ABSTRACT

The majority of castles were built by the crown, barons and other lords as strategic residential, political and administrative centres. The history of the castle during the later Middle Ages faithfully reflects the story of the crown and of the nobility, in other words those who were responsible for building them. They reflected the distribution of power in the kingdom, and on a number of occasions during the Middle Ages individual barons came close to rivalling the crown in the number of castles which they held. The fifteenth century Lancastrian kings owned the majority of castles and their resources were simply inadequate to maintain them all properly. In the Welsh Marches during the later Middle Ages there was a tendency to build new moated manor houses sited well away from the main village settlement, replacing earlier manor houses which had lain within the village.