medieval England England in the Middle Ages concerns the history of England during the medieval period, from the end of the 5th century through to the start of the Early Modern period in 1485. When England emerged from the collapse of the Roman Empire, the econ ...

Wales Wales ( cy, Cymru ) is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is bordered by England to the east, the Irish Sea to the north and west, the Celtic Sea to the south west and the Bristol Channel to the south. It had a population in ...

and the

Channel Islands The Channel Islands ( nrf, Îles d'la Manche; french: îles Anglo-Normandes or ''îles de la Manche'') are an archipelago in the English Channel, off the French coast of Normandy. They include two Crown Dependencies: the Bailiwick of Jersey, ...

a licence to crenellate (or licence to fortify) granted the holder permission to fortify his property. Such licences were granted by the king, and by the rulers of the counties palatine within their jurisdictions, i.e. by the

Bishops of Durham The Bishop of Durham is the Church of England, Anglican bishop responsible for the Diocese of Durham in the Province of York. The diocese is one of the oldest in England and its bishop is a member of the House of Lords. Paul Butler (bishop), Pau ...

, the Earls of Chester, and after 1351 by the

Dukes of Lancaster The Dukedom of Lancaster is an English peerage merged into the crown. It was created three times in the Middle Ages, but finally merged in the Crown when Henry V succeeded to the throne in 1413. Despite the extinction of the dukedom the title ...

. Licences to crenellate were issued in the 12th to 16th centuries.Goodall (2011), pp.8–9 The earliest licences present a point of contention, for instance although authorities such as

John Goodall John Goodall (19 June 1863 – 20 May 1942) was a footballer who rose to fame as a centre forward for England and for Preston North End at the time of the development of the Football League, and also became Watford's first manager in 1903. He ...

in his book ''The English Castle'' considers a charter of 1127 to be one such licence, it was rejected as such by Philip Davis. In 1199 the administration of the country began to be systematically recorded, and the majority of licences survive in the

Patent Rolls The patent rolls (Latin: ''Rotuli litterarum patentium'') are a series of administrative records compiled in the English, British and United Kingdom Chancery, running from 1201 to the present day. Description The patent rolls comprise a register ...

.Davis (2006–7), p.228

Letters patent Letters patent ( la, litterae patentes) ( always in the plural) are a type of legal instrument in the form of a published written order issued by a monarch, president or other head of state, generally granting an office, right, monopoly, tit ...

were distributed and were a public declaration that the person named within had been granted permission by the king to build a fortification.Goodall (2011), p.9 During periods of conflict, the number of licences granted usually increased. Only in a small number of cases did the Crown levy fees against those applying for licences to crenellate, and then it was only a small amount, a

mark Mark may refer to: Currency * Bosnia and Herzegovina convertible mark, the currency of Bosnia and Herzegovina * East German mark, the currency of the German Democratic Republic * Estonian mark, the currency of Estonia between 1918 and 1927 * Finn ...

or half a mark. Of those given permission to build fortifications, most were knights rather than the upper members of the aristocracy. Most applicants were individuals; however, towns could also apply and 28 licences relate to town defences. While most people who secured licences were secular, ecclesiastic institutions were also eligible: 44 licences relate to churches, abbeys, and cathedrals.Liddiard (2005), p.43 While licences were mostly granted to men, eleven women are mentioned in the surviving licences and four licences were granted directly to women.

Historiography

The term "licence to crenellate" was coined in the 19th century to describe documents that granted the holder permission to build fortifications. The reference to crenellation was chosen specifically because most of these documents made references to battlements. There has been academic debate over the purpose of licensing. The view of military-focused historians is that licensing restricted the number of fortifications that could be used against a royal army. The modern view, proposed notably by Charles Coulson, is that in time battlements became an architectural status-symbol much sought after by the socially ambitious. As he puts it, "Licences to crenellate were mainly symbolic representations of lordly status: castellation was the architectural expression of noble rank." There are over 1,500 castles in England; however, the 460 surviving licences only refer to just over 500 sites. According to Goodall, this undermines the assertion that builders had to seek permission from the Crown. Moreover, requests were rarely refused. Licences indicated to the observer that the grantee had obtained "royal recognition, acknowledgement and compliment." At

Cooling Castle Cooling Castle is a 14th-century quadrangular castle in the village of Cooling, Kent on the Hoo Peninsula about north of Rochester, Kent, Rochester. It was built in the 1380s by the Baron Cobham, Cobham family, the local lords of the manor, to ...

in Kent, a brass plaque on the outer gatehouse, an engraved charter of 1381, reads, "I am made in the help of the country." In the opinion of archaeologist Matthew Johnson, the castle's defences are a sham, as there was no room for a parapet on top of the walls, and the gunports of the inner gatehouse were impractical. The architecture is effectively a boast of military importance, as is the licence.Johnson (2002), pp.xiii–xix The castle's defences could, however, act as a deterrent against wandering bands of thieves, and Davis has suggested that the function of battlements was comparable to the modern practice of householders fitting highly visible

CCTV Closed-circuit television (CCTV), also known as video surveillance, is the use of video cameras to transmit a signal to a specific place, on a limited set of monitors. It differs from broadcast television in that the signal is not openly ...

and burglar alarms, often merely dummies.

References

Bibliography

* * *Eales, Richard, 2003, "Royal power and castles in Norman England", in Liddiard, Robert (ed.) ''Anglo-Norman Castles'', Woodbridge: Boydell & Brewer. pp. 41–68 * Goodall, John, 2011, ''The English Castle'', London: Yale Books. . *Johnson, Matthew, 2002, ''Behind the Castle Gate: From Medieval to Renaissance'', London: Routledge, *Liddiard, Robert, 2005, ''Castles in Context: Power, Symbolism and Landscape, 1066 to 1500'', Macclesfield: Windgather Press Ltd.

Historiography

See also

References

Bibliography

Further reading