Still more on motte and bailey castles

The Layout of the motte and Bailey Castle

Motte and Bailey Castles were built on top of hilltops, high ground or strategically defensive locations.

Two mounds of earth were built

A high and extremely steep mound was built called the motte - it had very steep sides and a Tower was built on the top of it

A much shallower mound was also built on top of which was the Bailey.

The Bailey was a defended yard which contained barracks, stables, livestock and other buildings for storing food, weapons and equipment

Above is an example plan of a motte and bailey castle.

The motte is the circular structure on the left. There are two baileys shown on the plan, an inner and outer bailey. The lines on the plan show how the ground rises and falls. The thicker end of each line indicates a high point and the thinner end indicates a low point.

Design

The defensive parts of early Norman castles were:

The Outer Ditch and Bank

The Palisade

The Keep

First constructed was the motte, or earth mound topped by a wooden tower.

Smaller mottes could only support simple towers with room for a few soldiers, whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander building.

The motte varied in size from 50 – 120’ in height and 50 to 300 feet in diameter

The size of the motte was influenced by whether it was necessary to impress the population both militarily and politically

The motte of the castle were constructed using earth

The process of excavating the earth to build the motte created a defensive ditch at the base of the motte

The motte was crowned with a wooden tower which served as a look-out, an elevated fighting point and provided housing.

These wooden towers were later replaced with stone and were called 'Keeps'

A ditch was dug around the edge of the bailey and the earth taken out was piled up inside to form the bank.

Where possible, the ditch was allowed to fill with water from a nearby river or stream to provide extra defence.

On top of the bank a palisade of wooden planks or logs was constructed to add extra height.

A wall walk was usually built behind the palisade to allow the defenders to see over the top and fire missiles down on attackers below who were attempting the climb the bank.

The palisade continued all the way around the edge of the bailey and its only real threat was from fire. This threat eventually lead to the introduction of stone for building material.

Access at the Gate

A gate was accessed via the ditch and approached across a wooden bridge usually with a removable section by the door.

Some of these were drawbridges, raised by means of a winch in the room over the passage, or occasionally bascule bridges, the bridge chains attached to horizontal counter-weighted beams above.

A few were turning bridges, the bridge acting as a see-saw with a weighted rear end that dropped into a pit. Rarely, the stonework of the gate-tower was brought forward to form a primitive barbican.

The Tower or Keep

A tower and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte.

The tower was a last defense in an attack, and sometimes the lord's residence. It was designed as this second line of defence.

The keep could have been made in the shape of a tower with a couple of floors or could just have been a wooden hall.

Most of the early keeps were constructed from wood and were always under threat from fire.

Made usually of wood, the keep needed to be large enough to hold the baron's family and household. Space could also be required to hold soldiers and local villagers at times of attack.

Wooden structures on mottes could be protected by skins and hides to prevent them being easily set alight during a siege.

Layout of larger towers

A larger tower may have consisted of two or three storeys:

The Ground Floor housed a kitchen and storeroom

The First Floor housed the Great Hall (optional)

The Top floor housed the Lord's apartments

The Bailey

The bailey contained barns, barracks, blacksmith, chapel and other support structures.

A removable wooden bridge linked the tower to the courtyard and a single fortified gate welcomed the visitor crossing the moat.

Relatively easy to build with unskilled, often forced, labour, but still militarily formidable, these castles were built across northern Europe from the 10th century onwards

Construction

Very little skilled labour was required to build motte and bailey castles, which made them very attractive propositions if forced peasant labour was available

Additional solidity was provided in some mottes by riveting in timber stakes or facing them with wooden boards or stone slabs.

Various methods were used to build mottes.

Where a natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand.

Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower:

the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it

the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within the mound

the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath

the tower could be built first, and the mound added later.

Regardless of the sequencing, artificial mottes had to be built by piling up earth; this work was undertaken by hand, using wooden shovels and hand-barrows, possibly with picks as well in the later periods.

Larger mottes took disproportionately more effort to build than their smaller equivalents, because of the volumes of earth involved.

Contemporary accounts talk of some mottes being built in a matter of days, although these low figures have led to suggestions by historians that either these figures were an underestimate, or that they refer to the construction of a smaller design than that later seen on the sites concerned.

Taking into account estimates of the likely available manpower during the period, historians estimate that the larger mottes might have taken between four and nine months to build.

This contrasted favorably with stone keeps of the period, which might take many years to build.

Example

One contemporary account of these structures comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, describing the Calais region in northern France.

… the nobles would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig a ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside the enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defenses. The entrance to the fortress is by means of a bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reaches to the top of the mound."

Importance of water sources

The Château's site, including orchard and farm, has seven sources of water. Like most chateaus and mottes, this was likely the main consideration for the location. Wells and water management were important from earlier times as most drinking sources were contaminated, and sufficient water for animals was critical, even in rain-soaked Normandy.

Fortified farm

Château de la motte, like most small chateaus, was most probably little more than a farm, possibly fortified during the Middle Ages. The king, or the duke of Normandy, had to give permission for building fortifications; towers, moats, and crenellations required licenses.

Instead, rural architecture evolved a defensive function with buildings in compounds, built around a courtyard with water. The exterior walls had few windows, with an easy-to-defend entrance.

Careful orientation toward the south, like most country architecture in France, was moderated on the Atlantic coast, in order to block the storms from the southwest.

The lord's dwelling would have been a modest structure even if the home were referred to as a Great Hall.

The home would have at least two levels with storage on the ground floor and a large public room (l'aula) on the first floor, which was the actual great hall.

This hall would have been a judicial, political, and economic center for the community, or parish (now commune), and located near the entrance to the Château grounds.

A lord's private chamber (la camera) would have been at one end, with true privacy only in the large curtained bed. The chapel (la capella) was typically near, or in, the home, but no site is known today.

During the Middle Ages, a lord's family usually moved between their various lands and residences, leaving the maintenance and farm production to a permanent staff.

It was sort of a mandatory, perpetual picnic.

A noble household consisted of an extended family including many illegitimate half brothers and sisters, along with descendants from previous mixed offspring. A mother's status determined the roles in the family, with many positions as administrators and servants.

Strategic marriages with other families were sought to defend the family's power and prestige, but a lord's daughter by other than his wife could marry a high servant. Sons were expected to leave the family for service in other lords’ homes

A modest château had between 10 and 20 servants: farm and household staff such as shepherds, ditchers, cow herders, milkmaids, and cooks. Most pay was in-kind, such as food and clothes

Size

The size of mottes varied considerably, with these mounds being 3 metres to 30 metres in height (10 feet to 100 feet), and from 30 to 90 metres (98 to 295 ft) in diameter.

Few mottes were taller than 10 meters (33 feet) high; 24% were between 10 and 5 metres (33 and 16 ft), and 69% were less than 5 meters (16 feet) tall.

Ditch

A motte was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing the mound itself.

Motte

Mottes were made out of earth and flattened on top, and it can be very hard to determine whether a mound is artificial or natural without excavation.

A motte was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing the mound itself.

A keep and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte.

Some walls would be large enough to have a wall-walk around them, and the outer walls of the motte and the wall-walk could be strengthened by filling in the gap between the wooden walls with earth and stones, allowing it to carry more weight; this was called a garillum.

Smaller mottes could only support simple towers with room for a few soldiers, whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander building.

Many wooden keeps were designed with a bretasche, a square building that overhung from the upper floors of the building, enabling better defences and a more sturdy structural design

Another example

The early 12th-century chronicler Lambert of Ardres described the wooden keep on top of the motte at the castle of Ardres, where the

"first storey was on the surface of the ground, where were cellars and granaries, and great boxes, tuns, casks, and other domestic utensils. In the storey above were the dwelling and common living-rooms of the residents in which were the larders, the rooms of the bakers and butlers, and the great chamber in which the lord and his wife slept...In the upper storey of the house were garret rooms...In this storey also the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep".

Bailey

The bailey was an enclosed courtyard overlooked by the motte and surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and another ditch.

The bailey was often kidney-shaped to fit against a circular motte, but could be made in other shapes according to the terrain.

The bailey could contain a wide number of buildings, including a hall, kitchens, a chapel, barracks, stores, stables, forges or workshops, and was the centre of the castle's economic activity.

The bailey was linked to the motte either by a removable wooden bridge stretching between the two, or by steps cut into the motte. In time of attack or siege the bridge was completely removed

Typically the ditch of the motte and the bailey joined, forming a figure of eight around the castle

Wherever possible, nearby streams and rivers would be dammed or diverted, creating water-filled moats, artificial lakes and other forms of water defences.

In practice, there was a wide number of variations to this common design.

A castle could have more than one bailey

Local geography and the intent of the builder produced many unique designs.

Construction and maintenance

Building a motte, from the Bayeux Tapestry

The first castles erected in Normandy were mainly of earth and timber, for economic reasons. The simplest form was what we now call a 'ringwork', consisting of a courtyard protected by a ditch, the earth from which formed a bank on the inner side, topped by a palisade (a row of stakes) .

However, some castles were already using stone for the walls or had replaced timber with stone.

Longueville--sur--Scie was first built for the Giffard family in the 11th century at the bottom of the Scie valley near the town, and is in the form of a vast oval delimited by earthen walls, with no motte (a mound of earth).

SITE REQUIREMENTS:

Motte & Bailey Castles were built on the highest ground around

motte and Bailey Castles often adjoined Rivers

motte and Bailey Castles often overlooked Towns

motte and Bailey Castles often made use of existing sites of Roman or older forts and burhs

motte and Bailey Castles often overlooked harbours

Various methods were used to build mottes.

Very little skilled labour was required to build motte and bailey castles, which made them very attractive propositions if forced peasant labour was available

Where a natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand.

Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower

1. the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it

2. the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within the mound

3. the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath

4. the tower could be built first, and the mound added later.

Regardless of the sequencing, artificial mottes had to be built by piling up earth; this work was undertaken by hand, using wooden shovels and hand-barrows, possibly with picks as well in the later periods.

Larger mottes took disproportionately more effort to build than their smaller equivalents, because of the volumes of earth involved.

The largest mottes may have required up to 10 man years of work; smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000

Some contemporary accounts talk of smaller mottes being built in a matter of days

Taking into account estimates of the likely available manpower during the period, historians estimate that the larger mottes might have taken between four and nine months to build.

This contrasted favourably with stone keeps of the period, which typically took up to ten years to build.

The type of soil would make a difference to the design of the motte, as clay soils could support a steeper motte, whilst sandier soils meant that a motte would need a more gentle incline.

Where available, layers of different sorts of earth, such as clay, gravel and chalk, would be used alternatively to build in strength to the design.

Layers of turf could also be added to stabilise the motte as it was built up, or a core of stones placed as the heart of the structure to provide strength.

Similar issues applied to the defensive ditches, where designers found that the wider the ditch was dug, the deeper and steeper the sides of the scarp could be, making it more defensible.

Maintenance

‘Although militarily a motte was, as Norman Pounds describes it, "almost indestructible", they required frequent maintenance.

Soil wash was a problem, particularly with steeper mounds, and mottes could be clad with wood or stone slabs to protect them

Over time, some mottes suffered from subsidence or damage from flooding, requiring repairs and stabilisation work.