From the Conquest to ‘the Anarchy’: castle siting in Lincolnshire and Yorkshire

The reign of King Stephen, c. 1135–54, was con­ demned by nineteenth­century historians as a period of anarchy and castles have often been seen as a cause or symptom of its instabilities. Although many aspects of Stephen’s reign have been reappraised in more recent years, an archaeological perspective of these castles and their environmental contexts is still lacking. With the aid of a Geographical Information System (GIS), this regional study provides an overview into how the succession crisis, and how the ensuing civil war between Stephen and Matilda, impacted Lincolnshire and Yorkshire. Disproving the assumptions of contemporary chroniclers that unlicensed castles were hastily built solely in militarily advantageous locations; the interplay between these structures and their landscapes shows that castle­building by the time of the mid­twelfth century was more complex. From the physical evidence available, the social, political and economic qualities inherent within the locations of these castles highlights that local magnates were conscious of the long­term benefits of this landscape and typically sited their castles regardless of the struggle for the throne.