WINDSOR CASTLE.
[CHAPTER IX]
THE CASTELLATED MANSION AND MANOR-HOUSE
The reason for the disuse of castles is popularly attributed to the invention of gunpowder, but the introduction of cannon can hardly be accepted as entirely responsible for the decline, and we must therefore seek for other reasons which, added to the first, eventually succeeded in effecting their destruction and abandonment. The use of gunpowder was introduced into England in the first half of the fourteenth century, the first authentic date being 1327, when Edward III. employed it in his campaign against the Scots. The first reference by Froissart is in 1339, cannon being specifically mentioned, while at Cressy in 1346 there were a number of those weapons in use. These early pieces were, however, of small calibre and were provided with such indifferent powder that against the walls of a castle they were practically innocuous, and it was not until the invention of trunnions for cannon, and of bombards capable of throwing heavy spherical shot in the fifteenth century, that fortified places had anything to fear.
But long before 1327 the English castle had begun to show signs of falling into abeyance, in fact but very few new structures of that class were erected after the close of the thirteenth century, and those that did spring into existence no longer exhibited the overwhelming strength and powers of resistance which stamped the erections of the preceding century. When prosecuting his war with France, Edward III., in 1337, endeavoured to leave the Kingdom in as defensible a condition as possible during his absence, and with that object in view ordered the keepers of the Royal castles to put their respective charges into first-class order. In spite of this a report upon their efficiency a few years later revealed the fact that several were utterly unfit to withstand a siege. In 1322, when the incensed Edward II. raised forces to avenge the insult to his queen by Bartholomew de Badlesmere at Leeds Castle, and quickly captured that place, Tickhill, Warwick, Tutbury, and others, the ease with which they fell into his hands indubitably proves that they were no longer in a thoroughly defensive condition. And this, be it remembered, was before the introduction of gunpowder.
The economic conditions prevailing in the fourteenth century were also in antagonism to the persistence and growth of castles in the land. Military feudalism was in its death-throes, and the laws passed in the reign of Edward I.—notably the statute of Quia Emptores—were undoubtedly responsible for it. The barons no longer held the same position as formerly when they dictated terms to their own sovereign, and although a recrudescence of the power of the military nobility occurred during the time of the Wars of the Roses, that struggle was in reality but duels upon a large scale between a number of nobles who had been successful in maintaining a semblance of their former power. The Statute of Winchester gave almost unlimited rights to the King, whereby he could summon the commons to arms if a baron proved recalcitrant. The baronial castle necessarily became an anachronism to a large extent, since its owner no longer had the power to fill it with numerous retainers, and also because the King, by his overwhelming numbers, could easily capture it.
The art of war had also changed consequent chiefly upon the extraordinary efficiency displayed by the English archer, whereby he became supreme upon the field of battle: the development of this superb infantry was under the entire management of the Crown and, consequently, the King became immeasurably superior in striking strength to any individual baron. The advantage began to rest with him who could put the most efficient battalions in the field, and not as formerly with the one who owned the greatest number of castles. Combined with these conditions there was the indubitable fact that a castle had acquired the reputation of being connected with oppression of the people, resistance to lawful power, and a refuge from justice for the wrongdoer. This was entirely incompatible with the great reforms insisted upon by Edward I., and passed into law by parliament; law and order became the rule and not the exception, and the position of the castle grew anomalous.