Contents

• A Fresh Look at Early Castles
• 1. Fortresses in Transition
• 2. The Carolingian Response to Invasion
• 3. Castles and Social Reconstruction
• Variety Violated: Some Conceptual Problems
• 1. The Modern Construct of ‘The Castle’
• 2. Some Contrasts With the Sources
• 3. Castellaries Were Also ‘Castles’
• Some Social Relations of ‘Castles and Fortresses’
• 1. Earthwork and Ashlar: Policing, Hierarchy, and Aesthetics
• 2. Architectural Eulogy and Noble Ambition
• 3. Some Incidentals of the Castle Image
• 4. Conclusions: Part I - Castles ‘For All the Folk’
• Noble Military ‘Liberties’, Ethos and Ethics
• 1. Weaponry and Architecture
• 2. The Aura and the Abuse of Arms
• 3. ‘Adventures’, ‘Feasts of Arms’, and Fortresses
• 4. Castles: Innocent or Guilty?
• Peacekeeping at Home and Abroad
• 1. Fortifying and ‘Purprestures’, 1217-c.1274
• 2. Pacification and Fortifications, 1217-c.1226
• 3. The Angevin Record and ‘French’ Treaties, 1160-1200
• 4. Anglo-Scottish Affairs, 1209-1388
• Private Property But Public Utility
• 1. Legitimate Sequestration and Improper Demolition
• 2. Lordly Castles in ‘Public’ Use
• 3. Class-Conflict and Fortification
• 4. Communes and Community
• 5. Conclusions: Part II - Castles Were Not Anti-Social
• Castle-Lords, Castle-Lordships, and Noble Civilization
• 1. Some Greater English Castellans: Pride, Responsibility, and Danger
• 2. Castellation and Jurisdiction As Insignia of Nobility
• 3. Case-Studies in Seignorial Relations
• Colonization and Fortresses
• 1. Castle-Building and Colonization: Ireland
• 2. Castles and Colonization, Mainly in France
• 3. Development and Confrontation: Bastides Not ‘Fortresses’
• Populace and Fortresses: Protection and Perquisites
• 1. The Refuge-system in England and the Channel Islands
• 2. The Refuge-system of Castellaries in France
• 3. Castle-works and Services, English and Welsh
• 4. Guet et Garde, Plat Pays, and Forteresse
• 5. Conclusions: Part III - Noble Rights and Public Advantage
• Female Castellans: Prevision, Not Prejudice
• 1. Differentiating Fortress-Factors: Mainly in England
• 2. The Distinctiveness of Fortresses Under Chatelaines
• 3. Some Vicissitudes of Heiresses and Dowagers
• Ladies of Fortresses and Castle Children
• 1. Thirteenth-Century Irish and Other Widows, Wards, and Castles
• 2. Inheritance and Survival, Chiefly in the March of Scotland
• 3. Chatelaines in Prosperity and in Adversity
• 4. Conclusions: Part IV - The Social Matrix