EUROPEAN CASTLES vs MONGOL INVASION
The New Cambridge Medieval History
Volume IV c. 1024–c. 1198 Part 1
edited by DAVID ABULAFIA
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
First published 1999 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
Chapter 19. Architecture and the visual arts. / Peter Kidson. / pp. 693-732


The New Cambridge Medieval History
Volume IV c. 1024–c. 1198 Part 1
edited by DAVID ABULAFIA
Cambridge Histories Online © Cambridge University Press, 2008
First published 1999 Printed in the United Kingdom at the University Press, Cambridge
Chapter 19. Architecture and the visual arts. / Peter Kidson. / pp. 693-732
p. 705
"...Castles are usually regarded as military installations, and no doubt in the last resort they might have to be defended. But their everyday function was to provide a setting in which lords and ladies could behave like lords and ladies, and in the constant tussle between military effectiveness and residential convenience, the long-term trend was in the latter direction. By the end of the twelfth century the number of castles in western Europe that could withstand a serious siege was not large..."
"...Castles are usually regarded as military installations, and no doubt in the last resort they might have to be defended. But their everyday function was to provide a setting in which lords and ladies could behave like lords and ladies, and in the constant tussle between military effectiveness and residential convenience, the long-term trend was in the latter direction. By the end of the twelfth century the number of castles in western Europe that could withstand a serious siege was not large..."

