BARTIZAN.
The second floor was the private apartment of the chieftain and his family, and was also provided with a wooden gallery for sleeping purposes. The roof was a pointed arch resting solidly upon the walls and covered with stone slabs. At the angles of the building bartizans were usually built, although rounded corners like those at Neidpath and Drum sometimes occur. In the massive walls spiral staircases, small rooms, cupboards, and other conveniences were arranged. Round the Tower a wall was generally erected, within which the stables, offices, and kitchens were built. In the wall of the Tower itself, and sometimes below the level of the ground, the universal "pit" or prison was built, ventilated by a shaft carried upwards in the thickness of the wall. At times the battlements were provided with parapets resting upon corbels but executed in acrude manner.
BOTHWELL CASTLE, LANARKSHIRE.
The century in question saw numerous castles of this type come into existence, all based upon the same plan, that of the king differing only in size from that of the small chieftain. The largest are from 40 to 60 feet square, but the majority are much smaller. These Keeps formed nuclei for subsequent additions as at Loch Leven, Craigmillar, Campbell, and Aros, and many of them served as ordinary residences down to the seventeenth century, long after the tide of war had passed.
Third Period, 1400-1550.—With the coming of peace and a period of commercial and industrial prosperity, the nobles of Scotland were able to observe the progress of castellation around them in England and France, and began to adopt the styles which they found in those countries. A type of castle appeared based like that of Bodium upon a French ideal,—the building of a high embattled wall strengthened with towers around a quadrangular space. This plan, derived from the Concentric ideal, was adopted for the largest castles, such as Stirling, which is the most perfect example of a courtyard plan, and Tantallon.
In the smaller castles the Hall is placed in the centre with the kitchen, pantry, and butteryadjoining it, and the lord's solar and private apartments at the daïs end. The wine-vaults and cellars are built beneath, while the bedrooms occur above. In contrast to the English buildings of the period, the question of defence was the dominating idea in spite of the altered conditions of better living and increased luxury. Many plain and simple Keeps were also built during this period.
Fourth Period, after1550.—The development of artillery led to alterations being made in castellation, while the progress of the Reformation gradually introduced the fortified mansion and Manor-House. Many small Keeps, or Peel Towers, were built, however, chiefly on the Border. Ornamentation up to this period had been conspicuously absent, but now it assumed a very high importance. Corbelling became almost a mania,—floors, windows, parapets, chimneys, and other details projecting to an excessive distance in order to enhance the effect. The bartizans were covered with high conical roofs, and turrets similarly ornamented became a prominent style. The accommodation in the upper floors was greatly increased when compared with the basement, through the excessof corbelling. Gables were furnished with crow-steps, while machicolation became at times almost fantastic. Gargoyles shaped like cannon in stone are a marked feature of the period.
Bothwell Castle, Lanarkshire (1st Period)
Bothwell Castle is generally termed the grandest ruin of a thirteenth-century castle in Scotland. It belonged in the thirteenth century to the Murray family; was captured by Edward I. and given to Aymer de Valence, Earl of Pembroke. The English had possession until the year 1337 when, after capturing it, the Scots dismantled it. From the Douglas family it passed by marriage to the Earls of Home. It is placed upon a rocky promontory above the Clyde, and consists of an oblong courtyard with high curtain walls and strengthening towers, round or square, while a large circular donjon lies at the west end. The latter bestrides the enceinte and is separated from the bailey by a moat; it is of noble proportions, 60 feet in diameter and 90 feet high, with walls 15 feet thick. The Tower forcibly suggests that at Coucy in many particulars. The Hall andvarious other apartments occupy the eastern portion of the Bailey.
Neidpath Castle(2nd Period)
Neidpath Castle is situated upon elevated land overlooking a winding of the Tweed. It was built upon theLplan, probably in the fourteenth century, being a main central tower of the Keep type with a square projection of considerable size attached to one side. The walls are 11 feet in thickness and the original door was on the basement floor facing the river, a departure from the general rule. A spiral stair gave access to the upper storeys. The Tower was originally of enormous strength, being really two immense vaults superposed upon each other, but other, wooden, floors have been inserted between. The parapet and corners are rounded similar to those at Drum Castle. It was greatly altered and added to in the seventeenth century. No particular history attaches to the building, which belonged to the Hays of Yester for centuries; it has only undergone one siege, that by Cromwell, when it surrendered after ashort defence.
NEIDPATH CASTLE, PEEBLES.
Edinburgh Castle (3rd Period)
The site of Edinburgh Castle has undoubtedly been occupied by some description of fortress from the most remote antiquity. The Romans occupied it and subsequently Malcolm Canmore fortified it as an aid towards keeping the English out of Scotland. In 1291 Edward I. besieged and took it in fifteen days; he recaptured it again in 1294. In 1313 it fell into the hands of Bruce by a daring escalade, and was stripped of its defences. Edward III. rebuilt it, and placed a strong garrison there, but the Scots took it four years later. David II. refortified it and rendered it so strong that neither Richard II. nor Henry IV. had any success in their attempts to take it. Since that period it has undergone a number of sieges.
It is built upon the courtyard plan, and is one of the survivors of the four chief fortresses in the country, the others being Stirling, Roxburgh, and Berwick.
The moat at the entrance is now dry and filled up, and the Gateway there is modern. The Argyle Tower (sometimes called the St. David's Tower) is a portion of the old castle, as are alsothe ruins of the Wellhouse Tower, while St. Margaret's Chapel is the oldest building and also the oldest church in Scotland, containing Early Norman work and probably also Saxon. The general aspect of the Castle suffers much from a picturesque point of view by the addition of the great demi-lune battery and ranges of modern buildings.
Stirling Castle (3rd Period)
The commanding rock upon which Stirling Castle is placed was originally an old hill fort, but in the twelfth century was one of the four chief castles. Thus in 1304 it held out for three months against Edward I. and a powerful army. So important was it considered that Edward II. attempted to relieve it, and thus led to Bannockburn. Baliol occupied it, and King David only captured it after a long and obstinate siege. At the Stuart period it became a Royal Castle and the favourite residence of the Scottish kings. The present walls are undoubtedly raised upon the old foundations, but, so far as antiquity is concerned, the oldest part of the Castle remaining is the Parliament Hall opening from the Inner Ward which is of late Perpendicular architecture. The Palace is of the Renaissance, and datesfrom 1594.
EDINBURGH CASTLE, FROM THE TERRACE OF HERIOT'S HOSPITAL.
Dunnottar Castle, Kincardineshire (3rd Period)
One mile south of Stonehaven stands Dunnottar Castle, upon a flat platform of rock with the North Sea washing three of the precipitous sides. A small isthmus, not much above the level of the sea, connects it to the mainland.
The oldest parts of the Castle date from c. 1382. The entrance is at the base of the rock upon the land side, where an outwork of remarkable strength is placed. After ascending a steep incline a tunnel 26 feet long is reached, also defended, and a second similar defence occurs beyond, thus the approach was of an extremely formidable character.
The Keep stands at the south-west corner, and is of theLshape four stories in height, and built early in the fifteenth century. The stables and domestic buildings are of a later date, and arranged round part of an irregular courtyard. The Castle, although credited with being one of the most impregnable in Scotland, and to which the Scottish regalia was entrusted for safe keeping during the Commonwealth, was captured by Sir William Wallace in 1297, whose troops scaled the precipices and put the English garrison of 4000 men to the sword. In 1336 Edward III. refortified it, but the Scots took it as soon as he had left the kingdom. General Lambert blockaded the Castle in 1652, and eventually captured it.
Tantallon Castle (3rd Period)
Tantallon Castle is of the courtyard type, similar to Caerlaverock and Doune, and was erected about the end of the fourteenth century. Situated upon a rocky precipitous site, with three sides washed by the North Sea, it was only imperative to construct defences upon the fourth or west side. A deep ditch cut in the rock, curtain walls 12 feet thick and 50 feet high, battlemented, with a level court in front, beyond which was another deep ditch,—these were the defences deemed all-sufficient to baffle intruders. The Keep also acted as a flanking defence to the curtain walls, and contained the only entrance, which passed completely through it. Many traces exist of the work carried out in the early part of the sixteenth century in the endeavour to make it impregnable to artillery. The buildings now occupy only two sides of the interiorquadrangle, the rest having been dismantled.
DUNNOTTAR CASTLE, KINCARDINESHIRE.
In the rich history of the Castle we find that in 1528 James V. invested it with 20,000 men and a formidable battering train, the structure itself being supplied with large artillery. The siege lasted twenty days and proved unavailing, the great thickness of the walls resisting the efforts of the gunners. It underwent another siege in 1639 when the Earl of Angus made a stand in it against the Covenanters. General Monk invested it and found after two days that his mortars had no effect; he then tried heavy siege guns which breached the wall, but the garrisons retreated into the central tower where they were safe, and were allowed to capitulate upon good terms. The fortress fell into ruin in the beginning of the eighteenth century.
THE SIEGE AND DEFENCE OF A MEDIEVAL CASTLE
A work upon castellation would undoubtedly be incomplete if it omitted to deal with the interesting subject of the means by which the medieval knight defended his castle, and of the methods he employed for attacking his neighbour's, or an enemy's town, whether in a private feud or legitimate warfare.
Through the almost universal habit of perusing medieval romances the general public has formed a mental picture of the hero and his followers riding round a castle and summoning it to surrender, or challenging the garrison to emerge from their retreat and essay mortal combat in the open. As the engineer and captain of the sappers and miners, the director of the artillery, the designer of movable towers, and the general head of the various artificescalculated to bring the besieged to their senses, the hero is less well known.
Thecoup de mainmethod of attack has probably been the same in most ages, and undoubtedly was the chief means resorted to by primitive man. His missile weapons during the Stone, Bronze, and Early Iron Ages were of no use against earth ramparts crowned by thick palisading; sling, stones, arrows, and spears were only efficacious against the bodies of his enemies, and hand-to-hand combat was therefore a necessity. Hence we may imagine a concentration against a presumably weak point, a sudden rush, the plunge into the dry ditch and a rapid scramble up the scarp towards the palisades under a shower of arrows, stones, and other missiles; the mad escalade of the defences surmounting the earthwork and the fierce resistance of the defenders, followed by a successful entry or a disastrous repulse and retreat.
Precisely the same course was pursued in the medieval period when a rapid bridging of the moat by planks and beams would be attempted, scaling ladders would be reared, and, protected by their shields from the rain of missiles, the assailants, covered by their archers' fire of arrowsand bolts upon the ramparts, would mount their ladders and attempt to effect a lodgment upon the walls. And, although weapons and conditions have changed, the assault to-day is made upon the self-same methods.
If, instead of thecoup de main, a sustained siege is decided upon the knight will order his "gyns" to be brought up to the front, and large and heavy ones to be built upon the spot. From the time when Uzziah "made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal,"[1]down to the invention of cannon, the ingenuity of man has been exercised in devising machines for hurling missiles to a distance.
The Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity brought them to perfection, and marvellous results were obtained in ancient sieges; the vivid account by Plutarch of the great engines used at the attack upon Syracuse,B.C.214-212, reads almost like romance. Caesar frequently mentions this artillery, and especially the portable balistae for throwing arrows and casting stones; they were fitted with axles and wheels and manœuvred like batteries of cannon at the present day. Larger engines wereconstructed as required like those of the medieval period.
[1]2 Chron. xxvi. 15.
[1]2 Chron. xxvi. 15.
TANTALLON CASTLE, HADDINGTONSHIRE.
The ancient engines were distinct from those of a later age in depending for their efficacy upon the forces of tension and torsion as compared with that of counterpoise in the middle ages. The art of preparing the sinews of animals so as to preserve their elastic powers was known to the ancients, and great bundles so treated were utilised in different ways in the various engines. Experiments on sinews, ropes of hair, and other materials at the present day have proved that loss of elasticity soon occurs, whereas we learn that such was not the fact in classical times with their special method of preparation. By fixing an endless skein in a suitable frame, stretching it tightly and then twisting the skein in the centre by means of a beam of wood, the necessary torsion was obtained; if a missile were placed upon the beam when drawn back and the beam released, the projectile would be hurled to a distance proportionate to the velocity of the arm and the weight of the missile.
The principle may readily be gleaned from the accompanying diagram which exemplifiesthe two vertical skeins used in a portable balista for throwing arrows; by being fixed in a suitable frame an action like that of the bow could be obtained. By using immense coils of twisted sinew the nations of antiquity, and especially the Greeks, threw stones weighing 50 lbs. or more to a distance of from 400 to 500 yards, and as a general rule with marvellous accuracy, while lighter missiles are stated to have been hurled to between 700 and 800 yards. These engines received the general name of "catapults," although the Greeks generally referred to them under the term "tormentum," in reference to the twisted sinews, thongs, and hair, of which the skeins were made. Broadly speaking, catapults shot darts, arrows, and the falarica,—a long iron-headed pole; balistas projected stones or similar missiles, though the names are often interchanged by the chroniclers. Some time after the fall of the Roman empire the secret of preparing the sinews was lost.
DIAGRAM ILLUSTRATING THE PRINCIPLE OF CONSTRUCTION IN CLASSICAL ENGINES.
The Trebuchet.—Another force was called into play for medieval artillery. This was the counterpoise, or gravitation, and the principle upon which all large engines or "gyns" were constructed during the middle ages. A long wooden arm was pivoted in a framework so that a short and a long portion projected upon either side; to the shorter part a great weight in a swinging cradle was fixed which necessarily raised the longer arm to the vertical position. If the latter were drawn backwards and downwards the great weight was accordingly raised, and upon release the long arm would sweep upwards in a curve and project any missile attached to it. By fixing a sling of suitable length to the arm the efficiency was immensely increased (seeTitle-page). Such was the principle of the "trebuchet," the enormous engines which carried devastation and destruction to medieval castles. The French are said to have introduced these in the twelfth century, and by the end of the thirteenth they were themost formidable siege engines of the time.
STIRLING CASTLE, STIRLINGSHIRE.
The transition period in England between the classical weapons and the trebuchet was the twelfth century and the early part of the thirteenth. The veterans from the crusades undoubtedly introduced the torsion and tension engines, butfound that the home-made article could not compete in efficiency with the Oriental examples and therefore the advent of the trebuchet was welcomed. Roughly speaking, the original balista or catapults depending upon torsion, and throwing shafts rather than balls, were not so frequently in use as those engines which depended upon tension and threw heavy stones. In the early part of the thirteenth century the balista catapult came into vogue once more; it was of the cross-bow type, and at the end of the century was called the espringale and mounted on wheels.
The counterpoises used in large trebuchets weighed sometimes between 8 and 9 tons; the throwing arm was often 50 feet in length, and the engine could hurl a projectile weighing between 2 cwt. and 3 cwt. to a distance of about 300 yards. Dead horses were at times sent whirling over the battlements into a besieged town, while casks of matter of an offensive character and likely to breed pestilences were common missiles. But the chief use and purpose of the trebuchet was the smashing-up of bretasches; the pounding of the battlements and upper works to facilitate escalades; the filling up of the moat in selected places bythrowing large quantities of earth, stones, etc., into it and against the walls, and, occasionally, to hurl some unfortunate envoy back again into a town or fortress when the messages he carried were distasteful to the besiegers. In a medieval MS. full directions are given for trussing a man intended for use as a projectile.
Camden states that at the siege of Bedford Castle by King John one of the mangonels,i.e.trebuchets, threw millstones into the castle. He mentions seven great machines being at work at one time. Again, when Henry III. besieged Kenilworth, in 1266, stones of extraordinary size were used as missiles; some are still preserved at the Castle and two are at the Rotunda, Woolwich, the diameters being 18-1/2 inches and 16-1/4 inches; the weight 256 lbs. and 165 lbs. respectively. At Pevensey Castle catapult stone shot of 144, 156, and 241 lbs. respectively have been discovered. The great trebuchet constructed by Edward I. for the siege of Stirling Castle cast balls weighing between two and three hundredweight. The several parts of this great machine were sent by sea, but the Castle surrendered before its efficacy could be tried. The King was annoyed that this, his pet device, the"War-Wolf," as it was termed, had not had an opportunity, and therefore ordered the garrison to remain within while he took a few "pot-shots" at their defences.
Such projectiles would almost demolish a house, and were nearly as formidable as modern shells; their great weight would batter every portion of a medieval castle except the very thickest of walls. The platforms of earth thrown up by besiegers to sustain their great engines remain in many places intact to-day; thus round Berkhampstead Castle are eight, upon which the trebuchets of the Dauphin were erected in 1216, when he battered the castle into submission in about a fortnight. The terms mangonel, petrary, balista, onager, scorpion, perrier, catapult, etc., when used by historians of the middle ages, generally apply to the trebuchet and its varieties, large and small.
The Arblast, Espringale, and Spurgardonwere engines based upon the cross-bow or tension principle; some were of considerable size and threw huge bolts tipped with iron. Another and a common use was to convey ignited incendiary matter into the enemy's quarters by their means. They were mounted upon towers, curtain walls,and in the baileys, while in the open when placed upon wheels they served the purpose offield-pieces.
RAISING THE PORTCULLIS.
The Ram, based upon the weapon used by the ancients, was in frequent use. The working parts and the men manipulating it were protected by a pent-house called the "Snail," or "Whelk," having a roof of considerable thickness. In this house it was suspended by chains and pulled backwards and forwards by hand or mechanical appliances; when released, it smashed the stones in the wall to powder, so that they could be subsequently removed from the defences. To mitigate the effects the besieged let down mattresses, bags of wool, and coiled rope mats by chains from the ramparts.
The Terebra.—A machine based upon the classicalterebrawas also in use. It consisted of a heavy beam which could be rotated; the iron head being furnished with a spike of square section was inserted in a joint into which it bored its way, breaking up the surrounding stones and facilitating their removal.
The Cat, or Sow, was in constant use for mining and underpinning walls. It was a covered house upon wheels, with an enormously strong roof calculated to withstand the heavystones, beams of wood, hot water, molten lead, and spiked poles which were invariably launched from the battlements for its destruction. Under its cover the besiegers tunnelled beneath the walls, which they supported with woodwork until their task was completed; by starting a conflagration in the chamber thus excavated the supports were consumed and the wall was breached. At other times the stones, previously shattered or loosened by the ram or the terebra, were removed until the wall above was incapable of bearing its own weight. Mining, like other operations, had to be carried out with discretion and was undoubtedly a precarious operation. Thus in the siege of Dryslwyn Castle, Carmarthenshire, in the time of Edward I., Lord Stafford and other leaders lost their lives by a sudden collapse of the walls they were undermining. The mine was often met by a counter-mine of the garrison as in modern warfare.
The Beffroi, Belfry, or Movable Towerwas a machine for facilitating the capture of fortified positions. It could be built upon the spot or carried from place to place in pieces. When mounted upon wheels it was pushed forward towards the walls, the object being to give theassailants the same advantage of height which was shared by the besieged. From the upper platform the archers could command the battlements and approaches; those in lower stages sent their missiles into loopholes and other openings; in the lowest stage a ram was often mounted. One feature of its construction was a hinged platform which fell outwards upon the battlements and over which the assailants endeavoured to enter the fortress. The besieged hindered the approach of this terror by digging pitfalls for the wheels, shooting incendiary missiles, making sallies for its destruction by fire, or concentrating such a body of men upon the walls that none could live under the hail of missiles poured into it.
The methods of assailing a castle thus enumerated were, as a rule, put into operation at the same time and supported one another. Thus in the siege of Bedford Castle, defended by the followers of Faukes de Breauté, in 1224, the siege was carried out by King Henry III. in person. Two wooden Beffrois were made and advanced towards the walls,—these were occupied by longbow-men and arbalestiers; sappers approached the walls and undermined by meansof a Cat; seven trebuchets cast their ponderous projectiles against, or into, the castle without intermission night and day, while lesser artillery hurled lead-covered stones, darts, bolts, and other missiles among the defenders upon the walls, or through the oillets and louvre-covered windows. The barbican was taken and then the outer bailey; a breach in the defending wall gave admission to the inner bailey, and when, by judicious sapping, one portion of the great Shell Keep sank and produced a wide breach, the castle was surrendered.
In medieval manuscripts we meet with many illustrations of petardiers hurling vessels containing Greek fire upon the various engines attacking a castle or town, and perhaps this terrifying missile deserves more notice than has hitherto been paid to it. Introduced from the East during the time of the Crusades it was used with other incendiary bodies, but as no great objects were specially achieved by its use in our islands, or rather, as chroniclers do not make special mention of such results, we are probably justified in thinking that the effects were more of a terrifying character than of actual effectiveness in besieging or defending a castle.