Castle: Difference between revisions

{{use British English|date=August 2019}}

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A 'pleasance' is a style of walled-in royal or noble residence, used by some [[English nobility|nobility]] in the [[late medieval period]]. In particular, a 'pleasance' necessarily had extensive, elaborate gardens; these are sometimes called by the modern descriptive phrase "stately pleasure gardens". They were built in northern Europe after [[gunpowder]] and [[cannon]] had obsoleted the [[early medieval]] military castles. In general, a 'pleasance' was ''intentionally'' built to resemble a militarily-functional castle, so that it could serve as what one could call "''landscape propaganda''" – a reminder to those viewing it from the outside of the superior power and status of the resident nobility which had been dispatched from castle [[garrison]]s in the prior generation(s). And a 'pleasance' was built to resemble those remembered castles, even though to reduce expense, the walls were not adequate as fortifications, as-built;<ref name=TT-2010-10-10-chnl4/> with the possible exception of those (if any) made by remodelling obsolete, formerly functional castles.}} Use of the term has varied over time and, sometimes, has also been applied to structures such as [[hill fort]]s and 19th- and 20th-century homes built to resemble castles. Over the Middle Ages, when genuine castles were built, they took on a great many forms with many different features, although some, such as [[curtain wall (fortification)|curtain wall]]s, [[arrowslit]]s, and [[portcullis]]es, were commonplace.

 

Many northern European castles were originally built from earth and timber but had their defences replaced later by [[stonemasonry|stone]]. Early castles often exploited natural defences, lacking features such as towers and arrowslits and relying on a central [[keep]]. In the late 12th&nbsp;and early 13th&nbsp;centuries, a scientific approach to castle defence emerged. This led to the proliferation of towers, with an emphasis on [[Enfilade and defilade|flanking fire]]. Many new castles were polygonal or relied on concentric defence&nbsp;– several stages of defence within each other that could all function at the same time to maximise the castle's firepower. These changes in defence have been attributed to a mixture of castle technology from the [[Crusades]], such as [[Concentric castle|concentric fortification]], and inspiration from earlier defences, such as [[castra|Roman forts]]. Not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature, so that devices such as [[moat]]s evolved from their original purpose of defence into symbols of power. Some grand castles had long winding approaches intended to impress and dominate their landscape.

 

 

==Definition==