Castles

The castle, a strong stone structure, which invokes images of kings and knights, dragons and princesses, is such an integral part of medieval history. One cannot think history without thinking about the towering structures of stone that dominated the green landscapes of the past. These stone monoliths served many purposes: buildings of government, defense, symbols of power, and homes. Just as it has varied purposes, the castles diverse and interesting history, from tiny wooden structures to the behemoth structures of rock and mortar that we associate with the word: Castle.

The castle's development cannot be pinpointed to a particular year or location, though the first castle is widely accepted as being DouÐ"©-la-Fontaine and Langeais in the Loire Valley of France. Both these castles were originally stone fortifications that served as homes to local warring Counts. As time went on and their feuding got more violent, their homes got more impressive, each count adding levels and stones to their homes. This one-upmanship continued until, at some point, the homes became what is considered the first castle, the motte and bailey.

The Motte and Bailey Castles started out simple, normally just wooden buildings, which relied on natural defenses such as rivers or hills to prevent attacks. Oft times rivers were even diverted to add extra protection, and as a steady water supply in the event of a siege. But always somebody had to do better; soon they were adding mounds, banks ditches, and whatever else would trip up invaders. Earthworks, as they were called, could be mounds, also called mottes, or hollow circles of dirt, called ringworks. In the case of a motte, a wooden tower usually topped it; while a ringwork enclosed structures protected by a wooden palisade, or fence. Nonetheless, in each instance, earth was dug from the perimeter, leaving a ditch, which further impeded attackers. Eventually these two types of earthworks were combined into one castle, the traditional Motte and Bailey. Baileys being a large level area surrounded by a ringwork, with a Motte connecting. The bailey often contained a hall, buildings for livestock, a forge and armory, and a chapel. The Motte and Bailey castles were also very quick and easy to construct, and provided a look-out post, in addition to, adding the tactically important height advantage; however, due to the fact that they were mainly wood, these castles were particularly vulnerable to fire.

After people got tired of their castles burning, many of these early wooden castles were replaced or rebuilt with stone, cannibalizing the old earthworks. Stone castles needed more workers, were more expensive, and took much longer to build than wooden ones, but they were fireproof and much, much more secure. Making them the preferred type of castle. Most of the first stone castles were centered on a large tower with smaller buildings radiating outward, (the DouÐ"©-la-Fontaine was set up like this). These great stone towers, or keeps, were also much stronger than its wooded ancestor; in addition, stone towers also allowed for greater heights. This all sought after height advantage, gave defenders an even better view of the surrounding landscapes, thus a better line of fire. Also, keeps provided secure storage for money and documents while still housing all the comforts for the posh nobility.

But, still ever lazy, castle builders turned the surrounding land to their advantage, utilizing hills, rivers, cliffs, and lakes to their maximum advantage. Thus leading to keeps that were built to many different designs, including, but not limited to, rectangular, circular, square, hexagonal and the half moon shaped. An excellent example of this is Chepstow Keep, which turned natural features such as sheer cliffs to their advantage, using the added protection to make two sides of the castle virtually unassailable. Some builders were so lazy they even went as far as to build within previous structures, for example, at Portchester Castle, a Norman keep was constructed inside the walls of an existing Roman fort, genus!

Some in some parts of the world, a slight variation on the standard keep was implemented. Called the shell keep, this was simple yet effective design, placing atall circular wall around the top of a motte, with all the most important buildings placed along the inside wall of the shell. An excellent example of this keep style is the Restormel Castle, located in Cornwall.

Feeling that thus far all additions to the castle were insufficient, many castles began implementing curtain walls with projecting towers. These new fangled designs were used to open the areas in front the walls to allow defenders to fire upon anyone below. However, this design made having a tower in the center of your castle pointless, thus buildings dropped back down to normal sizes, leaving a hall and other rooms to be built inside a central protected courtyard. Builders