Category: History - British
The history of military fortification in England begins with those strongholds which, at vast expense of labour, the early inhabitants of Britain hewed out of the soil, surrounding defensible positions with ramparts of earth, divided by deep fosses. The approximate date of the...
Some account has now been given of the change which came over the English castle in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The life of the feudal warrior in his stronghold grad...
13. Chapter I.).[298] The progress of fire-arms in English warfare was slow. See the various articles by R. Coltman Clephan, F.S.A., in _Archæol. Journal_, lxvi., lxvii., and lxviii. The earlie...
6. CHAPTER VIWe have seen that there were two types of early Norman castle in England. There was the ordinary mount-and-bailey castle, with its defences of earthwork and timber; and there wa...
11. CHAPTER XIThe strengthening of the curtain of the castle was perfected in the concentric plan, in which also was established, for the time being, the superiority of defence to attack. But...
7. CHAPTER VIIThe development of the castle during the twelfth century was governed, as has been explained, by the methods of attack which its defenders had to meet. The strong fortresses of...
10. CHAPTER XCastles 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 pla...
9. CHAPTER IXThe keep had a traditional importance in the scheme of the castle, and the main energy of the castle-builders of the twelfth century was directed towards strengthening its power...
3. CHAPTER IIIA castle is a private fortress, built by an individual lord as a military stronghold, and also as an occasional residence. In England at the time of the Norman conquest, this ty...
4. CHAPTER IVThe earthwork fortifications, the progress of which we have traced up to the Norman conquest, were of a very simple kind. It is obvious that, in the history of military architec...
8. CHAPTER VIIIThe castle needed, among its chief requirements, a dwelling-house which might be occupied by the owner and his household. Thus the stronghold of the lord of Ardres upon its moun...
5. CHAPTER VIn Domesday Book some fifty castles are mentioned by name or implication; and the number was largely increased during the next hundred years. In view, however, of the large numb...
2. CHAPTER IIThe Saxon invasions were a rude disturbance to the progress of English civilisation. The Romanised Britons lay more and more at the mercy of the invaders, as the soldiery were c...
1. CHAPTER IThe history of military fortification in England begins with those strongholds which, at vast expense of labour, the early inhabitants of Britain hewed out of the soil, surround...