BATTLEMENT, a term given to the parapet of a wall consisting of alternating low portions known as "crenels" (hence "crenellated" walls with battlements) and high portions called "merlons." Battlements were devised in order that warriors might be protected by the merlons and yet be able to discharge arrows or other missiles through the crenels. The battlement is an early development in military architecture; it is found in Chaldea, Egypt and prehistoric Greece as well as commonly in Roman fortifications. It was in the middle ages that the battle ment received its highest development, crenels being narrowed, and frequently given splayed sides, the merlons often having in the centre a thin slit sometimes cross-shaped to give the widest possible arc for the discharge of missiles. The developed mediae val battlement was frequently bracketed out from the face of the wall and holes in its floor were furnished to allow objects to be dropped directly downward upon attacking forces. In actual siege use the battlement was usually covered with a protecting shed of timber and hides.
In the Saracen countries and in Italy, through Eastern influ ence, the battlement frequently takes decorative shapes, and towards the end of the Gothic period, as the military necessity decreased, the battlement became merely decorative. A similar persistence of the battlement as a purely decorative form occurs in much late Gothic throughout Europe ; especially in the per pendicular work in England, when it is richly ornamented with tracery and frequently pierced as well.
For a complete discussion see Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionaire raisonne de l'Architecture francaise, especially articles Architecture militaire, Château, Donjon, Hourd, Machicoulis and Siege. (T. F. H.)