In 1577 Raphael Holinshed published a history of the British Isles in two volumes entitled The Chronicles of England, Scotland and Ireland. Within it was included William Harrison's most famous work, A Description of England, a treatise dedicated to describing England's geographic, economic, social, religious, and political events. For example, Chapter 14, ‘Of castels and holds’, tells an illuminating tale of the history of the castle in England. Harrison begins:

The tale continues with King Stephen, Henry II, and Henry III, after which we reach Henry VIII:

For Harrison there was a clear connection between threats – internal and external – and the building of castles. Similarly, for many modern scholars this link between conflict and defensive architecture was straightforward. Moreover, however – and which is more relevant to the pages that follow – Harrison constantly refers to the people who built them, expressing the intimate relationship between castles and those who built and occupied them. This association is the crux of this book.

This study takes a firmly interdisciplinary approach to the socio-cultural understanding of castles in the early Tudor period. Its central focus is not on the architectural prototypes or the typological features of the early Tudor castle, nor does it make much comment on architectural form. Instead, working from the assumption that both space and objects are meaningful, and that their meanings both affected people and were affected by the people who interacted in the built environment, it focuses on the people and everyday activities that were associated with the castle in early Tudor England and Wales. It explores how the spatial organisation of the castle influenced the interactions between the different groups of people who lived in, worked in, and visited these buildings, and thereby illuminates the semiotics and the socio-cultural associations of people, objects, and space.