The Rise of the Castle

Examines the rise of the castle from its European origins in the tenth century to c.1400.

M. W. Thompson (Author)

9780521088534, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 30 October 2008

216 pages
21 x 15 x 1.1 cm, 0.4 kg

Romanticised as ruins, treated as relics of forgotten military campaigns or as mere lessons in architectural history, the castles of England and Wales have too rarely been examined as places in which real people lived. Fresh both in style and approach and richly illustrated, Michael Thompson's book aims now to redress the balance. Examining the rise of the castle from its European origins in the tenth century to c.1400, the author devotes particular attention to the domestic accommodation - colourfully adorned but often cold and claustrophobic - that castles offered their aristocratic inhabitants. The book closes with the castle at its zenith, reviewing the extravagant outburst of self-conscious construction that took place in the fourteenth century as display and appearance came for the first time to play as important a part as function in determining building design.

Preface
1. Introduction
2. Germany
3. France
4. Wooden castles
5. Stone towers
6. Dwelling and defence divided
7. Defence paramount
8. The castle as midwife: monasteries
9. The castle as midwife: towns
10. Indian summer: the fourteenth century
Appendix 1: the sequence of halls in bishops' palaces in England and France
Appendix 2: the spiritual castle
List of abbreviations
Notes
Select bibliography
List of illustrations with acknowledgements
Index.

Subject Areas: European history [HBJD]