Crenellation

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Crenellation (or crenelation, also known as castellation) is the name for the distinctive pattern that frames the tops of the walls of many medieval castles, often called battlements. Crenellation most commonly takes the form of multiple, regular, rectangular spaces cut out of the top of the wall to allow defenders spaces to shoot arrows from and other spaces to hide behind full cover.

Ornamental crenellations on Taymouth Castle, Scotland, built 1810

The technical name for an opening in crenellations is embrasure or crenel, while the raised portions of the wall between them are called merlons. Crenellations would have been used originally on defensive walls built around a settlement (with or without a castle), but the modern experience of them is mainly their appearance on the towers and turrets of castles and mock-castles. They can also be seen in large numbers on the Great Wall of China.

Crenellations are easy to build, and have been used to give a castle-like look to buildings for a long time, especially in baronial architecture. However, some have suggested that as an ornamental feature they may have a very long history, with a "license to crenelate" being granted to the privileged.^[1] An indicator of this is that "real" crenellations for defensive use would be expected to have embrasures that are narrow and tall, to allow an archer to conceal his body for safety behind the merlons.

Ornamental crenellations are often evenly spaced and too small for practical archery. The size of ornamental crenellations is likely to be dictated by the scale of the building to which they are attached. The practical use of crenellations, and the idea that a castle could be defended at all, cannot long have survived the introduction of gunpowder and artillery.

[edit] Licence to crenellate

In England Norman nobles could not build castles without the permission of the king, because a castle might be viewed as a threat to the crown. A building could be forfeited to the king if it had not been authorised. The limit of the allowable fortification was defined by crenellation. This feature was deemed to be the distinguising feature that separated a castle from a fortified manor house. Permission was granted by a "licence to crenellate" sometimes granted by the king, sometimes by a bishop.