What is: An Adulterine Castle

Castle in Medieval times were thought of in the feminine gender.  A castle that had never been taken by siege was a maiden castle.  Castles taken by siege could be taken or ravaged, words that strongly suggested physical assault (rape).  Likewise, a castle could be an adulteress, though not quite in the Biblical sense. 

Perhaps this vivid imagery in relation to castles illustrates their importance in Medieval life.  A castle was not only an important defense asset, it was also a status symbol.  To have a castle marked a wealthy baron or nobleman as on a par with the king, and able to hold his own if the king was displeased with him.  During periods of unrest, castle building was apt to increase.  Castles which were built without royal permission were said to be adulterine, just as an adulterous woman or her child might be labeled.  In other words, they were built without official royal permission and off the record, just as an adulterous affair was one unsanctioned by the Church even if the couple felt they had gone through some type of wedding ceremony.  Adultery was dangerous, because it threatened the succession of royal and noble houses.  Unauthorized castle construction was dangerous, as it allowed an over-mighty subject to defy his king.

During the period of unrest known as the Anarchy, 1135-1153, the forces of Empress Matilda and King Stephen battled for the English throne and numerous nobles built castles.  When Henry II finally emerged from the chaos as King of England, he had a stern rebuke for all those unauthorized castles.  They were demolished, torn down or damaged, in a word slighted or humiliated, just as an adulterous woman might be.  Slighting a castle meant to demolish it or damage it so that it could no longer be used for defense.  Some of the castles from the Anarchy period are so badly slighted that only the mottes or hills on which they were built are visible today.  Slighting castles was a visible means of a monarch asserted their power and other castles were slighted following various rebellions in the Plantagenet era, such as the Barons' Wars.  During the English Civil War, Royalist and Roundhead forces often slighted castles to prevent the other side from using them.