Editing Slighting (section)

==Meaning and use==
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|Description = Slighting could extend beyond the building, and when [[Kenilworth Castle]] was slighted in 1649 the moat was drained.{{sfn|Steane|1999}}
|Alt=A red stone castle complex with a town on one side and open grassland on the other. While the castle is in ruins, from a distance large parts appear intact.}}

Slighting is the act of deliberately damaging a high-status building, especially a castle or fortification, which could include its contents and the surrounding area.{{sfn|Nevell|2019|p=101}} The first recorded use of the word ''slighting'' to mean a form of destruction was in 1613.{{sfn|Simpson|Weiner|1989|p=704}} Castles are complex structures combining military, social, and administrative uses,{{sfn|Johnson|2002|pp=178–179}} and the decision to slight them took these various roles into account. The purpose of slighting was to reduce the value of the building, whether military, social, or administrative.{{sfn|Nevell|2019|p=101}}  Destruction often went beyond what was needed to prevent an enemy from using the fortification, indicating the damage was important symbolically.{{sfn|Creighton|Wright|2017|p=112}} When [[Eccleshall Castle]] in [[Staffordshire]] was slighted as a result of the English Civil War, the act was politically motivated.{{sfn|Askew|2016|p=284}}

In some cases, it was used as a way of punishing the king's rebels or was used to undermine the authority of the owner by demonstrating his inability to protect his property.{{sfn|Nevell|2019|pp=26–28}} As part of the peace negotiations bringing [[The Anarchy]] of 1138–1154 to an end, both sides agreed to dismantle fortifications built since the start of the conflict.{{sfn|Creighton|Wright|2017|p=111}} Similarly, in 1317 [[Edward II of England|Edward II]] ordered the dismantling of [[Harbottle Castle]] in [[Northumberland]] in England as part of a treaty with [[Robert the Bruce]].{{sfn|Hunter-Blair|1949|p=145}}

In England, Scotland, and Wales, it was uncommon for someone to slight his own fortifications but not unknown; during the [[First War of Scottish Independence]], Robert the Bruce systematically slighted Scottish castles, often after capturing them from English control.{{sfn|Nevell|2019|p=111}}{{sfn|Cornell|2008|pp=249–250}} More than a century earlier, [[John, King of England]], ordered the demolition of [[Château de Montrésor]] in France, during his war with the French king over control of Normandy.{{sfn|Powicke|1999|p=160}} In the [[Levant]], Muslim rulers adopted a policy of slighting castles and fortified towns and cities to deny them to Crusaders; Sultan [[Baybars]], for example, instigated the destruction of fortifications at [[Jaffa]] in 1267, [[Antioch]] in 1268, and [[Ashkelon]] in 1270.{{sfn|Möhring|2009|p=216}}