Fortresses and fashion statements: gentry castles in Fourteenth-Century Northumberland
Fortresses and fashion statements: gentry castles in Fourteenth-Century Northumberland
The fourteenth century saw a dramatic upsurge of new castle building in northern England. Not unreasonably, historians have associated this with the Scottish wars, seeing this proliferation as a direct response to Scottish raiding, and assuming that these castles were designed and built solely to perform a defensive military function. However, recent work on castles has questioned such purely functionalist interpretations. This article examines the castles built in the fourteenth century by the ‘gentry’ of Northumberland, the most exposed of all the border counties to Scottish attack, and sets them in their local and national contexts. Were these castles just built as defensive fortresses, or did they also serve a more symbolic role, in a society which had rapidly become militarised with the onset of war in 1296? Were they in fact intended as much to keep up with the neighbours as to keep out the Scots?
372-397
King, Andy
e25571c8-c35e-448e-b7fe-308adef688e6
2007
King, Andy
e25571c8-c35e-448e-b7fe-308adef688e6
King, Andy
(2007)
Fortresses and fashion statements: gentry castles in Fourteenth-Century Northumberland.
Journal of Medieval History, 33 (4), .
(doi:10.1016/j.jmedhist.2007.09.003).
Abstract
The fourteenth century saw a dramatic upsurge of new castle building in northern England. Not unreasonably, historians have associated this with the Scottish wars, seeing this proliferation as a direct response to Scottish raiding, and assuming that these castles were designed and built solely to perform a defensive military function. However, recent work on castles has questioned such purely functionalist interpretations. This article examines the castles built in the fourteenth century by the ‘gentry’ of Northumberland, the most exposed of all the border counties to Scottish attack, and sets them in their local and national contexts. Were these castles just built as defensive fortresses, or did they also serve a more symbolic role, in a society which had rapidly become militarised with the onset of war in 1296? Were they in fact intended as much to keep up with the neighbours as to keep out the Scots?
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King, 'Fortresses and Fashion Statements', JMH.pdf
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Published date: 2007
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Local EPrints ID: 393549
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/393549
ISSN: 0304-4181
PURE UUID: 3fc4a0c8-7e7c-4a36-83d2-a4136cb48bef
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Date deposited: 28 Apr 2016 14:21
Last modified: 15 Mar 2024 03:27
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