About Medieval Dungeons

Dungeons hold an especially terrifying image of torture, darkness, chains, deprivation and a lifetime of misery in modern imaginations. The history of dungeons is almost as old as Europe itself, and though it did not start off that way, dungeons and imprisonment eventually evolved into the prison system we have today.

History

The English word dungeon is derived from the French word "donjon," which means "lord." A French donjon was the keep where the lord of the castle was most protected during a battle. The keep was a fortress within the center of the castle that was the last line of defense for the defending armies. Keeps were usually taller than the rest of the castle; in the event that the outer walls were taken, defenders would still have a height advantage.
French kings and lords imprisoned their enemies in "oubliettes" and "cachots" rather than in the donjon. An oubliette is a tall room that is accessible only from a hatch in the roof and is drawn from the French word "to forget." Typically rivals to the king or lord or political enemies are kept in oubliettes or in cachots (the French word for cell) in the deepest part of the castle. The English meaning of dungeon, therefore, is closer to oubliette and cachot than donjon.

Significance

The use of underground prisons to hold enemies of the state and dissidents came from the Roman period where in the 7th century, Roman authorities would house rabble-rousers in a dungeons beneath the city sewers. There, they would be deprived of sunlight, food and comfort for the term of their imprisonment, which lasted for several years (if they lived long enough).
This tradition of housing political prisoners was picked up by the Germanic tribes and other societies of Europe after the fall of Rome. Medieval dungeons were places to quietly hold rivals to the king or lord, where they could expect a short life of misery. Common criminals, however, were often beaten, tortured and executed in public for the entertainment of the masses. Executions occurred rather commonly, usually presaged by exotic tortures, often for the most minor of infractions.

Function

A political prisoner housed in a dungeon could expect to receive very little food and possibly be tortured, though that was not the main purpose of medieval dungeons. Rivals to the king or lord's power, such as brothers, cousins, uncles and other family members, were often tortured out of revenge and a display of power by the king of lord and not subject to public executions except in rare cases; usually the rival just "disappeared."
Medieval dungeons, however, did eventually evolve to house other kinds of prisoners such as former Jewish converts to Christianity during the Spanish Inquisition. Torture and imprisonment were common during the 15th century in Spain; guilt was assumed to be proven and the torture was merely to break the person so they would confess infidelity with Christianity and other horrific acts that leapt to the imagination of the Inquisitors. Jews, Muslims, heretics and men or women who were accused of being warlocks or witches were often imprisoned in Church-directed jails and dungeons in both Catholic and Protestant countries throughout the 14th, 15th and 16th centuries. The tradition was exported to the Americas where in the 17th century, Puritans constructed wooden jails and dungeons to hold prisoners as well as torture them.

Considerations

Literary works have often referred to dungeons and the deprivation of being imprisoned in one. For example, Alexander Dumas' "The Count of Monte Cristo" places the protagonist in the infamous Chateau d'If, from which there is no escape. The descriptions in Dumas' book replicate the deprivation of human contact, damp and cold, poor and irregular food and lack of sunlight and fresh air that many prisoners in medieval dungeons would have experienced. In fact, Dumas' character is only able to escape by pretending to be his dead friend who is scheduled to be thrown over the Chateau's walls into the sea.
It is interesting to not that some dungeons in the later ages were not in the basement of a castle at all, but sometimes the top-most room of a tower was also used as a prison, though for prisoners who had a certain level of respectability, public profile or sentimental value to the lord or king.

Expert Insight

With the invention of medieval fantasy role-playing games, the word "dungeon" has come to encompass labyrinths, mazes, tunnels, mines, deserted castles, and abandoned cities rather than places of imprisonment. In the classic role-playing game, Dungeons and Dragons, players create alternate personae called "characters" who explore dungeons in an effort to find treasure, defeat evil opponents and gain glory and fame. The word "dungeon" has appeared in dozens of computer role-playing games as well, including Dungeon Siege by Microsoft, Dungeon Master by FTL and Dungeon Keeper by Bullfrog; each uses the word "dungeon" to evoke a Dungeons and Dragons-like medieval fantasy experience.
Dungeon has also been adopted in the fetish sub-culture of Bondage and Discipline (B&D) and Sado Masochism (S&M) to evoke the pain and deprivation of medieval dungeons in a sexual or semi-sexual milieu. It is interesting to note that the most famous sadist, the Marquis de Sade, had spent a good portion of his life as a prisoner in the medieval dungeon-like Bastille for his depravity and revolutionary writings.

Resources

• Encarta definition of Dungeons
• Definition of "Cachot" (French)
• Spark Notes summary of Count of Monte Cristo