CASTLES AT WAR Rainer Atzbach, Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen, and Leif Plith Lauritsen (eds.) Habelt-Verlag • Bonn CASTLES AT WAR Generalforsamling i Foreningen Magt, Borg og Landskab Mandag d. 16. a pril 2012 på Gl. Estrup Herregårdsmuseum Dagsorden 1) Valg af dirigent 2) Formandens beretning, herunder planer for det kommende år 3) Fremlæggelse af foreningens regnskab 4) Fremlæggelse af foreningens budget til orientering 5) Indkomne forslag 6) Fastsættelse af kontingent for medlemmerne 7) Valg af bestyrelsesmedlemmer 8) Valg af revisor og revisorsuppleant 9) Eventuelt CASTLES OF THE NORTH I Edited by The Danish Castle Research Association “Magt, Borg og Landskab” 2015 2015 DR. RUDOLF HABELT GMBH • BONN DR. RUDOLF HABELT GMBH • BONN CASTLES AT WAR Edited by Rainer Atzbach Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen Leif Plith Lauritsen The Danish Castle Research Association “Magt, Borg og Landskab” Interdisciplinary Symposium 2013 2015 2015 DR. RUDOLF HABELT GMBH • BONN DR. RUDOLF HABELT GMBH • BONN Castles at War Castles of the North I Edited by Rainer Atzbach, Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen, and Leif Plith Lauritsen The Danish Castle Research Association “Magt, Borg og Landskab” Interdisciplinary Symposium 2013 All rights reserved Assistance by Philip H. W. B. Hansen, Aarhus Layout and prepress by Katrin Atzbach, Aarhus Printed by Druckhaus Köthen, Germany Published by Foreningen “Magt, Borg og Landskab” Cover: The siege of Aubenton (1340 AD) (Source: Jean Froissart, Chroniques de la France (1470–1475), Bibliothèque Nationale de France, Français 2643, fol. 60) ISBN: 978-3-7749-3978-3 Published with financial support of: Queen Margrethe II’s Archaeological Fondation Farumgaard-Fonden Letterstedtska Föreningen School of Culture and Society Research Programme “Materials, Culture and Heritage” Aarhus University © 2015 by Dr. Rudolf Habelt GmbH, Bonn CONTENTS 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 CASTLES AT WAR INTRODUCTION Rainer Atzbach, Lars Meldgaard Sass Jensen, and Claus Frederik Sørensen INTRODUCTION Beyond this, the oldest and most prominent function of a castle has tended This anthology is the first volume of the to be neglected in scholarly discourse: its new series “Castles of the North” published strategic and tactical function as a military by the Danish Castle Research Association stronghold that played a central role in the “Magt, Borg og Landskab” (Power, Castle, political strategies of the ruling European and Landscape). This series will address elite. Even as a threat of force, a castle had papers and other contributions about current the potential to structure a conflict or to research questions concerning Danish structure the rule of a region. This role of and Northern Castles from a European castles in medieval warfare has long been perspective. The Association seeks to explore considered to be a topic primarily for a all aspects of power, castle and landscape in narrow circle of specialists in military history the medieval Realm of Denmark including and archaeologists interested in loop-holes large parts of Northern Europe and specially and mining technique. However, the picture the Baltic. It unites castle researchers from has been changing, and both historians and Denmark, Sweden, and Germany during the archaeologists have started to recognize the seminar “Borgforskerforum” which is held critical relevance of strongholds, castles, each year in the Scandinavian languages. earthworks, and redoubts in warfare. Moreover, the association is going to organize an international conference every The symposium was supported by the second year. Its aim is to put the archaeology Danish Agency for Culture, Letterstedska and history of the castles in the former Danish Föreningen, and the research programme realm into a wider and international context, “Materials, Culture and Heritage” at the since both Danish and Scandinavian history School of Culture and Society, Aarhus can only be understood as the Northern part University. Scholars from Denmark, of European culture in the Middle Ages and Germany, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Sweden, the younger periods. and the United Kingdom gathered to discuss their approaches to archaeological and This volume is the result of the first historic sources with a focus on the political international and interdisciplinary symposium and military aspects of Northern European held at Nyborg Castle April 29th-30th 2013, castles in medieval warfare. The symposium its topic was “Castles at War” in particular was divided into sessions encompassing the during the period AD 1000–1660. following general topics: For the last 20 years, archaeological and historic research has dealt with many aspects • The role of castles in political strategy of castles, their function as a noble family’s • Military aspects of castle construction seat, their role each as an administrative unit’s • Siege as one of the most important Previous page: Detail centre, their relevance for trade, craft and elements of medieval warfare. from ‘St. George consumption, the geographical, typological, fighting against the and structural appearance of individual This volume collects the contributions to dragon‘, mural in Aarhus Cathedral castles, and last but not least the castles’ that symposium and two additional papers (photo: K. Atzbach). symbolic meaning. by Jan Kock and Jesper Hjermind. Their 8 CASTLES AT WAR range encompasses “The role of castles in by an international group of specialists in political strategy” in the first part including castle research. In alphabetical order, these studies that explore the development of included Kirstin Eliasen, Nils Engberg, fortifications in general. The second part, Vivian Etting, Martin Hansson, Christofer “Castles during warfare and sieges”, presents Herrmann, Carsten Jahnke, Anna-Elisabeth case studies about individual sieges, weapons, Jensen, Vivi Jensen, Kerstin Söderlund, instruments, and strategies of warfare during Claus Frederik Sørensen, Olaf Wagener and the period under consideration. Here, a new Dorthe Wille-Jørgensen. The process of light is shed on the significant role of non- refereeing did not only reassure the scholarly descript and unimposing earthworks being a state of the art but also sought to stress the part of a besieger’s strategy to cut off a castle Scandinavian dimension of papers. under siege from communication and supply. Finally, we have to express our deepest We have to thank all authors for their gratitude to Her Majesty Queen Margrethe II´s contribution and their constructive, engaged Archaeological Foundation, Farumgaard- and fruitful cooperation with our board of Fonden, and Letterstedtska Föreningen for referees in a process of open peer review. their generous