An introduction to Motte and bailey castles

Motte-And-Bailey Castles

A motte-and-bailey castle was a fortification with a wooden or stone tower situated on a raised earthwork called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade.

The term "motte and bailey" is a relatively modern one, and is not medieval in origin.

The word "motte" is the French version of the Latin mota, and in France the word motte was initially an early word for a turf; it then became used to refer to a turf bank, and by the 12th century was used to refer to the castle design itself.

The word "bailey" comes from the Norman-French baille, or basse-cour, referring to a low yard.

In medieval sources, the Latin term castellum was used to describe the bailey complex within these castles.

The Meaning & Origin of word 'Donjon' and 'Keep'

The word 'donjon' originally described the keep or the tower which was built on top of the motte.

The word 'Donjon' was derived from a Latin word meaning 'Dominating Point'.

Later the word 'Donjon' was changed to 'Keep'.

Evolution & Design

The earliest form of fortified camp was a simple wooden palisade, perhaps with earthworks, surrounding a camp (ringworks), sometimes with a permanent wooden tower in the centre.

These had been common since Roman times and remained little-changed for centuries.

Later stand-alone wooden towers became a feature of defences in northwest France from the 9th and 10th centuries.

These structures evolved into the more sophisticated motte and bailey castles. These castles consisted of a wooden wall, perhaps built on an earth bank, encircling an open space or courtyard (bailey) and a natural or artificial hill (motte) which had a wooden tower built in the centre of its flattened top, sometimes surrounded by its own wooden palisade.

There was no specific design blueprint to follow as castles took advantage of local terrain and other factors

An historic castle was sometimes really small.

The cold European weather also kept the rooms small and the beds full of family members to keep warm.

No privacy and no way to carry out elaborate intrigue without everyone knowing about it.

The tower ranged from a mere lookout tower or firing platform to the more substantial building used as a residence for the local lord. Some towers were built on stilts, presumably to save time and materials in their construction and to make them more difficult to scale.

The motte was sometimes connected to the bailey by a type of bridge, but most had steps cut into their sides.

The whole castle structure was further protected by an encircling ditch, which could be with or without water.

Construction was also influenced by local terrain and geology, by labour and materials, and by the random wishes and whims of an infinite number of people.

With variations in dimensions, layout, towers, walls, and foundations, some castles had two mottes while some mottes had two or even three baileys.

Earliest castles

The earliest purely documentary evidence for motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy and Angers comes from between 1020 and 1040

Archaeological evidence pushes the date for what was possibly the first motte and bailey castle, at Vincy, back to 979.

Other similar castles were built by the more powerful lords of Anjou in the late 10th and 11th centuries.

Fulk III and his son, Geoffrey II built a great number of them between 987 and 1060.

Many of these earliest castles would have appeared quite crude and rustic by later standards, belying the power and prestige of their builders.

William as the Duke of Normandy is believed to have adopted the motte-and-bailey design from neighbouring Anjou

Duke William went on to prohibit the building of castles without his consent through the Consuetudines et Justicie, with his legal definition of castles centring on the classic motte-and-bailey features of ditching, banking and palisading.

By the 11th century, castles were built throughout the Holy Roman Empire, which then spanned central Europe.

The motte-and-bailey design began to spread into Alsace and the northern Alps from France during the first half of the 11th century, spreading further into Bohemia and Austria in the subsequent years

Alternatives to motto and bailey castles

A popular alternative was the ringwork castle, involving a palisade being built on top of a raised earth rampart, protected by a ditch.

The choice of motte and bailey or ringwork was partially driven by terrain, as mottes were typically built on low ground, and on deeper clay and alluvial soils.

Another factor may have been speed, as ringworks were faster to build than mottes.

Some ringwork castles were later converted into motte-and-bailey designs, by filling in the centre of the ringwork to produce a flat-topped motte.

Timber Halls

Before stone castles were constructed, many Norman barons lived in wooden halls. These halls varied in size and were designed like a church is today with internal columns that supported the large timber rooves. These columns divided the length of the hall into sections known as bays. The safest place to be was this large timber hall and so the whole household of the lord, including his family and supporters lived together within it. Bays were partitioned off and animals could also be housed within the hall.

Control of the castles

In early Normandy (at least before about 1035) the dukes were aware of the dangers of losing control of castles and were careful to place comtes and vicomtes in charge of them.

William the Bastard tended to choose family members as a safeguard against treachery, but this did not always work, as the revolt of his uncle, Count William of Arques, in 1052-53 bears out.