Motte and Bailey Castles

• Locations of motte and bailey castles

  • Barnstable, Top Ness
• Motte and bailey castles were power bases for William the Conqueror's most powerful nobility
• Motte and bailey castles were military bases for knights and soldiers
• Motte and bailey castles were an intimidating presence for the Anglo-Saxons
• Motte and bailey castles

  • Mott (mound of earth)
  • Keep (wooden tower)
  • Bailey (fenced area around the mott)
  • Palisade (wooden stakes for protection)
• Wooden towers on top of motts provided a significant advantage

  Especially with a wooden tower built on top of it
• Wooden towers were known as the keep


  Usually built out of wood early on but sometimes replaced in stone
• The bailey was the fenced area around the mott


  Full of buildings where soldiers lived, stored their weapons, and stabled their war horses
• Palisade was a fence for protection


  Usually made of wooden stakes driven into the ground, later replaced in stone for extra security
• Castles had a psychological impact


  Sent out the message that the Normans had taken control and rebellion was pointless
• Anglo-Saxon Chronicle: 'The Normans filled the castles with devils and evil men'
• The Normans built castles almost at the moment they arrived in England
• Flat packed furniture-like structures were brought aboard the ships at Pevensey during William's first invasion
• Castle construction process

  People piling up earth and stones into a mound, with a palisade on top, labeled "kaistra" meaning castle in Latin
• The Bayeux Tapestry shows the building of a castle immediately after or just before the Battle of Hastings
• Local people were often commanded by the Normans to build castles, even if it meant demolishing their own homes
• William the Conqueror used castles to secure his land, provide a base for his soldiers and loyal nobles, and intimidate the local people
• Castles were crucial to William's sense of control, enabling the Normans to dominate over 2 million English people with just a few tens of thousands of Normans
• Castles were used as bases to control local areas, protect war horses, store weapons and food, and establish power
• Castles were used to intimidate local people and protect from threats of attack
• Castles were a visible symbol of Norman oppression of the English Saxons
• Rumors of imprisonment in dungeons were terrifying, although it didn't happen often
• The Anglo-Norman word for the mound or "mot" was "donjon," possibly the origin of the modern word "dungeon"
• Castles were a new and frightening sight in the English landscape
• Castles were a symbol of Norman oppression of the English Saxons
• Castles were used as a means of control and intimidation by the Normans