posted 12-11-2002 09:56 PM            

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The king and queen only lived in the royal castles, but would often stay at others when the need arose.
Most castles were the home of the local feudal lord and lady, and depending on the size of the castle, could have several knights, squires, a garrison of soldiers, servants, cooks, a baker, stablehands, smiths, an armourer, falconer, miller and so on.

Erik

posted 12-12-2002 06:23 AM            

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What Eric just described are the inhabitants of a big castle. But there were hundreds of castles much smaller (just a fortified house and/or tower with a surrounding wall). The inhabitans of such a castle would be only the noblemans family and one or two servants.

And the inhabitants and the owners of a castle were not always identical: A powerfull Lord may have had a dozen castles in his posession but could'nt look after all of them in person. So he gave them to trusted men of lower nobility to live there and take care of his posessions and feudal rights.