What sort of accommodations might a wealthy baron to a count expect? Presuming at least a banner or two of knights under him, possibly more.
My present thought was a manor house as the primary residence and a castle maintained in times of war. The manor house is situated relatively near a chase and the castle overlooks farmlands owned personally by the baron, while the lands of his bannerets/knights/lesser lordlings lie beyond his.
What sort of accommodations and arrangements of land would you (the Others here) put together? Is there a good example of a decent-sized barony I can look to?
From LoM, you are expected to provide 1 knight + 1 squire + 10 levy spearmen per manor under your control. Infantry numbers are doubled if fighting in home ground
A poor noble controls 1 manor (2 mounted, 10 infantry)
A normal noble controls 2 manors (4 mounted, 20 infantry)
A wealthy noble controls 5 manors (10 mounted, 50 infantry)
A baron is supposed to control around 20 manors IIRC. That would be 20 knights, 20 squires and 200 levy spearmen.
The knight service is around 40 days IIRC.
A banner of knights are 5 knights and attendants, so a wealthy noble can field a banner and have them dressed in his livery for prestige reasons.
Most of the services can be exchanged by escutage (money) paid to the liege to do stuff like hiring mercenaries et al, or you can hire the mercenaries yourself and send them instead of going yourself.
I don't think nobles of that period had manor houses that were not also castles. Admittedly some might be more comfortable than others, and the defenses might be in disrepair, but they would all originate as fortified holdings. The only exception might be a house in his liege's primary city if for some reason he spent a lot of time there (say, because his liege is the King and he holds a position at Court).
I believe that he would have a primary residence for each of his titles, serving as the administrative center for that title. The Trencavels, viscounts of Beziers, Carcassone, Albi (and more) had a residence in each viscounty, with a (knighted) castellan who lived there year-round and administered. The Viscount himself traveled from one to the other and lived a few weeks or a few months at each. All of them were fortresses. Part of the reason for the travel is that it is easier to move the Viscount and his entourage than to move the food they ate, and of course it let him keep a close eye on all his holdings.
So if you are looking at a wealthy baron, maybe he does in fact hold more than one title, each with its own residence, and travels between them (possibly according to the seasons). Otherwise I would expect only one, probably in a minor city. He is of course welcome at all time at any of his vassals' home.