The English medieval castle

The five sessions commence with the earliest castles of the Normans – Motte and Bailey and the Keep. Castles quickly adopted many roles, leading to complex room and structural arrangements, usually vertical, allowing aristocratic and often Royal accommodation. We shall examine Rochester and Dover in this light. The Crusades were a wake-up call, challenging the Christian armies with new tactics, weapons and sometimes baffling layouts. Ideas such as defence in depth and the simple shape of curtain towers seem so obvious now but these lessons were hard learn and often ended in disaster. The thirteenth century witnessed the greatest castle building programme of all, culminating with the Welsh Castles of Edward I. Castles stopped being simply defensive, though, massiveness and bulk, and became far more versatile. Clever, sometimes devious ideas of planning allowed a castle to be defended with minimal numbers and often turned the complex into an aggressive fighting machine. We shall examine Caerphilly, Denbigh, Conwy and Caernarvon and amongst others.  

The Court life of France strongly in fluence the habits and expectations of the fourteenth century English aristocracy, speciality during the 100 Years War. Castle became both the stages for Courtly activity and the backdrop for set piece open battles featuring cavalry charges, hostage taking and that English speciality, mass ranks of archers. The more the English fought in France the more French they wanted to become. We shall look at Edward III’s Windsor and John of Gaunt’s Kenilworth in this light.  

The ‘Decline of the Castle’ is a familiar phrase but is it true?  Certainly, the increase and improvement of guns and gunpowder threatened the very fabric of a castle but the actual destructive power of such devices before the sixteenth century was at best minimal. The truth lies in the changing face of warfare, who did the fighting and most important of all, having somewhere nice and cosy to sleep in at night! The great English Country House was born.

Learning outcomes

The learning outcomes for this course are:

• To appreciate the impact on the English of the events of 1066  
• To understand the lessons learnt in the Crusades  
• To trace the rise of the new rich in late medieval castle building 

Classes

1. 1066  
2. The Crusades – a steep learning curve  
3. The Castles of Edward I  
4. The Fortified Manor  
5. Castle Building in the late Middle Ages 

Typical week: Monday to Friday

For each week of study you select a morning (Am) and an afternoon (Pm) course, each course has five sessions, one each day Monday to Friday. The maximum class size is 25 students. Your weekly courses are complemented by a series of two daily plenary lectures, exploring new ideas in a wide range of disciplines. To add to the learning experience, we are also planning additional evening talks and events.

Evaluation and Academic Credit 

If you are seeking to enhance your own study experience, or earn academic credit from your Cambridge Summer Programme studies at your home institution, you can submit written work for assessment for one or more of your courses. 

Essay questions are set and assessed against the University of Cambridge standard by your Course Director, a list of essay questions can be found in the Course Materials. Essays are submitted two weeks after the end of each course, so those studying for multiple weeks need to plan their time accordingly. There is an evaluation fee of £65 per essay.

For more information about writing essays see Evaluation and Academic Credit.

Certificate of attendance

A certificate of attendance will be sent to you electronically within a week of your courses finishing.