Château Gaillard
Château Gaillard | |
---|---|
Roger de Lacy | |
Occupants | Duchy of Normandy Kingdom of England Kingdom of France |
Château Gaillard (French pronunciation:
Château Gaillard was captured in 1204 by the king of France,
History
Background
Richard the Lionheart inherited Normandy from his father,
Construction
Perched high above the River Seine, an important transport route, the site of Château Gaillard, in the
In an attempt to get
During King Richard's reign, the Crown's expenditure on castles declined from the levels spent by Henry II, Richard's father, although this has been attributed to a concentration of resources on Richard's war with the king of France.[14] However, the work at Château Gaillard cost an estimated £12,000 between 1196 and 1198.[15] Richard only spent an estimated £7,000 on castles in England during his reign, similar as his father Henry II.[16] The Pipe rolls for the construction of Château Gaillard contain the earliest details of how work was organised in castle building and what activities were involved. Amongst those workmen mentioned in the rolls are miners, stone cutters, quarrymen, masons, lime workers, carpenters, smiths, hodmen, water carriers, soldiers to guard the workers, diggers who cut the ditch surrounding the castle, and carters who transported the raw materials to the castle.[17] A master mason is omitted, and military historian Allen Brown has suggested that it may be because Richard himself was the overall architect; this is supported by the interest Richard showed in the work through his frequent presence.[6]
Not only was the castle built at considerable expense, but it was built relatively rapidly;[13] construction of large stone castles often took the better part of a decade; for instance, the work at Dover Castle took place between 1179 and 1191 (at a cost of £7,000).[16] Richard was present during part of the construction to ensure construction proceeded at a rate he was happy with.[18] According to William of Newburgh, in May 1198 Richard and the labourers working on the castle were drenched in a "rain of blood". While some of his advisers thought the rain was an evil omen, Richard was undeterred:[19]
the king was not moved by this to slacken one whit the pace of work, in which he took such keen pleasure that, unless I am mistaken, even if an angel had descended from heaven to urge its abandonment he would have been roundly cursed.
— William of Newburgh[20]
After just a year, Château Gaillard was approaching completion and Richard remarked "Behold, how fair is this year-old daughter of mine!"[6] Richard later boasted that he could hold the castle "were the walls made of butter".[21] By 1198, the castle was largely completed.[6] At one point, the castle was the site of the execution of three soldiers of the king of France in retaliation for a massacre of Welsh mercenaries ambushed by the French; the three were thrown to their deaths from the castle's position high above the surrounding landscape.[22] In his final years, the castle became Richard's favourite residence, and writs and charters were written at Château Gaillard, bearing "apud Bellum Castrum de Rupe" (at the Fair Castle of the Rock).[13] Richard did not enjoy the benefits of the castle for long, however, as he died in Limousin on 6 April 1199, from an infected arrow wound to his shoulder, sustained while besieging Châlus.[23][24]
The Siege of Château Gaillard
After Richard's death, King John of England failed to effectively defend Normandy against Philip's ongoing campaigns between 1202 and 1204.[25] The Château de Falaise fell to Philip's forces, as well as castles from Mortain to Pontorson while Philip simultaneously besieged Rouen,[26] which capitulated to French forces on 24 June 1204, effectively ending Norman independence.[27] Philip laid siege to Château Gaillard, which was captured after a long siege from September 1203 to March 1204. As Philip continued the siege throughout the winter and King John made no attempt to relieve the castle, it was only a matter of time before the castellan was forced to capitulate.[28] The main source for the siege is Philippidos, a poem by William the Breton, Philip's chaplain. As a result, modern scholars have paid little attention to the fate of the civilians of Les Andelys during the siege.[22]
The local Norman population sought refuge in the castle to escape from the French soldiers who ravaged the town. The castle was well supplied for a siege, but the extra mouths to feed rapidly diminished the stores. Between 1,400 and 2,200 non-combatants were allowed inside, increasing the number of people in the castle at least fivefold. In an effort to alleviate the pressure on the castle's supplies,
The French gained access to the outermost ward by undermining its advanced main tower. Following this, Philip ordered a group of his men to look for a weak point in the castle. They gained access to the next ward when a soldier named Ralph found a latrine chute in use through which the French could clamber into the chapel.[29] After ambushing several unsuspecting guards, and setting fire to the buildings, Philip's men then lowered the movable bridge and allowed the rest of their army into the castle. The Anglo-Norman troops retreated to the inner ward.[28] After a short time, the French successfully breached the gate of the inner ward, and the garrison retreated finally to the keep. With supplies running low, Roger de Lacy and his garrison of 20 knights and 120 other soldiers surrendered to the French army, bringing the siege to an end on 6 March 1204.[28] In drawn-out medieval sieges, contemporary writers often emphasised the importance of dwindling supplies in the capitulation of the garrison, as was the case with the Siege of Château Gaillard.[30] With the castle under French control, the main obstacle to the French entering the Seine valley was removed; they were able to enter the valley unmolested and take Normandy. Thus, for the first time since it had been given as a duchy to Rollo in 911, Normandy was directly ruled by the French king.[31] The city of Rouen surrendered to Philip II on 23 June 1204.[32] After that, the rest of Normandy was easily conquered by the French.[31]
Under French control
In 1314, Château Gaillard was the prison of
During the Hundred Years' War between the English and French crowns, possession of the castle switched several times. Château Gaillard—along with
By 1573, Château Gaillard was uninhabited and in a ruinous state, but it was still believed that the castle posed a threat to the local population if it was repaired. Therefore, at the request of the
Layout and innovations
Château Gaillard consists of three baileys—an inner, a middle, and an outer with the main entrance to the castle—and a keep, also called a donjon, in the inner bailey. The baileys, which were separated by rock-cut ditches,[13] housed the castle's stables, workshops, and storage facilities.[44] It is common for extant castles to be the result of several phases of construction, and were adapted and added to over the period of their use; however Château Gaillard essentially is the result of one period of building.[19] The division into three wards bears similarities with the design of Château de Chinon, built by Henry II in the mid-12th century on a promontory overlooking a town.[45]
The outer bailey is the southernmost feature of the castle; it is pentagon shaped and there are five towers spaced along the wall, three of which are at corners. North of the outer bailey is the middle bailey which is an irregular polygon; like the outer bailey, the wall of the middle bailey is studded with towers. The towers allowed the garrison to provide
Within the middle bailey was the inner bailey. The gatehouse from the middle of the inner bailey was one of the earliest examples of towers flanking the entrance to remove the blind spot immediately in front of the gate.[49] This was part of a wider trend from around the late 12th or 13th century onwards for castle gateways to be strongly defended.[50]
The design of the inner bailey, with its wall studded with semicircular projections, is unparalleled.[13] This innovation had two advantages: firstly, the rounded wall absorbed the damage from siege engines much better as it did not provide a perfect angle to aim at; secondly, the arrowslits in the curved wall allowed arrows to be fired at all angles.[51][52] The inner bailey, which contained the main residential buildings, used the principles of concentric defence.[53] This and the unusual design of the inner bailey's curtain wall meant that castle was advanced for its age, since it was built before concentric fortification was fully developed in Crusader castles such as Krak des Chevaliers.[13][53] Concentric castles were widely copied across Europe; for instance, when Edward I of England—who had himself been on Crusade—built castles in Wales in the late 13th century, four of the eight he founded were concentric.[53][54]
The keep was inside the inner bailey and contained the king's accommodation.[13] It had two rooms: an antechamber and an audience room. While Allen Brown interpreted the audience room as the king's chamber, historian Liddiard believes it is probably a throne room. A throne room emphasises the political importance of the castle.[55] In England there is nothing similar to Château Gaillard's keep, but there are buildings with a similar design in France in the 12th and 13th centuries.[56]
Allen Brown described Château Gaillard as "one of the finest castles in Europe"[13] and the military historian Sir Charles Oman wrote that:
Château Gaillard, as we have already had occasion to mention, was considered the masterpiece of its time. The reputation of its builder, Coeur de Lion, as a great military engineer might stand firm on this single structure. He was no mere copyist of the models he had seen in the East, but introduced many original details of his own invention into the stronghold.
— Oman 1924[51]
Despite Château Gaillard's reputation as a great fortress, Liddiard highlights the absence of a well in the keep as a peculiar weakness, and the castle was built on soft chalk, which would have allowed the walls to be
Château Gaillard was important not solely as a military structure, but as a salient symbol of the power of Richard the Lionheart. It was a statement of dominance by Richard, having reconquered the lands Philip II had taken.[55] Castles such as Château Gaillard in France, and Dover Castle in England, were amongst the most advanced of their age, but were surpassed in both sophistication and cost by the works of Edward I of England in the latter half of the 13th century.[6]
See also
References
- Notes
- ^ Flori 1999, pp. 27–28.
- ^ Gillingham 2002, p. 123.
- ^ Gillingham 2004.
- ^ a b c d Gillingham 2002, p. 301.
- ^ a b Holbach 1912, p. 297.
- ^ a b c d e Allen Brown 2004, p. 113.
- ^ Gillingham 2002, pp. 303–305.
- ^ Turner 1997, p. 10.
- ^ Packard 1922, p. 20.
- ^ Gillingham 2002, pp. 301–302.
- ^ a b Gillingham 2002, pp. 302–304
- ^ Allen Brown 2004, p. 112.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i Allen Brown 2004, p. 62.
- ^ Allen Brown 1955, pp. 355–356.
- ^ Gillingham 2002, p. 304.
- ^ a b McLynn 2012, p. 261.
- ^ Gillingham 2002, p. 302.
- ^ Liddiard 2005, pp. 42–43.
- ^ a b Gillingham 2002, p. 303.
- ^ Quoted by Liddiard 2005, pp. 112–113.
- ^ Oman 1991, p. 32.
- ^ a b c d McGlynn 1998
- ^ Flori 1999, pp. 200, 208.
- ^ Gillingham 2002, pp. 323–325.
- ^ Turner 1993, pp. 171–200.
- ^ Powicke 1999, p. 259.
- ^ Previté-Orton 1975, p. 708.
- ^ a b c Oman 1991, p. 37.
- ^ Cummins 2007, p. 160
- ^ Allen Brown 2004, p. 139.
- ^ a b Baldwin 1969, p. 1.
- ^ Cothren 1986, pp. 211–212.
- ^ Caviness 1993, pp. 334–336.
- ^ Webster 2004
- ^ Allmand 1997, p. 130.
- ^ Burne 1976, pp. 133–134.
- ^ Allmand 1988, p. 76.
- ^ Burne 1976, p. 272.
- ^ Curry 2003, p. 96.
- ^ a b c d Château Gaillard (PDF), Tourism office of Ville Andelys, archived from the original (PDF) on 17 June 2011, retrieved 21 December 2009
- ^ a b Andelys (Les): Château Gaillard (in French), adlfi.fr, archived from the original on 20 July 2011, retrieved 21 December 2009
- ^ Allen Brown 1962–63, p. 304.
- ^ The Castle Studies Group – New Publications: New Books on Castles to be published during 2008-9, The Castle Studies Group, retrieved 21 December 2009
- ^ Friar 2003, p. 22.
- ^ Stokstad 2005, pp. 37–38
- ^ Friar 2003, p. 32.
- ^ Creswell 1953, p. 3.
- ^ Cathcart King 1988, pp. 84–87.
- ^ Allen Brown 2004, pp. 62, 64.
- ^ Cathcart King 1988, pp. 77–78.
- ^ a b Oman 1991, p. 33.
- ^ Friar 2003, pp. 124–125.
- ^ a b c Friar 2003, p. 77.
- ^ Cathcart King 1988, p. 83.
- ^ a b c Liddiard 2005, p. 54.
- ^ Allen Brown 2004, p. 54.
- ^ Joseph Decaëns, "Le château Gaillard" in L'architecture normande, Tome II, p. 285, editions Charles Corlet / Presses universitaire de Caen, Condé-sur-Noireau, 1997.
- Bibliography
- Allen Brown, R (1955), "Royal Castle-Building in England, 1154–1216", The English Historical Review, 70 (276), Oxford University Press: 353–398,
- Allen Brown, R (1962–63), "Conference on castles at Les Andelys, 1962", Medieval Archaeology, 6–7: 304
- Allen Brown, R (2004) [1954], Allen Brown's English Castles, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, ISBN 1-84383-069-8
- Allmand, C (1988), The Hundred Years' War: England and France at War, c. 1300–c. 1450, ISBN 978-0-521-31923-2
- Allmand, C (1997), Henry V, Yale University Press, ISBN 978-0-300-07370-6
- JSTOR 286242
- Burne, Alfred Higgins Burne (1976), The Agincourt War: A Military History of the Latter Part of the Hundred Years' War, from 1369 to 1453, Taylor & Francis, ISBN 978-0-8371-8300-8
- Cathcart King, David James (1988), The Castle in England and Wales: an Interpretative History, London: Croom Helm, ISBN 0-918400-08-2
- Caviness, Madeline (1993), "Patron or Matron? A Capetian Bride and a Vade Mecum for Her Marriage Bed", Speculum, 68 (2), Medieval Academy of America: 333–362, S2CID 163691203
- Cothren, Michael (1986), "The Seven Sleepers and the Seven Kneelers: Prolegomena to a Study of the "Belles Verrières" of the Cathedral of Rouen", Gesta, 25 (2), International Center of Medieval Art: 203–226, S2CID 190644110
- Creswell, K (1953), "Problems in Islamic Architecture", The Art Bulletin, 35 (1), College Art Association: 1–7, JSTOR 3047455
- Cummins, Joseph (2007), Turn around and run like hell: amazing stories of unconventional military strategies that worked, Murdoch Books, ISBN 978-1-921208-64-5
- ISBN 978-1-4039-0816-2
- ISBN 978-0-7486-2047-0
- Friar, Stephen (2003), The Sutton Companion to Castles, Stroud: Sutton Publishing, ISBN 978-0-7509-3994-2
- ISBN 0-300-09404-3
- Gillingham, John (2004). "Richard I [called Richard Coeur de Lion, Richard the Lionheart]". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/23498. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
- Holbach, Maude (1912), In the Footsteps of Richard Coeur de Lion, Kessinger Publishing, ISBN 9781417924301
- Liddiard, Robert (2005), Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to 1500, Macclesfield: Windgather Press Ltd, ISBN 0-9545575-2-2
- McGlynn, Sean (1 June 1998), Useless Mouths, vol. 48, History Today
- McLynn, Frank (2012). Lionheart and Lackland: King Richard, King John and the Wars of Conquest. Random House. ISBN 978-1-4464-4925-7.
- McNeill, Tom (1992), English Heritage Book of Castles, London: English Heritage and B. T. Batsford, ISBN 0-7134-7025-9
- Oman, Charles (1991) [1924], A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages, Volume Two: 1278–1485 AD, Greenhill Books
- Packard, Sydney (1922), "King John and the Norman Church", The Harvard Theological Review, 15 (1), Cambridge University Press: 15–40, S2CID 160036290
- ISBN 978-0-7190-5740-3
- ISBN 978-0-521-09977-6
- ISBN 978-0-313-32525-0
- Turner, Ralph (September 1993), "King John's military reputation reconsidered", Journal of Medieval History, 19 (3): 171–200,
- Turner, Ralph (1997), "Richard Lionheart and English Episcopal Elections", Albion: A Quarterly Journal Concerned with British Studies, 29 (1), The North American Conference on British Studies: 1–13, JSTOR 4051592
- Webster, Bruce (2004). "David II". doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/3726. (Subscription or UK public library membershiprequired.)
External links
- The sad secret of Château Gaillard - more on the tragic short lives of Blanche and Margaret, locked up here by the King of France. Plus pics
- Medieval History of Navarre.- Château Gaillard and the Queen of Navarre
- French Ministry of Culture database entries for Château Gaillard:
- Base Mérimée: The castle, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French), Base Mérimée: Inventory notice, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- Base Mérimée: Ensemble fortifié, Ministère français de la Culture. (in French)
- Château Gaillard, history and pictures (in French)
- Château Gaillard, 3D reconstitution (in French) with a link to the english page