Customer Reviews

Castles in Medieval Society: Fortresses in England, France, and Ireland in the Central Middle Ages

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Coulson seeks to revise the understanding of castles as basically military structures to an understanding of them as images of the primary factors and the complexity of European society in the time from the fall of Rome to the late Middle Ages. This society was basically hierarchical and aristocratic. Today's conventional conception of a castle as more or less a fortification is a largely romantic notion bearing little relation to the true place of castles in medieval society. In medieval Europe, towns, ecclesiastical areas, estates and mansions, and even temporary earthworks of a traveling army were regarded as castles. The word "fortalicium" originally used for "castle" meant "element" or "sign" of fortification more than strictly a military fortification. In the medieval society, this was understood to mean above all "a symbolism of aristocratic armed power." As symbols of this power, castles were also social centers where most of the interaction of the different social classes took place. As Coulson remarks, there is no military history associated with most castles. In his revision of the conception of castles, the author elaborates on the presence of high-rankng women in many of them. Coulson is a research fellow at England's U. of Kent. He does not undercut the significance of castles in medieval society; rather, he shifts the understanding of what their significance was.

I met Dr. Coulson at the parish church in Nonington several weeks ago and have since had one of the staff at the Center for Kentish Studies recommend his book so I'm really looking forward to getting it. Coulson is history staff at the University of Kent. The recommendation I received was based on his attention to daily life and the social implications of what we might call "Castle culture" in the localities. We will see......I will post again after the book arrives.