Chapter 19

See Hubault,Ambassade de Castelnau en Angleterre(1856);Relations politiques de la France ... avec l’Écosse au seizième siècle, edited by J.B.A.T. Teulet (1862); and De la Ferrière,Les Projets de mariage d’Elisabeth(1883).

CASTELNAUDARY,a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Aude, 22 m. W.N.W. of Carcassonne, on the Southern railway between that city and Toulouse. Pop. (1906) 6650. It is finely situated on an elevation in the midst of a fertile and well-cultivated plain; and its commercial facilities are greatly increased by the Canal du Midi, which widens out, as it passes the town, into an extensive basin surrounded with wharves and warehouses for the timber used in the upkeep of the canal. The principal buildings are the law court, the hôtel de ville, and the church of St Michel, dating from the 14th century; none of these offers any feature of unusual interest. There are a number of flour-mills, as well as manufactories of earthenware, tiles and blankets; an extensivetrade is maintained in lime, gypsum, timber, grain, fruits, wine, wool, cattle and farm implements, and the building of canal boats forms an important industry. The public institutions include the sub-prefecture, tribunals of first instance and of commerce, a communal college and a farm school.

Castelnaudary probably represents the ancient town ofSostomagus, taken during the 5th century by the Visigoths, who, it is conjectured, rebuilt the town, calling itCastrum Novum Arianorum, whence the present name. Early in the 13th century the town was the scene of several struggles during the war against the Albigenses, between Simon IV., count of Montfort, and Raymond VI., count of Toulouse, and their supporters. In 1229 it was deprived of its ramparts, and after these had been rebuilt, it was captured and burned by the Black Prince in 1355, but again rebuilt in 1366. In 1632 it was the scene of a cavalry engagement in which the rebel Henry II., duke of Montmorency, was defeated and captured by the royal troops.

CASTELSARRASIN,a town of south-western France, capital of an arrondissement in the department of Tarn-et-Garonne, 12 m. W. of Montauban on the Southern railway. Pop. (1906) town, 3189; commune, 7496. Castelsarrasin, situated on the left bank of the lateral canal of the Garonne and about a mile from the right bank of that river, is surrounded by promenades occupying the site of the old fortifications. Its chief building is the brick-built church of St Sauveur, which dates from the 13th century. The administrative buildings are modern. The town has a sub-prefecture, a tribunal of first instance, and a communal college. The principal industrial establishment is the metal-foundry of Sainte-Marguerite, where copper, tin and other metals are worked; there are also flour-mills, saw-mills and dye-works. Trade is in cattle, agricultural produce, wine, baskets and game.

The name Castelsarrasin appears in the 13th century, when the village of Villelongue was replaced by the present bastide. Castrum Cerrucium, Castel-sur-Azine (from the neighbouring stream, Azine) and Castellum Sarracenum are suggested derivations, no one of which can be adopted with certainty.

CASTI, GIOVANNI BATTISTA(1721-1803), Italian poet, was born of humble parents at Montefiascone, in the states of the church, in 1721. He rose to the dignity of canon in the cathedral of his native place, but gave up his chance of church preferment to satisfy his gay and restless spirit by visiting most of the capitals of Europe. In 1782, on the death of Metastasio, he was appointedPoeta Cesario, or poet-laureate of Austria, in which capacity he applied himself with great success to the opera bouffe; but in 1796 he resigned this post, in order that he might not be hampered by political relations; and he spent the close of his life as a private gentleman at Paris, where he died in 1803. Casti is best known as the author of theNovelle galanti, and ofGli Animali parlanti, a poetical allegory, over which he spent eight years (1794-1802), and which, notwithstanding its tedious length, excited so much interest that it was translated into French, German and Spanish, and (very freely and with additions) into English, in W.S. Rose’sCourt and Parliament of Beasts(Lond., 1819). Written during the time of the Revolution in France, it was intended to exhibit the feelings and hopes of the people and the defects and absurdities of various political systems. TheNovelle Galantiis a series of poetical tales, in theottava rima—a metre largely used by Italian poets for that class of compositions. The sole merit of these poems consists in the harmony and purity of the style, and the liveliness and sarcastic power of many passages. They are, however, characterized by the grossest licentiousness; and there is no originality of plot—that, according to the custom of Italian novelists, being taken from classical mythology or other ancient legends. Among the other works of Casti is thePoema Tartaro, a mock-heroic satire on the court of Catherine II., with which he was personally acquainted.

CASTIGLIONE, BALDASSARE(1478-1529), Italian diplomatist and man of letters, was born at Casanatico near Mantua, and was educated at Milan under the famous professors Merula and Chalcondyles. In 1496 he entered the service of Lodovico Sforza, duke of Milan, returning to Mantua in 1500 when Lodovico was carried prisoner into France. In 1504 he was attached to the court of Guidobaldo Malatesta, duke of Urbino, and in 1506 he was sent by that prince on a mission to Henry VII. of England, who had before conferred on Federigo Malatesta, “the Good Duke,” the most famous mercenary of his age, the order of the Garter. Guidobaldo dying childless in 1508, the duchy of Urbino was given to Francesco Maria della Rovere, for whom Castiglione, envoy at the court of Leo X. (Medici), obtained the office of generalissimo of the Papal troops. Charged with the arrangement of the dispute between Clement VII. (Medici) and Charles V., Castiglione crossed, in 1524, into Spain, where he was received with highest honours, being afterwards naturalized, and made bishop of Avila. In 1527, however, Rome was seized and sacked by the Imperialists under Bourbon, and in July of the same year the surrender of the castle of Sant’ Angelo placed Clement in their hands. Castiglione had been tricked by the emperor, but there were not wanting accusations of treachery against himself. He had, however, placed fidelity highest among the virtues of his ideal “courtier,” and when he died at Toledo in 1529 it was said that he had died of grief and shame at the imputation. The emperor mourned him as “one of the world’s best cavaliers.” A portrait of him, now at the Louvre, was painted by Raphael, who disdained neither his opinion nor his advice.

Castiglione wrote little, but that little is of rare merit. His verses, in Latin and Italian, are elegant in the extreme; his letters (Padua, 1769-1771) are full of grace and finesse. But the book by which he is best remembered is the famous treatise,Il Cortegiano, written in 1514, published at Venice by Aldus in 1528, and translated into English by Thomas Hoby as early as 1561. This book, called by the ItaliansIl Libra d’oro, and remarkable for its easy force and undemonstrative elegance of style no less than for the nobility and manliness of its theories (see the edition by V. Cian, Florence, 1894), describes the Italian gentleman of the Renaissance under his brightest and fairest aspect, and gives a charming picture of the court of Guidobaldo da Montefeltre, duke of Urbino, “confessedly the purest and most elevated court in Italy.” In the form of a discussion held in the duchess’s drawing-room—with Elizabetta Gonzaga, Pietro Bembo, Bernardo Bibbiena, Giuliano de’ Medici, Emilia Pia, and Ceretino the Unique among the speakers—the question, What constitutes a perfect courtier? is debated. With but few differences, the type determined on is the ideal gentleman of the present day.

See P.L. Ginguené,Histoire littéraire de l’Italie, vi., vii.; J.A. Symonds,The Renaissance in Italy(London, 1875); C. Hare,Courts and Camps of the Italian Renaissance(1908); Julia Cartwright,B. Castiglione, the Perfect Courtier(1908), with good bibliography.

CASTIGLIONE, CARLO OTTAVIO,Count(1784-1849), Italian philologist, was born at Milan of an ancient family. His principal work was done in connexion with the Arabic and other Oriental languages, but he also performed good service in several other departments. In 1819 he publishedMonete cufiche del Museo di Milano, and assisted Cardinal Mai in hisUlphilae partium ineditarum in Ambrosianis palimpsestis repertarum editio. A learnedMémoire géographique et numismatique sur la partie orientale de la Barbarie appelée Afrikia par les Arabesappeared in 1826, and established his reputation. In 1829 he published by himself the Gothic version of the second epistle of Paul to the Corinthians; and this was followed by the Gothic version of the epistle to the Romans, the first epistle to the Corinthians, and the epistle to the Ephesians in 1834, by Galatians, Philippians, and 1 Thessalonians in 1835, and by 2 Thessalonians in 1839. He died at Genoa on the 10th of April 1849.

HisLife, by Biondelli, appeared at Milan in 1856.

CASTIGLIONE, GIOVANNI BENEDETTO(1616-1670), called in Italy Il Grechetto, and in France Le Benédette, Italian painter of the Genoese school, was born in Genoa, and studied for some time under Vandyck. He painted portraits, historical pieces and landscapes, but chiefly excelled in fairs, markets and rural scenes with animals. Noah and the animals entering theArk was a favourite subject of his. His paintings are to be found in Rome, Venice, Naples, Florence, and more especially Genoa and Mantua. He also executed a number of etchings, which are spirited, free and full of taste; “Diogenes searching for a Man” is one of the principal of these. The etchings are remarkable for light and shade, and have even earned for Castiglione the name of “a second Rembrandt.” ThePresepio(Nativity of Jesus) in the church of San Luca, Genoa, ranks among his most celebrated paintings, and the Louvre contains eight characteristic examples. In his closing years he lived in Mantua, painting for the court; here he received his name of “Grechetto,” from the classic air of his pastorals, and here he died of gout in 1670. His brother Salvatore and his son Francesco excelled in the same subjects; and it is thought that many paintings which are ascribed to Benedetto are only copies after him, or perhaps originals by his son or brother.

CASTIGLIONE DELLE STIVIERE,a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Mantua, 20 m. N.W. of Mantua by road. Pop. (1901) 4122 (town), 5940 (commune). It has an old castle, much altered and restored, especially by the Gonzaga family of Mantua in the 16th century. During the War of the Spanish Succession, the French under the duke of Vendôme occupied it; and during the siege of Mantua in 1796, the Austrians under Würmser were defeated here by the French under Augereau, who was later created by Napoleon duke of Castiglione.

CASTIGLIONE OLONA,a town of Lombardy, Italy, in the province of Como, 27 m. N.E. of Milan by rail. Pop. (1901) 1806. The choir of the collegiate church, erected about 1428 by Cardinal Branda Castiglione, contains fine frescoes by Masolino of Florence: there are other works by the same master in the baptistery. The tomb of the cardinal (1443) is good. The church of S. Sepolcro, in the lower part of the town, has two large stone figures of saints on its façade (of the end of the 13th century) and, within, painted wooden figures and the tomb of Guido Castiglione (d. 1485) with fine sculptures of the school of Amadeo. The palace erected by Cardinal Castiglione has good terra-cotta decorations.

CASTILE,orCastille(Castilla), an ancient kingdom of Spain, occupying the central districts of the Iberian Peninsula; and bounded on the N. by the Bay of Biscay, N.E. by the Basque Provinces and Navarre, E. by Aragon, S.E. by Valencia and Murcia, S. by Andalusia, W. by Estremadura and Leon, and N.W. by Asturias. Pop. (1900) 3,708,713; area, 55,307 sq. m. The nameCastileis commonly said to be derived from the numerous frontier forts (castillos) erected in the middle ages as a defence against the Moors. The northern part of the kingdom, which was first freed from Moorish rule, is called Old Castile (Castilla la Vieja); the southern, acquired later, is called New Castile (Castilla la Nueva). These two divisions, with a third known as North Castile, now rank as military districts or captaincies-general; but the term “North Castile,” which covers the northern extremity of Old Castile, is not generally used. In 1833 Old Castile was divided into the provinces of Ávila, Burgos, Logroño, Palencia, Santander, Segovia, Soria and Valladolid; while New Castile was similarly divided into Ciudad Real, Cuenca, Guadalajara, Madrid and Toledo. The modern progress of commerce, communications, &c. in these thirteen provinces is described in the separate articles upon each of them.

Castile extends for about 300 m. from north to south, and 160 m. from east to west. It consists of a vast central plateau, with an average altitude of about 2500 ft. This plateau has a natural frontier of high mountains on all sides, except on the borders of Leon and Murcia; it is also bisected by the Sierra de Guadarrama and Sierra de Grédos, which extend in a south-westerly direction across the central districts, and form the dividing line between Old and New Castile. Geographically it includes also the high plains of Leon, towards the north-west, and of Murcia on the south-east. The existing frontier is marked on the north by the Cantabrian Mountains (q.v.); on the east by the Sierra de la Demanda with its offshoots, and by the Serrania de Cuenca; on the south by the Sierra Morena; and on the west by various minor ranges which link together the three more or less parallel chains of the Sierra de Grédos, Sierra de Guadalupe and Sierra Morena. Three great rivers, the Douro, which traverses Old Castile, with the Tagus and Guadiana, which respectively drain the central and southern regions of New Castile, flow westward into Portugal, and finally reach the Atlantic; while the Ebro, which rises in the north of the kingdom, skirts the north-eastern frontier on its way to the Mediterranean. These rivers are described under their own names.

The climate of Old Castile is healthy, but liable to severe cold and heat. Snow falls early and lies late in the mountains, and there is a heavy rainfall in the north-west. New Castile has a still more rigorous climate, for although the mean annual temperature is about 59° Fahr., the summer heat in the valleys is peculiarly oppressive, and the highlands are swept by scorching or icy gales, laden with dust. The rainfall rarely exceeds 10 in. in a year.

In both the Castiles the central plateau has a naturally fertile soil, for after rain a luxuriant vegetation appears; but drought is common, owing to the insufficient volume of the rivers, and the failure of the Spaniards to extend the fine system of irrigation which the Moors originated. Certain districts, indeed, in which a layer of heavy loam underlies the porous and friable surface, are able to retain the moisture which elsewhere is absorbed. Such land is found in Palencia, and in the Mesa de Ocaña, where it yields abundant crops; and many of the northern mountains are well wooded. But vast tracts of land are useless except as pasture for sheep, and even the sheep are driven by the severe winters to migrate yearly into Estremadura (q.v.). The normal Castilian landscape is an arid and sterile steppe, with scarcely a tree or spring of water; and many even of the villages afford no relief to the eye, for they are built of sunburnt unbaked bricks, which share the dusty brownish-grey tint of the soil. Especially characteristic is the great plain of La Mancha (q.v.).

The transformation of Castile from a small county in the north of what is now Old Castile into an independent monarchy, was one of the decisive events in the reconquest of Spain from the Moors. The successful resistance offered by Asturias to the invaders had been followed by the liberation of Galicia and Leon, when Ferdinand I. of Castile (1035-1065), by his marriage with Sancha, widow of the last king of Leon, was enabled to unite Leon and Castile in a single kingdom, with its capital at Burgos. New territories were annexed on the south, until, after the capture of Toledo in 1085, and the consequent formation of a New Castile, the kingdom comprised the whole of central Spain. Thenceforward its history is inseparable from that of the whole country; and it is therefore described in full, together with the language and literature of Castile, underSpain(q.v.).

Castilian, which is the literary language of Spain, and with certain differences, of Spanish America, is spoken in Old and New Castile, Aragon, Estremadura, and the greater part of Leon; in Andalusia it is subject to various modifications of accent and pronunciation. As there is little, if any, difference of racial origin, character and physical type, among the inhabitants of this region, except in Andalusia, and, to a less extent, in Estremadura, the Castilian is justly regarded as the typical Spaniard. Among the Castilian peasantry, where education and foreign influence have never penetrated deeply, the national character can best be studied. Its intense pride, its fatalistic indolence and ignorance, its honesty and its bigotry, tempered by a keen sense of humour, are well-known characteristics. Apart from the peasant class, Castilians have contributed more to the development of Spanish art and literature than the inhabitants of any other region except, perhaps, Andalusia, which claims to be regarded as supreme in architecture and painting. Of the two great Spanish universities, Alcalá de Henares belonged in all respects to Castile, and Salamanca rose to equality with Paris, Oxford or Bologna, under the purely Castilian influence of Alphonso X. (1252-1284).

For a general description of Castile and its inhabitants, antiquities, commerce, &c., seeCastillo la Nueva, three illustrated volumes inthe seriesEspaña, by J.M. Quadrado and V. de la Fuente (Barcelona, 1885-1886), and theGuia del antiguo reino de Castilla, by E. Valverde y Alvarez (Madrid, 1886), which deals with the provinces of Burgos, Santander, Logroño, Soria, Ávila and Segovia. For the history, see in addition to the works cited underSpain(sectionHistory),Cronicas de los reyes de Castilla, by C. Rosell (Madrid, 1875-1877, 2 vols.);Coleccion de las cronicas y memorias de los reyes de Castilla(Madrid, 1779-1787, 7 vols.); andHistoria de las communidades de Castilla(Madrid, 1897).

CASTILHO, ANTONIO FELICIANO DE(1800-1875), Portuguese man of letters, was born at Lisbon. He lost his sight at the age of six, but the devotion of his brother Augusto, aided by a retentive memory, enabled him to go through his school and university course with success; and he acquired an almost complete mastery of the Latin language and literature. His first work of importance, theCartas de Echo e Narciso(1821), belongs to the pseudo-classical school in which he had been brought up, but his romantic leanings became apparent in thePrimavera(1822) and inAmor e Melancholia(1823), two volumes of honeyed and prolix bucolic poetry. In the poetic legendsA noite de Castello(1836) andCuimes do bardo(1838) Castilho appeared as a full-blown Romanticist. These books exhibit the defects and qualities of all his work, in which lack of ideas and of creative imagination and an atmosphere of artificiality are ill compensated for by a certain emotional charm, great purity of diction and melodious versification. Belonging to the didactic and descriptive school, Castilho saw nature as all sweetness, pleasure and beauty, and he lived in a dreamland of his imagination. A fulsome epic on the succession of King John VI. brought him an office of profit at Coimbra. On his return from a stay in Madeira, he founded theRevista Universal Lisbonense, in imitation of Herculano’sPanorama, and his profound knowledge of the Portuguese classics served him well in the introduction and notes to a very useful publication, theLivraria Classica Portugueza(1845-1847, 25 vols.), while two years later he established the “Society of the Friends of Letters and the Arts.” A study on Camoens and treatises on metrification and mnemonics followed from his pen. His praiseworthy zeal for popular instruction led him to take up the study of pedagogy, and in 1850 he brought out hisLeitura Repentina, a method of reading which was named after him, and he became government commissary of the schools which were destined to put it into practice. Going to Brazil in 1854, he there wrote his famous “Letter to the Empress.” Though Castilho’s lack of strong individuality and his over-great respect for authority prevented him from achieving original work of real merit, yet his translations of Anacreon, Ovid and Virgil and theChave do Enigma, explaining the romantic incidents that led to his first marriage with D. Maria de Baena, a niece of the satirical poet Tolentino, and a descendant of Antonio Ferreira, reveal him as a master of form and a purist in language. His versions of Goethe’sFaustand Shakespeare’sMidsummer Night’s Dream, made without a knowledge of German and English, scarcely added to his reputation. When the Coimbra question arose in 1865, Garrett was dead and Herculano had ceased to write, leaving Castilho supreme, for the moment, in the realm of letters. But the youthful Anthero de Quental withstood his claim to direct the rising generation and attacked his superannuated leadership, and after a fierce war of pamphlets Castilho was dethroned. The rise of João de Deus reduced him to a secondary position in the Portuguese Parnassus, and when he died ten years later much of his former fame had preceded him to the tomb.

See also “Memorias de Castilho” in theInstitutoof Coimbra; Innocencio da Silva inDiccionario bibliographico Portuguez, i. 130 and viii. 132: Latino Coelho’s study in theRevista contemporanea de Portugal e Brazil, vols. i. and ii.; Dr Theophilo Braga,Historia do Romantismo(Lisbon, 1880).

(E. Pr.)

CASTILLEJO, CRISTÓBAL DE(1490-1556), Spanish poet, was born at Ciudad Rodrigo in 1490. In 1518 he left Spain with Ferdinand of Austria, afterwards emperor, whose private secretary he eventually became. While residing at Vienna in 1528-1530 he wrote theHistoria de Píramo y Tisbe, and dedicated it to Anna von Schaumberg, with whom he had a platonic love-affair. He seems to have visited Venice, to have been neglected by his patron, to have fallen ill in 1540, and to have passed his last years in poverty. He died on the 12th of June 1556, and was buried at Vienna. Castillejo’s poems are interesting, not merely because of their intrinsic excellence, but also as being the most powerful protest against the metrical innovations imported from Italy by Boscán and Garcilaso de la Vega. He adheres to the nativequintillasor to thecoplas de pie quebrado, and only abandons these traditional forms when he indulges in caustic parody of the new school—as in the linesContra los que dejan los metros castellanos. He excels by virtue of his charming simplicity and his ingenious wit, always keen, sometimes licentious, never brutal. The urbane gaiety of his occasional poems is delightfully spontaneous, and the cynical humour which informs theDiálogo de las condiciones de las mujeresand theDiálogo de la vida de la corteis impregnated with the Renaissance spirit. Castillejo is the Clément Marot of Spain. His plays are lost; the best text of his verses is that printed at Madrid in 1792.

CASTILLO SOLÓRZANO, ALONSO DE(1584?-1647?), Spanish novelist and playwright, is stated to have been baptized at Tordesillas near Valladolid on 1st October 1584. Nothing is known of his youth, and he is next heard of at Madrid in 1619 as a man of literary tastes. While in the service of the marquis de Villar, he issued his first work,Donaires del Parnaso(1624-1625), two volumes of humorous poems; hisTardes entretenidas(1625) andJornadas alegres(1626) proved that he was a novelist by vocation. Shortly afterwards he joined the household of the marquis de los Vélez, viceroy of Valencia, and published in quick succession three clever picaresque novels:La Niña de los embustes, Teresa de Manzanares(1634),Las Aventuras del Bachiller Trapaza(1637), and a continuation entitledLa Garduña de Sevilla y Anzuelo de las bolsas(1642). To these shrewd cynical stories he owes his reputation. He followed the marquis de los Vélez in his disastrous campaign in Catalonia, and accompanied him to Rome, where the defeated general was sent as ambassador. Castillo Solórzano’s death occurred (probably at Palermo) before 1648, but the exact date is uncertain. His prolonged absence from Madrid prevented him from writing as copiously for the stage as he would otherwise have done; but he was popular as a playwright both at home and abroad. HisMarqués del CigarralandEl Mayorazgo figurónare the sources respectively of Scarron’sDon Jophet d’ArménieandL’Héritier ridicule. Among his numerous remaining works may be mentionedLas Harpías en Madrid(1633),Fiestas del Jardín(1634),Los Alivios de Casandra(1640) and the posthumousQuinta de Laurel(1649); the witty observation of these books forms a singular contrast to the prim devotion of hisSagrario de Valencia(1635). His versatility and graceful style deserve the highest praise.

(J. F.-K.)

CASTLE(Lat.castellum, a fort, diminutive ofcastra, a camp; Fr.châteauandchátel), a small self-contained fortress, usually of the middle ages, though the term is sometimes used of prehistoric earthworks (e.g.Hollingbury Castle, Maiden Castle), and sometimes of citadels (e.g.the castles of Badajoz and Burgos) and small detachedforts d’arrêtin modern times. It is also often applied to the principal mansion of a prince or nobleman, and in France (aschâteau) to any country seat, this use being a relic of the feudal age. Under its twofold aspect of a fortress and a residence, the medieval castle is inseparably connected with the subjects of fortification (seeFortification and Siegecraft) and architecture (q.v.). An account of Roman and pre-Romancastellain Britain will be found underBritain.

The word “castle” (castel) was introduced into English shortly before the Norman Conquest to denote a type of fortress, then new to the country, brought in by the Norman knights whom Edward the Confessor had sent for to defend Herefordshire against the inroads of the Welsh. Richard’s castle, of which the earthworks remain and which has given its name to a parish, was erected at this period on the border of Herefordshire and Shropshire by Richard Fitz Scrob. 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 ofits summit was placed a timber palisade. This moated mound was styled in Frenchmotte(latinizedmota), a word still common in French place-names. It is clearly depicted at the time of the Conquest in the Bayeux tapestry, and was then familiar on the mainland of western Europe. A description of this earlier castle is given in the life of John, bishop of Terouanne (Acta Sanctorum, quoted by G.T. Clark,Medieval Mil. Architecture):—“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.” St John, bishop of Terouanne, 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. But in addition to the mound, the citadel of the fortress, there was usually appended to it a bailey or basecourt (and sometimes two) of semilunar or horseshoe shape, so that the mound stoodà chevalon the line of the enceinte. The rapidity and ease with which it was possible to construct castles of this type made them characteristic of the Conquest period in England and of the Anglo-Norman settlements in Wales, Ireland and the Scottish lowlands. In later days a stone wall replaced the timber palisade and produced what is known as the shell-keep, the type met with in the extant castles of Berkeley, Alnwick and Windsor.

But the Normans introduced also 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 Romancastellum.

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.

At this stage the crusades, and the consequent opportunities afforded to western engineers of studying the solid fortresses of the Byzantine empire, revolutionized the art of castle-building, which henceforward follows recognized principles. Many castles were built in the Holy Land by the crusaders of the 12th century, and it has been shown (Oman,Art of War: the Middle Ages, p. 529) 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; 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. Thedonjonof 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. But the finest of all castles of the middle ages was Richard Coeur de Lion’s fortress of Château Gaillard (1197) on the Seine near Les Andelys. Here the innermost ward was protected by an elaborate system of strong appended defences, which included a strongtête-de-pontcovering the Seine bridge (see Clark, i. 384, and Oman, p. 533). 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 defendedà outrance, and itgradually sank in importance as the outer “wards” grew stronger. Round instead of rectangular towers were now becoming usual, the finest examples of their employment as keeps being at Conisborough in England and at 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 John in 1215.

A.High Angle Tower

B.B.Smaller Side Towers

C.C. D.D.Corner Towers

E.Outer Enceinte, or Lower Court

F.The Well

G.H.Buildings in the Lower Court

I.The Moat

K.Entrance Gate

L.The Counterscarp

M.The Keep

N.The Escarpment

O.Postern Tower

P.Postern Gate

R.R.Parapet Walls

S.Gate from the Escarpment

T.T.Flanking Towers

V.Outer Tower

X.Connecting Wall

Y.The Stockade in the River

Z.Z.The Great Ditches

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 side (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 regular 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. Its final fall was due to the introduction of gunpowder as a propellant. “In the 14th century the change begins, in the 15th it is fully developed, in the 16th the feudal fastness has become an anachronism.”

The general adoption of cannon placed in the hands of the central power a force which ruined the baronial fortifications in a few days of firing. The possessors of cannon were usually private individuals of the middle classes, from whom the prince hired thematérieland the technical workmen. A typical case will be found in the history of Brandenburg and Prussia (Carlyle,Frederick the Great, bk. iii. ch. i.), the impregnable castle of Friesack, held by an intractable feudal noble, Dietrich von Quitzow, being reduced in two days by the elector Frederick. I. with “Heavy Peg” (Faule Grete) and other guns hired and borrowed (February 1414). The beginnings of orderly government in Brandenburg thus depended upon the guns, and the taking of Friesack is, in Carlyle’s phrase, “a fact memorable to every Prussian man.” In England, the earl of Warwick in 1464reduced the strong fortress of Bamborough in a week, and in Germany, Franz von Sinkingen’s stronghold of Landstuhl, formerly impregnable on its heights, was ruined in one day by the artillery of Philip of Hesse (1523). Very heavy artillery was used for such work, of course, and against lighter natures, some castles and even fortified country-houses or castellated mansions managed to make a stout stand even as late as the Great Rebellion in England.

The castle thus ceases to be the fortress of small and ill-governing local magnates, and its later history is merged in that of modern fortification. But an interesting transitional type between the medieval stronghold and the modern fortress is found in the coast castles erected by Henry VIII., especially those at Deal, Sandown and Walmer (c. 1540), which played some part in the events of the 17th century, and of which Walmer Castle is still the official residence of the lord warden of the Cinque Ports. Viollet-le-Duc, in hisAnnals of a Fortress(English trans.), gives a full and interesting account of the repeated renovations of the fortress on his 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 pureenceinte de sûreté. Here and there we find old castles serving asforts d’arrêtor 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, but normally the castle falls into ruins, becomes a peaceful mansion, or is merged in the fortifications of the town which has grown up around it. In theAnnals of a Fortressthe 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” assumespari passuthe 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. Examples of such castellated mansions are seen in Wingfield Manor, Derbyshire, and Hurstmonceaux, Sussex, erected in the 15th century, and nearly all older castles which survived were continually improved and altered to serve as residences.

(C. F. A.)

Influence of Castles in English History.—Such strongholds as existed in England at the time of the Norman Conquest seem to have offered but little resistance to William the Norman, who, in order effectually to guard against invasions from without as well as to awe his newly-acquired subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom, and likewise to repair and augment the old ones. Besides, as he had parcelled out the lands of the English amongst his followers, they, to protect themselves from the resentment of the despoiled natives, built strongholds and castles on their estates, and these were multiplied so rapidly during the troubled reign of King Stephen that the “adulterine” (i.e.unauthorized) castles are said by one writer to have amounted to 1115.

In the first instance, when the interest of the king and of his barons was identical, the former had only retained in his hands the castles in the chief towns of the shires, which were entrusted to his sheriffs or constables. But the great feudal revolts under the Conqueror and his sons showed how formidable an obstacle to the rule of the king was the existence of such fortresses in private hands, while the people hated them from the first for the oppressions connected with their erection and maintenance. It was, therefore, the settled policy of the crown to strengthen the royal castles and increase their number, while jealously keeping in check those of the barons. But in the struggle between Stephen and the empress Maud for the crown, which became largely a war of sieges, the royal power was relaxed and there was an outburst of castle-building, without permission, by the barons. These in many cases acted as petty sovereigns, and such was their tyranny that the native chronicler describes the castles as “filled with devils and evil men.” These excesses paved the way for the pacification at the close of the reign, when it was provided that all unauthorized castles constructed during its course should be destroyed. Henry II., in spite of his power, was warned by the great revolt against him that he must still rely on castles, and the massive keeps of Newcastle and of Dover date from this period.

Under his sons the importance of the chief castles was recognized as so great that the struggle for their control was in the forefront of every contest. When Richard made vast grants at his accession to his brother John, he was careful to reserve the possession of certain castles, and when John rose against the king’s minister, Longchamp, in 1191, the custody of castles was the chief point of dispute throughout their negotiations, and Lincoln was besieged on the king’s behalf, as were Tickhill, Windsor and Marlborough subsequently, while the siege of Nottingham had to be completed by Richard himself on his arrival. To John, in turn, as king, the fall of Château Gaillard meant the loss of Rouen and of Normandy with it, and when he endeavoured to repudiate the newly-granted Great Charter, his first step was to prepare the royal castles against attack and make them his centres of resistance. The barons, who had begun their revolt by besieging that of Northampton, now assailed that of Oxford as well andseized that of Rochester. The king recovered Rochester after a severe struggle and captured Tonbridge, but thenceforth there was a war of sieges between John with his mercenaries and Louis of France with his Frenchmen and the barons, which was specially notable for the great defence of Dover Castle by Hubert de Burgh against Louis. On the final triumph of the royal cause, after John’s death, at the battle of Lincoln, the general pacification was accompanied by a fresh issue of the Great Charter in the autumn of 1217, in which the precedent of Stephen’s reign was followed and a special clause inserted that all “adulterine” castles, namely those which had been constructed or rebuilt since the breaking out of war between John and the barons, should be immediately destroyed. And special stress was laid on this in the writs addressed to the sheriffs.

In 1223 Hubert de Burgh, as regent, demanded the surrender to the crown of all royal castles not in official custody, and though he succeeded in this, Falkes de Breauté, John’s mercenary, burst into revolt next year, and it cost a great national effort and a siege of nearly two months to reduce Bedford Castle, which he had held. Towards the close of Henry’s reign castles again asserted, in the Baron’s War, their importance. The Provisions of Oxford included a list of the chief royal castles and of their appointed castellans with the oath that they were to take; but the alien favourites refused to make way for them till they were forcibly ejected. When war broke out it was Rochester Castle that successfully held Simon de Montfort at bay in 1264, and in Pevensey Castle that the fugitives from the rout of Lewes were able to defy his power. Finally, after his fall at Evesham, it was in Kenilworth Castle that the remnant of his followers made their last stand, holding out nearly five months against all the forces of the crown, till their provisions failed them at the close of 1266.

Thus for two centuries after the Norman Conquest castles had proved of primary consequence in English political struggles, revolts and warfare. And, although, when the country was again torn by civil strife, their military importance was of small account, the crown’s historic jealousy of private fortification was still seen in the need to obtain the king’s licence to “crenellate” (i.e.embattle) the country mansion.

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