British Castles

by Charles Henry Ashdown

SKIPTON CASTLE, YORKSHIRE.

With the ascendancy of an efficient administration of justice came the desire for comfort and a display of luxury, and probably no one who has become acquainted with the internal disposition of an early castle will qualify the assertion that the acme of discomfort and inconvenience must have prevailed within them.

Consequent upon this alteration in the economic conditions of the nation, the need for the impregnable stronghold of the past ages ceased to exist, and in many parts of England, but more especially in the south and east, the existing structures were largely altered or added to in order to afford conditions suitable to the changed amenities of social life. These alterations in nearly every case were made at the sacrifice of efficiency, and many castles which had played a notable part in the history of the nation became merely the residences of their lords, who made no attempt to put them to their original uses in time of war. Arundel, the great midland castles of Warwick, Kenilworth, and many others, fall under this category.

So far as gunpowder is concerned the part which it played in causing the abandonment of the feudal castle is strangely varied and dependent upon local circumstances. A well-found castle with an efficient and adequate garrison, supported by an army in active operation in the field, had no more to fear from an attack in the fifteenth century than it had in the thirteenth, perhaps not so much. Very few bombards of the period mentioned could throw stone shot weighing over 150 lbs., whereas the medieval trebuchet could hurl a missile of twice that weight, or even more, and to almost as great a distance. The effect of low-trajectory cannon upon castle walls in the fifteenth century under ordinary conditions may almost be left out of consideration, so small was the calibre. It is true that Sir Ralph Grey, when besieged in Bamborough Castle in 1464, was forced to surrender in a short space of time by the army of the Kingmaker, who used his basilisks, aspiks, serpentines, dragons, syrens, and sakers with excellent effect; but we may justly claim that this was an exception, the configuration of the ground enabling Warwick to place his pieces close up to the walls, while Grey could look for no effective relief from a sympathetic army outside. Ten years afterwards the Castle of Harlech, under the able governance of Davydd ap Ifan, held out against all the force that Edward IV. could bring to bear upon it, and was the last of the castles garrisoned by Lancastrians to render up its keys.

But perhaps the greatest argument against the belief that the "venomous saltpetre" was the chief cause of the decline in castellation is that of the gallant resistance made by many of these old strongholds in the Great Civil War. At that time the newest of the castles was, perhaps, about two hundred years old and had not been constructed entirely for defence; the older structures were in many cases devoid of woodwork which had perished through age and neglect. Yet these ancient buildings, now once more called upon to play their part in deadly strife, in many cases showed a resistance to attack which was simply marvellous, sometimes, as in the case of Pembroke, defying the ordnance brought to bear upon them. If a Royalist army of respectable proportions happened to be in the vicinity of a beleaguered fortress, the Parliamentarians appeared to regard its reduction as an impossibility, and in the first place devoted their entire attention to the dispersal of the field force. It is true that the condition of the unmetalled trackways, which were dignified by the name of roads, at that time, presented almost insuperable obstacles to the passage of heavy ordnance, and the advance of a cumbrous baggage train was at times an impossibility.

But even if cannon of respectable proportions could be brought against a castle in the Great Civil War, the effects produced were in many cases out of all proportion to the enormous trouble involved. Thus at the first siege of Pontefract Castle in 1644 a cannon throwing a 42-lb. shot was used in conjunction with another of 36 lbs. and two of 24 lbs., the least being 9 lbs., and yet the siege failed chiefly by reason of the small effect produced by the 1400 projectiles which were fired into it. Again although Scarborough Castle was quite ruinous in 1644 when its siege commenced, and in addition was ill-supplied with ammunition or food, yet it gallantly sustained a siege lasting for twelve months.

It may therefore be conceded from the foregoing that the assertion respecting gunpowder causing the disuse of the castle in the British Isles must be taken with a large degree of reservation, since many other causes have to be considered, and even those who maintain the assertion must admit that the reason assigned took an unconscionably long time in effecting its object.