(Saxon castel, Latin castellum, from castrum), a fortress or place rendered defensible either by nature or art. It is also frequently applied to the principal mansion of a prince or nobleman. In the time of Henry II., there were no less than 1115 castles in England, each of which was a manor.

Castles walled with stone, and designed for residence as well as defence, are for the most part, according to Grose, of no higher antiquity than the Conquest; for although the Saxons, Romans, and even, according to some writers on antiquity, the ancient Britons, had castles built of stone, yet these were both few and so much decayed, that little more than their ruins remained. This is asserted by many of our historians and antiquaries, and assigned as a reason for the facility with which William the Norman made himself master of this country. This circumstance was not overlooked by so good a general as the Conqueror; who, in order effectually to guard against invasions from without, as well as to awe his newly-acquired subjects, immediately began to erect castles all over the kingdom, and likewise to repair and augment the old ones. Besides, as he had parcelled out the lands of the English amongst his followers, they, to protect themselves from the resentment of the depoiled natives, built strongholds and castles on their estates; and these were multiplied so rapidly, that towards the latter end of the reign of king Stephen, they amounted to the enormous number of 1115.

As the feudal system gathered strength, these castles became the heads of baronies. Each castle was a manor, and its castellan, owner, or governor, the lord of that manor. Markets and fairs were directed to be held there, not only to prevent frauds in the king's duties or customs, but also as these were esteemed places where the laws of the land were observed, and as such had a very particular privilege. But this good order did not last long, for the lords of castles began to arrogate to themselves a royal power, not only within their castles, but likewise in their environs; exercising judicature both civil and criminal, coining money, and arbitrarily seizing forage and provisions for the subsistence of their garrisons, which they afterwards demanded as a right. At length their insolence and oppression grew to such a pitch, that, according to William of Newbury, "there were in England as many kings, or rather tyrants, as lords of castles;" and Matthew Paris emphatically styles them "nests of devils and dens of thieves." Castles were not solely in the possession of the crown and the lay barons, but even bishops had such fortresses, though it seems to have been contrary to the canons, from a plea made use of in a general council in favour of king Stephen, who had seized upon the strong castles of the bishops of Lincoln and Salisbury. This prohibition, if such existed, was, however, very little regarded; and in the following reigns many strong places were held, and even defended, by the ecclesiastics; nor was greater obedience afterwards paid to a decree made by the pope at Viterbo, on the fifth of the kalends of June 1220, in which it was ordained that no person in England should keep in his hands more than two of the king's castles.

The licentious behaviour of the garrisons of these places having become intolerable, it was agreed, in the treaty between Stephen and Henry II., when only duke of Normandy, that all the castles built within a certain period should be demolished; in consequence of which many were actually razed, but not the number stipulated.

The few castles in existence under the Saxon government were probably, on occasions of war or invasion, garrisoned by the national militia, and at other times slightly guarded by the domestics of the princes or great personages who resided in them; but after the conquest, when all the estates were converted into baronies held by knight's service, castle-guard, coming under that denomination, was among the duties to which particular tenants were made liable. From these services the bishops and abbots, who till the time of the Normans had held their hands in frank almoign, or free alms, were, by this new regulation, not exempted; they were not, however, like the laity, obliged to render personal service, it being sufficient that they provided fit and able persons to officiate in their stead. This was at first stoutly opposed by Anselm, archbishop of Canterbury, who being obliged to find some knights to attend king William Rufus in his wars in Wales, complained of it as an innovation and infringement of the rights and immunities of the church.

It was no uncommon thing for the kings of those days to grant estates to men of approved fidelity and valour, on condition that they should perform castle-guard in the royal castles, with a certain number of men, for some specified time; and sometimes they were likewise bound by their tenures to keep in repair and guard some particular tower or bulwark, as was the case at Dover Castle.

In process of time these services were commuted for annual-rents, sometimes styled wardpenny, and scayffee, but commonly castle-guard rents, payable on fixed days, under prodigious penalties called surizes. At Rochester, if a man failed in the payment of his rent of castle-guard on the feast of St Andrew, his debt was doubled every tide while the payment was delayed. These were afterwards restrained by an act of parliament made in the reign of Henry VIII., and finally annihilated, with the tenures by knight's service, in the time of Charles II. Such castles as were private property were guarded either by mercenary soldiers, or by the tenants of the lord or owner.

Castles which belonged to the crown, or fell to it either by forfeiture or escheat (circumstances that frequently happened in the distracted reigns of the feudal times), were generally committed to the custody of some trusty person, who seems to have been indifferently styled governor and constable. Sometimes also they were put into the possession of the sheriff of the county, who often converted them into prisons. That officer was then accountable at the exchequer for the farm or produce of the lands belonging to the places intrusted to his care, as well as for all other profits; and he was likewise, in case of war or invasion, obliged to victual and furnish them with munitions out of the issues of his county, to which he was directed by writ of privy seal.

The situation of the castles of the Anglo-Norman kings and barons was most commonly an eminence, and near a river; a position on several accounts eligible. The whole site of the castle, which was frequently of great extent and irregular figure, was surrounded by a deep and broad ditch, called the fosse, sometimes filled with water, and sometimes dry. Before the great gate was an outwork, called a barbacan or antemural, which was a strong high wall, surmounted with turrets, designed for the defence of the gate and drawbridge. On the inside of the ditch stood the wall of the castle, about eight or ten feet thick, and between twenty and thirty feet high, with a parapet, and a kind of embrasures called crenels on the top. On this wall, at proper distances, were built square towers of two or three stories high, which served for lodging some of the principal officers of the proprietor of the castle, and for other purposes; and on the inside were erected lodgings for the common servants or retainers, granaries, storehouses, and other necessary offices. On the top of this wall, and on the flat roofs of these buildings, stood the defenders of the castle, when it was besieged, who thence discharged arrows, darts, and stones on the besiegers. The great gate of the castle stood in the course of this wall, and was strongly fortified with a tower on each side, and rooms over the passage, which was closed with thick folding doors of oak, often plated with iron, and with an iron portcullis or grate let down from above. Within this outward wall was a large open space or court, called, in the largest and most perfect castles, the outer bailey, or ballium, in which stood commonly a church or chapel. On the inside of this outer bailey was another ditch, wall, gate, and towers, inclosing the inner bailey or court, within which the chief tower or keep was built. This was a large square fabric, four or five stories in height, having small windows in prodigiously thick walls, which rendered the apartments within it dark and gloomy. This great tower was the palace of the prince, prelate, or baron, to whom the castle belonged, and the residence of the constable or governor. Underground were dismal dark vaults, for the confinement of prisoners, and sometimes called the dungeon or donjon. In this building also was the great hall, in which the owner displayed his hospitality, by entertaining his numerous friends and followers. At one end of the great halls of castles, palaces, and monasteries, there was a place raised a little above the rest of the floor, called the dales, where the chief table stood, at which persons of the highest rank dined. Though there were unquestionably great variations in the structure of castles, yet the most perfect and magnificent of them seem to have been constructed nearly on the plan here described. Such, for example, was the famous castle of Bedford, as appears from the account of the manner in which it was taken by Henry III., A.D. 1224. The castle fell after four assaults. In the first was taken the barbacan; in the second the outer bailey; in the third attack, the wall by the old tower was thrown down by the miners, where, with great danger, they possessed themselves of the inner bailey, through a chink; in the fourth assault the miners set fire to the tower, so that the smoke burst out, and the tower itself was rent so as to show some broad chinks; upon which the enemy surrendered.

Before the accession of James VI. to the throne of England, the situation of Scotland was such that every baron's house was more or less fortified, according to the power or consequence of its lord, or according to the situation of the castle. Near Edinburgh or Stirling, where the inhabitants were somewhat polished in their manners, and overawed by the seat of government, no more was necessary than towers capable of resisting the cursory attacks of robbers and thieves, who never durst stop to make a regular investment, but plundered by surprise, and, if repulsed, instantly fled. But, when further removed, as in Perthshire, Inverness-shire, or Aberdeenshire, then it was necessary to be better defended; and the aids of a peel or dungeon, with outer walls, moat, wet ditch, and barnakin, were added, to enable the lord of the keep to resist the formidable attack of his powerful adversary. The history of Scotland, so late as the reign of the Stuart family, affords a number of melancholy instances of inveterate feuds among the greater and lesser barons of that period, when every mode of fortification then in use was seldom adequate to the defence of the castle against the storm or blockade of the enraged chieftain. The third kind of fortresses which we meet with in Scotland consists of those situated on the borders of England, or on the sea-coasts of the kingdom, and in the Western Isles, and in very remote places. Many of the old castles in Scotland were situated on an island in a deep lake, or on a peninsula, which, by a broad deep cut, was made an island. This kind of fortress was only accessible in a hard frost, or by boats, which were not easily transported by a people destitute of good roads and wheel-carriages. In fact they could only be taken by surprise or blockade, the first of which was difficult, and the second tedious; so that, before the use of artillery, they might be deemed almost impregnable. On this account their situation was very desirable in the inland parts of Scotland. On the sea-coasts of Scotland we generally find the strongest and most ancient, as well as the most impregnable castles, since these had to defend themselves from the invasion of the foreign enemy, as well as the attacks of the domestic foe. Thus the barons whose lands extended to the sea-coast, perched, like the eagle, on the most inaccessible rocks that lay within their possessions.—(See Grose's Antiquities; King's Monuments Antiqua; Roy's Military Antiquities of the Romans in Britain; Britton's Architectural Antiquities; Brayley's Ancient Castles of England and Wales.)

in old writers, is also used for a fortified town or village.

CASTLE-STEAD an appellation given by the country people in the north of England to the Roman castella, as distinguished from the castra stativa, which they usually call chesters. Horsley represents this as a useful criterion by which to distinguish a Roman camp or station. There are several of these castella on Severus's wall. They are generally sixty feet square; their northern side is formed by the wall itself, which falls in with them; the intervals between them are from six furlongs and a half to seven; and they seem to have stood closest where the stations are widest apart.