A reconstruction of York Castle in the 14th century, showing the castle's stone keep (top) overlooking the castle bailey (below)

A keep (from the Middle English kype) is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility. Scholars have debated the scope of the word keep, but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the castle fall to an adversary. The first keeps were made of timber and formed a key part of the motte and bailey castles that emerged in Normandy and Anjou during the 10th century; the design spread to England as a result of the Norman invasion of 1066, and in turn spread into Wales during the second half of the 11th century and into Ireland in the 1170s. The Anglo-Normans and French rulers began to build stone keeps during the 10th and 11th centuries; these included Norman keeps, with a square or rectangular design, and circular shell keeps. Stone keeps carried considerable political as well as military importance and could take up to a decade to build.

During the 12th century new designs began to be introduced - in France, quatrefoil-shaped keeps were introduced, while in England polygonal towers were built. By the end of the century, French and English keep designs began to diverge: Philip II of France built a sequence of circular keeps as part of his bid to stamp his royal authority on his new territories, while in England castles were built that abandoned the use of keeps altogether. In Spain, keeps were increasingly incorporated into both Christian and Islamic castles, although in Germany the use of tall towers called bergfried, rather than keeps in the western fashion, were preferred. In the second half of the 14th century there was a resurgence in the building of keeps. In France, the keep at Vincennes began a fashion for tall, heavily machicolated designs, a trend adopted in Spain most prominently through the Valladolid school of Spanish castle design. Meanwhile, in England tower keeps became popular amongst the most wealthy nobles: these large keeps, each uniquely designed, formed part of the grandest castles built during the period.

By the 16th century, however, keeps were slowly falling out of fashion as fortifications and residences. Many were destroyed between the 17th and 18th centuries in civil wars, or incorporated into gardens as an alternative to follies. During the 19th century, keeps became fashionable once again and in England and France a number were restored or redesigned by Gothic architects. Despite further damage to many French and Spanish keeps during the wars of the 20th century, keeps now form an important part of the tourist and heritage industry in Europe.

Etymology and historiography[link]

A 19th century reconstruction of the keep at Château d'Étampes

Since the 16th century, the English word keep has commonly referred to large towers in castles.^[1] The word originates from around 1375 to 1376, coming from the Middle English term kype, meaning basket or cask, and was a term applied to the shell keep at Guînes, said to resemble a barrel.^[2] The term came to be used for other shell keeps by the 15th century.^[1] By the 17th century, the word keep lost its original reference to baskets or casks, and was popularly assumed to have come from the Middle English word keep, meaning to hold or to protect.^[1]

Early on, the use of the word keep became associated with the idea of a tower in a castle that would serve both as a fortified, high-status private residence and a refuge of last resort.^[3] The issue was complicated by the building of fortified Renaissance towers in Italy called tenazza that were used as defences of last resort and were also named after the Italian for to hold or to keep.^[1] By the 19th century Victorian historians incorrectly concluded that the etymology of the words "keep" and tenazza were linked, and that all keeps had fulfilled this military function.^[1]

As a result of this evolution in meaning, the use of the term keep in historical analysis today can be problematic.^[4] Contemporary medieval writers used various terms for the buildings we would today call keeps. In Latin, they are variously described as turris, turris castri or magna turris – a tower, a castle tower, or a great tower.^[4] The 12th century French came to term them a donjon, a corruption of the Latin dominarium or lordship, linking the keep and feudal authority.^[5] Similarly, medieval Spanish writers called the buildings torre del homenaje, or "place of homage." In England, donjon was later corrupted to dungeon, which initially referred to a keep, rather than to a place of imprisonment.

This ambiguity over terminology has made historical analysis of the use of "keeps" problematic.^[6] While the term remains in common academic use, some academics prefer to use the term donjon, and most modern historians warn against using the term "keep" simplistically.^[6] The fortifications that we would today call keeps certainly did not necessarily form part of a unified medieval style, nor were they all used in a similar fashion during the period.^[6]

History[link]

Timber keeps (9th - 12th centuries)[link]

The earliest keeps were built as part of motte-and-bailey castles from the 10th century onwards - a combination of documentary and archaeological evidence places the first such castle, built at Vincy, in 979.^[7] These castles were initially built by the more powerful lords of Anjou in the late 10th and 11th centuries, in particular Fulk III and his son, Geoffrey II, who built a great number of them between 987 and 1060.^[8] William the Conqueror then introduced this form of castle into England when he invaded in 1066, and the design spread through south Wales as the Normans expanded up the valleys during the subsequent decades.^[9]

Reconstructed wooden keep at Saint-Sylvain-d'Anjou

In a motte and bailey design, a castle would include a mound called a motte, usually artificially constructed by piling up turf and soil, and a bailey, a lower walled enclosure. A keep and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte. Some protective walls around a keep would be large enough to have a wall-walk around them, and the outer walls of the motte and the wall-walk could be strengthened by filling in the gap between the wooden walls with earth and stones, allowing it to carry more weight - this was called a garillum.^[10] Smaller mottes could only support simple towers with room for a few soldiers, whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander keep.^[11] Many wooden keeps were designed with a bretasche, a square structure that overhung from the upper floors of the building, enabling better defences and a more sturdy structural design.^[12] These wooden keeps could be protected by skins and hides to prevent them being easily set alight during a siege.^[11]

One contemporary account of these keeps comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, who described how the nobles of the Calais region would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig a ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside the enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defences. The entrance to the fortress is by means of a bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reches to the top of the mound."^[13] At Durham Castle, contemporaries described how the keep arose from the "tumulus of rising earth" with a keep reaching "into thin air, strong within and without", a "stalwart house...glittering with beauty in every part".^[14] As well as having defensive value, keeps and mottes sent a powerful political message to the local population.^[15]

Wooden keeps could be quite extensive in size, and as Robert Higham and Philip Barker have noted, it was possible to build "...very tall and massive structures."^{[16][nb 1]} As an example of what these keeps may have comprised, the early 12th-century chronicler Lambert of Ardres described the wooden keep on top of the motte at the castle of Ardres, where the "...first storey was on the surface of the ground, where were cellars and granaries, and great boxes, tuns, casks, and other domestic utensils. In the storey above were the dwelling and common living-rooms of the residents in which were the larders, the rooms of the bakers and butlers, and the great chamber in which the lord and his wife slept...In the upper storey of the house were garret rooms...In this storey also the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep."^[18]

In the Holy Roman Empire tall, free-standing wooden towers called bergfried were commonly built by the 11th century, either as part of motte-and-bailey designs, or as part of hohenburgen castles, with a characteristic inner and outer court.^[19] Bergfried, which take their name from the German for a belfry, were in one sense similar to keeps, but are usually distinguished from them on account of bergfied having a smaller area or footprint, usually being non-residential and being typically integrated into the outer defences of a castle, rather than being a safe refuge of last resort.^{[20][nb 2]}

Early stone keeps (10th - 12th centuries)[link]

The Norman keep at Colchester Castle, built in a Romanesque style on a former temple

During the 10th century a small number of stone keeps began to be built in France, such at the Château de Langeais: in the 11th century their numbers increased as the style spread through Normandy across the rest of France and into England.^[22] Some existing motte and bailey castles were converted to stone, with the keep amongst usually the first parts to be upgraded, while in other cases new keeps were built from scratch in stone.^[23] These stone keeps were introduced into Ireland during the 1170s following the Norman occupation of the east of the country, where they were particularly popular amongst the new Anglo-Norman lords.^[24] Two broad types of design emerged across France and England during the period: four-sided stone keeps, known as Norman keeps or great keeps in English - a donjon carré or donjon roman in French - and circular shell keeps.^{[25][nb 3]}

The reasons for the transition from timber to stone keeps is unclear, and the process was slow and uneven, taking many years to take effect across the various regions.^[27] Traditionally it was believed that stone keeps had been adopted because of the cruder nature of wooden buildings, the limited lifespan of wooden fortifications and their vulnerability to fire; recent archaeological studies have however shown that many wooden castles were as robust and as sophisticated as their stone equivalents.^[28] Some wooden keeps were not converted into stone for many years and were instead expanded in wood, such as at Hen Domen.^[29] Nonetheless, stone became increasingly popular as a building material for keeps for both military and symbolic reasons.^[30]

Stone keep construction required skilled craftsmen. Unlike timber and earthworks, which could be built using unfree labour or serfs, these craftsmen had to be paid and stone keeps were therefore expensive.^[31] They were also relatively slow to erect, due to the limitations of the lime mortar used during the period – a keep's walls could usually only be raised by a maximum of 12 feet (3.6 metres) a year, the keep at Scarborough was not atypical in taking ten years to build.^[31] The number of such keeps remained relatively low: in England, for example, although several early stone keeps had been built after the conquest, there were only somewhere between ten and fifteen in existence by 1100, and only around a hundred had been built by 1216.^[32]

The Norman keep (r) and prison (l) at Goodrich Castle, built to a square design in the early 12th century

Norman keeps had four sides, with the corners reinforced by pilaster buttresses; some keeps, particularly in Normandy and France, had a barlongue design, being rectangular in plan with their length twice their width, while others, particularly in England, formed a square.^[33] These keeps could be up to four storeys high, with the entrance placed on the first storey to prevent the door from being easily broken down; early French keeps had external stairs in wood, whilst later castles in both France and England built them in stone.^[34] In some cases the entrance stairs were protected by additional walls and a door, producing a forebuilding.^[35] The strength of the Norman design typically came from the thickness of the keep's walls: usually made of rag-stone, these could be up to 24 feet (7.3 metres) thick, immensely strong and producing a steady temperature inside the building throughout summer and winter.^[36] The larger keeps were subdivided by an internal wall while the smaller versions had a single, slightly cramped chamber on each floor.^[37] Usually only the first floor would be vaulted in stone, with the higher storeys supported with timbers.^[35]

There has been extensive academic discussion of the extent to which Norman keeps were designed with a military or political function in mind, particularly in England. Earlier analyses of Norman keeps focused on their military design, and historians such as R. Brown Cathcart King proposed that square keeps were adopted because of their military superiority over timber keeps. Most of these Norman keeps were certainly extremely physically robust, even though the characteristic pilaster buttresses added little real architectural strength to the design.^[38] Many of the weaknesses inherent to their design were irrelevant during the early part of their history. The corners of square keeps were theoretically vulnerable to siege engines and galleried mining, but before the introduction of the trebuchet at the end of the 12th century, early artillery stood little practical chance of damaging the keeps, and galleried mining was rarely practised.^[39] Similarly, the corners of a square keep created dead space that defenders could not fire at, but missile fire in castle sieges was less important until the introduction of the crossbow in the middle of the 12th century, when arrowslits began to be introduced.^[40]

Restormel Castle's shell keep, converted to stone in the late 12th century

Nonetheless, many stone Norman keeps made considerable compromises to military utility.^[41] Norwich Castle, for example, included elaborate blind arcading on the outside of the building and appears to had an entrance route designed for public ceremony, rather than for defence.^[42] The interior of the keep at Hedingham could certainly have hosted impressive ceremonies and events, but contained numerous flaws from a military perspective.^[43] Important early English and Welsh keeps such as the White Tower, Colchester and Chepstow were all built in a distinctive Romanesque style, often reusing Roman materials and sites, and were almost certainly intended to impress and generate a political effect amongst local people.^[44] The political value of these keep designs, and the social prestige they lent to their builders, may help explain why they continued to be built in England into the late 12th century, beyond the point when military theory would have suggested that alternative designs were adopted.^[45]

The second early stone design, emerging from the 12th century onwards, was the shell keep, a donjon annulaire in French, which involved replacing the wooden keep on a motte, or the palisade on a ringwork, with a circular stone wall.^[46] Shell keeps were sometimes further protected by an additional low protective wall, called a chemise, around their base. Buildings could then be built around the inside of the shell, producing a small inner courtyard at the centre.^[47] The style was particularly popular in south-east England and across Normandy, although less so elsewhere.^[48] Restormel Castle is a classic example of this development, as is the later Launceston Castle; prominent Normandy and Low Country equivalents include Gisors and the Burcht van Leiden - these castles were amongst the most powerful fortifications of the period.^[49] Although the circular design held military advantages over one with square corners, as noted above these only really mattered from the end of th 12th century onwards; the major reason for adopting a shell keep design, in the 12th century at least, was the circular design of the original earthworks exploited to support the keep; indeed, some designs were less than circular in order to accommodate irregular mottes, such as that found at Windsor Castle.^[50]

Mid-medieval keeps (late 12th - 14th centuries)[link]

Keep at Château d'Étampes, a curved design begun in 1120

During the second half of the 12th century a range of new keep designs began to appear across France and England, breaking the previous unity of the regional designs; the use of keeps in castles spread through Iberia, while some new castles removed keeps from their designs altogether. One traditional explanation for these developments emphasises the military utility of the new approaches, arguing, for example, that the curved surfaces of the new keeps helped to deflect attacks, or that they drew on lessons learnt during the Crusades from Islamic practices in the Levant.^[51] More recent historical analysis, however, has emphasised the political and social drivers that underlay these mid-medieval changes in keep design.^[52]

Through most of the 12th century, France was divided between the Capetian kings, ruling from the Île-de-France, and kings of England, who controlled Normandy and much of the west of France. Within the Capetian territories, early experimentation in new keep designs began at Houdan in 1120, where a circular keep was built with four round turrets; internally, however, the structure remained conventionally square.^[53] A few years later, Château d'Étampes adopted a quatrefoil design.^{[54][nb 4]} These designs, however, remained isolated experiments.

In the 1190s, however, the struggle for power in France began to swing in favour of Philip II, culminating in the Capetian capture of Normandy in 1204. Philip II started to construct completely circular keeps, such as the Tour Jeanne d'Arc, with most built in his newly acquired territories.^[56] The first of Philip's new keeps was begun at the Louvre in 1190 and at least another twenty followed, all built to a consistent standard and cost.^[57] The architectural idea of circular keeps may have come from Catalonia, where circular towers in castles formed a local tradition, and probably carried some military advantages, but Philip's intention in building these new keeps in a fresh style was clearly political, an attempt to demonstrate his new power and authority over his extended territories.^[58] As historian Philippe Durand suggests, these keeps provided military security and were a physical representation of the renouveau capétian, or Capetian renewal.^[59]

Keep at Trim Castle, an angular design built in the late 12th century

Keep design in England only began to change towards the end of the 12th century, later than in France.^[60] Wooden keeps on mottes ceased to be built across most of England by the 1150s, although they continued to be erected in Wales and along the Welsh Marches.^[61] By the end of the 12th century, England and Ireland saw a handful of innovative angular or polygonal keeps built, including the keep at Orford Castle, with three rectangular, clasping towers built out from the high, circular central tower; the cross-shaped keep of Trim Castle and the famous polygonal design at Conisborough.^[62] Despite these new designs, square keeps remained popular across much of England, and as late as the 1170s square Norman great keeps were being built at Newcastle.^[63] Circular keep designs similar to those in France only really became popular in Britain in the Welsh Marches and Scotland for a short period during the early 13th century.^[64]

As with the new keeps constructed in France, these Anglo-Norman designs were informed both by military thinking and by political drivers. The keep at Orford has been particularly extensively analysed in this regard, and although traditional explanations suggested that its unusual plan was the result of an experimental military design, more recent analysis concludes that the design was instead probably driven by political symbolism and the need for Henry to dominate the contested lands of East Anglia.^[5] The architecture would, for mid-12th century nobility, have summoned up images of King Arthur or Constantinople, then the idealised versions of royal and imperial power.^[65] Even formidable military designs such as that at Château Gaillard were built with political effect in mind.^[66] Gaillard was designed to reaffirm Angevin authority in a fiercely disputed conflict zone and the keep, although militarily impressive, contained only an anteroom and a royal audience chamber, and was built on soft chalk and without an internal well, both serious defects from a defensive perspective.^[66]

During most of the medieval period, Iberia was divided between Christian and Islamic kingdoms, neither of which traditionally built keeps, instead building watchtowers or mural towers.^[67] By the 12th century, however, the influence of France and the various military orders was encouraging the development of square keeps in Christian castles across the region, and by the second half of the century this practice was spread across into the Islamic kingdoms.^[68]

Tour Jeanne d'Arc at Rouen Castle, a circular design built in 1204

By contrast, the remainder of Europe saw stone towers being used in castles, but not in a way that fulfilled the range of functions seen in the western European keeps. In the Low Countries, it became popular for the local nobility to build stand-alone, square towers, but rarely as part of a wider castle.^[69] Similarly, square stone towers became popular in Venice, but these did not fulfil the same role as western keeps.^[70] In Germany, rectangular stone castles began to replace motte and bailey castles from the 12th century onwards.^[71] These designs included stone versions of the traditional bergfried towers, which still remained distinct from the domestic keeps used in more western parts of Europe, with the occasional notable exception, such as the large, residential bergfried at Eltville Castle.^[71]

Several approaches to designing new castles emerged that removed the requirement for keeps at all. One such design was the concentric approach, involving exterior walls guarded with towers, and potentially supported by further, concentric layered defenses: the result at castles such as Framlingham often dispensed with a central keep altogther. Military factors may well have driven this development: R. Brown, for example, suggests that designs with a separate keep and bailey system inherently lacked a co-ordinated and combined defensive system, and that once bailey walls were sufficiently sophisticated a keep became militarily unnecessary.^[72] In England, gatehouses were also growing in size and sophistication to the point where they too challenged the need for a keep in the same castle. The classic Edwardian gatehouse, with two large, flanking towers, multiple portcullises, potentially designed to be defended from both attacks within and without the main castle, has been often compared to the earlier Norman keeps; some of the largest gatehouses are called gatehouse keeps for this reason.^[73]

Another approach to castle design that removed the need for a keep was the quadrangular castle design that emerged in France during the 13th century. Castles had needed additional living space since their first emergence in the 9th century; initially this had been achieved with building halls in the bailey, then later cleverly building ranges of chambers alongside the inside of a bailey wall, such as at Goodrich. French designs in the late 12th century, however, overcame the problem of space by taking the layout of a contemporary unfortified manor house, in which the rooms would face around a central, rectangular courtyard, and building a exterior wall around them to form a castle.^[74] The result, illustrated initially at Yonne, and later at Château de Farcheville, produced a characteristic quadrangular layout, four large, circular corner towers, but lacked a keep, which was not needed to support this design.^[75]

Late medieval keeps (14th - 16th centuries)[link]

Keep at Château de Vincennes, completed by 1360 as the heart of a palace fortress

The end of the medieval period saw a fresh resurgence in the building of keeps in western castles. Some castles continued to be built without keeps: the Bastille in the 1370s, for example, combined a now traditional quadrangular design with machicolated corner towers, gatehouses and moat, the walls, innovatively, were of equal height to the towers.^[76] This fashion became copied across French and in England, particularly amongst the nouveau riche, for example at Nunney. The royalty and the very wealthiest in France, England and Spain, however, began to construct a small number of keeps on a much larger scale than before, in England sometimes termed tower keeps, as part of new palace fortresses. This shift reflected political and social pressures, such as the desire of the wealthiest lords to have privacy from their growing households of retainers, as well as the various architectural ideas being exchanged across the region, despite the ongoing Hundred Years War between France and England.^[77]

The resurgence in French keep design began after the defeat of the royal armies at the battles of Crécy in 1346 and Poitiers in 1356, which caused high levels of social unrest across the remaining French territories.^[78] Charles V of France attempted to restore French royal authority and prestige through the construction of a new range of castles.^[78] The Château de Vincennes, where a new keep was completed under Charles by 1380, was the first example of these palace fortresses.^[78] The keep at Vincennes was highly innovative: six stories high, with a chemin de ronde running around the machicolated battlements, the luxuriously appointed building was protected by an enceinte wall that formed a "fortified envelope" around the keep.^[79] The Vincennes keep was copied elsewhere across France, particularly as the French kings reconquered territories from the English, encouraging a style that emphasised very tall keeps with prominent machicolations.^[80] No allowance for the emerging new gunpowder weapons was made in these keeps, although later in the century gunports were slowly being added, as for example by Charles VI to his keep at Saint-Malo.^[81]

Keep at Peñafiel Castle, built in the mid-15th century

The French model spread into Iberia in the second half of the century, where the most powerful nobles in Castile built a number of similar tall keeps, such as that at Peñafiel, taking advantage of the weakness of the Castilian Crown during the period.^[82] Henry IV of Castile responded in the 15th century by creating a sequence of royal castles with prominent keeps at the Castle of La Mota, Portillo and Alcázar of Segovia: built to particular proportions, these keeps became known as a key element of the Valladolid school of Spanish castle design.^[83] Smaller versions of these keeps were subsequently built by many aspiring new aristocracy in Spain, including many converted Jews, keen to improve their social prestige and position in society.^[83] The French model of tall keeps was also echoed in some German castles, such as that at Karlštejn, although the layout and positioning of these towers still followed the existing bergfried model, rather than that in western castles.^[84]

The 15th and 16th centuries saw a small number of English and occasional Welsh castles develop still grander keeps.^[85] The first of these large tower keeps were built in the north of England during the 14th century, at locations such as Warkworth. They were probably partially inspired by designs in France, but they also reflected the improvements in the security along the Scottish border during the period, and the regional rise of major noble families such as the Percies and the Nevilles, whose wealth encouraged a surge in castle building at the end of the 14th century.^[86] New castles at Raby, Bolton and Warkworth Castle took the quadrangular castle styles of the south and combined them with exceptionally large tower keeps to form a distinctive, northern style.^[87] Built by major noble houses, these castles were typically even more opulent than the smaller castles like Nunney, built by the nouveau riche.^[88] They marked what historian Anthony Emery has described as a "...second peak of castle building in England and Wales," following on from the Edwardian designs at the end of the 14th century.^[89]

Keep at Warkworth Castle, a large tower keep built during the 1370s

In the 15th century the fashion for the creation of very expensive, French-influenced palatial castles featuring complex tower keeps spread, with new keeps being built at Wardour, Tattershall and Raglan Castle.^[90] In central and eastern England some keeps began to be built in brick, with Caister and Tattershall forming examples of this trend.^[91] In Scotland, the construction of Holyrood Great Tower between 1528 and 1532 drew on this English tradition, but incorporated additional French influences to produce a highly secure but comfortable keep, guarded by a gun park.^[92] These tower keeps were expensive buildings to construct, each built to a unique design for a specific lord and, as historian Norman Pounds has suggested, they "...were designed to allow very rich men to live in luxury and splendour."^[93]

At the same time as these keeps were being built by the extremely wealthy, much smaller, keep-like structures called tower houses or peel towers were built across Ireland, Scotland and northern England, often by relatively poorer local lords and landowners.^{[94][nb 5]} It was originally argued that Irish tower houses were based on the Scottish design, but the pattern of development of such castles in Ireland does not support this hypothesis.^[96] A tower house would typically be a tall, square, stone-built, crenelated building; Scottish and Ulster tower houses were often also surrounded by a barmkyn or bawn wall.^[97] Most academics have concluded that tower houses should not be classified as keeps but rather as a form of fortified house.^[98]

As the 16th century progressed, keeps fell out of fashion once again. In England, the gatehouse also began to supplant the keep as the key focus for a new castle development.^[99] By the 15th century it was increasingly unusual for a lord to build both a keep and a large gatehouse at the same castle, and by the early 16th century the gatehouse had easily overtaken the keep as the more fashionable feature: indeed, almost no new keeps were built in England after this period.^[99] The classical Palladian style began to dominate European architecture during the 17th century, causing a further move away from the use of keeps. Buildings in this style usually required considerable space for the enfiladed formal rooms that became essential for modern palaces by the middle of the century, and this style was impossible to fit into a traditional keep.^{[100][nb 6]} The keep at Bolsover Castle in England was one of the few to be built as part of a Palladian design.^[102]

Later use and destruction of keeps (17th - 21st centuries)[link]

The slighted keep of Raglan Castle

From the 17th century onwards, some keeps were deliberately destroyed. In England, many were destroyed after the end of the Second English Civil War in 1649, when Parliament took steps to prevent another royalist uprising by slighting, or damaging, castles so as to prevent them from having any further military utility. Slighting was quite expensive and took considerable effort to carry out, so damage was usually done in the most cost efficient fashion with only selected walls being destroyed.^[103] Keeps were singled out for particular attention in this process because of their continuing political and cultural importance, and the prestige they lent their former royalist owners - at Kenilworth, for example, only the keep was slighted, and at Raglan the keep was the main focus of parliamentary activity.^[104] There were some equivalent destruction of keeps in France in the 17th and 18th centuries, such as the slighting of Montaiguillon by Cardinal Richelieu in 1624, but the catalogue of damage was far less than that of the 1640s and early 1650s in England.^[105]

In England, ruined medieval castles became fashionable again in the middle of the 18th century. They were considered an interesting counterpoint to Palladian classical architecture, and gave a degree of medieval allure to their owners.^[106] Some keeps were modified to exaggerate this effect: Hawarden, for example, was remodelled to appear taller but also more decayed, the better to produce a good silhouette.^[107] The interest continued, and in the late 18th and 19th century it became fashionable to build intact, replica castles in England, resulting in what A. Rowan has called the Norman style of new castle building, characterised by the inclusion of large keeps; the final replica keep to be built in this way was at Penrhyn between 1820 and 1840.^[108]

The keep of Château de Pierrefonds, rebuilt during the 19th century in a Gothic Revival style

Where there was an existing castle on a site, another response across 19th-century Europe was to attempt to improve the buildings, bringing their often chaotic historic features into line with a more integrated architectural aesthetic, in a style often termed Gothic Revivalism.^[109] There were numerous attempts to restore or rebuild keeps so as to produce this consistently Gothic style: in England, the architect Anthony Salvin was particularly prominent – as illustrated by reworking and heightening of the keep at Windsor Castle, while in France, Eugène Viollet-le-Duc reworked the keeps at castles in locations like Pierrefonds during the 1860s and 1870s, admittedly in a largely speculative fashion, since the original keep had been mostly destroyed in 1617.^[110]

The Spanish Civil War and First and Second World Wars in the 20th century caused damage to many castle keeps across Europe; in particular, the famous keep at Coucy was destroyed by the German Army in 1917.^[111] By the late 20th century, however, the conservation of castle keeps formed part of government policy across France, England, Ireland and Spain.^[112] In the 21st century in England, most keeps are ruined and form part of the tourism and heritage industries, rather than being used as functioning buildings - the keep of Windsor Castle being a rare exception. This is contrast to the fate of bergfried towers in Germany, large numbers of which were restored as functional buildings in the late 19th and early 20th century, often as government offices or youth hostels, or the modern conversion of tower houses, which in many cases have become modernised domestic homes.^[113]

See also[link]

• Tenshu, the Japanese castle keep
• Medieval architecture

Notes[link]

References[link]

Bibliography[link]

Avril Lavigne
Avril Lavigne during a performance in Italy, September 2011.
Background information
Birth name	Avril Ramona Lavigne
Born	(1984-09-27) 27 September 1984 (age 27) Belleville, Ontario, Canada
Origin	Napanee, Ontario, Canada
Genres	Pop rock, power pop, pop punk
Occupations	Singer-songwriter, Fashion Designer
Instruments	Vocals, guitar, piano, drums
Years active	2000–present
Labels	Epic, RCA, Arista
Associated acts	Evan Taubenfeld, Deryck Whibley
Website	www.avrillavigne.com
Notable instruments
Squier Signature Telecaster model guitar

Avril Ramona Lavigne (pronunciation: /ˈævrɨl ləˈviːn/; AV-ril lə-VEEN; born 27 September 1984) is a Canadian singer-songwriter. She was born in Belleville, Ontario, but spent most of her youth in the small town of Napanee. By the age of 15, she had appeared on stage with Shania Twain; by 16, she had signed a two-album recording contract with Arista Records worth more than $2 million. In 2002, when she was 17 years old, Lavigne broke onto the music scene with her debut album Let Go.

Let Go made Lavigne the youngest female soloist to reach No. 1 in the UK, and the album was certified four-times platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. By 2009, over 16 million copies had been sold worldwide. Her breakthrough single, "Complicated", peaked at No. 1 in many countries around the world, as did the album Let Go. Her second album, Under My Skin, was released in 2004 and was her first album to peak at No. 1 on the U.S. Billboard 200, eventually selling more than 10 million copies worldwide. The Best Damn Thing, Lavigne’s third album, was released in 2007, becoming her third No. 1 album in the UK Albums Chart and featuring her first U.S. Billboard Hot 100 No. 1 single, "Girlfriend". Lavigne has scored six number-one singles worldwide, including "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi", "I'm with You", "My Happy Ending", "Nobody's Home", and "Girlfriend". With more than 30 million copies of her albums sold worldwide, Lavigne is one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the U.S., with over 10.25 million copies certified by the RIAA. Her fourth studio album, Goodbye Lullaby, was released in March 2011. Goodbye Lullaby gave Lavigne her fourth top 10 album on the U.S. Billboard 200 and the UK Albums Chart and her third No. 1 album in both Japan and Australia. Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne began work on her fifth album, which will be released on Epic Records following her departure from RCA Records.

Lavigne branched out from recording music, pursuing careers in feature film acting and designing clothes and perfumes. She voiced a character in the animated film, Over the Hedge, in 2006. That same year, she made her on-screen feature film debut in Fast Food Nation. In 2008, Lavigne introduced her clothing line, Abbey Dawn, and in 2009, she released her first perfume, Black Star, which was followed by her second perfume, Forbidden Rose, in 2010 and her third perfume, Wild Rose, in 2011. In July 2006, Lavigne married her boyfriend of two years, Deryck Whibley, lead singer and guitarist for Sum 41. The marriage lasted a little over three years, and in October 2009, Lavigne filed for divorce. Whibley and Lavigne continued to work together, with Whibley producing her fourth album, as well as Lavigne's single, "Alice", written for Tim Burton's film Alice in Wonderland.

Early life[link]

Avril Ramona Lavigne was born in Belleville, Ontario. Her father, Jean-Claude Lavigne, named her "Avril" after the French word for the month of April. At the age of two, she began singing church songs with her mother,^[1] Judith-Rosanne "Judy" (née Loshaw). Judy recognized her two-year-old daughter's talents after hearing her sing "Jesus Loves Me" in church.^[2] Lavigne has an older brother, Matthew, and a younger sister, Michelle,^[3] both of whom teased her when she sang. "My brother used to knock on the wall because I used to sing myself to sleep and he thought it was really annoying."^[2]

When Lavigne was five years old, the family moved to Napanee, Ontario,^[1] a town with a population of approximately 5,000.^[4][5][6] Although she struggled to pay attention in school, sometimes being kicked out of class for misbehaving, her parents supported her singing. Her father bought her a microphone, a drum kit, a keyboard, and several guitars, and converted their basement into a studio. When Lavigne was 14, her parents would take her to karaoke sessions.^[7] Lavigne also performed at country fairs, singing songs by Garth Brooks, The Dixie Chicks, and Shania Twain. She also began writing her own songs. Her first song was called "Can't Stop Thinking About You", about a teenage crush, which she described as "cheesy cute".^[8]

In 1999,^[9] Lavigne won a radio contest to perform with fellow Canadian singer Shania Twain at the Corel Centre (now Scotiabank Place) in Ottawa, before an audience of 20,000 people.^[1][4] Twain and Lavigne sang "What Made You Say That",^[1] and Lavigne told Twain that she was going to be "a famous singer".^[4] During a performance with the Lennox Community Theatre, Lavigne was spotted by local folksinger Stephen Medd. He invited her to contribute vocals on his song, "Touch the Sky", for his 1999 album, Quinte Spirit. She later sang on "Temple of Life" and "Two Rivers" for his follow-up album, My Window to You, in 2000. In December 1999, Lavigne was discovered by her first professional manager, Cliff Fabri, while singing country covers at a Chapters bookstore in Kingston, Ontario.^[1][4] Fabri sent out VHS tapes of Lavigne's home performances to several industry prospects, and Lavigne was visited by several executives.^[10] Mark Jowett, co-founder of the Canadian management firm Nettwerk, received a copy of Lavigne's karaoke performances recorded in her parents' basement.^[11] Jowett arranged for Lavigne to work with Peter Zizzo during the summer of 2000 in New York, where she wrote the song "Why". Lavigne was noticed by Arista Records on a subsequent trip to New York.^[10]

Lavigne would go on to sell more than 30 million copies of her albums worldwide,^[12] becoming one of the top-selling artists releasing albums in the U.S., with over 10.25 million copies certified by the RIAA.^[13] In 2009, Billboard named Lavigne the No. 10 pop artist in the "Best of the 2000s" chart.^[14] She was listed as the 28th overall best act of the decade based on album and single chart performance in the U.S.^[15]

Music career[link]

[edit] 2000–03: Let Go

In November 2000,^[5] Ken Krongard, an A&R representative, invited Antonio "L.A." Reid, then head of Arista Records, to producer Peter Zizzo's Manhattan studio to hear Lavigne sing. Her 15-minute audition "so impressed" Reid that he immediately signed her to Arista with a deal worth $1.25 million for two albums and an extra $900,000 for a publishing advance.^[6][1] By this time, Lavigne had found that she fit in naturally with her hometown high school's skater clique, an image that carried through to her first album, but although she enjoyed skateboarding, school left her feeling insecure. Armed with a record deal, she dropped out to focus on her music career,^[5] but she still had to inform her parents of her decision. "I wasn't going to turn [the record deal] down. It's been my dream all my life. They knew how much I wanted this and how much I've put into it."^[16][8]

Reid gave A&R Joshua Sarubin the responsibility for overseeing Lavigne's development and the recording of her debut album.^[17] They spent several months in New York working with different co-writers trying to forge an individual sound for her. Sarubin told HitQuarters that for while they struggled finding her sound and although early collaborations with songwriter-producers including Sabelle Breer, Curt Frasca and Peter Zizzo resulted in some good songs, they didn't match her and her voice.^[17] It was only when Lavigne then went to Los Angeles in May 2001 and created two songs with The Matrix production team – including "Complicated" – that the record company felt she had made a major breakthrough.^[17] Lavigne then worked further with The Matrix and also with singer-songwriter Cliff Magness. Recording finished in January 2002.^[17]

Lavigne released her debut album, Let Go, on 4 June 2002 in the U.S., where it reached No. 2 on the Billboard 200. It peaked at No. 1 on the Australian, Canadian, and UK charts. This made Lavigne, at 17 years old, the youngest female soloist to have a No. 1 album in the UK until that time.^[18] By the end of 2002, the album was certified four-times platinum by the RIAA, making her the bestselling female artist of 2002 and Let Go the top-selling debut of the year.^[19] By May 2003, Let Go had accumulated over 1,000,000 sales in Canada, receiving a diamond certification from the Canadian Recording Industry Association.^[20] As of 2009, the album has sold over 16 million units worldwide,^[21] and the RIAA has certified the album six-times platinum, denoting shipments of over six million units in the U.S.^[22]

Lavigne's debut single and the album's lead single, "Complicated", peaked at No. 1 in Australia and No. 2 in the U.S. "Complicated" was one of the bestselling Canadian singles of 2002, and it was also featured on the teen television show, Dawson's Creek. "Complicated" later ranked on the Hot 100 Singles of the Decade list at No. 83.^[23]

Subsequent singles, "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm With You" reached the top ten in the U.S.^[24] Thanks to the success of her first three singles, Lavigne was the second artist in history to have three No. 1 songs from a debut album on the Billboard Mainstream Top 40.^[25] For the music video to "Complicated", Lavigne was named Best New Artist at the 2002 MTV Video Music Awards.^[26] She won four Juno Awards in 2003 out of six nominations,^[27] received a World Music Award for "World's Bestselling Canadian Singer", and was nominated for eight Grammy Awards, including Best New Artist and Song of the Year for "Complicated" (2003).^[28]

In 2002, Lavigne made a cameo appearance in the music video to "Hundred Million" by the pop punk band Treble Charger.^[29] In March 2003, Lavigne posed for the cover of Rolling Stone magazine^[30] and, later in May,^[31] performed "Fuel" during MTV's Icon tribute to Metallica.^[32] During her first headlining tour, the Try To Shut Me Up Tour, Lavigne covered Green Day's "Basket Case".^[33]

Lavigne was featured in the 2003 game, The Sims: Superstar, as a non-playable celebrity.^[34]

[edit] 2004–05: Under My Skin

Lavigne in Vancouver, Canada during the Live and By Surprise mall tour

Lavigne co-wrote "Breakaway" with Matthew Gerard, which was recorded by Kelly Clarkson for the soundtrack to the 2004 film The Princess Diaries 2: Royal Engagement.^[35] "Breakaway" would later be included on Clarkson's second album and released as the album's lead single. Lavigne covered the Goo Goo Dolls song "Iris", performed with the band's lead singer John Rzeznik at Fashion Rocks,^[36] and she posed for the cover of Maxim in October 2004.^[37] She also recorded the theme song for The SpongeBob SquarePants Movie. "I made the song a little more edgy", Lavigne said. "There are a lot of loud guitars, and we picked the tempo up a little and sang it with a little more attitude." Lavigne rearranged the song with the help of producer Butch Walker.^[38]

Lavigne's second studio album, Under My Skin, was released on 25 May 2004, debuting at No. 1 in several countries, including Australia, Mexico, Canada, Japan, the UK, and the U.S.^[39] The album has sold more than 10 million copies. Lavigne wrote most of the album's tracks with Canadian singer-songwriter Chantal Kreviazuk. Kreviazuk's husband, Our Lady Peace front man Raine Maida, co-produced the album, along with Butch Walker and Don Gilmore. Lavigne went on the Live and By Surprise twenty-one-city mall tour in the US and Canada to promote the album, accompanied by her guitarist, Evan Taubenfeld. Each performance consisted of a short live acoustic set of songs from the new album. At the end of 2004, Lavigne embarked on her first world tour, the Bonez Tour, which had stopovers in almost every continent and lasted for the entire 2005 year.

"Don't Tell Me", the lead single of the album, went to No. 1 in Argentina and Mexico and reached the top five in the UK and Canada and the top ten in Australia and Brazil. "My Happy Ending", the album's second single, went to No. 1 in Mexico and the top five in the UK and Australia. In the US, it reached the top ten of the Billboard Hot 100 and went to No. 1 in the Mainstream Top 40, making it her fourth-biggest hit there. The third single, "Nobody's Home", did not make the top 40 in the US, reaching No. 1 only in Mexico and Argentina. The fourth single from the album, "He Wasn't", reached top 40 positions in the UK and Australia and was not released in the U.S.^[41]

Lavigne won two World Music Awards in 2004 for "World's Best Pop/Rock Artist" and "World's Bestselling Canadian Artist". She received five Juno Award nominations in 2005, and picked up three, including "Artist of the Year". She won the award for "Favorite Female Singer" at the eighteenth annual Nickelodeon Kids' Choice Awards^[42] and was nominated in every MTV Award show shown around the world.

[edit] 2006–08: The Best Damn Thing

On 26 February 2006, Lavigne represented Canada at the closing ceremony of the Torino Olympics, performing her song "Who Knows" during the eight minute Vancouver 2010 portion.^[43]

While Lavigne was in the studio for her third studio album, Fox Entertainment Group approached her to write a song for the soundtrack to the 2006 fantasy-adventure film Eragon. She wrote and recorded two "ballad-type" songs, but only one, "Keep Holding On", was used for the film.^[44] Lavigne admitted that writing the song was challenging, making sure it flowed with the film. She emphasized that "Keep Holding On", which later appeared on the album, was not indicative of what the next album would be like.^[45][46]

Lavigne in 2008 performing in the Netherlands.

Lavigne's third album, The Best Damn Thing, was released on 17 April 2007, which Lavigne immediately promoted with a small tour. Its lead single, "Girlfriend", topped the Billboard Hot 100 the same week The Best Damn Thing debuted at No. 1 on the Billboard 200 chart. "Girlfriend" was Lavigne's first single to reach this No. 1 position.^[47] The single was a worldwide hit; it also peaked at No. 1 in Australia, Canada, Japan, and Italy and reached No. 2 in the UK and France. "Girlfriend" was recorded in Spanish, French, Italian, Portuguese, German, Japanese, and Mandarin. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry ranked "Girlfriend" as the most-downloaded track worldwide in 2007, selling 7.3 million copies, including the versions recorded in eight different languages.^[48][12] "Girlfriend" ranked on the Hot 100 Singles of the Decade list at No. 94.^[49]

"When You're Gone", the second single, went to No. 3 in the UK, the top five in Australia and Italy, the top ten in Canada, and was close to reaching the top twenty in the U.S. In December 2007, Lavigne, with annual earnings of $12 million, was ranked number eight in the Forbes "Top 20 Earners Under 25".^[50] "Hot" was the third single and has been Lavigne's least successful single in the U.S., charting only at No. 95. In Canada, "Hot" made the top ten, and in Australia, the top 20. The Best Damn Thing has sold over 6 million copies worldwide.

During this era, Lavigne won nearly every award she was nominated for, including two World Music Awards for "World's Bestselling Canadian Artist" and "World's Best Pop/Rock Female Artist". She took her first two MTV Europe Music Awards, received one Teen Choice Awards for "Summer Single", and was nominated for five Juno awards.

In mid-2007, Lavigne was featured in a two-volume graphic novel, Avril Lavigne's Make 5 Wishes. She collaborated with artist Camilla D’Errico and writer Joshua Dysart on the manga, which was about a shy girl named Hana who, upon meeting her hero Avril Lavigne, learned to overcome her fears. Lavigne said, "I know that many of my fans read manga, and I'm really excited to be involved in creating stories that I know they will enjoy." The volumes were released on 10 April (one week prior to the release of The Best Damn Thing) and in July, respectively. The publication Young Adult Library Services nominated the series for "Great Graphic Novels for Teens".^[51]

In March 2008, Lavigne undertook a world tour named The Best Damn Tour to support the album. In that same month, she also appeared on the cover of Maxim for the second time of her career.^[52] In mid-August, Malaysia's Islamic opposition party, the Pan-Malaysian Islamic Party, attempted to ban Lavigne's show in Kuala Lumpur, judging her stage moves "too sexy". Her concert on 29 August was considered as promoting wrong values ahead of Malaysia's independence day on 31 August.^[53] On 21 August 2008, MTV reported that the concert had been approved by the Malaysian government.^[54]

[edit] 2009–11: Goodbye Lullaby

Lavigne singing in Florida during her Black Star Tour, May 2011.

Only a month after completing The Best Damn Tour, Lavigne began recording in her home studio in November 2008 with the song "Black Star",^[55] written to help promote her first fragrance of the same name.^[56] By July 2009, nine tracks had been recorded for the new album,^[55] including the songs "Fine", "Everybody Hurts" and "Darlin". Several of the tracks were written in Lavigne's youth. "Darlin" was the second song Lavigne wrote as a 15-year-old while living in Napanee, Ontario. Lavigne described the album as being about "life". She stated, "It's so easy for me to do a boy-bashing pop song, but to sit down and write honestly about something that's really close to me, something I've been through, it's a totally different thing."^[56] With the exception of the album's lead single, "What the Hell", Lavigne described the songs on the album as different from her earlier material: "I'm older now, so I think that comes across in my music, it's not as pop-rock".^[57]

In January 2010, while simultaneously writing and recording for her new album, Lavigne worked with Disney clothing designs inspired by Tim Burton's feature film, Alice in Wonderland. She asked the executives if she could write a song for the film. The result was the song "Alice",^[58] which was played over the end credits^[59] and included on the soundtrack, Almost Alice.^[60]

On 28 February, Lavigne gave a performance at the concert portion of the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics closing ceremony, performing "My Happy Ending" and "Girlfriend".^[61] Lavigne was honoured to perform at the ceremonies, but she regretted not being able to attend the U.S. vs. Canada hockey match. "They had us on lockdown. We weren't allowed to leave our trailers, for security purposes."^[62]

In September 2010, Lavigne's third single from her debut album, "I'm With You", was sampled by Rihanna on the track "Cheers (Drink to That)", which is featured on Rihanna's fifth studio album, Loud.^[63][64] In August 2011, she was featured in the music video for Cheers (Drink To That). "It's exciting to me because that was always one of my favorite songs, and for it to come out 10 years ago and so now to have it sampled and back out on the radio is pretty dope".^[65] In December 2010, American singer Miranda Cosgrove released "Dancing Crazy", a song written by Lavigne, Max Martin and Shellback. It was also produced by Martin.^[66] On 23 September 2011, Lavigne appeared in the Hub network show Majors & Minors as a guest mentor, alongside other singers including Adam Lambert and Leona Lewis. About the show, Lavigne stated, "I sang for them, and they performed for me. I was just blown away. I got to talk to them about music and the music industry, and they were all just so excited".^[65]

The release dates for Goodbye Lullaby and its lead single were pushed back several times. In response to these delays, Lavigne said, "I write my own music and, therefore, it takes me longer to put out records 'cause I have to live my life to get inspiration",^[67] and that she had enough material for two records.^[67] In November, Lavigne was featured in Maxim, where she revealed that Goodbye Lullaby took two and a half years to complete,^[68] but she cited her record company as the reason for the album's delays, stating that the album had been completed for a year.^[69] Goodbye Lullaby was released on 8 March.^[70][57] The lead single, "What the Hell", premiered on Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve on 31 December.^[70]

2011–present: Fifth studio album[link]

Three months after the release of Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne announced that work on her fifth studio album had already begun, with eight songs written so far. The new album will musically be the opposite of Goodbye Lullaby, with a release date rumored for sometime in 2012. ^[71] Lavigne explained, "[Goodbye Lullaby] was more mellow, [but] the next one will be pop and more fun again. I already have a song that I know is going to be a single, I just need to re-record it!"^[72][73][74] Later, in July 2011, Lavigne revealed the title of two of the songs from her fifth album as "Fine" and "Gone". The tracks were originally recorded for Goodbye Lullaby but never made the final cut. In late 2011, Lavigne confirmed that she had moved to Epic Records, which is now headed by L.A. Reid.^[75][76]

Production-wise, Lavigne stated in an interview with Virgin Radio 96 that she would begin production on the album in January 2012. ^[65] During recording, she has been confirmed to have worked with the hip hop production duo The Runners, ^[77] Chad Kroeger of rock band Nickelback and former member of rock band Evanescence David Hodges. ^[78] In April 2012, Lavigne confirmed that she had "finally" finished work on her fifth album and that she would be taking a short hiatus before releasing it and embarking on "[her] next artistic journey".^{[citation needed]}

Musical style and songwriting[link]

Avril Lavigne in February 2011.

Themes in Lavigne's music include messages of self-empowerment from a female or an adolescent view.^[79] Lavigne believes her "songs are about being yourself no matter what and going after your dreams even if your dreams are crazy and even if people tell you they're never going to come true."^[80] On her debut album, Let Go, Lavigne preferred the less mainstream songs, such as "Losing Grip", instead of her more radio-friendly singles, such as "Complicated", saying that "the songs I did with the Matrix... were good for my first record, but I don't want to be that pop anymore."^[81] Lavigne's second album, Under My Skin, had deeper personal themes underlying each song. Lavigne explained, "I've gone through so much, so that's what I talk about.... Like boys, like dating or relationships".^[82] In contrast, her third album, The Best Damn Thing, was not personal to her. "Some of the songs I wrote didn't even mean that much to me. It's not like some personal thing I'm going through."^[83] Her objective in writing the album was simply to "make it fun".^[84] Goodbye Lullaby, Lavigne's fourth album, was much more personal than her earlier records,^[55] with Lavigne describing the album as "more stripped down, deeper. All the songs are very emotional".^[85] Ian McKellen defined her as “... a punk chanteuse, a post-grunge valkyrie, with the wounded soul of a poet and the explosive pugnacity of a Canadian.” on the Craig Ferguson show in 2007. ^[86][87]

Growing up, Lavigne listened to Blink-182, Goo Goo Dolls, Matchbox Twenty and Shania Twain,^[81] and her influences include Courtney Love and Janis Joplin.^[82] Because of these influences, musical genres, and her personal style, the media often defined her as punk, something she denied being. Lavigne’s close friend and guitarist, Evan Taubenfeld, said, "It's a very touchy subject to a lot of people, but the point is that Avril isn't punk, but she never really pretended to claim to come from that scene. She had pop punk music and the media ended up doing the rest".^[88] Lavigne also commented on the matter: "I have been labeled like I'm this angry girl, [a] rebel... punk, and I am so not any of them."^[40]

Most of critics identify Lavigne as some form between teen pop and pop-punk: Publications such as The New York Times, Rolling Stone, NME, MusicMight, IGN and Popmatters have identified Avril Lavigne as a mix of rock, teen pop and pop-punk,^{[89][90][91][92][93][94]} influenced by a grungey pop-rock sound.^{[95][96][97][98][99]}

While Lavigne denied being angry, her interviews were still passionate about the media's lack of respect for her songwriting. "I am a writer, and I won't accept people trying to take that away from me", adding that she had been writing "full-structured songs" since she was 14.^[40] Despite this, Lavigne’s songwriting has been questioned throughout her career. The songwriting trio, the Matrix, with whom Lavigne wrote songs for her debut album, claimed that they were the main songwriters of Lavigne’s singles, "Complicated", "Sk8er Boi" and "I'm with You". Lavigne denied this, asserting that she was the primary songwriter for every song on the album. "[N]one of those songs aren't from me".^[81] In 2007, Chantal Kreviazuk, who wrote with Lavigne on her second album, accused Lavigne of plagiarism^[100] and criticized her songwriting. "Avril doesn't really sit and write songs by herself or anything".^[101] Lavigne also disclaimed this, and considered taking legal action against Kreviazuk for "clear defamation" against her character.^[101] Kreviazuk later apologized: "Avril is an accomplished songwriter and it has been my privilege to work with her".^[100] Shortly after that, Tommy Dunbar, founder of the 1970s band, the Rubinoos, sued Lavigne, her publishing company, and Lukasz "Dr. Luke" Gottwald for allegedly stealing parts of "I Wanna Be Your Boyfriend" for her song "Girlfriend".^[102] Gottwald defended Lavigne, stating, "me and Avril wrote the song together…. It has the same chord progressions as ten different Blink-182 songs, the standard changes you'd find in a Sum 41 song. It's the Sex Pistols, not the Rubinoos."^[101] In January 2008, the lawsuit was closed after a confidential settlement had been reached.^[103]

Other work[link]

Film career[link]

Lavigne became interested in appearing on television and in feature films. The decision, she said, was her own. Although her years of experience in making music videos would be to her advantage, Lavigne admitted her experience in singing removed any fear of performing on camera. She specifically mentioned that the video "Nobody's Home" involved the most "acting".^[80] Her first television appearance was in a 2002 episode of Sabrina, the Teenage Witch,^[104] performing "Sk8er Boi"^[105] with her band in a nightclub.^[106] She later made a cameo appearance in the 2004 film Going the Distance. The main characters bump into her backstage at the MuchMusic Video Awards^[107] after her performance of "Losing Grip".^[108]

Lavigne at the Los Angeles premiere of Over the Hedge on 30 April 2006.

She moved into feature film acting cautiously, choosing deliberately small roles to begin with. In November 2005, after going through an audition to land the role, Lavigne travelled to New Mexico^[109] to film a single scene in the 2007 film, The Flock.^[110] She starred as Beatrice Bell, the girlfriend of a crime suspect, appearing alongside Claire Danes and Richard Gere. Gere gave Lavigne acting tips between takes.^[110] On her role in The Flock, Lavigne said, "I did that just to see how it was and to not jump into [mainstream acting] too fast".^[80] The Flock would not be released in American theatres, and because it would not be released in foreign markets until late 2007, it would not be considered Lavigne's debut. The film made $7 million in the foreign box office.^[111]

Lavigne's feature film debut was voicing an animated character in the 2006 film Over the Hedge, based on the comic strip of the same name. She voiced the character Heather, a Virginia Opossum. Recording the characters' voices was devoid of interaction with other actors. Lavigne stated, "All the actors went in individually, and [director] Tim and [screenwriter Karey] and directors were there with me every time I went in, and they made it go so smoothly; they made me feel comfortable.... That was the interesting part, going in by yourself, with no one else to kind of feed off of."^[112] Lavigne found the recording process to be "easy" and "natural", but she kept hitting the microphone as she gestured while acting. "I'd use my hands constantly and, like, hit the microphone stand and make noises, so Tim and Karey had to tell me to hold still.... It's hard to be running or falling down the stairs and have to make those sounds come out of your mouth but keep your body still." Lavigne believed she was hired to perform Heather because of her rock-star status. "[The director] thought I'd give my character... a bit of attitude".^[80] The film opened on 19 May 2006, making $38 million over its opening weekend. It went on to gross $336 million worldwide.^[113]

In December 2005, Lavigne signed on to appear in Fast Food Nation, based on the book Fast Food Nation: The Dark Side of the All-American Meal.^[114] The fictionalized adaptation, directed by Richard Linklater, traces fast-food hamburgers contaminated with cow feces back to the slaughterhouses.^[115] Lavigne starred in her on-screen acting debut^[116] as a high school student intent on freeing the cows.^[117] The film opened on 17 November 2006 and remained in theatres for 11 weeks, grossing $2 million worldwide.^[118]

Both Over the Hedge and Fast Food Nation opened at the 2006 Cannes Film Festival, which Lavigne attended. Lavigne felt honoured to be able to attend and was proud of her work. When asked if she would pursue her film career, she stated that she wanted to take her time and wait for the "right parts and the right movies." Lavigne was aware of the roles she had chosen. "I wanted to start off small and to learn [that] I wouldn't just want to throw myself into a big part."^[80] In August 2006, Canadian Business magazine ranked her as the seventh top Canadian actor in Hollywood in their second-annual ranking Celebrity Power List. The results were determined by comparing salary, Internet hits, TV mentions, and press hits.^[119]

Fashion design[link]

Avril Lavigne sporting clothes from her Abbey Dawn line in 2011.

In July 2008, Lavigne launched the clothing line Abbey Dawn, featuring a back-to-school collection.^[12] It is produced by Kohl's, which is the brand's exclusive U.S. retailer. Named after Lavigne's childhood nickname, Abbey Dawn is designed by Lavigne herself.^[120][121] Kohl's describes Abbey Dawn as a "juniors lifestyle brand",^[12] which incorporates skull, zebra, and star patterns, purples and "hot pinks and blacks". Lavigne, who wore some of the clothes and jewellery from her line at various concerts before its official launch, pointed out that she was not merely licensing her name to the collection. "I actually am the designer. What's really important to me is that everything fits well and is well-made, so I try everything on and approve it all."^[122] The clothing line incorporates Lavigne's musical style and lyrics, "after the release of my first album, I realized how much fashion was involved in my musical career".^[65]