and gatehouse so projectiles could be launched at the attackers.[1]
Overhanging wooden hoardings could be constructed if a castle was under threat. These covered walkways would allow several lines of fire.[1] Later, permanent fixtures known as "machicolation" were built in stone. Perhaps the most notable feature of castle defence were the crenellations and merlons, which offered relative cover for archers.[1]
[edit] Construction
Castle building was a very common task as boundaries were pushed and territory conquered. The walls would most commonly go up first, in order to protect workers such as stonemasons during later stages of construction. Castles could take many years to complete, although the time needed depended greatly from type, location, resources, time period, construction materials, etc. For example, a castle built on top of a hill would generally take much longer to build than a castle located on terrain that was easier to build upon. While a Norman motte and baily castle could be constructed in a year or less, a large stone castle could take decades. Castles may have also been partially constructed in one generation and later generations filled in and added on. As time passed, stronger castles were built.
During the Middle Ages, a stronger need for security emerged, leading to the building of concentric castles. Concentric castles took far longer time to complete but they provided many lines of defence. Normally the outer wall would be finished first and then the rest; to protect the workers and the people already inhabitating the castle. The most famous example of concentric castle is the Krak des Chevaliers in the Holy Land, provided with no less than three wall lines. The L-plan also emerged in the Middle Ages; this design allowed defenders to fire upon invaders of the neighbouring wing. Examples of this design which have survived to the second millennium are Muchalls Castle and Neidpath Castle. Also, towards the rise in stone castles, many wooden motte and bailey castles would have the wall on the motte covered with a stone barrier, rather than build an entire new castle.
[edit] History
[edit] Early castles
From as early as late Neolithic times, people built hill forts to protect themselves. Many earthworks survive today, along with evidence of the use of palisades to accompany the ditches. The Romans commonly encountered hill forts (called oppida) built by their enemies. Though primitive, they were often effective and required extensive siege engines and other siege warfare techniques to overcome, such as at the Battle of Alesia.
Their own fortifications (castra) varied from the simple temporary earthworks thrown up by armies on the move, to elaborate permanent stone constructions, notably the milecastles of Hadrian's Wall. Plans for Roman forts were generally rectangular with rounded corners.

The Roman engineer Vitruvius was the first to note the threefold advantages of round defensive towers; more efficient use of stone, improved defence against battering rams and improved field of fire. It was not until the 13th century that these advantages were rediscovered.
Roman fortifications, or, when possible or needed, other edifices, were often turned into castles or similar structures during the early Middle Ages. A famous example is that of the Hadrian's Mausoleum in Rome, which is known to have been used as a fortress as early as 537, during the Gothic War.[4] Other Late antiquity-early Middle Ages castles are known in Brescia and Trento in Italy, Saint-Blaise in Provence and Büraburg and Glauberg in Hesse, the latter probably built by the Alemanni. In Spain, king Liuvigild founded a powerful fortress called Reccopolis in 578, and also the 7th century fortress of Puig Rome, near Girona, has been excavated. At Selinunte, in Sicily, the Byzantines turned two ancient temples into a simple fortress (7th-8th centuries): several centuries earlier, emperor Justinian I is known to have promoted a large program of castle building.
[edit] Wooden castles: Motte-and-bailey

The earliest recorded structures universally acknowledged by historians as 'castles' were built of earth and wood in Northern France Circa the late 9th century.[1]
The essential feature of this type was a circular mound of earth surrounded by a dry ditch and flattened at the top. Around the crest of its summit was placed a timber palisade, with a wooden tower in the middle.[1] This moated mound was styled in Old French motte (Latin mota), a word still common in French place-names. In addition to the mound, a bailey or basse court of horseshoe shape was usually appended to it, so that the mound stood on the line of the enceinte. The latter housed the domestic quarters, stables, stores, a forge and a water well. These earthworks were dug from the perimeter area, leaving a defensive ditch.[1] In many cases the motte seems to be a later addition to an already existing wooden settlement, surrounded by a wood palisade.
A description of this earlier castle is given in the life of St John, Bishop of Terouanne:
“ | The rich and the noble of that region being much given to feuds and bloodshed, fortify themselves ... and by these strongholds subdue their equals and oppress their inferiors. They heap up a mound as high as they are able, and dig round it as broad a ditch as they can ... Round the summit of the mound they construct a palisade of timber to act as a wall. Inside the palisade they erect a house, or rather a citadel, which looks down on the whole neighbourhood.[5] | ” |
John died in 1130, and this castle of Merchem, built by a lord of the town many years before, may be taken as typical of the practice of the 11th century.
Construction of new castles is attested from the Carolingian era, but their construction seems to have been related mainly to the defence of frontiers and of the main statal properties: the right to build such a structure was in fact a royal privilege. However, changes took place from the late 9th century, probably under the pressure of raids by the Vikings and Magyars, but also due to the general uncertainty of the crumbling of the Carolingian Empire.[1] As early as 864, Charles the Bald issued an edict ordering the destruction of all the private structures erected without his permission. Hundreds of motte-and-baileys are known from north-western France, from whence they spread into Germany. There was frequent fortification of cities, monasteries, ports and rural settlements in this period. In 906, a diacon in Verona asked Berengar I of Italy for the permission to built a castle in Nogara "due to the heathens ravages".

The pagans, however, were not the sole threat leading to edification of castles: in 920, the Bishop of Adria received the permission to erect a fortress in Rovigo to "save the people either from the heathens and from evil Christians".[6] Henry I of Germany built a series of fortresses to protect the frontier west to the Rhine: a notable example is that of Werla, in Saxony, erected in 926 as a defence against the Magyars. This consisted in a circular wooden wall, already existing in the 9th century, which the king had surrounded by a stone wall with two gates.
Factions struggling for powers in the lack of the supreme authority were in need of military fortresses, but also of a visible show of their growing power over the surrounding population. When William the Conqueror executed the Norman Conquest of England, he brought with him the practice of building a castle to protect and hold the land, by then quite familiar on the mainland of western Europe. They were an intrinsic element of his strategy of conquest, and the original castle he built at Pevensey was brought across as a prefabrication, a detail revealed by the Bayeux Tapestry. The Norman kings and their barons constructed a plethora of castles to impress, control, and conquer the native population. Lewes Castle, built by Gulielmus de Warenne, is an unusual example, as it featured two mottes.[1] Wooden castles were built up until the 12th century.
During the 11th century Investiture Controversy in Germany and the resulting decline of the royal power, castle-building exploded as local warlords staked claims to formerly royal prerogatives in their petty states. This proliferation of castles, which made them iconic of the Middle Ages, is called "encastellation". Around the year 1100 there were in Europe thousands of castles, belonging to bishops, abbots, marquesses, counts, often small size structures erected by petty lords to mark their new conquest of a small, though prestigious (and sometimes ephemeral) power. The construction and restoration of these structure, as well as the maintenance of the garrisons, was a task of the population, which in exchange obtained the possibility to take shelter within the walls in case of peril. According to Christopher Gravette, "the castle was not just a fortress, it was also the residence of its lord".[7]
[edit] Stone structures

Although a minority, stone fortifications had also been built during the whole early Middle Ages. Sometimes Roman walls and ruins were re-used, as is the case at Portchester Castle, where a square Norman keep sits in the corner of a Roman fort.[1] The most ancient surviving example is the tower at Doué-la-Fontaine, built circa 950 in northern France: these castles centered around the donjon took more time and investment to build than wooden castles, but were more fireproof and secure.[1]
They could also be built as a mix of timber and stone, and sometimes stone buildings were built on existing mottes. When a stone wall replaced the timber palisade of the existing structures, it produced what is known as a "shell-keep"; the type met with in the extant castles of Berkeley, Alnwick and Windsor in England.[1] In southern Europe stone castles became predominant from the mid-11th century, spread by the Norman conquests; the same occurred in the Holy Land through the Crusades, although Islamic and Byzantine influences were also present. In Germany, the equivalent of the keep was called the Bergfried.
The Normans introduced two other types of castle. The one was adopted where they found a natural rock stronghold which only needed adaptation, as at Clifford, Ludlow, the Peak and Exeter, to produce a citadel; the other was a type wholly distinct, the high rectangular tower of masonry, of which the Tower of London is the best-known example, though that of Colchester was probably constructed in the 11th century also. But the latter type belongs rather to the more settled conditions of the 12th century when haste was not a necessity, and in the first half of which the fine extant keeps of Hedingham and Rochester were erected. These towers were originally surrounded by palisades, usually on earthen ramparts, which were replaced later by stone walls. The whole fortress thus formed was styled a castle, but sometimes more precisely "tower and castle", the former being the citadel, and the latter the walled enclosure, which preserved more strictly the meaning of the Roman castellum.
Reliance was placed by the engineers of that time simply and solely on the inherent strength of the structure, the walls of which defied the battering ram, and could only be undermined at the cost of much time and labour, while the narrow apertures were constructed to exclude arrows or flaming brands.
In the 11th century fortification architecture was also prominent in Islamic countries. Fortress there, when possible, took advantage of the terrain characteristics, and the walls were intervalled by flanking towers with, sometimes, a detached towers (albarrana). During the Spanish Reconquista, a keep (torre del homenaje, Tower of the homage) was added by the Christians when they captured these castles, as it happened for the castle of Banos in 1212.
[edit] Concentric and linear castles
At this stage the crusades, and the consequent opportunities afforded to western engineers of studying the massive constructions of the Byzantine Empire, revolutionized the art of castlebuilding, which henceforward follows recognized principles. The Byzantines did not build large stand-alone fortresses, but their largest cities, especially on the traditionally dangerous Eastern frontier, had enormous fortifications. The First Crusade took (more by treachery than assault) the very well fortified city of Antioch, and many other Byzantine fortifications that had fallen into Muslim hands. The crusaders were used to castles, and also needed to defend key points in their new territory. They were also extremely short of fighting men, whilst they had generally good supplies of labour and cash for construction. Their enormous castles, many in isolated strategic spots, and designed to be normally very thinly garrisoned, were the result. Of these Krak des Chevaliers was the largest.
Many castles were built in the Holy Land by the crusaders of the 12th century, and it has been shown that the designers realized, first, that a second line of defences should be built within the main enceinte, and a third line or keep inside the second line;[8] and secondly, that a wall must be flanked by projecting towers. From the Byzantine engineers, through the crusaders, we derive, therefore, the cardinal principle of the mutual defence of all the parts of a fortress.
The donjon of western Europe was regarded as the fortress, the outer walls as accessory defences; in the East each envelope was a fortress in itself, and the keep became merely the last refuge of the garrison, used only when all else had been captured. Indeed the keep, in several crusader castles, is no more than a tower, larger than the rest, built into the enceinte and serving with the rest for its flanking defence, while the fortress was made strongest on the most exposed front. The idea of the flanking towers (which were of a type very different from the slight projections of the shell-keep and rectangular tower) soon penetrated to Europe, and Alnwick Castle (1140-1150) shows the influence of the new system.
In Richard Cœur de Lion's fortress of Château-Gaillard Les Andelys, the innermost ward was protected by an elaborate system of strong appended defences, which included a strong fte-de-pont covering the Seine bridge.[9] The castle stood upon high ground and consisted of three distinct enceintes or wards besides the keep, which was in this case merely a strong tower forming part of the innermost ward. The donjon was rarely defended until the very end and it gradually lost in importance as the outer "wards" grew stronger. Frederick II's Castel del Monte in Puglia has no keep at all: rising on a strategic alture, it consist of an octagonal structure with eighth polygonal, massive towers.
Round instead of rectangular towers were now becoming usual, the finest examples of their employment as keeps being at Conisborough in England and at Falaise and Coucy in France. Against the relatively feeble siege artillery of the 13th century a well built fortress was almost proof, but the mines and the battering ram of the attack were more formidable, and it was realized that corners in the stonework of the fortress were more vulnerable than a uniform curved surface. Château Gaillard fell to Philip Augustus in 1204 after a strenuous defence, and the success of the assailants was largely due to the wise and skilful employment of mines. An angle of the noble keep of Rochester was undermined and brought down by King John of England in 1215.
The next development was the extension of the principle of successive lines of defence to form what is called the "concentric" castle, in which each ward was placed wholly within another which enveloped it; places thus built on a flat site (e.g. Caerphilly Castle) became for the first time more formidable than strongholds perched upon rocks and hills such as Château Gaillard, where the more exposed parts indeed possessed many successive lines of defence, but at other points, for want of room, it was impossible to build more than one or, at most, two walls. In these cases, the fall of the inner ward by surprise, escalade, vive force, or even by ordinary siege (as was sometimes feasible), entailed the fall of the whole castle. The adoption of the concentric system precluded any such mischance, and thus, even though siege engines improved during the 13th and 14th centuries, the defence, by the massive strength of the concentric castle in some cases, by natural inaccessibility of position in others, maintained itself superior to the attack during the latter Middle Ages.
Construction of castles in this period was often connected to the necessity to establish a strong central power against local fragmentation, or in newly conquered lands: examples are the large buildings programs of Edward I of England in Wales, Philip I August of France, the Ezzelino IV da Romano and the Scaligers in northern Italy, Frederick II and Charles I of Anjou in southern Italy (often reusing former Norman or even Byzantine and Lombard structures), King Denis I in Portugal, and notably the Teutonic Knights in their conquest of Pagan lands in Prussia and Poland. In Germany, stone structures appeared in Hesse, Thuringia, Alsace and Saxony, commissioned by the powerful local aristocracy. Structures in northern Germany were usually simpler, often taking advantage of water streams.
[edit] Response to advent of gunpowder
The advent of gunpowder in the Middle Ages signalled a change in the purpose of a castle - from it being purely a military building, it became increasingly a residential one. From the Renaissance onward, this loosening of military import allowed for a more aesthetic approach to construction, for example the Castello Estense of Ferrara in Italy, the castles of Valderrobres and Manzanares el Real in Spain and the series of highly decorated castles built (or rebuilt) in France along the Loire starting from the 15th century.
Whilst siegecraft had consisted of throwing machines such as trebuchets, the primary aims in the construction of castle walls were height and thickness. However it became almost impossible to follow this ideal to cope with ever more powerful cannons. Existing castles which retained military importance were updated, as far as practically possible, to cope with new siege technologies. One example is the English fortress of Bodiam, built from 1385, provided with opposite slit to allow firing from arquebuses. But inevitably, those fortifications previously deemed impregnable, eventually proved inadequate in the face of gunpowder. These include Friesack Castle (which was reduced in two days (during February 1414), by Frederick I with "Heavy Peg" (Faule Grete), and other guns; Constantinople (the massively strong walls of which were breached in 1453 to the Ottomans after lengthy cannon bombardment); and Nanstein Castle (Franz von Sickingen's stronghold at Landstuhl, was ruined in one day in 1523 by the artillery of Philip of Hesse). Architects of the Late Middle Ages and Renaissance, many of whom were also renowned as engineers, were called to plan countermeasures; e.g. Guillén Sagrera, Giuliano da Sangallo the Younger, Francesco di Giorgio Martini, Baldassarre Peruzzi and Leonardo da Vinci. Viollet-le-Duc, in his Annals of a Fortress, gives a full account of the repeated renovations of a fortress (at an imaginary site in the valley of the Doubs), the construction by Charles the Bold of artillery towers at the angles of the castle, the protection of the masonry by earthen outworks, boulevards and demi-boulevards, and, in the 17th century, the final service of the medieval walls and towers as a pure enceinte de sfireti.
The general adoption of cannons led therefore to the disappearing (or to the loss of importance) of majestic towers and merlons. Walls of new fortresses were thicker and angulated, towers became lower and stouter. Examples of the late type of castle-fortress are that in Sarzana (Italy), that built by Henry VIII of England in Deal and the Imperial Castle of Nurnberg.
In the end, the introduction of gunpowder led to a disappearing of traditional castles, in the meaning of a building detaining both military and political power roles. This transition began in the 14th century and was fully underway by the 15th. In the 16th century the feudal fastness had become an anachronism. Here and there we find old castles serving in secondary roles, as forts d'arret or block-houses in mountain passes and defiles, and in some few cases, as at Dover, they formed the nucleus of purely military places of arms. Normally castles, when they were not let to fell into ruins, became peaceful mansions, or were merged in the fortifications of the town which has grown up around it.
In the Viollet-le-Duc's Annals of a Fortress the site of the feudal castle is occupied by the citadel of the walled town, for once again, with the development of the middle class and of commerce and industry, the art of the engineer came to be displayed chiefly in the fortification of cities. The baronial "castle" assumes pan passu the form of a mansion, retaining indeed for long some capacity for defence, but in the end losing all military characteristics save a few which survived as ornaments.
However, some castle-like structures were also built in New France by the French settlers towards the end of the 17th century.[10] Québec served as the only fortified city in the Americas, centred around the Citadelle of Quebec. Where artillery was not as developed as on the battle-fields of Europe, some of Montréal's outlying forts were built like the fortified manor houses of France. Fort Longueuil, built from 1695-1698 by one of the wealthiest and most powerful families in New France, has been described as "the most medieval looking fort built in Canada".[10] The manor house and stables were within a fortified bailey, with a tall round turret in each corner. The "most substantial castle-like fort" near Montréal was Fort Senneville, built in 1692 with square towers connected by thick stone walls, as well as a fortified windmill.[10] Stone forts such as these served as defensive residences, as well as imposing structures to prevent Iroquois incursions.[10]
[edit] Japanese castles

The castles of Japan (城 Shiro?) were large fortresses composed primarily of wood and stone. They evolved from the wooden stockades of earlier centuries, and came into their most well-known form in the 16th century, when a political system that was very similar to European feudalism developed.[1] Like European castles, the castles of Japan were built to guard important or strategic sites, such as ports, river crossings, or crossroads, and almost always incorporated the landscape into their defense. Though most later castles were built atop mountains or hills, these were built from the mountains, with the stone and dirt of the mountain itself carved into rough fortifications.[11] Yet unlike in Europe, where the advent of cannon marked a decline of the importance of castles, Japanese castle-building was spurred, ironically, by the introduction of firearms.[12]
Japanese castles featured tall wooden towers, set in stone courtyards that frequently had numerous inner walls and side-towers.[1] The 16th century Matsumoto Castle has galleries running around each floor, protected by wooden shutters and fitted with slits for arrow-fire.[1] The dimensions of such castles were carefully worked out, endowing them with "an elegance often lacking in their European counterparts."[1] Nijo castle, built in 1603, for example, was built on a framework of strong wooden beams, and decorated inside with landscape paintings.[1]
Though they were built to last, and used more stone in their construction than most Japanese buildings, castles were still constructed primarily of wood, and many were destroyed over the years. This was especially true during the later Sengoku, or 'Warring States' period, when many of these castles were first built. However, many were rebuilt, either during the Sengoku or Edo periods, or more recently, as national heritage sites or museums. Today, there are around fifty castles extant, or partially exant, in Japan; it is estimated there were once five thousand.[13] Matsue Castle is probably the only castle in Japan to have never been attacked or suffer any damage, and what remains today is of the original structure, built in 1611.[14] Hiroshima Castle, on the opposite end of the spectrum, was destroyed in the atomic bombing, and was rebuilt in 1958 as a museum.[15]
[edit] Famous castles
[edit] See also
- Castle-guard
- List of castles
- Encastellation
- Castellan
- Defensive wall
- Fortress
- Medieval fortification
- Medieval warfare
- Motte-and-bailey
- Alcázar (Spanish castles)
- Shiro (Japanese castles)
- Gusuku (Okinawan castles)
- Kremlin (Russian castles)
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r Philip Wilkinson, Castles (Pocket Guides). Publisher: DK CHILDREN; Pocket edition (September 29, 1997). ISBN 0789420473. ISBN 978-0789420473
- ^ Castle: Stephen Biesty's Cross-Sections. Dorling Kindersley Pub (T); 1st American edition (September 1994). ISBN 978-1564584670
- ^ Russian Fortresses, 1480–1682, Osprey Publishing, ISBN 1-84176-916-9
- ^ Royal, Robert. The Pope's Army: 500 Years of the Papal Swiss Guard. Crossroads Publishing Co, 2006.
- ^ Ada Sanctorum, quoted by GT Clark, Medieval Mil. Architecture
- ^ Medioevo #114, pag. 56
- ^ Medieval Siege Warfare, p. 4
- ^ Oman, Art of War: the Middle Ages, p. c20
- ^ See Clark, i. 384, and Oman, p. 533
- ^ a b c d René Chartrand, French Fortresses in North America 1535–1763: Québec, Montréal, Louisbourg and New Orleans (Fortress 27); Osprey Publishing, March 20 2005. ISBN 9781841767147
- ^ Turnbull, Stephen (2003). "Japanese Castles 1540-1640." Oxford: Osprey Publishing.
- ^ Paine, Robert Treat and Alexander Soper (1955). "The Art and Architecture of Japan." New Haven: Yale University Press.
- ^ Inoue, Munekazu (1959). "Castles of Japan." Tokyo: Association of Japanese Castle.
- ^ "Fodor's Exploring Japan." London: New York. Fourth Edition, 2003.
- ^ "DK Eyewitness Travel Guide: JAPAN." London: DK Publishing Inc., 2002.
[edit] Sources
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Allen Brown, R. (1970). English Castles. Chancellor Press. ISBN 0-907486-06-1.
- Bianchi, Vito (July-October 2006). "I Castelli". Medioevo 114-117.
- Cathcart King, D. J. (1983). Castellarium Anglicanum: An Index and Bibliography of the Castles in England, Wales and the Islands (2 vols). Kraus International Publications. ISBN 0-527-50110-7.
- Cathcart King, D. J. (1991). The Castle in England and Wales: An Interpretative History. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-00350-4.
- Gravett, Christopher (1990). Medieval Siege Warfare. Oxford: Osprey Publishing. ISBN 0-85045-947-8.
- Higham, R.; Barker, P. (1992). Timber Castles. B. T. Batsford Ltd. ISBN 0-7134-2189-4.
- Johnson, M. (2002). Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance. Routledge. ISBN 0-415-26100-7.
- Kenyon, J. (1991). Medieval Fortifications. Leicester University Press. ISBN 0-7185-1392-4.
- Pounds, N. J. G. (1994). The Medieval Castle in England and Wales: A Social and Political History. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-45828-5.
- Thompson, M. W. (1987). The Decline of the Castle. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 1-85422-608-8.
- Thompson, M. W. (1991). The Rise of the Castle. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-37544-4.
[edit] External links
- Medieval Castles and their information.
- Medieval Castles in Finland
- British Castles
- Spanish Castles on www.castillosnet.org
- Cathar Castles in the Languedoc
- Castles of Wales
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- Top 100 of Medieval Castles.
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