The symposium will focus on the political and military aspects of castles in medieval warfare, in particular during the period AD 1000–1660. Castles were strongholds of vital military importance and played a central role in the political strategies of the ruling elite. The role of castles in medieval warfare has long been considered a topic primarily for a narrow circle of specialists in military history, while historians have generally focused on the broader social, economic and political aspects of castles and archaeologists focused on the structural aspects and excavations of particular sites. The picture is changing, however, and both historians and archaeologists are starting to recognise decisive importance of castles in medieval warfare.
Author(s): Rainer Atzbach, Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen, Leif Plith Lauritsen (eds.)
Series: Castles of the North, 1
Publisher: Dr. Rudolf Habelt
Year: 2015
Language: English
Pages: 230
City: Bonn
Introduction 7
PART I: THE ROLE OF CASTLES IN POLITICAL STRATEGY
Aleksander Andrzejewski and Leszek Kajzer / Castles of the Polish Nobility: A Case Study on the Basis of the Family Koniecpolski of Pobóg 11
Knut Arstad / The Use of Castles as Military Strongholds in the Norwegian Civil Wars of the 12th and 13th Centuries 25
Felix Biermann / Slavic Strongholds South of the Baltic at War 39
Jan Kock / Danish Castles and Fortified Cities During the 16th and the Beginning of the 17th Centuries 59
Ieva Ose / The Livonian War (1558–1583) and the Ruination of Castles, in Particular Kirchholm and Wenden 75
Carsten Selch Jensen / Castles and War in 13th Century Livonia and Estonia According to Henry of Livonia 87
Claus Frederik Sørensen / Nyborg During the Count’s Feud (1534–1536) with a Closer Look Upon the City's Later Renaissance Fortifications 101
PART II: CASTLES DURING WARFARE AND SIEGES
Rainer Atzbach / The Legend of Hot Tar or Pitch as a Defensive Weapon 119
Vivian Etting / The Fatal Siege of the Royal Castle in Stockholm (1501–1502) – The Beginning of the End of the Nordic Union 135
Jesper Hjermind / Three Castles at Hald: An Unfinished Earthwork and a Forgotten Siege – New Archaeological Investigations into the Medieval Fortifications at
Hald 147
Leif Plith Lauritsen / The After Math of a Siege – The Castle and its Surroundings After a Siege. Based Upon Local Assemblages from Lolland-Falster 173
Peter Purton / "Suffossores immiserunt ad subvertundum muros" – Mines and Miners in Medieval Siege Warfare 187
Anders Reisnert / The Siege and Storm of Lindholmen During the Second Hanseatic War (1368–1369) 203
Olaf Wagener / Sieges, Siege Castles, and the Question of Visibility – New Research with the Help of LiDAR-scans 217
