Castellan

A governor or warden of a fort or castle.

“It would hardly be possible to quote in the literature of the fifteenth century another work giving as sober a picture as Le Jovencel of the wars of those times. We find the small miseries of miltary life, its privations and boredom, gay endurance of hardships and courage in danger. A castellan musters his garrison; there are but fifteen horses, lean and old beasts, most of them unshod. He puts two men on each horse, but of the men also most are blind of one eye or lame. They set out to seize the enemy’s laundry in order to patch the captain’s clothes. A captured cow is courteously returned to a hostile captain at his request. Reading the description of a nocturnal march, one feels as though surrounded by the silence and the freshness of the night. It is not saying too much that here military France is announcing herself in literature, which will give birth to the types of the ‘mousquetaire,’ the ‘grognard,’ and the ‘poilu.’ The feudal knight is merging into the soldier of modern times; the universal and religious ideal is becoming national and military. The hero of the book releases his prisoners without a ransom, on condition that they shall become good Frenchmen. Having risen to great dignities, he yearns for the old life of adventure and liberty.”

J. Huizinga, The Waning of the Middle Ages (1924).