Muhler
Imperial Majesty
- Joined
- Apr 18, 2010
- Messages
- 16,870
- City
- Eastern Jutland
- Country
- Denmark
Now let's have a closer look at a pre-renaissance castle.
Spøttrup Castle: https://app.box.com/s/okbac09brsyher8n5vtgrlm5up93qjt2
Castles around the Baltic Sea, and as such in Scandinavia, are totally different from castles in Britain, France, most of German, let alone Italy and Spain-Portugal. They are typically much more compact and if they have curtain walls, it's typically more to slow down an enemy or to mark a boundary, rather than as a serious part of the defense. And they are roofed. So you won't see walls and towers with crenelations on top in this part of Europe.
Instead you will see massive buildings and just under the roof of these buildings would be a "vægtergang" = a corridor for sentries. Here the sentries could patrol and observe unseen, in dry weather, and be far less exposed to the cold.
The massive buildings surrounded a fairly small courtyard, because the main functions of the castles (and especially the similar fortified manors) was not to provide shelter for the locals and have cattle and horses and refugees in the courtyard. They were there to react quickly, almost instantly to threats, be they in the form of a raid or more likely a local uprising. - Peasants in Denmark rebelled literally at the drop of a hat! Mostly against a local noble, hence the compact fortified manors. So the castles should be able to defend themselves with very short notice, often only a couple of hours, with a very limited garrison and to hold out for at most a couple of weeks, until the king send someone to defuse the situation or sailed in a relief force.
Armies in Denmark until well into the 13-1400's did not march, they sailed. That also included raiding forces, which were a genuine menace until around 1300. Raiding forces were usually devoid of heavy siege equipment and also lacked the time to carry through a siege, before an army could be raised to counter them.
That meant that the countless peasant rebellions in DK during the middle ages were relatively bloodless. The raids could be very bloody, but the locals simply had to seek refuge in the local church and hold out as best they could, until the raiders withdrew. Only a few making it inside a castle or fortified manor in time.
In Britain, France, Spain and so on, the castles had elaborate defenses, partly to house enough living food in shape of cattle and pigs, to house refugees and to house horses for counter attacks later on. Also because sieges here could last months, sometimes even years.
That was not the case in Denmark. An invading army laying siege to a castle would within a month or so be cut off by the king's forces sailing in and forced to withdraw. Or if it was the king's forces laying siege to a castle, it was game-out for the garrison. There would be no relief, so they would soon give up.
- All this to give a background idea of why Danish castles look nothing like "movie-castles".
A castle like Spøttrup wouldn't make it as a setting in Game of Thrones, it doesn't look impressive enough. It's simply too practical.
Back to Spøttrup.
Spøttrup started out as a farm, first mentioned in 1404, in the possession of a noble, Johan Skarpenberg. He bequeted the farm to the bishop in the nearby town of Viborg, in return for being buried inside the cathedral there. The bishop made the farm the local administrative center for the church and it was a very affluent area, so there were many valuables gathered here. So by the late 1400's it was decided to build a castle here to protect these assets, and provide a refuge for the bishop. Peasants rebelled regularly against the local bishops as well! By no later than the 1520's it was finished. - A hyper-modern castle!
Just in time for the most vicious civil war in Danish history, known as the Feud of the Count, it was a war about who was to be king of Denmark, but also a peasant rebellion against the feudal society being introduced in Denmark at the time, inspired by similar rebellions, not least the Hussites, in Central Europe. At the same time the Reformation came sweeping in, so all in all, it was a very good idea the Viborg Bishop had, building a strong castle!
The castle was indeed attacked and a part of it damaged but it held out.
After the war, the Reformation was a reality. The feudal society also, the free peasants were disarmed and the king took over control of the defense of the realm, supported by locally raised regiments led and paid for by noble families. The church was eventually evicted from Spøttrup and the crown took over.
Now that there was peace, the castle went into disrepair.
It was turned over to the Below family, who modernized the place a bit. I.e. having more home-friendly windows rather than small ports to fire crossbows and canons from. Two tower-stairs were build as well, making it more easy to get from floor to floor. That had previously been made deliberately difficult this being a castle.
Time passed. The centuries went by. The castle changed hands many times.
By the early 1900's it was realized that we had a pretty unique real life water-castle, almost in original state on our hands here in DK! The state took over and it's now a museum and a magnet for medieval reenactors.
- That was the background. Short and sweet, eh?
In the next post we shall look at the castle itself in details.
Spøttrup Castle: https://app.box.com/s/okbac09brsyher8n5vtgrlm5up93qjt2
Castles around the Baltic Sea, and as such in Scandinavia, are totally different from castles in Britain, France, most of German, let alone Italy and Spain-Portugal. They are typically much more compact and if they have curtain walls, it's typically more to slow down an enemy or to mark a boundary, rather than as a serious part of the defense. And they are roofed. So you won't see walls and towers with crenelations on top in this part of Europe.
Instead you will see massive buildings and just under the roof of these buildings would be a "vægtergang" = a corridor for sentries. Here the sentries could patrol and observe unseen, in dry weather, and be far less exposed to the cold.
The massive buildings surrounded a fairly small courtyard, because the main functions of the castles (and especially the similar fortified manors) was not to provide shelter for the locals and have cattle and horses and refugees in the courtyard. They were there to react quickly, almost instantly to threats, be they in the form of a raid or more likely a local uprising. - Peasants in Denmark rebelled literally at the drop of a hat! Mostly against a local noble, hence the compact fortified manors. So the castles should be able to defend themselves with very short notice, often only a couple of hours, with a very limited garrison and to hold out for at most a couple of weeks, until the king send someone to defuse the situation or sailed in a relief force.
Armies in Denmark until well into the 13-1400's did not march, they sailed. That also included raiding forces, which were a genuine menace until around 1300. Raiding forces were usually devoid of heavy siege equipment and also lacked the time to carry through a siege, before an army could be raised to counter them.
That meant that the countless peasant rebellions in DK during the middle ages were relatively bloodless. The raids could be very bloody, but the locals simply had to seek refuge in the local church and hold out as best they could, until the raiders withdrew. Only a few making it inside a castle or fortified manor in time.
In Britain, France, Spain and so on, the castles had elaborate defenses, partly to house enough living food in shape of cattle and pigs, to house refugees and to house horses for counter attacks later on. Also because sieges here could last months, sometimes even years.
That was not the case in Denmark. An invading army laying siege to a castle would within a month or so be cut off by the king's forces sailing in and forced to withdraw. Or if it was the king's forces laying siege to a castle, it was game-out for the garrison. There would be no relief, so they would soon give up.
- All this to give a background idea of why Danish castles look nothing like "movie-castles".
A castle like Spøttrup wouldn't make it as a setting in Game of Thrones, it doesn't look impressive enough. It's simply too practical.
Back to Spøttrup.
Spøttrup started out as a farm, first mentioned in 1404, in the possession of a noble, Johan Skarpenberg. He bequeted the farm to the bishop in the nearby town of Viborg, in return for being buried inside the cathedral there. The bishop made the farm the local administrative center for the church and it was a very affluent area, so there were many valuables gathered here. So by the late 1400's it was decided to build a castle here to protect these assets, and provide a refuge for the bishop. Peasants rebelled regularly against the local bishops as well! By no later than the 1520's it was finished. - A hyper-modern castle!
Just in time for the most vicious civil war in Danish history, known as the Feud of the Count, it was a war about who was to be king of Denmark, but also a peasant rebellion against the feudal society being introduced in Denmark at the time, inspired by similar rebellions, not least the Hussites, in Central Europe. At the same time the Reformation came sweeping in, so all in all, it was a very good idea the Viborg Bishop had, building a strong castle!
The castle was indeed attacked and a part of it damaged but it held out.
After the war, the Reformation was a reality. The feudal society also, the free peasants were disarmed and the king took over control of the defense of the realm, supported by locally raised regiments led and paid for by noble families. The church was eventually evicted from Spøttrup and the crown took over.
Now that there was peace, the castle went into disrepair.
It was turned over to the Below family, who modernized the place a bit. I.e. having more home-friendly windows rather than small ports to fire crossbows and canons from. Two tower-stairs were build as well, making it more easy to get from floor to floor. That had previously been made deliberately difficult this being a castle.
Time passed. The centuries went by. The castle changed hands many times.
By the early 1900's it was realized that we had a pretty unique real life water-castle, almost in original state on our hands here in DK! The state took over and it's now a museum and a magnet for medieval reenactors.
- That was the background. Short and sweet, eh?
In the next post we shall look at the castle itself in details.