Charlie Fenton’s Reviews > Castle: A History of the Buildings that Shaped Medieval Britain > Status Update
Charlie Fenton
is 3% done
'What really surprised the monk was the thing that these foreigners had built. It was a great mound of earth, topped with a large wooden tower, surrounded by an enclosure of wooden palisades. It was so new and so different that the monk didn’t even have a word of his own to describe it. In the end he had to settle for the word the foreigners themselves used, and called it a castle.'
— May 21, 2026 04:03PM
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Charlie’s Previous Updates
Charlie Fenton
is on page 28 of 304
'One need only recall the words of the Canterbury monk, for whom the construction of a castle was associated with 'insults, injuries and oppressions'. Forcing Harold's tenants to build castles and burning them alive in their houses (activities which are shown side by side on the Bayeux Tapestry) were all part of the same process of humiliating the king and provoking him to fight.'
— Jun 01, 2026 05:22AM
Charlie Fenton
is 3% done
'Despite seven years of marriage, Edward and Edith had produced no children. Godwin couldn’t be certain – and neither, of course, can we – but it seemed that his son-in-law was deliberately resisting his daughter’s charms, and spitefully frustrating any chance that there would one day be a little Godwin sitting on the English throne.'
— May 21, 2026 04:05PM
