Military technology and political resistance: castles, fleets and the changing face of comital rebellion in England and Normandy, c. 1026-1087

Strickland, M. (2016) Military technology and political resistance: castles, fleets and the changing face of comital rebellion in England and Normandy, c. 1026-1087. In: Hudson, J. and Crumplin, S. (eds.) ‘The Making of Europe’: Essays in Honour of Robert Bartlett. Brill: Leiden and Boston, pp. 145-183. ISBN 9789004248397

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Abstract

Qualifying the recent trend in castle studies to downplay the military purpose of castles in favour of symbolic and residential dimensions of castles, the study offers a major re-appraisal of the critical role played by fortifications in the rebellion of leading nobles in eleventh century Normandy, then seeks to show how the importation of the castle into England from 1066 in the wake of the Norman conquest profoundly changed the articulation of power relations between the king-duke and members of the new cross-Channel nobility. It then contextualizes this fundamental change by examining the mechanisms of armed opposition to the king deployed by earls and great magnates in late Anglo-Saxon society, in which fortifications played little or no role in contrast to the primacy of fleets in acts of open rebellion. In seeking to explain why mechanisms of rebellion of counts and earls in pre-Conquest Normandy and England were so different, it highlights fundamental differences in the respective societies and their political and military structures.

Item Type:Book Sections
Status:Published
Glasgow Author(s) Enlighten ID:Strickland, Professor Matthew
Authors: Strickland, M.
College/School:College of Arts & Humanities > School of Humanities > History
Publisher:Brill
ISBN:9789004248397
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