The Castle Garrison: Who Actually Lived Inside

A castle garrison was the group of people who kept and defended a castle, and in peacetime it was usually very small. A constable ran the place, a porter kept the gate, a few watchmen kept the walls, and craftsmen kept the buildings standing. When Edward I settled his new castles in north Wales in 1284, Conwy and Harlech were each given 30 men and Caernarfon 40. Numbers rose sharply only when war came, and fell again as soon as it passed.

The people who ran it

The man in charge was the constable, sometimes called the castellan. He held the castle for its owner, whether that was the king, a bishop or a baron, and he answered for it if it was lost. He commanded the garrison, kept the stores and the prisoners, and in practice made most of the day-to-day decisions, because the owner was usually somewhere else.

Below him the posts that mattered most were the least glamorous. The porter held the gate, which was the one opening every attacker wanted. Watchmen kept the walls at night. A smith, a carpenter and a mason kept the fabric working, and a chaplain served the chapel. The 1284 arrangements for Conwy list that kind of staff: 30 soldiers, 15 of them crossbowmen, with a carpenter, a chaplain, a smith, an engineer and a stonemason. The constable there was also mayor of the new town by royal charter, which tells you the job was as much administration as soldiering. At Harlech the post went to Master James of St George, the castle's own builder, from 1290 to 1293.

Castle-guard: owing the castle your time

Before paid garrisons became normal, many castles were guarded through land tenure. Under castle-guard, a tenant held his estate on condition that he, or a knight he sent, served in the garrison of a named castle for a fixed period each year. The castle might be a long way from the land: knights from Northamptonshire owed guard at Dover, on the other side of the country.

That distance is why the arrangement changed so early. Riding across England to stand on a wall for a few weeks was a poor use of a knight, so the service was commuted into a fixed payment known as castle-guard rent, and the money could be used to pay for a standing garrison. The rent outlived its purpose by centuries and was still being collected into modern times.

The obligation has left marks you can still find. Several of Dover's wall towers carry the names of the families whose lands owed guard there, among them Avranches, Peverell and Crevecoeur. At Richmond the knights of the honour took turns in the garrison for a set period every year. On the Isle of Wight castle-guard was owed from almost every manor, all of them held from the lord at Carisbrooke.

Peace and war

The great households explain why so many castles were quiet. A lord moved between his houses through the year and took most of his household with him: knights, clerks, cooks, grooms and servants. When he arrived, a castle could hold well over a hundred people. When he left, it went back to its skeleton staff. Paid soldiers also turn up in the Crown's accounts, the pipe rolls, because men on wages were a cost somebody had to account for.

War changed the numbers completely. Hubert de Burgh held Dover against Prince Louis of France in 1216 with 140 knights and more than 140 serjeants, which was a very large force for a single castle. Most garrisons under siege were far smaller. Harlech came through the Welsh rising of 1294 to 1295 with a garrison reported at times as just 37 men, because ships could still reach its water gate. In the Civil War the numbers were similar: Harlech surrendered in March 1647 with 44 men, and Beeston in November 1645 with fifty-six.

The weak point was people

A small garrison could hold a big castle because the walls did most of the work. The danger was that a handful of people could be surprised. On Good Friday 1401, Rhys and Gwilym ap Tudur took Conwy for Owain Glyndwr's rising while most of the garrison was at church in the town. They got in disguised as carpenters come to work on the castle, killed the two watchmen on duty, and held it for about three months before negotiating a surrender.

The story shows how thin a castle's guard could be at any given moment, even in wartime, since Glyndwr's rising had begun the previous September. When Conwy was attacked, most of its garrison was in the town and two watchmen were on duty. The castle was lost through the gate and the watch, with its walls untouched.

Quick answers

Where to stand inside the idea

Eight castles on the roll where the record says who was actually inside:

Conwy Castle

Given a garrison of 30 in 1284, 15 of them crossbowmen, under a constable who was also the town's mayor. Taken in 1401 by two brothers posing as carpenters.

Harlech Castle

Thirty fighting men in 1284, ten of them crossbowmen. Master James of St George, its builder, was its constable from 1290 to 1293, and 44 men surrendered it in 1647.

Caernarfon Castle

The largest of the three new garrisons of 1284, at 40 men, which still left a few dozen people inside the most ambitious of Edward I's Welsh castles.

Dover Castle

One of the best-documented examples of castle-guard in England. Knights from estates across England owed service here, and several wall towers carry the names of the families who owed it.

Richmond Castle

Guarded by the knights of the honour of Richmond, each of whom took a turn in the garrison for a fixed period every year in return for their land.

Carisbrooke Castle

The seat of the lords of the Isle of Wight, where castle-guard was owed from almost every manor on the island.

Beeston Castle

A Civil War ending in numbers. When the royalist garrison surrendered in November 1645 after a year of blockade, Captain Vallet marched out with fifty-six men.

Tower of London

A guard still in residence. The Yeoman Warders have been part of the Tower since the Tudor period and still live inside its walls with their families.

See what a garrison faced under siege →Or how the castle fed them →