In the course of doing research for my Medieval Warrior series, I
learned much about 11th century castles in England. For
the most part, the castles erected by William the Conqueror after 1066 were not
the stone edifices we think of today, the monuments that remain. The castles
the Normans first constructed, the ones built in mere days, weeks or months,
were timbered structures erected upon a “motte,” or a mound of earth with a
flat top, and surrounded by a deep ditch sometimes filled with water (a moat).
These timbered castles were enclosed with a “palisade”, a fence of wooden
poles sharpened to a point at the top. The land inside this palisade would be
the “bailey” and would house the outbuildings like the stables, smith and armory.
The castle itself included a central tower, the donjon or “keep,”
used as a lookout post and built on top of a summit. We call the structures
“motte and bailey” castles.
At the end
of William’s reign, over eighty such castles had been built throughout England.
By 1100, it is believed 400 motte and bailey castles had been erected. To build
his castles, William confiscated the land of English nobles and their heirs and
gave it to his loyal barons. (By the end of William’s reign, a small group of
his tenants had acquired about half of England’s landed wealth.) Typically,
that land had a castle as its governing center.
Whenever William
the Conqueror wanted to make a statement (or a threat) to the local population,
he erected a castle. This happened following the Siege of Exeter and the Battle
of York featured in book 1, The Red Wolf’s Prize.
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| Artist's depiction of the timber castle erected in York |
Typically
William would leave a garrison of his knights with orders to erect and hold a
castle. He had 5,000 knights at his command who could put down rebellions and guard
his fortifications. The king was making his point with the populace that he was
there to stay and any hope of rebellion was futile.
In Rogue Knight, the Conqueror built two such castles in the city of
York in the course of my story.
Building a
motte was a skilled achievement. The large mounds of dirt were constructed layer
upon layer, with a layer of soil capped by a layer of stones that was capped by
another layer of soil. The stone layers were needed to strengthen the motte and
to assist drainage.
The larger
mottes took longer to build…months, not weeks. The motte at Hampstead Marshall
contains 22,000 tons of soil and took fifty men eighty days to construct. The
motte at Dover, constructed in eight days, would have required 500 men.
Often, the
local people were conscripted into the work, which must have been humiliating
for the defeated Anglo-Saxons. There were three phases of castle building under
William’s reign, about 80% of which were the motte and bailey castles.
Eventually, many of the wooden castles were fortified or replaced with stone
structures.
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| Tamworth Castle |
Tamworth Castle in Staffordshire overlooks the
River Tame. Its sandstone and herringbone walls are all that survive of the
“curtain wall” of the bailey. The first castle was a wooden structure,
constructed by the Normans in 1070, but later, it was fortified with stone.
Today, it is one of the best preserved Norman motte and bailey castles in
England.
In
Rebel Warrior,
book 3 in the series, the royal court of Scotland is in a tall stone tower,
a fortified hillfort that was considered impregnable. You’ll have to read the
book to experience it!
The Medieval Warriors Series:
“This
series captures the medieval era perfectly, creating the true sensation of
traveling back in time to experience epic, riveting love stories that ignite
the imagination. Beautifully written, perfectly paced and action-packed with
passionate love affairs...
What more can you ask?” — The Book Review
What more can you ask?” — The Book Review
The Medieval Warriors on Regan's website
On Amazon.
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