The hundred Years War has left its bloody mark on Anglo-French history, leaving us with an apocalyptic image of the end of the medieval period : unending conflicts, bloody power struggles, pillaging soldiers devastating the countryside, long famines punctuated by terrible epidemics, and so on.

This climate of insecurity made men think twice about their age-old concepts of fortification and protect themselves and their property better. They put all their intellectual resources into finding ways of resisting increasingly effective siege weapons, particularly artillery using gunpowder. The machicolation-crowned walls, surmounted by pinnacles, rose up and thickened to the sound of canon.

But those troubled times also heralded an important turning point in the lifestyle of the governing classes. Castles were indeed still places to protect the nobles from outside forces, but they were also there for the comfort of their occupants. Make way for long pointed shoes and jewels, for pelisses and hennins, within those fortresses-palaces that were the showcases of a sumptuous court with all its turbulence and its mischief.