Motte And Bailey Castle example essay topic

Seth Ingram The wide ranging and imposing site of Dover Castle in Kent, England has been used in various forms as a defensive stronghold for over two thousand years (Microart). Many years before the Normans ever arrived in 1066 to make the Dover castle we see today, this high land above the English Channel was the location of an Iron Age hill fort, which set the mold for the fortifications still visible today (Microart). The Dover Castle at Kent has undergone many additions and reconstructions over its years, such as the great grandson of William the Conqueror, Henry II's expansion in 1170 (Castles of Wales Web Site, web). It is the best castle ever built, and its use extended into the 1940's when it played still big roll in WWII. Dover has evolved much over it years, and its strategically positioned to be right in all of the action. Most all buildings are created to serve a single purpose, a bank, a hotel, a factory, a school, eat.

A castle however does not meet this mold, it can be many things a military base, a seat of government, a court and a stronghold for the surrounding region, in certain cases it filled all of these roles at once. However, a castle was generally the private residence of its owner. Castle were a product of the period, they were built in a time period that was not safe, but a castle offered some safety. It is important to note that very few of the many castles ever built assume the forms of castles that we see today.

It should also be made to realize that generally castle life was quiet and peaceful. Most castles were owned by the nobility and the lives lived in them were not as portrayed in movies. As the close of the medieval period comes to pass, and stability seems to become a more constant factor, many castles lay more stress on the comforts of life, rather than the defense of it. Today's castles first came to England in 1066 with William the Conqueror. Castles were the means by which he was able to conqueror England so successfully. By putting up these castles he was able to suppress any type of uprising that might occur.

These first Norman castles were hurriedly put up to secure their foot hold in England, so as you can imagine they are not quite as glamorous as the giant heaping stone structures we see today. The typical type of castle they would have built is known as a motte and bailey. These types of castles were fairly quick and easy to construct. A motte and bailey' castle consisted of a large mound, or motte, and wherever it was possible, placed on a solid rock, It was made with compacted rubble and earth, topped with a wooden tower. It was fairly primitive but it provided a look out post as well as adding a height advantage if there castle was attacked. The bailey part of the Motte and Bailey castle was a large enclosed area beside the motte.

It was not raised to the same height, so it looked like the motte was "watching over" the Bailey. The Bailey was often surrounded by an earthwork, a bank or a ditch of some sort. The bailey often contained a hall, buildings for livestock, a forage, armory, and a chapel. The motte and bailey's main vulnerability was fire, due to the fact that most of them were constructed from timber.

Later on however, these were transformed into stone as the evolution of the castle ran its course. (Tiscali web). They primary advantage of such a castle was their cost. They were cheap and easy to erect, and even though seemingly simple, they were a formidable opponents to nearly all attackers with the weapons of the time. A key feature that also added to the advantage of the motte and bailey castle was the tower, it was normally designed so that from the tower any part of the bailey was in bowshot. Once the initial urgency of the conquest of England had subsided the Norman builders now had a chance to show their superiority with massive stone structures to replace the quickly outdated wooden motte and bailey castles.

The feudal society played a big role in castle evolution. Feudalism was the class system at the time, simply put it works like a pyramid, the King being at the top. The king would own all of the land, he would in turn give portions of his land to vassals for homage and military aid. These vassals would "let" the surfs work their land, and make them the money needed to pay the homage and support the lifestyle of the vassal, in return the vassal would give the surf a place to live and food to eat. Well, the idea of this worked best when there was a strong and driven king to keep order, but when the royalty was weak, or even worse in dispute it turned into utter chaos. Many generations lived in times of chaos, feudal lords all fighting for more power and control, and with improved methods of attacking began to arise so did the methods of defending these attacks, these defensive improvement came in the form of castles.

While the call for a greater defense changed they building material, the basic design of the castle stayed the same, with a motte and bailey, however the motte was now called a keep, but remained the focal point of the castle. The keep took on two forms, a shell keep or a tower keep. The shell keep is the simplest of the two forms. It was built by replacing the timber palisade around the motte with a high stone ring wall. Most shell keeps are, therefore, circular or oval in shape.

The tower version of the keep was for the most part rectangular, but it was at time subject to exception. The walls of the tower keep were thick, and were about ten to twelve feet thicker at the corners. The tower version of the keep generally because of its weight could not be built on top of the motte or it would be crushed under the pressure, unless the motte was there naturally. Dover castle is an excellent example of a tower keep. Either form would be the most fortified part of the castle, it was the last line of defense and should the bailey be taken the inhabitants would take refuge in it during the following siege.

A keep would generally have living quarters, storerooms, and its own well. These qualities to the keep gave it the ability to sustain life for long periods of time during a siege. However the keep often times doubled as the living quarters during times of peace for the owner. Next came the fortification of the bailey. There was really only one simple way to make a first improvement on the bailey, that was to turn the timber wall into a stone wall. Once the wall was built, then people figured out ways to further the defenses of the bailey.

On the wall would be melons, these are little battlements set up on the wall that alternate. Doing this was known as crenelating, which stems from the word crenel, meaning an opening or embrasure. Melons were a very strategic part to a castle, it provided archers with protection. An archer could duck behind one of these melons and safely reload. As stone castles evolved there is special attention paid to the gate. Obviously it is the entrance to the castle, but it is also a castles most venerable spots.

When laying a castle to siege an attacker would often times put his full force on the gate. Two early means to protect this vulnerability were to enclose the gate itself in its own stone structure and the other, which we see a shining example of in Dover castle, was to build two flanking towers against the outer wall of the bailey, one on either side of the gateway. By the 12th century we start to see what is known as a typical castle, and they are more of the castles we see today. Dover castle was no exception to the normality, and to better understand what Dover castle itself is like we must look at what is involved in a typical castle. Although there was no such thing as a typical castle throughout the era of castle-building, by the 12th century certain features began to appear more frequently. These might include a keep, a large central tower containing store rooms, soldiers' quarters, and a hall for the lord and his family; an inner bailey, or walled courtyard, surrounding the keep; an outer bailey, or second courtyard, separated fromthe inner bailey by a wall.

Crenellated em battlements which are basically raised projections alternating with gaps on the top of castle walls, these provided shelter to the defenders, while giving a good view and freedom to fire on the attacking enemy with arrows or other projectile weaponry. A typical castle might also have Towers, providing stairway access and sometimes living spaces, often projected from the walls. The corners of square towers could be battered or undermined; round towers did not have this problem. The entrance to the castle was sometimes protected by a portcullis, a heavy grating which could be let down to close the main gate; and a drawbridge that crossed a ditch or moat surrounding the castle. Sometimes a tower called a barbican was constructed over a gateway as an additional defensive measure. (Tiscali).

The Origins of Dover castle are not quite sure, although there is evidence of an Iron Age hill fort. There is also a roman lighthouse and an Angelo Saxon church that can still be seen at the site today, which predate the construction and expansions of the existing fortifications put up by William the Conqueror in 1066. The church was adjacent to the lighthouse, it originally dates from 1000 AD, but was heavily restored by George Gilbert Scott in 1862, with the tower and interior mosaic added by William Butterfield in 1888. The church and its surrounding Saxon burials suggest that there was an Anglo Saxon burgh here before the Normans arrived (Microart). The roman lighthouse is one of the highest standing roman structures in Europe.

The lighthouse was built in the first century AD to help people cross the channel easier. It still stands today on the one of the highest points on the enclosed grounds of Dover. (Microart). These two structures are what the castle was originally centered around when it was first constructed. Not much is known about the castle during its early years, the first major construction took place on the castle between 1179 and 1188. During this time period is when King Henry II had the castle completely rebuilt, and we see many modernizations in the design of the castle.

Under the supervision of Maurice the Ingeniator the massive keep and walls and towers of the inner bailey were built and work was started on the walls of the outer bailey. The castle was the first in western Europe to be built to a concentric design. Concentric design means simply that a series of defenses that radiate in succession from the castle in larger and larger circles outward from the castle. Henry was unable to see the final product of his renovations, but King John finished them after Henry's death. (Robbins, web) This far in Dover's history it has not yet had to face any major challenges, well the time has now come for Dover to meet its first challenge in the war between King James and his Barons. In May 1216 Prince Louis landed a French Army at Thanet in support of the rebel barons.

By the autumn of 1216, the only castles in southern England still in the king's hands were at Windsor and Dover. (Robbins, web). Prince Louis set up on the north side of Dover, from here he could direct the siege weaponry while the miners slowly tunneled under the northern barbican. Finally the miners brought down the eastern of the of the two gate towers, the French army started to pour in but was met by the force of Hubert de Burgh, his men fought hard enough to force a retreat of the French army, which ultimately lead to a truce called by Prince Louis. Not long after King John died at Newark Castle and his son, Henry, was proclaimed king. In may of 1217, Prince Louis broke the local truce and once more lay siege to Dover Castle, but three days later French forces were defeated at the Battle of Lincoln, bringing the war to an end.

(Robbins). The siege of 1216-1217 exposed a weakness to the castle, its northern defense. With the backing of King Henry the castle would improve greatly, starting with the northern defenses. The northern gate was blocked solid, in the moat beyond St John's Tower was constructed, which gave a better view of the northern ground, giving the height advantage, giving command of the high ground. The Northern entrance of the castle was replaced by what is known as Constable's Gateway on the western side of the castle.

A secondary entrance, Fitzwilliam's Gateway, was built on the eastern side of the castle. The outer curtain wall was completed from Peverell's Tower to the cliff edge, and a massive earth bank was constructed round the church and Roman lighthouse. In the 1250's this would be topped by stone. On the south and eastern side of the inner ward a new hall later to be known as "Arthur's Hall", as well a set of chambers for the king and queen, this was all added in 1240. By the time these fortifications had be completed Dover was at the height of its medieval dominance and power. (Robbins).

The next time the castle would see major renovation would be in 1745, when new barrack ers were created inside the inner bailey to accommodate more troops. Also In 1755 the northern defenses of the castle were faced with some remodeling. The outer curtain from Av ranches Tower to the Norfolk Towers were modified to carry heavy artillery, modernizing the medieval spur to accommodate infantry, as well as building two gun batteries - Bell Battery and Four Gun Battery. This renovations were led by military engineer J P Desmaretz.

(Robbins). The next set of modifications would come at the end of the eighteenth century, this time at the hands of Colonel William Twiss. He completed the remodeling of the outer defenses. He added the huge Horseshoe, Hudson's, East Arrow and East Demi-Bastions to provide extra gun positions on the eastern side.

He also constructed the Constable's Bastion for additional protection on the west. Twiss was not done quite yet, he still went on to further strengthen the spur at the northern end of the castle by adding a raised gun platform. He also took the roof of the keep and replaced it with massive brick vaults, this enabled him to mount heavy artillery on the top of the keep where it would of fallen through due to its weight. If you thought Twiss was done with his modification to Dover, you were wrong. He constructed Canon's Gateway to help with troop movements between the castle and the town. He filled every available space within the castle with barracks and storerooms, and even constructed underground cliff barracks.

By the time we was done with Dover, this medieval construction was ready for modern warfare (Robbins). At the end of the Napoleonic wars the time of Dover was ending, most of the troops were moved out of the castle and it was seen more as a military headquarters than a battle fortification. The last major construction happened in 1870's when a series of gun batteries were placed on the cliff walls to protect the harbor below. However, this does not mean the castle had played its final roll. In may 1940 the evacuation of 338,000 allied soldiers from Dunkirk was lead from the tunnels of Dover castle. These tunnels were part of King Johns expansion.

He had the tunnels connected to sally ports in order to surprise attacking troops. After the war the army remained in the castle until 1958, five years later the whole of Dover Castle was handed over to the Ministry of Works for preservation. Nearly 1800 hundred years later since the Duke of Normandy landed and created the castle, it was finally taken out of military service. (Robbins).

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