Life in a medieval castle

Life in a medieval castle by Frances Gies. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780690005615.

This new volume in the Crowell Medieval Life Series gives a full and authentic picture of daily life in and around that most fascinating of buildings, the medieval castle. While centering their account on Chepstow, a great English fortress whose well-preserved ruins still command the approaches to Wales, Joseph and Frances Gies have ranged widely in space and time, drawing upon examples of other castles throughout England and on the Continent. Thus, their portrait of castle life is at once intimate and comprehensive. The close-up view of actual people, places, and events is set in the context of the total panorama of medieval history. In the process, they also provide an excellent account of the castles evolution, from its beginnings in the ninth and tenth centuries as a rude mound of earth surrounded by a wooden palisade, through the thirteenth-century flowering of huge stone fortresses, to the decline of castles in the fifteenth century under the double onslaught of cannonballs and changing political conditions. The castle at war is only one aspect of castle life, however. May castles were besieged rarely, and Chepstow itself was unusual but by no means unique in passing through the Middle Ages without ever seeing an enemy before its gates. Though not neglecting the famous sieges and the castle-building strategies of kings, the main emphasis of this book is on castle life in times of peace. The authors skillfully re-create the events of a typical day in a castle, from sunup to sundown, and take the reader through the full round of the castle year, describing the annual progression of festivals and showing how the pace of life changed for lord and villager according to the cycle of planting and harvesting. The clothes people wore, the food they ate, their work, their sports, their customs, their education; heating, cooking, lighting, sanitation, water supply; the rights and obligations of the lord of the castle, his lady, the members of their household, and the villagers outside the castle walls--these are just some of the topics covered as the authors build a remarkably detailed and vibrant portrait of the medieval life. The text is enhanced by numerous excellent photographs of surviving castles, along with reproductions of scenes from medieval manuscripts. In addition, the book features a glossary of castle terms, a geographical guide to great medieval castles, a bibliography, and an index. Joseph and Frances Gies live in Barrington, Illinois. They are the authors of two other books in the Crowell Medieval Life Series: "Life in a Medieval City" and "Merchants and Moneymen: The Commercial Revolution, 1000-1500." The fourth title in the series is "The Medieval Soldier," by A. V. B. Norman.