Thesis: Castles created the modern state. Part 1 of the series explores the technology and why it was so important to medieval Europeans. It answers, “But why castles?”
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In any specific action, in any measure we may undertake, we always have the choice between the most audacious and the most careful solution. Some people think that the theory of war always advises the latter. That assumption is false. If the theory does advise anything, it is the nature of war to advise the most decisive, that is, the most audacious. Theory leaves it to the military leader, however, to act according to their own courage, according to their spirit of enterprise, and their self-confidence. Make your choice, therefore, according to this inner force; but never forget that no military leader has ever become great without audacity. — Clausewitz, Carl. “Principles of War.” Military Service Publishing Company, 1942. Accessible here
Medieval rulers would have heartily disagreed with von Clausewitz. Their constraints and dogma would have led them to say, “why not both?” Why not have your cake and eat it too? The most careful solution and the most daring one at the same time?
What if you could have defense and offense in a single, elegant solution?
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Historians have wondered for a long time where lords acquired their powers of justice and command. […] Others have seen the origin of seignorial power in the droit de ban - the right to command, coerce, and punish originally delegated.by the king to his officers and then increasingly appropriated by them. […] Current research leads us, to think that without the instrument represented by the motte and bailey castle, the final appropriation of the droit de ban by the king’s officers or the usurpation of this power by the wealthiest landowners would never have taken place. The motte accelerated the tipping of the balance of power toward the seignory. […] The most important factor was the lordship inherent in possession of a castle; the motte and bailey castle crystallized power and in some cases even created it. — Bur, Michel. “The Motte and Bailey Castle: Instrument of Revolution.” Engineering and Science 45, no. 3 (1982): 11-14.
As with old music, there’s a selection bias in the castles we remember. In our collective consciousness, we associate the word castle with beautiful buildings like these,
Buildings exemplary both in history and their beauty. But they’re the exceptions, not the rule.
Early castles were stark in their simplicity. They had to be because of their strategic role in capturing territory. Soldiers would arrive onto foreign land, temporarily secure it, create a castle, leave a garrison, and then move on. It has been suggested by some historians that between the start of William the Conqueror’s invasion in 1066 and his death in 1087, his army had built at least 500 castles across England. Somewhere between 500 to 550 of these were occupied at the time of his death.
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