The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.

by Ella Sophia Armitage

Castles of Gower.

*Swansea, or Abertawy.—This was the castle of Henry Beaumont, the conqueror of Gower. The present castle is comparatively modern. It is inside the town; but there used to be a moated mound outside the town, which was only removed in 1804. It seems probable to us that this was the original castle of Beaumont.[989] That this first castle had a motte is suggested by the narrative in the Brut which tells how Griffith ap Rhys burnt the outworks in 1115, but was unable to get at the tower.[990]

*Loughor, or Aberllychor ([Fig. 43]).—Also built by Henry Beaumont. The mound of the castle still remains, with a small square keep on top. There was formerly a shell wall also. The place of a bailey was supplied by a terrace 15 feet wide.[991] The four castles last mentioned are all at the mouths of rivers, as well as on an ancient (if not Roman) coast road.

*Llandeilo Talybont, or Castell Hu.—Only mentioned once in the Brut, under 1215, as the castle of Hugh de Miles. A moated mound with a square bailey and no masonry still remains.[992] It commands the river Loughor, which is still navigable up to that point at high tides.[993] On the opposite side of the river is another motte and bailey, called Ystum Enlle. Possibly there was a ford or ferry at this point, which these castles were placed to defend.[994]

Oystermouth, a corruption of Ystum Llwynarth.—First mentioned in the older Brut in 1215, when it was burnt by Rhys Grug. The later version says it was built by Beaumont in 1099. The castle stands on a natural height, fortified artificially by a motte, which is of great size. There is a small bailey below to the N.E., and a curious small oval embankment thrown out in the rear of the castle towards the N.W. The architecture of this magnificent castle is all of the Edwardian style, and as the castle was burnt down by Rhys ap Meredith in 1287, it is probable that only wooden structures stood on this site until after that date. The castle is in a fine situation overlooking the Bay of Swansea. [H. W.]

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We have now completed our list of the Norman castles built in Wales which are known to history. It must not be supposed, however, that we imagine this to be a complete list of all the Norman castles which were ever erected in Wales. The fact that several in our catalogue are only once mentioned in the records makes it probable that there were many others which have never been mentioned at all. In this way we may account for the many mottes which remain in Wales about which history is entirely silent. As there was scarcely a corner in Wales into which the Normans did not penetrate at some time or other, it is not surprising if we find them in districts which are generally reckoned to be entirely Welsh. But there is another way of accounting for them; some of them may have been built by the Welsh themselves, in imitation of the Normans. As the feudal system and feudal ideas penetrated more and more into Wales, and the Welsh princes themselves became feudal homagers of the kings of England, it was natural that the feudal castle should also become a Welsh institution, especially as it was soon found to be a great addition to the chieftain’s personal strength. The following castles are stated in the Brut to have been built by the Welsh.[995]

1113. *Cymmer, in Merioneth.—Built by Uchtred ap Edwin, whose name, as we have already remarked, suggests an English descent. Near Cymmer Abbey the motte or tomen remains.

*Cynfael, in Merioneth, near Towyn.—Built by Cadwalader, son of Griffith ap Cynan, on whose behalf Henry II. undertook his first expedition into Wales, and who was at that time a protégé of the Anglo-Normans. Clark gives a plan of this motte-castle in Arch. Camb., 4th ser., vi., 66.

1148. *Yale, in Denbigh = Llanarmon.—Said to have been built by Owen Gwynedd, but here, as we have said, an earlier Norman foundation seems probable (see [p. 272]).

1148. Llanrhystyd, in Cardigan.—Also built by Cadwalader, who was then establishing himself in Cardigan. Probably the motte and bailey called Penrhos, or Castell Rhos, to the east of Llanrhystyd village. [H. W.]

1155. Aberdovey.—Built by Rhys ap Griffith to defend Cardigan against Owen, Prince of Gwynedd. It must therefore have been on the Cardigan shore of the Dovey, and not at the present town of Aberdovey, which is on the Merioneth shore. And in fact, on the Cardigan shore of the estuary, about two miles west of Glandovey Castle, there is a tumulus called Domenlas (the green tump), which was very likely the site of this castle of Rhys.[996]

1155. Caereinion.—Built by Madoc of Powys, who was then a homager of Henry II. Remains of a motte near the church; the churchyard itself appears to be the former bailey. About a mile off is a British camp called Pen y Voel, which may have been the seat of the son of Cunedda, who is said to have settled here. [H. W.]

*Walwern, or Tafolwern, near Llanbrynmair, in Montgomery, may have been a Welsh castle. It is first mentioned in 1163, when Howel ap Jeuav took it from Owen Gwynedd, who may have been its builder. The motte is marked in the O.M. on a narrow peninsula at the junction of two streams.

1169. *Abereinon, in Cardigan.—Built by Rhys ap Griffith, Henry II.’s Justiciar of South Wales. “A circular moated tumulus, now called Cil y Craig.”[997] (It is marked on the 25-inch O.M.)

1177. *Rhaidr Gwy.—Also built by Rhys ap Griffith, no doubt as a menace to Powys, as this castle was afterwards sorely contested. It is a motte-and-bailey castle, the motte being known as Tower Mount.[998]

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All these castles are of the motte-and-bailey type, and prove the adoption by the Welsh of Norman customs.[999] It will be noticed that in the first instances they were built by men who were specially under Norman influences. But probably the fashion was soon more widely followed, although these are the only recorded cases.

The contribution made by the castles of Wales to the general theory of the origin of mottes in these islands is very important. Leaving out the seven castles attributed to the Welsh, we find that out of seventy-one castles built by the Normans, fifty-three, or very nearly three-fourths, still have mottes; while in the remaining eighteen, either the sites have been so altered as to destroy the original plan, or there is a probability that a motte has formerly existed.

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[CHAPTER X]
MOTTE-CASTLES IN SCOTLAND

The Scottish historians of the 19th century have amply recognised the Anglo-Norman occupation of Scotland, which took place in the 11th and 12th centuries, ever since its extent and importance were demonstrated by Chalmers in his Caledonia. Occupation is not too strong a word to use, although it was an occupation about which history is strangely silent, and which seems to have provoked little resistance except in the Keltic parts of the country. But it meant the transformation of Scotland from a tribal Keltic kingdom into an organised feudal state, and in the accomplishment of this transformation the greater part of the best lands in Scotland passed into the hands of English refugees or Norman and Flemish adventurers.

The movement began in the days of Malcolm Canmore, when his English queen, the sainted Margaret, undoubtedly favoured the reception of English refugees of noble birth, some of whom were her own relations.[1000] Very soon, the English refugees were followed by Norman refugees, who had either fallen under the displeasure of the king of England, like the Montgomeries, or were the cadets of some Norman family, wishful to carve out fresh fortunes for themselves, like the Fitz Alans, the ancestors of the Stuarts. The immigration continued during the reign of the sons of Margaret, but seems to have reached its culminating point under David I. (1124-1153).

David, as Burton remarks, had lived for sixteen years as an affluent Anglo-Norman noble, before his accession to the Scottish crown, being Earl of Huntingdon in right of his wife, the daughter of Simon de Senlis, and granddaughter, through her mother, of Earl Waltheof. David’s tastes and sympathies were Norman, but it was not taste alone which impelled him to build up in Scotland a monarchy of the Anglo-Norman feudal type. He had a distinct policy to accomplish; he wished to do for Scotland what Edward I. sought to do for the whole island, to unite its various nationalities under one government, and he saw that men of the Anglo-Norman type would be the best instruments of this policy.[1001] It mattered little to him from what nation he chose his followers, if they were men who accepted his ideas. Norman, English, Flemish, or Norse adventurers were all received at his court, and endowed with lands in Scotland, if they were men suitable for working the system which he knew to be the only one available for the accomplishment of his policy. And that system was the feudal system. He saw that feudalism meant a higher state of civilisation than the tribalism of Keltic Scotland, and that only by the complete organisation of feudalism could he carry out the unification of Scotland, and the subjugation of the wild Keltic tribes of the north and west.[1002]

The policy was successful, though it was not completely carried out until Alexander III. purchased the kingdom of the Isles from the King of Norway in 1266. The sons of David, Malcolm IV., and William the Lion were strong men who doughtily continued the subjugation of the Keltic parts of Scotland, and distributed the lands of the conquered among their Norman or Normanised followers. The struggle was a severe one; again and again did the North rebel against the yoke of the House of Malcolm. In Moray the Keltic inhabitants were actually driven out by Malcolm IV., and the country colonised by Normans or Flemings.[1003] The same Malcolm led no less than three expeditions against Galloway, where in spite of extensive Norse settlements on the coast, the mass of the inhabitants appear to have been Keltic.[1004]

We know very little about the details of this remarkable revolution, because Scotland had no voice in the 12th century, none of her chroniclers being earlier than the end of the 14th century. As regards the subject which concerns this book, the building of castles, there are only one or two passages which lift the veil. A contemporary English chronicler, Ailred of Rievaulx, in his panegyric of David I., says that David decorated Scotland with castles and cities.[1005] In like manner Benedict of Peterborough tells us that when William the Lion was captured by Henry II.’s forces in 1174, the men of Galloway took the opportunity to destroy all the castles which the king had built in their country, expelling his seneschals and guards, and killing all the English and French whom they could catch.[1006] Fordun casually mentions the building of two castles in Ross by William the Lion; and once he gives us an anecdote which is a chance revelation of what must have been going on everywhere. A certain English knight, Robert, son of Godwin, whose Norman name shows that he was one of the Normanised English, tarried with the king’s leave on an estate which King Edgar had given him in Lothian, and while he was seeking to build a castle there, he was attacked by the men of Bishop Ranulf of Durham, who objected to a castle being built so near the English frontier.[1007]

But even if historians had been entirely silent about the building of castles in Scotland, we should have been certain that it must have happened, as an inevitable part of the Norman settlement. Robertson remarks that the Scots in the time of David I. were still a pastoral and in some respects a migratory people, their magnates not residing like great feudal nobles in their own castles, but moving about from place to place, and quartering themselves upon the dependent population. There is in fact no reason for supposing that the Keltic chiefs of Scotland built castles, any more than those of Wales or Ireland.[1008] But the feudal system must very soon have covered Scotland with castles.

The absence of any stone castles of Norman type has puzzled Scottish historians, whose ideas of castles were associated with buildings in stone.[1009] In 1898 Dr Christison published his valuable researches into the Early Fortifications of Scotland, in which for the first time an estimate was attempted of the distribution of Scottish motes,[1010] and their Norman origin almost, if not quite, suspected. His book was quickly followed by Mr George Neilson’s noteworthy paper on the “Motes in Norman Scotland,”[1011] in which he showed that the wooden castle is the key which unlocks the historians’ puzzle, and that the motes of Scotland are nothing but the evidence of the Norman feudal settlement.

Two important points urged in Mr Neilson’s paper are the feudal and legal connection of these motes. He has given a list of mottes which are known to have been the site of the “chief messuages” of baronies in the 13th and 14th centuries, and has collected the names of a great number which were seats of justice, or places where “saisine” of a barony was taken, not because they were moot-hills, but because the administration of justice remained fixed in the ancient site of the baron’s castle. “The doctrine of the chief messuage, which became of large importance in peerage law, made it at times of moment to have on distinct record the nomination of what the chief messuage was, often for the imperative function of taking sasine. In many instances the caput baroniæ, or the court or place for the ceremonial entry to possession, is the ‘$1’moit,’ the ‘mothill,’ the ‘auld castell,’ the ‘auld wark,’ the ‘castellsteid,’ the ‘auld castellsteid,’ the ‘courthill,’ or in Latin mons placiti, mons viridis, or mons castri.”[1012] In certain places where two mottes are to be found, he was able to prove that two baronies had once had their seats. Another point which Mr Neilson worked out is the relation of bordlands to mottes. Bordland or borland, though an English word, is not pre-Conquest; it refers to “that species of demesne which the lord reserves for the supply of his own table.” It is constantly found in the near proximity of mottes.[1013]

The following is a list of thirty-eight Anglo-Norman or Normanised adventurers settled in Scotland, on whose lands mottes are to be found. The list must be regarded as a tentative one, for had all the names given by Chalmers been included, it would have been more than doubled. But the difficulties of obtaining topographical information were so great that it has been judged expedient to give only the names of those families who are known to have held lands, and in most cases to have had their principal residences, in places where mottes are or formerly were existing.[1014]

Anstruther.—William de Candela obtained the lands of Anstruther, in Fife, from David I. His descendants took the surname of Anstruther. The “Mothlaw” of Anstruther is mentioned in 1590.[1015] “At the W. end of the town there is a large mound, called the Chester Hill, in the middle of which is a fine well.” (N. S. A., 1845.) The well is an absolute proof that this was the site of a castle.

Avenel.—Walter de Avenel held Abercorn Castle and estate, in Linlithgow, in the middle of the 12th century. The castle stood on a green mound (N. S. A.) which is clearly marked in the O.M.

Balliol.—The De Bailleul family had their seat at Barnard Castle, in Durham, after the Conquest. They obtained lands in Galloway from David I., and had strongholds at Buittle, and Kenmure, in Kirkcudbright. At Buittle the site of the castle exists, a roughly triangular bailey with a motte at one corner;[1016] and at Kenmure the O.M. clearly shows a motte, as does the picture in Grose’s Antiquities of Scotland. The terraces probably date from the time when the modern house on top was built.

Barclay.—The De Berkeleys sprang from the De Berkeleys of England, and settled in Scotland in the 12th century. Walter de Berkeley was Chamberlain of Scotland in 1165; William the Lion gave him the manor of Inverkeilor, in Forfarshire; there he built a castle, on Lunan Bay. “An artificial mound on the west side of the bay, called the Corbie’s Knowe, bears evident marks of having been a castle long previous to the erection of Redcastle.” (N. S. A.) The family also had lands in what is now Aberdeenshire, and at Towie, in the parish of Auchterless, they had a castle. “Close to the church of Auchterless there is a small artificial eminence of an oval shape, surrounded by a ditch, which is now in many places filled up. It still retains the name of the Moat Head, and was formerly the seat of the baronial court.” (N. S. A.; N.; C.)

Bruce.—The De Brus held lands in North Yorkshire at the time of the Domesday Survey. David I. gave them the barony of Annan, in Dumfriesshire. The original charter of this grant still exists in the British Museum, witnessed by a galaxy of Norman names.[1017] Their chief castles were at Annan and Lochmaben. At Annan, near the site of a later castle, there is still a motte about 50 feet high, with a vast ditch and some traces of a bailey (N.), called the Moat (N. S. A.). The “terras de Moit et Bailyis, intra le Northgate,” are mentioned in 1582. South of the town of Lochmaben, on the N.W. side of the loch, is a fine motte called Castle Hill, with some remains of masonry, which is still pointed out as the original castle of the Bruces.[1018] (G.) The fine motte and bailey at Moffat must also have been one of their castles, as Moffat was one of their demesne lands. ([Fig. 44].)

Cathcart.—Name territorial. Rainald de Cathcart witnesses a charter (in the Paisley Register) in 1179. Near the old castle of Cathcart, Lanark, is “an eminence called Court Knowe.” (N. S. A.) As Mr Neilson has shown, these court knowes and court hills are generally disused mottes. The name Rainald is clearly Norman.

Cheyne.—This family is first known in 1258, but had then been long settled in Scotland, and were hereditary sheriffs of Banffshire. Chalmers only mentions their manor of Inverugie, in Aberdeenshire. Behind the ruins of Inverugie Castle rises a round flat-topped hill, which was the Castle Hill or Mote Hill of former days. (N. S. A.)

Colville.—Appears in Scotland in the reign of Malcolm IV., holding the manors of Heton and Oxnam, in Roxburgh. About ¼ mile from Oxnam (which was a barony) is a moated mound called Galla Knowe. (O.M., C., and N.) Hailes identified the castle in Teviotdale, captured and burnt by Balliol in 1333, with that of Oxnam.[1019] Le Mote de Oxnam is mentioned in 1424 (N.).

Annan.

Moffat.

Duffus.

Liddesdale.

Fig. 44.—Scottish Motte-Castles.

Cumyn, or Comyn.—The first of this family came to Scotland as the chancellor of David I.[1020] First seated at Linton Roderick, in Roxburghshire, where there is a rising ground, surrounded formerly by a foss, the site of the original castle; (G.) a description which seems to suggest a motte. William the Lion gave the Cumyns Kirkintilloch in Dumbarton, and we afterwards find them at Dalswinton in Dumfriesshire, and Troqueer in Kirkcudbright. At Kirkintilloch the O.M. shows a square mount concentrically placed in a square enceinte. The enclosure was apparently one of the forts on the wall of Agricola, but the writer on Kirkintilloch in the N. S. A. suspected that it had been transformed into a castle by the Cumyns. At Dalswinton the O.M. shows a motte, and calls it the “site of Cumyn’s Castle.” At Troqueer, “directly opposite the spot on the other side the river where Cumyn’s Castle formerly stood is a mote of circular form and considerable height.” (N. S. A.) The Cumyn who held Kirkintilloch in 1201, was made Earl of Buchan, and held the vast district of Badenoch, or the great valley of the Spey. The N. S. A. gives many descriptions of remains in this region which are suggestive of motte-castles; we can only name the most striking: Ruthven, “a castle reared by the Comyns on a green conical mound on the S. bank of the Spey, thought to be partly artificial,” now occupied by ruined barracks; Dunmullie, in the parish of Duthill, where “there can be traced vestiges of a motte surrounded by a ditch, on which, according to tradition, stood the castle of the early lords”; Crimond, where Cumyn had a castle, and where there is a small round hill called Castle Hill; and Ellon, where the Earl of Buchan had his head court, on a small hill which has now disappeared, but which was anciently known as the moot-hill of Ellon. Saisin of the earldom was given on this hill in 1476. (N. S. A.)

Cunningham.—Warnebald, who came from the north of England, was a follower of the Norman, Hugh de Morville, who gave him the lands of Cunningham, in Ayrshire, from which the family name was taken. In the parish of Kilmaurs, which is in the district of Cunningham, there is a “mote,” which may have been the castle of Warnebald; at any rate the original manor place of Cunningham was in this parish. It is of course possible that this motte may have been originally a De Morville castle.

Douglas.—Name territorial; progenitor was a Fleming, who received lands on the Douglas water, in Lanark, in the middle of the 12th century. In the park of Douglas, to the east of the modern castle, is a mound called Boncastle, but we are unable to state certainly that it is a motte. Lag Castle, in the parish of Dunscore, “has a moat or court hill a little to the east.” (N. S. A.: shown in Grose’s picture.) It must have been originally Douglas land, as in 1408 it was held by an armour-bearer of Douglas.

Durand.—Clearly a Norman name, corrupted into Durham. The family were seated at Kirkpatrick Durham in the 13th century. There is or was a motte at Kirkpatrick.[1021]

Durward.—This family was descended from Alan de Lundin, who was dur-ward or door-keeper to the king about 1233. They possessed a wide domain in Aberdeenshire, and had a castle at Lumphanan, where Edward I. stayed in 1296. There is a round motte in the Peel Bog at Lumphanan, surrounded by a moat, which was fed by a sluice from the neighbouring burn. There were ruins in masonry on the top some hundred years ago. The writer of the N. S. A. account of this place, with remarkable shrewdness, conjectures that a wooden castle on this mound was the ancient residence of the Durwards, superseded in the 15th century by a building of stone, and that it has nothing to do with Macbeth, whose burial-place is said to be a cairn in the neighbourhood.[1022]

Fitz Alan.—This is the well-known ancestor of the House of Stuart, Walter, a cadet of a great Norman family in Shropshire, who is said to have obtained lands in Scotland in Malcolm Canmore’s time. Renfrew was one of his seats, and Inverwick, in Haddington, another. Renfrew Castle is entirely destroyed, but the description of the site, on a small hill, ditched round, called Castle Hill, strongly suggests a motte. The keep of Inverwick stands on a natural motte of rock.[1023] Dunoon was one of their castles, near to which “stood the Tom-a-mhoid, or Hill of the court of justice” (G.), possibly an ancient motte.[1024] Dunoon Castle, however, itself stands on a motte, partly artificial and partly carved out of a headland. (N.)

Fleming.—There were many Flemings among the followers of David I., and eventually the name stuck to their descendants as a surname. Baldwin the Fleming obtained lands at Biggar, in Lanarkshire. There is a motte at the west end of the town of Biggar, 36 feet high. Biggar was the head of a barony. (N. S. A. and N.) Colban the Fleming settled at Colbantown, now Covington, Lanarkshire, where there is a motte (N.). Robert the Fleming has left a well-preserved oblong motte at Roberton, in Lanark, which was a barony, and where the moit was spoken of in 1608. (N.)

Graham.—Came from England under David I., and received lands in Lothian. A Graham was lord of Tarbolton, in Ayrshire, in 1335, so it is possible that the motte at that place, on which stood formerly the chief messuage of the barony of Tarbolton, was one of their castles (N. S. A.), but it may have been older.

Hamilton.—It is not certain that the Hamiltons came to Scotland before 1272. King Robert I. gave them the barony of Cadzow, Lanark, which had originally been a royal seat. In Hamilton Park there is a mote hill, which was the site of the chief messuage of this barony (N.). It was formerly surrounded by the town of Hamilton. (N. S. A.) It is of course possible that this motte may be much older than the Hamiltons, as the site of an originally royal castle.

Hay.—First appears in the 12th century, as butler to Malcolm IV. The family first settled in Lothian, where they had lands at Lochorworth. The Borthwick family, who got this estate by marriage, obtained a license from James I. about 1430 to build a castle “on the mote of Locherwart,” and to this castle they gave their own name. (N. S. A.) No doubt it was the original motte of the Hays. King William gave the Hays the manor of Errol, in Perthshire, which was made into a barony. Here is or was the mote of Errol, “a round artificial mound about 20 feet high, and 30 feet in diameter at the top; the platform at the top surrounded with a low turf wall, and the whole enclosed with a turf wall at the base, in the form of an equilateral triangle.” (N. S. A.; evidently a triangular bailey.) It is called the Law Knoll, and is spoken of as a fortalicium in 1546. (N.)

Lennox.—The earls of Lennox are descended from Arkel, an Englishman, who received from Malcolm Canmore lands in Dumbartonshire. At Catter, near the Earl’s castle, is a large artificial mound.[1025]

Lockhart.—Stevenston, in Ayrshire, takes its name from Stephen Loccard, and Symington, in Lanark, from his son (?), Simon Loccard. At Stevenson there was formerly a castle, and there still (1845) is a Castle Hill. Stevenston was given by Richard Morville to Stephen Loccard about 1170. (N. S. A.) At Symington there was formerly a round mound, called Law Hill, at the foot of the village, but it has been levelled. (N. S. A.)

Logan.—A Robert Logan witnesses a charter of William the Lion, and appears later as Dominus Robertus de Logan. The name Robert shows his Norman origin. At Drumore, near Logan (parish of Kirkmaiden, Wigton), there was a castle, and there is still a court hill or mote.[1026] Another mote, at Myroch, in the same parish, is mentioned by Mr Neilson as the site of the chief messuage of the barony of Logan.

Lovel.—Settled at Hawick, Roxburghshire. The mote of Hawick, from the picture in Scott’s Border Antiquities, seems to be a particularly fine one. Hawick was a barony, and Le Moit is mentioned in 1511. (N.)

Lyle, or Lisle.—The castle of this Norman family was at Duchal, Renfrewshire. The plan is clearly that of a motte and bailey, but the motte is of natural rock.[1027]

Male, now Melville.—Settled in Haddingtonshire under David I., and called their seat Melville. Melville Castle is modern. They afterwards obtained by marriage lands on the Bervie River, in the Mearns. Dr Christison’s map shows a motte near the mouth of the Bervie.

Maxwell.—Maccus, son of Unwin[1028] (evidently of Scandinavian origin), received lands on the Tweed from David I., and called his seat Maccusville, corrupted into Maxwell. There is a motte at Maxwell, near Kelso. (N.) Maxton, in Roxburghshire, takes its name from him, and there is a motte called Ringley Hall, on the Tweed, in this parish. (C. and N. S. A.)

Montalt, or Mowat.—Robert de Montalto (Mold, in Flintshire) witnesses a charter of David I. The family settled in Cromarty. Le Mote at Cromarty is mentioned in 1470. (N.)

Montgomery.—This family is undoubtedly descended from some one of the sons of the great Earl Roger of Shrewsbury, settled in Scotland after the ruin of his family in England. Robert de Montgomerie received the manor of Eaglesham, Renfrew, from Fitz Alan, the High Steward of Scotland. The principal messuage of this manor was at Polnoon, ½ mile S.E. of Eaglesham. Here Sir John Montgomerie built the castle of Polnoon about 1388. (N. S. A.) The O.M. seems to show that the ruins of this castle stand on a motte, probably the original castle of Montgomerie.

Morville.—Hugh de Morville was a Northamptonshire baron, the life-long friend of David I.[1029] He founded one of the most powerful families in the south of Scotland, though after three generations their lands passed to heiresses, and their chief seat is not even known by name. But Mr Neilson states that Darnhall, in Peebles, was the head of their “Black Barony,” and that there is a motte there. As Hugh de Morville gave the church of Borgue to Dryburgh Abbey about 1150, it is probable that the motte at Boreland of Borgue was one of his castles. The barony of Beith, in Ayr, given by Richard de Morville to the Abbey of Kilwinning, has also a motte, which may be reckoned to be the site of a De Morville castle. Largs, in Ayr, belonged to the De Morvilles, and has a Castle Hill near the village, which appears to be a motte. (G.)

Mowbray.—This well-known Norman family also sent a branch to Scotland. Amongst other places, about which we have no details, they held Eckford, in Roxburghshire. In this parish, near the ancient mansion, is an artificial mount called Haughhead Kipp. (N. S. A.) This seems a possible motte, but its features are not described.

Murray.—Freskin the Fleming came to Scotland under David I., and received from that king lands in Moray. He built himself a castle at Duffus, in Elgin, which is on the motte-and-bailey plan.[1030] The stone keep now on the motte appears to be of the 14th century. Freskin’s posterity took the name of De Moravia, or Moray. ([Fig. 44].)

Oliphant, or Olifard.—Cambuslang, in Lanark, belonged to Walter Olifard, Justiciary of Lothian in the time of Alexander II. About a mile E. of the church is a circular mound 20 feet high. It was here that the Oliphants’ castle of Drumsagard formerly stood. (N. S. A.) Drumsagard was a barony. (N.)

De Quincy.—Obtained from William the Lion the manors of Travernant, in East Lothian, and Leuchars, in Fife. Near the village of Leuchars is a motte with some slight remains of a stone keep, a deep well in the centre, and an entrenched bailey, known as the site of the castle of Leuchars.[1031]

Ross.—Godfrey de Ros, a vassal of Richard de Morville, held of him the lands of Stewarton, in Ayr. The caput of the lordship was Castletown, where Le Mote is spoken of in 1451 (N. and C.). The De Ros were also the first lords of the barony of Sanquhar. A little lower down the river Nith than the later castle of Sanquhar is a mote called Ryehill, and a place anciently manorial. (N.)

Somerville.—William de Somerville was a Norman to whom David I. gave the manor of Carnwath, in Lanarkshire. There is a very perfect entrenched motte at Carnwath (N. S. A. and O.M.), and Le Moit de Carnwath is mentioned in 1599. (N.)

De Soulis.—Followed David I. from Northamptonshire into Scotland, and received Liddesdale, in Roxburghshire, from him. The motte and bailey of his original castle still remain, very near the more celebrated but much later Hermitage Castle.[1032] ([Fig. 44].)

Valoignes.—Philip de Valoignes and his son William were each successively chamberlains of Scotland.[1033] One of their estates was Easter Kilbride, in Lanarkshire, where they had a castle. In this parish is an artificial mount of earth, with an oval area on top, about ¼ mile from the present house of Torrance. (N. S. A.)

Vaux, or De Vallibus.—Settled in Scotland under William the Lion. Held the manors of Dirleton and Golyn, in East Lothian. Dirleton has been transformed into an Edwardian castle, but from the pictures it appears to stand on a natural motte of rock. But about 3 miles from Dirleton the O.M. shows a large motte called Castle Hill, which may possibly be the original castle of the De Vaux.

Wallace, or Wallensis.—Richard Walensis was the first of this family, and acquired lands in Ayrshire in David I.’s time. He named his seat Riccardton, after himself, and the remains of his motte are still there, a small oval motte called Castle Hill, on which the church of Riccarton now stands, but which is recognised as having been a “mote hill.” (G.)

To this list must be added a number of royal castles known to have been built in the 12th century, which, as they were built on mottes, must in the first instance have been wooden castles.

Banff.—It seems clear that Banff Castle had a motte, because the doggerel rhymes of Arthur Johnstone in 1642 say:

A place was near which was a field until

Our ancestors did raise it to a hill;

A stately castle also on it stood.

The Gazetteer says: “The citadel occupied a mount, originally at the end though now near the middle of the town.” The site is still called Castle Hill. (N. S. A.)

Crail, Fife.—The O.M. does not show a motte here. The N. S. A. says “there was a royal residence here, upon an eminence overlooking the harbour.” That this “eminence” was a motte seems clear from the Register of the Great Seal, quoted by Mr Neilson, which speaks of “Le Moitt olim Castrum” in 1573.

Cupar.—There seem to be two mottes here, both raised on a natural “esker”; the one formerly called the Castle Hill is now called the School Hill, the school having been built upon it. The other and higher hill is called the Moot Hill, and is said to be the place where the earls of Fife used to dispense justice. (N. S. A.) Mr Neilson states that both are mentioned in the Registrum.

Dumfries.—Here there were two mottes, one being now the site of a church, the other, called Castle Dykes, a short distance S. of the town, on the opposite side of the river. Both no doubt were royal castles, and Mr Neilson has suggested that as an old castlestead is spoken of in a charter of William the Lion, it implies that a new castle had recently been built, possibly after the great destruction of the royal castles in Galloway in 1174.[1034] The Castle Dykes appears to be the later castle, as it is spoken of in the 16th century. (N.)

Dunskeath, Cromarty.—Built by William the Lion in 1179. The castle is built on a small moat overhanging the sea. (G.)

Elgin.—Built by William the Lion on a small green hill called Lady Hill, with conical and precipitous sides. (N. S. A. and G.)

Forfar.—“The castle stood on a round hill to the N. of the town, and must have been surrounded by water.” (N. S. A.) It was destroyed in 1307. It is called Gallow Hill in the O.M., and is now occupied by gasworks.

Forres.—The plan in Chalmers’ Caledonia clearly shows a motte, to which the town appears to have formed a bailey.

Inverness.—Built by David I. when he annexed Moray. The site is now occupied by a gaol, but the O.M. shows it to have been a motte, which is clearly depicted in old engravings.

Innermessan.—As the lands here appear to have been royal property as late as the time of David II., the large round motte here may have been an early royal castle, a conjecture which finds some confirmation in the name “Boreland of Kingston,” which Pont places in the same parish. (N. S. A.)

Jedburgh.—Probably built by David I. The site, which is still called Castle Hill, has been levelled and completely obliterated by the building of a gaol. Yet an old plan of the town in 1762, in the possession of the late Mr Laidlaw of Jedburgh, shows the outline of the castle to have been exactly that of a motte and bailey, though, as no hachures are given, it is not absolutely convincing.

Kincleven, Perth.—The O.M. shows no earthworks connected with the present castle, but on the opposite side of the river it places a motte called Castle Hill, which may very likely be the site of the original castle.

Kirkcudbright.—Dr Christison marks a motte here, to the W. of the town. The place is called Castle Dykes. Mr Coles says it has an oblong central mound and a much larger entrenched area.[1035]

Lanark.—Ascribed traditionally to David I. “On a small artificially shaped hill between the town and the river, at the foot of the street called Castle Gate, and still bearing the name of Castle Hill, there stood in former times beyond all doubt a royal castle.” (N. S. A.) Mr Neilson says, “It certainly bears out its reputation as an artificial mound.”

Rosemarkie, Cromarty.—Was made a royal burgh by Alexander II., so the castle must have been originally royal. “Immediately above the town is a mound of nearly circular form, and level on the top, which seems to be artificial, and has always been called the Court Hill.” (N. S. A.)

Even if we had no other evidence that motte-castles were of Norman construction, this list would be very significant. But taken in connection with the evidence for the Norman origin of the English, Welsh, and Irish mottes, it supplies ample proof that in Scotland, as elsewhere, the Norman and feudal settlement had its material guarantees in the castles which were planted all over the land, and that these castles were the simple structures of earth and wood, whose earthen remains have been the cause of so much mystification.

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[CHAPTER XI]
MOTTE-CASTLES IN IRELAND

In the year 1169, when the first Norman invaders landed in Ireland, the private castle had been in existence in England for more than a hundred years, and had it been suited to the social organisation of the Irish people, there had been plenty of time for its introduction into Ireland. Nor are we in a position to deny that some chieftain with a leaning towards foreign fashions may have built for himself a castle in the Anglo-Norman style; all we can say is that there is not the slightest evidence of such a thing.[1036] We have two contemporary accounts of the Norman settlement in Ireland, the one given by Giraldus in his Expugnatio Hibernica, and the Anglo-Norman poem, edited by Mr Goddard H. Orpen, under the title of the “Song of Dermot and the Earl.”[1037] Now Giraldus expressly tells us that the Irish did not use castles, but preferred to take refuge in their forests and bogs.[1038] The statement is a remarkable one, since Ireland abounds with defensive works of a very ancient character; are we to suppose that these were only used in the prehistoric period? But if castles of the Norman kind had been in general use in Ireland in the 12th century, we should certainly hear of their having been a serious hindrance to the invaders. The history of the invasion, however, completely confirms the statement of Giraldus; we never once hear of the Irish defending themselves in a castle. When they do stand a siege, it is in a walled town, and a town which has been walled, not by themselves, but by the Danes, to whom Giraldus expressly attributes these walls. Moreover, the repeated insistence of Giraldus on the necessity of systematic incastellation of the whole country[1039] is proof enough that no such incastellation existed.

It is true that in some of the earliest Irish literature we hear of the dun, lis, or rath (the words are interchangeable), which encircled the chieftain’s house.

Many descriptions of royal abodes in Irish poems are evidently purely fanciful, but underneath the poetical adornments we can discern the features of the great wooden hall which appears to have been the residence of the tribal chieftain, whether Keltic, Norse, or Saxon, throughout the whole north of Europe in early times.[1040] The thousands of earthen rings, generally called raths, which are still scattered over Ireland, are believed to be the enclosures of these kings’ or chieftains’ homesteads. Were they intended for serious military defence? We are not in a position to answer this question categorically, but the plans of a number of them which we have examined do not suggest anything but a very slight fortification, sufficient to keep off wolves. At all events we never hear of these raths or duns standing a siege; the conquering raider comes, sees, and burns.[1041] We are therefore justified in concluding that they did not at all correspond to what we mean by a private castle. And most certainly the motte-castle, with its very small citadel, and its limited accommodation for the flocks and herds of a tribe, was utterly unsuited to the requirements of the tribal system.

A good deal of light is thrown on the way in which Irish chieftains regarded private castles at the time of the invasion by the well-known story of one who refused a castle offered him by the invaders, saying that he preferred a castle of bones to a castle of stones. Whether legendary or not, it represents the natural feeling of a man who had been accustomed to sleep trustfully in the midst of men of his own blood, tied to him by the bonds of the clan. The clan system in Ireland undoubtedly led to great misery through the absence of a central authority to check the raids of one clan upon another; but though we occasionally hear of a chieftain being murdered “by his own,” we have no reason to think that clan loyalty was not sufficient, as a rule, for the internal safety of the community. So that a popular chieftain might well refuse a fortification which had every mark of a hateful and suspicious invader.[1042]

Unfortunately there is—or has been until quite recently—a strong prejudice in the minds of Irish antiquaries that works of the motte-and-bailey kind belong to the prehistoric age of Ireland. Irish scholars indeed admit that the word mota is not found in any Irish MS. which dates from before the Norman invasion of Ireland.[1043] We must therefore bear in mind that when they tell us that such and such an ancient book mentions the “mote” at Naas or elsewhere, what they mean is that it mentions a dun, or rath, or longport, which they imagine to be the same as a motte. But this is begging the whole question. There is not the slightest proof that any of these words meant a motte. Dun is often taken to mean a hill (perhaps from its resemblance to Anglo-Saxon dun), but Keltic scholars are now agreed that it is cognate with the German zaun and Anglo-Saxon tun, meaning a fenced enclosure.[1044] It may be applied to a fort on a hill, but it may equally well be applied to a fort on the flat. Rath is translated fossa in the Book of Armagh; Jocelin of Furness equates it with murus.[1045] The rath of Armagh was evidently a very large enclosure in 1166, containing several streets, houses, and churches, so it was certainly not a motte.[1046] It is of course not impossible that the Normans may sometimes have occupied an ancient fortified site, but we may be sure from the considerations already urged that the fortifications which they erected were of a wholly different character to the previous ones, even if they utilised a portion for their bailey.

It is of course difficult to decide in some cases (both in Ireland and elsewhere) whether a mound which stands alone without a bailey is a sepulchral tumulus or a motte. There are some mottes in England and Scotland which have no baileys attached to them, and do not appear ever to have had any. In Ireland, the country of magnificent sepulchral tumuli, it is not wonderful that the barrow and the motte have become confused in popular language. It would appear, too, that there exist in Ireland several instances of artificial tumuli which were used for the inauguration of Irish chieftains, and these have occasionally been mistaken for mottes.[1047] As Mr Orpen has shown, there are generally indications in the unsuitability of the sites, in the absence of real fortification, or in the presence of sepulchral signs, to show that these tumuli did not belong to the motte class. Magh Adair, for example, which has been adduced as a motte outside the Norman boundary, is shown by Mr Orpen to be of quite a different character.

At many sites in Ireland where the Normans are known to have built castles at an early period of the invasion there are no mottes to be seen now. It is probable that where the Norman conquerors had both money and time at their disposal they built stone keeps from the first, and that the motte-castles, with their wooden towers or bretasches, were built in the times of stress, or were the residences of the less wealthy under-tenants. But we know from documents that even in John’s reign the important royal castle of Roscrea was built with a motte and bretasche,[1048] which proves that this type of castle was still so much esteemed that we may feel reasonably certain that when Giraldus speaks of “slender defences of turf and stakes” he does not mean motte-castles, but mere embankments and palisades.[1049]

But there is another reason for the absence of mottes from some of the early Norman castle sites. Those who have examined the castles of Wales know that it is rare to find a motte in a castle which has undergone the complete metamorphoses of the Edwardian[1050] period. These new castles had no keeps, and necessitated an entire change of plan, which led either to the destruction of the motte or the building of an entirely new castle on a different site. The removal of a motte is only a question of spade labour, and many sites in England can be pointed out where mottes are known to have existed formerly, but where now not a vestige is left.[1051] There are many other cases where the Edwardian castle shows not a trace of any former earthworks, but where a motte and bailey a little distance off probably represents the original wooden castle.[1052]

The passion for identifying existing earthworks with sites mentioned in ancient Irish history or legend has been a most serious hindrance to the progress of real archæological knowledge in Ireland. It is not until one begins to look into this matter that one finds out what giddy guesswork most of these identifications of Irish place-names really are. O’Donovan was undoubtedly a great Irish scholar, and his editions of the Book of Rights and the Annals of the Four Masters are of the highest importance. The topographical notes to these works are generally accepted as final. But let us see what his method was in this part of his labours. In the Book of Rights, he says very naïvely, about a place called Ladhrann or Ardladhrann, “I cannot find any place in Wexford according with the notices of this place except Ardamine, on the sea-coast, where there is a remarkable moat.”[1053] No modern philologist, we think, would admit that Ardamine could be descended from Ardladhrann. In the same way O’Donovan guessed Treada-na-righ, “the triple-fossed fort of the kings,” to be the motte of Kilfinnane, near Kilmallock. But this was a pure guess, as he had previously guessed it to be “one of the forts called Dun-g-Claire.” To the antiquaries of that day one earthwork seemed as good as another, and differences of type were not considered important.[1054]

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The following list of early Norman castles in Ireland was first published in the Antiquary for 1906. It is an attempt to form a complete list from contemporary historians only, that is, from Giraldus Cambrensis and the “Song of Dermot,” and from the documents published in Sweetman’s Calendar, of the Norman castles built in Ireland, up to the end of John’s reign.[1055] Since then, the task has been taken up on a far more philosophical plan by Mr Goddard H. Orpen, whose exceptional knowledge of the history of the invasion and the families of the conquerors has enabled him to trace their settlements in Ireland as they have never been traced before.[1056] Nevertheless, it still seems worth while to republish this list, as though within a limited compass, consistent with the writer’s limited knowledge, it furnishes an adequate test of the correctness of the Norman theory, on a perfectly sound basis. The list has now the advantage of being corrected from Mr Orpen’s papers, and of being enlarged by identifications which he has been able to make.[1057]

*Antrim[1058] (Cal., i., 88).—A royal castle in 1251. Present castle modern; close to it is a large motte, marked in 25-inch O.M.

Aq’i (Cal., i., 13).—Unidentified; perhaps an alias for one of the Limerick castles, as it was certainly in the county of Limerick.

Ardfinnan, Tipperary (Gir., v., 386).—Built in 1185, immediately after John’s coming to Ireland. No motte; castle is late Edwardian and partly converted into a modern house; one round tower has ogee windows. [B. T. S.]

Ardmayle, or Armolen, Tipperary (Cal., i., 81).—A castle of Theobald Walter. A motte with half-moon bailey, and earthen wing walls running up its sides, exactly as stone walls do in later Norman castles. Ruins of a Perpendicular mansion close to it, and also a square tower with ogee windows. [B. T. S.] [Fig. 45].

Ardnurcher, or Horseleap, King’s Co. (Song of Dermot and Cal., i., 145).—A castle of Meiler Fitz Henry’s, built in 1192.[1059] An oblong motte with one certain bailey, and perhaps a second. No masonry but the remains of a wall or bridge across the fosse. [B. T. S.]

Ardree, Kildare (Gir., v., 356, and Song).—The castle built by Hugh de Lacy for Thomas the Fleming in 1182, was at Ardri, on the Barrow. There is an artificial mound at Ardree, turned into a graveyard, and near it a levelled platform above the river, on which stands Ardree House.[1060] On the west bank of the Barrow, opposite Ardree, is a low circular motte with ditch and bank, but no bailey. A piece of Norman pottery with green glaze was found by Mr Stallybrass, one foot below the surface in the counterscarp bank. Mr Orpen thinks this motte may have been the castle of Robert de Bigarz, also mentioned by Giraldus as near Ardree, on the opposite side of the Barrow.

Askeaton, or Hinneskesti, Limerick.—Built in 1199, probably by Hamo de Valoignes.[1061] An excellent instance of a motte-and-bailey castle, where the motte is of natural rock. The splendid keep and hall are of the 15th century, but there are two older towers, which might date from 1199. This natural motte has been identified with the ancient Irish fort of Gephthine (Askeaton = Eas Gephthine), mentioned in the Book of Rights. But this work does not mention any fort at Gephthine, only the place, in a list which is clearly one of lands (perhaps mensal lands), not of forts, as it contains many names of plains, and of tribes, as well as the three isles of Arran.[1062]

*Askelon, or Escluen (Cal., i., 91).—Castle restored to Richard de Burgh in 1215; the site is placed by Mr Orpen at Carrigogunell, which is in the parish of Kilkeedy, Limerick.[1063] Carrigogunell has the ruins of a castle on a natural motte of rock.

*Athlone, Roscommon (Cal., i., 80).—Built in 1210 by the Justiciar, John de Gray. The keep is placed on a lofty motte, which has been revetted with masonry. Turlough O’Connor built a caislen at Athlone in 1129, but it was not even on the site of the Norman castle, for which John obtained land from the church, as already stated.

Baginbun (Gir., i., 13; Song, 1406).—Mr Orpen has proved that this was the spot where Raymond le Gros landed and entrenched himself for four months.[1064] It is a headland on the sea-coast, and headland castles seldom have mottes, as they were not needed on a promontory washed on three sides by the sea. Moreover, Baginbun was of the nature of a temporary fort rather than a residential castle, and it is to be noted that Giraldus calls it “a poor sort of a castle of stakes and sods.” Still, the small inner area, ditched off with a double ditch, and the large area, also ditched, roughly correspond to the motte-and-bailey plan. [B. T. S.]

Balimore Eustace, Kildare (Cal., i., 28).—A castle of the Archbishop of Dublin. A motte, with a remarkable platform attached to one side (cf. Wigmore Castle). No bailey now; no stone castle. [B. T. S.]

Caherconlish (Karkinlis, Kakaulis, Cal., i., 81).—Castle of Theobald Fitz Walter. There is nothing left above ground but a chimney of late date. A few yards from it is a hillock, which has very much the appearance of a mutilated motte. [E. S. A.] Mr Orpen, however, thinks that Theobald’s castle may have been at Knockatancashlane, “the hill of the old castle,” a townland a little to the north of Caherconlish.[1065]

Carbury, Kildare.—The Song says Meiler Fitz Henry first got Carbury, so the castle was probably his. It is a motte with two baileys, one of imperfect outline, the other a curious little half-circle. A 15th-century castle is built against the side of the motte. [B. T. S.]

Carlingford, Louth (Cal., i., 95).—Apparently a royal castle (Cal., i., 156), first mentioned in 1215. It stands on a rock, which might possibly have been a former motte. There certainly has been a former castle, for the present ruin is Edwardian in plan and in every detail. [E. S. A.]

Carrick, Wexford (Gir., v., 245).—This again seems to be one of the temporary forts built by the first invaders (in this case Fitz Stephen), in a strong natural situation, and Giraldus applies to it the same contemptuous language as to Baginbun. There is no motte, but an oval area of 45 yards by 25 is ditched and banked; a modern imitation of a round tower stands within the enclosure. [B. T. S.]

Carrickfergus, Antrim (Cal., i., 107).—This was probably one of the castles built by John de Courcy, the conqueror of Ulster. The gatehouse and mural towers are late, but the keep may well be of De Courcy’s time, and furnishes an excellent instance of a castle on the keep-and-bailey plan, built by the Normans in stone from the beginning. [E. S. A.]

Castletown Delvin, Westmeath (Gir., v., 356).—Castle of Gilbert de Nungent. A motte, with a garden at base, which may have been the bailey; near it the stone castle, a keep with round towers at the angles, probably not as early as John’s reign. [B. T. S.]

Clonard, Meath (Gir., v., 356).—Built by Hugh de Lacy about 1182. A motte, with broad ditch and curious little oblong bailey; no remains in masonry. [B. T. S.]

Clonmacnoise, King’s Co. (Cal., i., 94).—First contemporary mention 1215; the Annals of Loch Cè say it was built in 1214 “by the foreigners.” A royal castle. A large motte with bailey attached; the wing walls of the bailey run up the motte. The importance of the castle is shown by the fact that a stone keep was added not very long after it was built. [B. T. S.]

*Collacht (Gir., v., 355).—Castle of John of Hereford. Collacht appears to be a scribal error for Tullaght, now Tullow, Carlow.[1066] The site of the castle is marked on the 6-inch O.M.; it has been visited by Mr G. H. Orpen, who found very clear indications of a motte and bailey. (See [Appendix L].)

Crometh (Cal., i., 91).—Castle of Maurice FitzGerald. Supposed to be Croom, Limerick, though the identification is by no means certain.[1067] There are the ruins of an Edwardian castle at Croom; no motte. [E. S. A.]

Downpatrick, Down (Gir., v., 345).—The traveller approaching Downpatrick sees a number of small hills which no doubt have once been islands rising out of the swamps of the Quoyle. On one of these hills stands the town and its cathedral; on another, to the east, but separated from the town by a very steep descent and a brook, stands a motte and bailey of the usual Norman type. It occupies the whole summit of the small hill, so that the banks of the bailey are at a great height above the outer ditch, which is carried round the base of the hill (compare Skipsea). The motte, which is not a very large one, has had an earthen breastwork round the top, now much broken away. Its ditch falls into the ditch of the bailey, but at a higher level. The bailey is semilunar, extending round about three-quarters of the circumference of the motte. There is not the slightest sign of masonry. As the size of this work has been greatly exaggerated, it is as well to say that when measured on the 25-inch O.M. with a planimeter, its area proves to be 3.9 acres; the area of the motte and its ditch .9, leaving 3 acres for the bailey. [E. S. A.] [Fig. 45].

This thoroughly Norman-French castle, which was formerly called a Danish fort, has lately been baptised as Rathceltchair, and supposed to be the work of a mythical hero of the 1st century A.D. Mr Orpen, however, has disposed of this fancy by showing that the name Rathceltchair belonged in pre-Norman times to the enclosure of the ancient church and monastery which stood on the other hill.[1068] We may therefore unhesitatingly ascribe this motte-castle to John de Courcy, who first put up a slender fortification within the town walls to defend himself against temporary attack,[1069] but afterwards built a regular castle, for which this island offered a most favourable site.[1070] A stone castle was built inside the town at a later period; it is now entirely destroyed.

Drogheda, Louth (Cal., i., 93).—First mention 1203, but Mr Orpen thinks it probable that it was one of the castles built by Hugh de Lacy, who died in 1186. A high motte, with a round and a square bailey, just outside the town walls;[1071] called the Mill Mount in the time of Cromwell, who occupied it; he mentions that it had a good ditch, strongly palisadoed.[1072] No stone castle, though much of the bailey wall remains; a late martello tower on top of motte. [B. T. S.] [Fig. 45].

Ardmayle.

Downpatrick.

Drogheda.

Castlenock.

Fig. 45.—Irish Motte-castles.

Duleek, Meath (the castrum Duvelescense of Giraldus, v., 313).—Probably first built by Hugh de Lacy; restored by Raymond le Gros in 1173. The motte is destroyed, but an old weaver living in the village in 1906 says that it existed in the time of his father, who used to roll stones down it in his youth. It was in the angle between two streams, and there is still a slight trace of it. No stone castle. [B. T. S.]

Dunamase, Queen’s Co. (Dumath, Cal., i., 100).—First mentioned in 1215 as a castle of William Marshall’s, which makes it not unlikely that it was originally built by Strongbow. The plan of this castle is the motte-and-bailey plan, but the place of the motte is taken by a natural rock, isolated by a ditch. There are three baileys, descending the hill. The stone keep on the summit is of the 15th or 16th century. [B. T. S.]

Dungarvan, Waterford (Cal., i., 89).—Granted to Thomas Fitz Antony in 1215. To the west of the town is a motte called Gallowshill; it has no bailey, but some trace of a circumvallation. The castle east of the river is not earlier than the 14th or 15th century. [B. T. S.]

*Durrow, King’s Co. (Gir., v., 387).—A castle of Hugh de Lacy’s; he was murdered while he was building it, because he had chosen the enclosure of the church for his bailey.[1073] A plan in Journ. R. S. A. I., xxix., 227, shows clearly the motte and bailey, though the writer mistakes for separate mounds what are clearly broken portions of the vallum. It is possible that the bailey may have followed the line of the ancient rath of the church, but it would almost certainly be a much stronger affair.

*Favorie = Fore, Westmeath.—I owe this identification to Mr Orpen. As Hugh de Lacy founded or endowed the monastery at Fore,[1074] this was probably one of his castles, but the first mention is in 1215 (Cal., i., 95). Mr Westropp mentions the oval motte of Fore with its bailey in his list of “complex motes.”[1075]

Ferns, Wexford (Gir., v., 326).—A castle was built by Walter the German near Ferns. Ferns is spoken of as a city in the time of King Dermot. There is no motte at Ferns; the stone castle has a keep, which is certainly not earlier than the time of Henry III. [B. T. S.]

*Fotheret Onolan, castle of Raymond le Gros (Gir., v., 355).—Mr Orpen identifies this with Castlemore, near Tullow, Co. Carlow. There is an oval motte, and a rectangular bailey with indications of masonry.[1076]

Galtrim, Meath.—Identified by Mr Orpen with the castle of Hugh de Hose, or Hussey, mentioned in the “Song of Dermot.” Destroyed in 1176; no stone castle. An oval motte; bailey indistinctly traceable. [B. T. S.]

Geashill, King’s Co. (Cal., i., 30).—Mentioned in 1203 as a castle of William, Earl Marshall. There are remains of a motte, on which stands a 14th-century keep; but the whole site has been so pulled about in making a modern house, drive, and gardens, that nothing more can be made of the plan. The motte, however, is plain, though mutilated. [E. S. A.]

Granard, Longford (Cal., i., 95).—Built by Richard Tuit in 1199.[1077] A magnificent motte, with a very wide ditch, and a small fan-shaped bailey. Foundations of a shell wall round the top of the motte, and of a small round tower in the centre. [B. T. S.]

*Hincheleder, or Inchelefyre (Cal., i, 95).—Said by Butler (Notices of Trim Castle, 12) to be Inchleffer, Meath, a castle of Hugh de Lacy. No further information.

John de Clahull’s Castle.—Mr Orpen believes this to be Killeshin, Queen’s Co., as it corresponds to the description in the Song, “entre Eboy et Lethelyn.” There is a motte there, and traditions of a town.

*Karakitel, or Carrickittle, Limerick (Cal., i., 14).—Castle of William de Naas in 1199. There was a remarkable natural motte of rock here, with the foundations of a castle upon it, now destroyed.[1078]

*Killamlun (Cal., i., 53).—Identified by Mr Orpen with Killallon, Meath, where there is a large motte. There is a stone passage into this motte, but no evidence has been brought forward to prove that it is of the same nature as the prehistoric souterrains so common in Ireland.[1079] In England there is a remarkable instance at Oxford of a well-chamber built inside a motte.

Killare, Westmeath (Gir., v., 356).—A castle of Hugh de Lacy, built in 1184;[1080] burnt in 1187. A good motte, with ditch and well-preserved bank on counterscarp; no bailey. No stone castle. [B. T. S.]

Kilbixie, Westmeath.—Identified by Mr Orpen with Kelbery, given to Geoffrey de Constantin (Song, 3154); the castle is mentioned in a charter of Walter de Lacy, as well as in the Annals of Loch Cè, which state that it was built in 1192. A motte, with a broad ditch, and no bailey; but on the W. side the counterscarp bank of the ditch widens out into a sort of narrow half-moon terrace. This peculiarity may be noted in several other Irish castles. Foundations of an oblong shell on top of motte, and of a small square tower in the centre of this ward. [B. T. S.]

*Kilfeakle, Tipperary (Cal., i., 29).—A castle of William de Burgh. Built in 1193.[1081] A motte and bailey; trace of a stone wing wall down the motte.[1082]

*Kilmehal (Cal., i., 44).—Mr Orpen regards the identification of this castle with Kilmallock as extremely doubtful.

*Kilmore (Cal., i., 95).—Restored to Walter de Lacy in 1215. Identified with Kilmore, near Lough Oughter, Cavan.[1083] Mr Westropp mentions the motte at this place, which is outside the Anglo-Norman area. The castle was wrecked in 1225 or 1226, and no more is heard of it. The Anglo-Norman advance in this direction failed.

*Kilsantan, Londonderry (Cal., i., 70).—Built by John de Courcy in 1197.[1084] Now called Kilsandal, or Mount Sandal, a large motte on the Bann, not far from Coleraine. The castle of Coleraine, inside the town, was built in 1214, apparently of stone,[1085] and probably superseded the castle of Kilsandal.

Kiltinan, Tipperary (Cal., i., 94).—Castle of Philip of Worcester in 1215. No motte; a headland castle overhanging a river valley. The castle has not only undergone a late Edwardian transformation, but has been cut up to make a modern mansion and farm buildings. No fosses or earthworks remain. [E. S. A.]

Knock, or Castleknock, Dublin (Cal., i., 81).—Castle of Hugh Tyrrel. An oval motte, walled round the top, carrying on its edge a smaller motte (with traces of a ditch) on which stand the ruins of an octagonal keep. No other bailey; ditch and bank double for more than half the circumference. [B. T. S.] [Fig. 45].

*Knockgraffan, Tipperary (Cal., i., 27).—Castle of William de Braose in 1202. One of the finest mottes to be seen anywhere. Built in 1192, at the same time as the castle of Kilfeakle.[1086] The motte is 55 feet high, has a wide ditch and high counterscarp bank, which is also carried round the ditch of the “hatchet-shaped” bailey, in proper Norman fashion. “There are indications of a rectangular stone building on the flat summit of the mote, and there are extensive stone foundations in the bailey.”[1087]

*Lagelachon (Cal., i., 95).—Probably Loughan or Castlekieran, in which parish is the great motte of Derver.[1088]

Lea, Queen’s Co. (Cal., i., 30).—Castle of William, Earl Marshall, in 1203. A motte with two baileys; motte entirely occupied, and partly mutilated by a 13th-century keep, with two large roundels. [B. T. S.]

Leighlin, Carlow.—Mr Orpen has shown that the fine motte of Ballyknockan answers to the description given by Giraldus of the site of the castle of Lechlin built by Hugh de Lacy.[1089] There is a trace of a possible bailey. The stone castle called Black Castle at Leighlin Bridge is of very late date. Those who believe that we have authentic history of Ireland in the 3rd century B.C. will be able to believe with Dr Joyce that the description of the annalists identifies this motte with the site of the ancient palace of Dinn Righ, burnt by the chieftain Maen at that date! [B. T. S.]

Lismore, Waterford (Gir., i., 386).—About a quarter of a mile from Lismore, above a ford of the river, is an excellent specimen of a Norman motte and bailey, called the Round Hill. The name of the prehistoric fort of Dunsginne has lately been applied to it, but purely by guesswork.[1090] The Song says that Henry II. intended to build a castle at Lismore, and that it knows not why he put it off. Possibly he may have placed these earthworks here, and never added the wooden castle, or else this is the site of the castle which was built by his son John in 1185. The castle inside the town is certainly later than the time of John, as although much modernised it is clearly Edwardian in plan. The Norman fragments incorporated in the walls probably belonged to the abbey of St Carthagh, on the site of which the town castle is said to have been built. The so-called King John’s Tower is only a mural tower, not a keep. [B. T. S.]

*Louth, or Luveth (Cal., i., 30).—A royal castle in 1204, but it must have been in existence as early as 1196, when the town and castle of Louth were burnt by Niall MacMahon.[1091] This was probably the “Fairy Mount” at Louth, of which a plan is given in Wright’s Louthiana. This plan shows “the old town trench,” starting from opposite sides of the motte, so that the castle stood on the line of the town banks. The motte was ditched and banked round, but the plan does not show any bailey or any entrance.

*Loske (Cal., i., 30).—Mr Orpen has pointed out to the writer that this cannot be Lusk, which was a castle of the Archbishop of Dublin, while Loske belonged to Theobald Walter, and is not yet identified.

*Loxhindy (Cal., i., 95).—Mr Orpen identifies this name with Loughsendy, or Ballymore Loughsendy, Westmeath, where there is a motte.[1092]

Naas, Kildare (Gir., v., 100).—The dun of Naas is mentioned in the Book of Rights, p. 251, and in the Tripartite Life of St Patrick. By the Dindsenchas it is attributed to the legendary Princess Tuiltinn in 277 A.D. On this “evidence” the motte at Naas has been classed as prehistoric. But as we have seen, a dun does not mean a motte, or even a hill, but an enclosure. Naas was part of the share which fell to the famous Anglo-Norman leader, Maurice FitzGerald, and the earthworks are quite of the Norman pattern;[1093] a good motte, ditched and banked, with trace of a small bailey attached. The terrace round the flank of the motte may be no older than the modern buildings on the summit.[1094] [B. T. S.]

Navan, Meath.—The Song says Navan was given to Jocelin de Nangle, and it is known that the castle of the Nangles was at Navan. A lofty motte, with a very small semilunar platform below, formed by broadening out a part of the counterscarp bank of the ditch. (Compare Kilbixie.) [B. T. S.]

Nobber, Meath (Cal., i., 104).—A castle of Hugh de Lacy. A motte, with traces of a breastwork round the top, and wing banks running down to what remains of the bailey on the S. Two curious little terraces on the N. side of the motte. No masonry. [B. T. S.]

Rath’ (Cal., i., 95).—This castle, evidently one of the most important in Ulster, but hitherto unidentified, has been shown by Mr Orpen to be the famous castle of Dundrum, Down.[1095] This castle is situated on a natural motte of rock, no doubt scarped by art, with a deep ditch cut through the rock, and a bailey attached. The top of the motte contains a small ward fortified in stone, and a round keep. It is very doubtful whether this keep is as old as the time of John de Courcy, to whom the castle is popularly attributed; for the round keep without buttresses hardly appears in England before the reign of Henry III. [E. S. A.]

Rathwire, Meath.—Rathwire was the portion of Robert de Lacy (Song, 3150), and a castle was built here by Hugh de Lacy.[1096] There is a motte and bailey, with considerable remains of foundations in the bailey, and one wing bank going up the motte. [B. T. S.]

*Ratouth, Meath, now Ratoath (Cal., i., 110).—A castle of Hugh de Lacy. There is “a conspicuous mount” near the church, about which there is a legend that Malachy, first king of all Ireland, held a convention of states (Lewis). It is marked in the map.

*Rokerel (Cal., i., 81).—Unidentified.

Roscrea, Tipperary (Cal., i., 81).—A motte and bretasche were built here in King John’s reign, as is recorded in an inquisition of 29 Henry III. (Cal., i., 412). There is no motte now at Roscrea, but an Edwardian castle with mural towers and no keep; a 14th-century gatehouse tower. Here we have a proved instance of a motte completely swept away by an Edwardian transformation.[1097] [E. S. A.]

Skreen, Meath.—Giraldus mentions the castle of Adam de Futepoi, and as Skreen was his barony, his castle must have been at Skreen. In the grounds of the modern castellated house at Skreen there is a motte, 11 feet high (probably lowered), with a terrace round its flank; some slight traces of a bailey. [B. T. S.]

Slane, Meath.—The Song relates the erection of a motte by Richard the Fleming: “un mot fist cil jeter pur ses enemis grever.”[1098] It also tells of its destruction by the Irish, but does not give its name, which is supplied by the Annals of Ulster. Probably Richard the Fleming restored his motte after its destruction, for there is still a motte on the hill of Slane, with a large annular bailey,[1099] quite large enough for the “100 foreigners, besides women and children and horses,” who were in it when it was taken. The motte has still a slight breastwork round the top. The modern castle of the Marquis of Conyngham, below, incorporates half a round tower of 13th-century work, belonging no doubt to the stone castle which succeeded the motte.[1100] [B. T. S.]

Thurles, Tipperary (Dorles, Cal., i., 81).—A castle of Theobald Walter. Thurles Castle has a late keep with trefoil windows, and according to Grose was built by the Earl of Ormond in 1328. From information on the spot it appears that there used to be a motte in the gardens behind the castle; mentioned also by Lewis. [B. T. S.]

Tibraghny, or Tipperaghny, Kilkenny (Gir., i., 386; Cal., i., 19).—Granted to William de Burgh in 1200; built by John in 1185.[1101] A motte, with ditch and bank, and some trace of a half-moon bailey to the north. About 200 yards away is the stone castle, a late keep with ogee windows. [B. T. S.]

Timahoe, Queen’s Co. (Gir., i., 356).—Built by Hugh de Lacy for Meiler Fitz Henry. A motte, called the Rath of Ballynaclogh, half a mile west of the village. The bailey, the banks and ditches of which seem remarkably well preserved, is almost circular, but the motte is placed at its edge, not concentrically. There are wing-banks running up the motte. Near it are the ruins of a stone castle built in Elizabeth’s reign (Grose). [B. T. S.]

Trim, Meath.—The Song tells of the erection of this castle by Hugh de Lacy, and how in his absence the meysun (the keep—doubtless wooden) was burnt by the Irish, and the mot levelled with the ground. This express evidence that the first castle at Trim had a motte is of great value, because there is no motte there now. The castle was restored by Raymond le Gros,[1102] but so quickly that the present remarkable keep can hardly have been built at that date.[1103] [B. T. S.]

*Tristerdermot (Gir., v., 356).—Castle of Walter de Riddlesford. Tristerdermot is now Castledermot; there used to be a rath of some kind here close to the town. But Mr Orpen inclines to believe that the castle Giraldus alludes to was at Kilkea, another manor of De Riddlesford’s, where there is a motte, near the modern castle. “In the early English versions of the Expugnatio Kilcae is put instead of Tristerdermot as the place where Walter de Riddlesford’s castle was built.”[1104]

*Typermesan (Cal., i., 110).—Mr Orpen writes that this name occurs again in a list of churches in the deanery of Fore, which includes all the parish names in the half barony of Fore, except Oldcastle and Killeagh. He suspects that Typermesan is now known as Oldcastle, “where there is a remarkably well-preserved motte and raised bailey.”[1105]

Waterford (Cal., i., 89).—We are not told whether Strongbow built a castle here when he took the town from the Ostmen in 1170. The castle is not mentioned till 1215, when it was granted by John to Thomas Fitz-Antony. Waterford was a walled town in 1170, and had a tower called Reginald’s Tower, which seems to have been the residence of the two Danish chieftains, as they were taken prisoners there. Here too, Henry II. imprisoned Fitz Stephen.[1106] It is possible that this tower, as Mr Orpen supposes,[1107] may have been considered as the castle of Waterford. But the existing “Ring tower” on the line of the walls, which is sometimes called Reginald’s Tower, is certainly a round mural tower of the 13th century; there are others of similar masonry on the walls. [B. T. S.]

*Wexford (Gir., v., 314).—Probably built by Maurice Prendergast; first mentioned when taken from his sons in 1176. Mr Orpen writes: “The site of Wexford Castle is an artificial mound. Two of the scarped sides still remain, and the other two are built up above streets. When recently laying some drainpipes, the workmen came upon no rock, but only made earth.”

Wicklow (Gir., i., 298).—Existing when Henry II. left Ireland in 1173; he gave it to Strongbow. The Black Castle at Wicklow is a headland castle; it preserves the motte-and-bailey plan, though there is no motte, as there is a small triangular inner ward (about thirty paces each side) several feet higher than the outer bailey, from which it is separated by a very deep ditch cut through the rock. [B. T. S.]

We have here a list of seventy-two castles mentioned in the contemporary history of the Norman invasion. If the list is reduced by omitting Aq’i, Kilmehal, Loske, Rokerel, and Incheleder, which are not yet identified, and five castles of which the identification may be considered doubtful, Caherconlish, Croom, Clahull’s Castle, Lagelachan, and Typermesan, sixty-two castles are left, and out of these sixty-two, fifty-two have or had mottes.[1108] In five cases the place of the motte is taken by a natural rock, helped by art; but as the idea and plan are the same it is legitimately classed as the same type.

This list might easily have been enlarged by the addition of many castles mentioned in the various Irish annals as having been built by the Normans. But this would have involved the identification of a number of difficult names, a labour to which the writer’s limited knowledge of Irish topography was not equal. The greater number of these sites have now been identified by Mr Orpen, and to his papers, so frequently cited above, we must refer the reader who wishes to study the fullest form of the argument sketched in these pages.

One can easily sympathise with the feelings of those who, having always looked upon these mottes as monuments of ancient Ireland, are loath to part with them to the Norman robber. Many of us have had similar feelings about the mottes of England, some of which we had been taught to regard as the work of that heroic pair, Edward the Elder and Ethelfleda. But these feelings evaporated when we came to realise that it would have been highly unpatriotic in these founders of the British empire to have built little castles for their own personal safety, instead of building cities which were “to shelter all the folk,” in the words of Ethelfleda’s charter to Worcester. In like manner, wretched as were the intertribal wars of Ireland, it would have been a disgrace to the Irish chieftains if they had consulted solely their own defence by building these little strongholds for their personal use.

The Irish motte-castles furnish us with interesting proof that this type of castle was commonly used, not only as late as the reign of Henry II., but also in the reigns of his sons, Richard I. and John;[1109] that is to say, at a time when castle-building in stone was receiving remarkable developments at the hands of Richard I. and Philip Augustus of France. This, however, need not surprise us, since we know that as late as 1242, Henry III. was building a motte and wooden castle in the Isle of Rhé, at the mouth of the Garonne.[1110] But those who imagine that the Normans built stone castles everywhere in England, Wales, and Ireland, will have to reconsider their views.

Note.—Mr Orpen’s work on Ireland under the Normans did not appear until too late for use in this chapter. The reader is referred to it for a more careful tracing of the history and archæology of the Norman settlements in Ireland.

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[CHAPTER XII]
STONE CASTLES OF THE NORMAN PERIOD

It may be a surprise to some of our readers to learn how very few stone castles there are in England which can certainly be ascribed to the first period of the Norman Conquest, that is to the 11th century. When we have named the Tower of London, Colchester, the recently excavated foundations of the remarkable keep at Pevensey, and perhaps the ruined keep of Bramber, we have completed the list, as far as our present knowledge goes, though possibly future excavations may add a few others.[1111]

It is obvious that so small a number of instances furnishes a very slender basis for generalisations as to the characteristics of early Norman keeps, if we ask in what respect they differed from those of the 12th century. But it is the object of this chapter to suggest research, rather than to lay down conclusions. The four early instances mentioned should be compared with the earliest keeps of France, the country where the pattern was developed. This has not yet been done in any serious way, nor does the present writer pretend to the knowledge which would be necessary for such a comparison.[1112] But data exist, which, if they were used in the right way, would greatly add to our knowledge.

In the first place, we have a list of the castles built by Fulk Nerra, Count of Anjou, at the end of the 10th and the beginning of the 11th century, during his life-long struggle with the Counts of Blois for the possession of Touraine. This list may be regarded as authentic, as it is given by his grandson, Fulk Rechin, in the remarkable historical fragment which he has bequeathed to us.[1113] The list is as follows:—In Touraine: Langeais, Chaumont-sur-Loire, Montrésor, St Maure. In Poitou: Mirabeau (N.W. of Poitiers), Montcontour, Faye-la-Vineuse, Musterolum (Montreuil-Bonnin), Passavent, Maulevrier. In Anjou: Baugé, Chateau-Gontier, Durtal. “Et multa alia,” adds Fulk’s grandson. Nine of these others are mentioned by the chroniclers: Montbazon, Semblançay, Montboyau, St Florent-le-Vieil, Chateaufort near Langeais, Chérament, Montrevault, Montfaucon, and Mateflon. Many of these were undoubtedly wooden castles, with wooden keeps on mottes.[1114] In many other cases the ancient fabric has been replaced by a building of the Renaissance period. Whether any remains of stone donjons built by Fulk Nerra exist at any of these places except at Langeais, the writer has been unable to find out; probably Langeais is the only one; but French archæologists are agreed that the ruined tower which stands on the ridge above the 15th-century castle of Langeais is the work of this count,[1115] a venerable fragment of a 10th-century keep.[1116]

Unfortunately only two sides of this tower and the foundations of the other sides remain. The walls are only 3 feet 6 inches thick, contrasting strikingly with the castles of the 12th and 13th centuries, where the usual thickness is 10 feet, which is often exceeded. This points to a date before any great improvement had taken place in assaulting-machinery. The masonry is what French architects call petit appareil, very small stones, but regularly coursed. There is no herring-bone work. The buttresses, of which there are five on the front, certainly suggest a later date, from the size of the ashlar with which they are faced, and from their considerable projection (3 feet on the entrance wall, 2 on the front). There is no sign of a forebuilding. There are only two storeys above the basement. The floors have been supported on ledges, not on vaults. The doorway, a plain round arch, with bar-holes, is on the first floor;[1117] it is now only a few feet above the ground, but probably the basement has been partially filled up with rubbish. The first storey is quite windowless in the walls which remain. There are no fireplaces nor any loopholes in these two fragments. In the second storey there are three rather small windows and one very large one;[1118] they are round arched, have no splay, and their voussoirs are of narrow stones alternated with tiles. In these details they resemble the Early Romanesque, which in England we call Anglo-Saxon.

The Tower of London and Colchester keep are some seventy or eighty years later than that of Langeais, and if we attempt to compare them, we must bear in mind that Langeais was the work of a noble who was always in the throes of an acute struggle with a powerful rival, whereas the Tower and Colchester Castle were built by a king who had reached a position of power and wealth beyond that of any neighbouring sovereign.[1119] Langeais is but a small affair compared with these other two keeps. The larger area,[1120] thicker walls, the angle towers with their provision of stairways, the splayed windows [of Colchester], the fireplaces, the chapels with round apses, the mural gallery [of the Tower] cannot be definitely pronounced to be instances of development unless we have other instances than Langeais to compare with them. De Caumont mentions Chateau du Pin (Calvados), Lithaire (Manche), Beaugency-sur-Loire, Nogent-le-Rotrou (Eure et Loire), Tour de l’Islot (Seine et Oise), St Suzanne (Mayenne), and Tour de Broue (Charente Inf.), as instances of keeps of the 11th century.[1121] These should be carefully examined by the student of castle architecture, and De Caumont’s statements as to their date should be verified. Not having had the opportunity of doing this, we will only ask what features the keeps of Langeais, London, and Colchester have in common, which may serve as marks of an earlier date than the 12th century.[1122] The square or oblong form and the entrance on the first floor are common to all three, but also to the keeps of the first three-quarters of the 12th century. The absence of a forebuilding is probably an early sign,[1123] and so is the extensive use of tiles.[1124] The chapel with a round apse which projects externally only occurs in the keeps of London and Colchester, and in the ruins of Pevensey keep.[1125] The absence of a plinth is believed by Enlart to be an early token.[1126] But Colchester has a plinth and so has the Tower. It is, however, very possible that in both cases the plinth is a later addition; at Colchester it is of different stone to the rest of the building, and may belong to the repairs of Henry II., who was working on this castle in 1169; while the Tower has undergone so many alterations in the course of its eight hundred years of existence that it is difficult to say whether the rudimentary plinth which it still possesses is original or not.

Wide-jointed masonry is generally recognised by architectural students as a mark of the early Norman style. Even this is a test which may sometimes deceive; certain kinds of ashlar are very liable to weather at the edges, and when the wall has been pointed at a comparatively recent period, a false appearance of wide joints is produced. Moreover, there are instances of wide-jointed masonry throughout the 12th century. The use of rubble instead of ashlar is common at all dates, and depends no doubt on local conditions, the local provision of stone, or the affluence or poverty of the castle-builder. We are probably justified in laying down as a general rule that the dimensions of the ashlar stones increase as the Middle Ages advance. There is a gradual transition from the petit appareil of Fulk Nerra’s castle to the large blocks of well-set stone which were used in the 15th century.[1127] But this law is liable to many exceptions, and cannot be relied upon as a test of date unless other signs are present. The Tower of London is built of Kentish rag; Colchester keep of small cement stones (septaria), which whether they are re-used Roman stones or not, resemble very much in size the masonry of Langeais. It is of course unnecessary to say to anyone who is in the least acquainted with Norman architecture that all Norman walls of ashlar are of the core-and-facing kind, an internal and an external shell of ashlar, filled up with rubble; a technique which was inherited from Roman times in Gaul, but which was not followed by the Anglo-Saxons.[1128]

The presence or absence of fireplaces and chimneys is not a test of date. Colchester is certainly an early keep,[1129] but it is well provided with fireplaces which appear to be original. These fireplaces have not proper chimneys, but only holes in the wall a little above the fireplace. But this rudimentary form of chimney is found as late as Henry II.’s keep at Orford, and there is said to be documentary mention of a proper chimney as early as 816 in the monastery of St Gall.[1130] The entire absence of fireplaces is no proof of early date, for in Henry II.’s keep at the Peak in Derbyshire, the walls of which are almost perfect (except for their ashlar coats) there are no fireplaces at all, nor are there any in the 13th-century keep of Pembroke. It is possible that in these cases a free standing fireplace in the middle of the room, with a chimney carried up to the roof, was used. Such a fireplace is described by the poet, Chrestien of Troyes, but no example is known to exist.[1131]

But apart from details, if we look at the general plan of these four early stone castles, we shall see that it is exactly similar. It is the keep-and-bailey plan, the plan which prevailed from the 10th to the 13th century, and was not even superseded by the introduction of the keepless castle in the latter century.[1132] The motte-and-bailey type was of course only another version of the keep-and-bailey. In this primitive type of castle the all-important thing was the keep or donjon.[1133] Besides the donjon there was little else but a rampart and ditch. “Until the middle of the 12th century, and in the simpler examples of the epochs which followed, the donjon may be said to constitute in itself the whole castle.”[1134] Piper states that up to the time of the Crusades German castles do not seem to have been furnished with mural towers.[1135] Köhler, whose work treats of French and English castles as well as German, says that mural towers did not become general till the second half of the 12th century.[1136] Nevertheless, as it is highly probable that the baileys of castles were defended at first with only wooden ramparts on earthen banks, even when the donjon was of stone, it is not unlikely that mural towers of wood may have existed at an earlier period than these writers suppose. It is, however, in favour of the general absence of mural towers that the word turris, even in 12th-century records, invariably means the keep, as though no other towers existed.[1137]

That the baileys of some of the most important castles in England had only these wooden and earthen defences, even as late as the 13th century, can be amply proved from the Close Rolls.[1138] Colchester Castle had only a timber wall on the banks of its bailey as late as 1215, and in 1219 this palicium was blown down and an order issued for its reconstruction.[1139]

The arrangements in the stone donjons were probably the same as those we have already described when writing of the wooden ones.[1140] The basement was the storehouse for provisions,[1141] the first floor was generally the guardhouse, the second the habitation, of the lord and lady. Where there were three or four storeys, the arrangements varied, and the finest rooms are often found on the third floor. An oratory was probably an invariable feature, though it cannot always be detected in ruined keeps. One of Mr Clark’s most pronounced mistakes was his idea that these keeps were merely towers of refuge used only in time of war.[1142] History abounds with evidence that they were the permanent residences of the nobles of the 11th and 12th centuries. The cooking, as a rule, was carried on in a separate building, of which there are remains in some places.[1143]

Occasionally we find a variant of the keep-and-bailey type, which we may call the gatehouse keep. The most remarkable instance of this kind in England is Exeter, which appears never to have had any keep but the primitive gatehouse, undoubtedly the work of Baldwin de Moeles, the first builder of the castle. In Normandy, De Caumont gives several instances of gatehouse keeps. Plessis-Grimoult (which has been visited by the writer) has a fragment of a gatehouse tower, but has also a mural tower on the line of the walls; as the castle was ruined and abandoned in 1047, these remains must be of early date.[1144] The gatehouse keep is probably an economical device for combining a citadel with the defence of the weakest part of the castle.

We must pass on to the keeps of Henry I.[1145] There is only one in England which authentic history gives to his time, that of Rochester.[1146] But the chronicler Robert de Torigny[1147] has fortunately given us a list of the keeps and castles built by Henry in Normandy, and though many of these are now destroyed, and others in ruins, a certain number are left, which, taken along with Rochester, may give us an idea of the type of keep built in Henry I.’s time. The keeps attributed by Robert to Henry I. are Arques, Gisors, Falaise, Argentan, Exmes, Domfront, Ambrières, Vire, Waure, Vernon, Evreux, Alençon, St Jean, and Coutances. How many of these survive we cannot positively say;[1148] we can only speak of those we have seen (Falaise, Domfront, and Gisors),[1149] and of Arques, described by M. Deville in his Histoire du Chateau d’Arques, by M. Viollet le Duc in his treatise on Donjons,[1150] and by Mr G. T. Clark.[1151]

Speaking under correction, as a prolonged study of the keeps in Normandy was impossible to the writer, we should say that there is no very striking difference to be observed between the keeps of Henry I. and those built by his father. The development of the forebuilding seems to be the most important change, if indeed we are justified in assuming that the 11th-century keeps never had it; its remains can be seen at Arques, Falaise,[1152] Domfront, and Rochester. At Arques and Falaise the doorway is on the second floor, which is an innovation, a new attempt to solve the difficulty of defending the entrance. The first floor at Arques could only be entered by a trap from the second floor; at Falaise there is a stone stair from one to the other. Rochester is entered from the first floor. The basement storeys of Arques, Falaise, and Domfront are quite unlit; at the Tower the basement has had a number of loopholes, and the angular heads of those which remain suggest that they are at least copied from original lights. The main floors in Henry I.’s keeps are always of wood, but this was not because vaulting was then unknown, because the crypt, sub-crypt, and chapel of the Tower are vaulted, not to speak of many early churches.[1153] The four keeps mentioned have all three storeys, thus not exceeding Colchester in height;[1154] the Tower has now four storeys, but a good authority has remarked that the fourth storey has not improbably been made by dividing the third.

No marked advance is observable in the masonry of these keeps. Arques is built of petit appareil; Falaise of small stones in herring-bone work; Domfront of very small stones rudely coursed; Rochester of Kentish rag mixed with flint rubble. Both Falaise and Domfront have plinths of superior masonry, but there is always the possibility that these plinths are later additions. The voussoirs of the arches at Falaise, Domfront, and Rochester are larger than the rag or tile voussoirs which are used at Colchester, the Tower, and Langeais. At Rochester and Arques provision is made for carrying the water-supply from the well in the basement to the upper floors, a provision of which there is no trace in the older keeps.[1155]

As Robert de Monte says that Henry I. built many castles in England as well as in Normandy, we naturally ask what other English keeps besides Rochester may be assigned to him. It appears to the writer that Corfe and Norwich keeps may very likely be his. Both were royal castles in his time, and both were originally wooden castles on mottes.[1156] Both these castles have forebuildings, and neither of them have floors supported on vaults.[1157] Corfe has very superior masonry, of larger stones than those used in the keeps known to be Henry I.’s, but wide-jointed. At Norwich only a very small piece of the original ashlar is left. Corfe is extremely severe in all its details, but quite corresponds to work of Henry I.’s reign.[1158] Norwich has a great deal of decoration, more advanced in style than that to be seen at Falaise, but still consistent with the first half of the 12th century. Neither keep has the least sign of Transition Norman, such as we seldom fail to find in the keeps of Henry II. Moreover, neither of them figure in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II., except for repairs; and as Stephen in his harassed reign can hardly have had any money for building stone keeps, we may with some confidence ascribe these two keeps to Henry I.

A few words should be given to the castle of Gisors, which contains in itself an epitome of castle history. The first castle, built by William Rufus in 1096, was undoubtedly a wooden castle on a motte, with a stockaded bailey below it; certain portions of the present bailey walls rest on earthen banks, which probably belonged to the original castle, and show what a much smaller affair it was than the present one. Henry I., Robert de Monte tells us, strengthened this castle with a keep. Probably this was the shell wall which now crowns the motte; the smallness of the masonry (stones about 5 inches high, rudely dressed and coursed) and the slight projection of the buttresses (9 inches) agree with much of the work of his time. There would be a wooden tower inside.[1159] The chemise or shell wall is pierced by loopholes, a very unusual arrangement; they are round arched, and of very rude voussoirs.[1160] Inside this shell there is a decagonal tower, called the Tower of Thomas à Becket, which is almost certainly the work of Henry II.,[1161] as its name would indicate; the chapel of St Thomas is close to it. A stair turret of the 15th century has been added to this keep; its original entrance was, as usual, a door on the first floor, but a basement entrance was built afterwards, probably in the 13th century. Philip Augustus, after he had taken this castle from John, added to it one of the round keeps which had then become the fashion, and subsequent enlargements of the bailey converted it into a “concentric” castle, of which the motte now forms the centre.

There is one keep which is known to be of the reign of Stephen, though not built by him, that of Carlisle, built by David, King of Scotland, in 1136,[1162] a time when he thought his hold on the four northern counties of England was secure, little reckoning on the true character of his great-nephew, Henry, son of Matilda. There is no advance to be seen in this keep on those of Henry I., except that the walls are faced with ashlar. The vaulting of the basement is pronounced by Mr Clark to be very evidently a late insertion.[1163]

With the reign of Henry II. a new era opens as regards the documentary history of our ancient castles, because the Pipe Rolls of that king’s reign have most fortunately been preserved.[1164] These contain the sheriff’s accounts for money spent on the building or repair of the king’s castles, and are simply invaluable for the history of castle architecture. The following is a list of the keeps which the Pipe Rolls show to have been built or finished by Henry II.:—

Scarborough,	built	between	1157	and	1174.	Tower
Windsor,	"	"	1161	"	1177.	Shell wall
Orford,	"	"	1165	"	1172.	Tower
Bridgenorth,	"	"	1166	"	1173.	Tower
Newcastle,	"	"	1167	"	1177.	Tower
Bowes,	"	"	1171	"	1187.	Tower
Richmond,	"	"	1171	"	1174.	Tower
Chilham,	"	"	1171	"	1173.	Tower
Peak,	"	"	1172	"	1176.	Tower
Canterbury,	"	"	1172	"	1174.	Tower
Arundel,	"	"	1176	"	1182.	Shell wall
Tickhill,	"	"	1178	"	1181.	Tower

The dates given here must be taken as only roughly accurate, as owing to the meagreness of the entries in the Pipe Rolls, it is not always certain whether the expenses were for the great tower or for other buildings. The list by no means includes all the work which Henry II. did on his English castles, for he was a great builder; but a good deal of his work seems to have been the substitution of stone walls with mural towers, for wooden stockades, and our list comprises all the cases in which it is clear that the keep was the work of this king.[1165] We confine our attention to the keeps, because though mural towers of stone began to be added to the walls of baileys during Henry II.’s reign (a detail which must have greatly altered the general appearance of castles), it is certain that the keep was still the most important part, and the residence of the king or noble whenever he visited the castle.

Seven out of the ten tower keeps are built on precisely the same plan as those of Henry I. The chief advance is in the masonry. All the tower keeps of Henry II., except Dover, Chilham, and Canterbury, are or have been cased with good ashlar, of stones somewhat larger in size than those used by Henry I. The same may be said of the shell walls (namely, Windsor and Arundel); it is interesting to note that Henry II. still used this elementary form of citadel, which consisted merely of a wall round the top of a motte, with wooden buildings inside.[1166] In three cases out of the ten tower keeps, Newcastle, Bowes, and Richmond, the basement storey is vaulted, which does not occur in the older keeps.[1167] Yet such important castles as Scarborough, Dover, and Canterbury are without this provision against fire. None of these keeps appear to have more than three storeys above the basement.[1168] None of the entrances to the keeps (except Tickhill) have any portcullis grooves,[1169] nor any special contrivances for defence, except at Canterbury, where the entrance (on the first floor) takes two turns at right angles before reaching the hall to which it leads.[1170] There are nearly always in the keeps of Henry II. some signs of Transition Norman in the details, such as the nook shafts at the angles of the towers of Scarborough and the Peak, certain arches at Canterbury, the Transition capitals used at Newcastle, and the filleted string round the outside of Bowes.

But we have yet to speak of three keeps of Henry II.’s reign which are on a different plan to all the others, and which point to coming changes—Chilham, Orford, and Tickhill.[1171] Chilham is an octagonal tower of three storeys, with a square annexe on one side, which appears to be original. Orford is polygonal outside, round inside. Orford indeed is one of the most extraordinary keeps to be seen anywhere, and we must regard it as an experiment, and an experiment which appears never to have been repeated.[1172] Instead of the usual Norman buttresses, this polygonal keep has three buttress towers, placed between every four of the outer faces, 22 feet wide, and 12 feet in projection.[1173] Tickhill, however, the last keep he built, is decagonal. The object of the polygonal tower was to deflect the missiles thrown from siege engines, and the round tower was evidently considered an improvement on the polygonal for this purpose, as it subsequently supplanted the polygonal type. It is therefore rather remarkable that Henry II. built both these keeps in the second decade of his reign, and afterwards went on building square keeps like his predecessors. We have seen, however, that he built at least one polygonal tower in Normandy, that of Gisors. We must bear in mind that the Norman and Angevine frontier was the theatre of the continuous struggle of Henry II. with the French kings, Louis VII. and Philip Augustus, and that it is here that we must expect the greatest developments in military architecture.

Speaking generally, we may say that just as there was comparatively little change in armour during the 12th century until the end of Henry II.’s reign, so there was comparatively little change in military architecture during the same period. But great changes took place towards the end of the 12th century. One of these changes was a great improvement in missile engines; the trébuchet was one of the most important of these. It could throw much heavier stones than the largest catapult, and could take a more accurate aim.[1174] These new engines were useful for defence as well as attack, and this affected the architecture of castles, because flat roofs covered with lead, on which machines could be placed, were now substituted for the former sloping roofs.[1175] There are several payments for lead for roofing castles in the Pipe Rolls of Henry II., the earliest being in 1166. In the reigns of John and Henry III. the mention of lead for roofing becomes much more frequent.[1176]

Hitherto, in the defence of keeps, reliance had mainly been placed upon their passive strength, though not so entirely as has been commonly assumed, since it was always the practice to shoot with arrows from the battlements round the roof of the tower. But not only was the fighting strength of the keep increased by the trébuchet, but the introduction of the crossbow gave it a defensive arm of the greatest importance. The crossbow had been known to the Romans, and was used in the early part of the 12th century, but it was forbidden by the second Lateran Council in 1139 as a weapon hateful to God.[1177] This prohibition seems actually to have been effective, as William the Breton says expressly that the crossbow was unknown to the French before the wars of Richard I. and Philip Augustus.[1178] Richard learned the use of it in the third crusade.[1179] But to use the crossbow in the defence of buildings it was necessary to construct special loopholes for shooting, splayed downwards externally, so that it was possible to aim from them. Up till this time the loopholes of castles had been purely for light and not for shooting; anyone may see that it is impossible to take aim through an immensely thick wall unless there is a downward splay to increase the field of vision. William the Breton tells us that Richard built windows for crossbows to his towers, and this is the first mention we have of them.[1180]

From this time defensive loopholes become common in castles, and take various fanciful forms, as well as the commoner ones of the circle, square, or triangle at the base of the loop. The cross loophole, which does not appear till the latter quarter of the 13th century, is explained by Viollet le Duc as an ingenious way of allowing three or four archers to fire in a volley.[1181] But up to the present time very little study has been given to this subject, and we must be content to leave the question for future observation to settle.[1182]

The crossbowmen not only required splayed loopholes, but also niches, large enough to accommodate at least three men, so that a continuous discharge of darts (quarrells) might be kept up. Any defensive loop which really means work will have a niche like this behind it. These niches had the defect of seriously weakening the wall.

Another innovation introduced by Richard I. was that of stone machicolations, or hurdicia.[1183] Whether wooden galleries round the tops of walls, with holes for dropping down stones, boiling-water, or pitch on the heads of the besiegers had not been used from the earliest times, is regarded by Köhler as extremely doubtful.[1184] They were certainly used by the Romans, and may even be seen clearly figured on the Assyrian monuments. In the Bayeux Tapestry, the picture of Bayeux Castle shows the stockade on top of the motte crested with something extremely like hurdicia. Yet the writer has found no authentic mention of them before the end of the 12th century.[1185] The stone machicolations built by Richard round his keep of Chateau Gaillard are of an unusual type, which was only rarely imitated.[1186] But from this time wooden hurdicia became universal, to judge from the numerous orders for timber for hoarding castles and town walls in the Close Rolls of the first half of the 13th century. Towards the middle of the 13th century stone brackets for the support of wooden hurdicia began to be used; they may still be seen in the great keep of Coucy, which was begun in 1230. But machicolations entirely of stone, supported on double or triple rows of brackets, do not become common till the 14th century.[1187]

The greatest architectural change witnessed at the end of the 12th century was the victory of the round keep over the square. Round towers were built by the Romans as mural towers, but the universal type of mediæval keep appears to have been the square or oblong, until towards the end of the 12th century.[1188] The polygonal keep was probably a transitional form; we have seen that Henry II.’s polygonal keep at Orford was begun as early as 1165. Many experiments seem to have been made at the end of the 12th century, such as the addition of a stone prow to the weakest side of a keep, to enable it better to resist showers of missiles. Richard I.’s keep at Chateau Gaillard is a round keep with a solid prow of this kind. Five-sided keeps are said to be not uncommon on the left bank of the Rhine and in Nassau; this type was simply the addition of a prow to a square keep. The only English instance known to the writer is that of Mitford, Northumberland, but this is merely a five-sided keep, the prow is not solid, as at Chateau Gaillard. The castle of Étampes, whose plan is a quatrefoil, is assigned by French archæologists to this period of experiment.[1189] But the round keep was eventually the type preferred. Philip II. thought it necessary to add a round keep to the castle of Gisors, after he had taken it from John, and he adopted the round keep for all his new castles, of which the Louvre was one.[1190]

Along with the round keep, ground entrances became common.[1191] Viollet le Duc states that when the French soldiers broke into the inner ward at Chateau Gaillard the defenders had no time to escape into the keep by the narrow stair which led to the first floor, and consequently this proud tower was surrendered without a blow; and that this event so impressed on Philip’s mind the danger of difficult entrances that he abandoned the old fashion. This may be true, but it is a pure guess of Le Duc’s, as there is nothing whatever to justify it in William the Breton’s circumstantial narrative. It is, however, certain that Philip adopted the ground entrance to all his keeps. In England we find ground entrances to many round keeps of the 13th century, as at Pembroke; but the older fashion was sometimes retained; Conisburgh, one of the finest keeps in England, has its entrance on the first floor.[1192]

After the introduction of the trébuchet, we might expect that the walls of keeps would be made very much thicker, and such seems to have been the case in France,[1193] but we do not find that it was the rule in England.[1194] The lower storeys were now generally instead of occasionally vaulted. In the course of the 13th century it became common to vault all the storeys. But in spite of the military advantages of the round keep, in its avoidance of angles favourable to the battering-ram, and its deflection of missiles, the square keep continued to be built in various parts of both France and England till quite late in the Middle Ages.[1195] On the Scottish border, square towers of the ancient type, with quite Norman decorations, were built as late as the 15th century.[1196] The advantage of the square tower was that it was more roomy inside, and was therefore preferred when the tower was intended for habitation.

We come now to the greatest of all the changes introduced in the 13th century: the keepless castle, in which the keep is done away with altogether, and the castle consists of a square or oblong court surrounded by a strong wall with massive towers at the angles, and in large castles, in the curtain also.[1197] Usually this inner quadrangle is encircled with an outer quadrangle of walls and towers, so that this type of castle is frequently called the concentric. But the castles of the keepless kind are not invariably concentric; those built by Edward I. at Conway, Carnarvon, and Flint are not so.[1198] Instead of a dark and comfortless keep, the royal or noble owner is provided in this type of castle with a palatial house. In England this house is frequently attached to the gateway, forming what we may call a gatehouse palace; good examples may be seen at Beaumaris, Harlech, and Tonbridge.[1199] The gateway itself is always defended by a pair of massive towers.

Edward I. is generally credited with the introduction of this type of castle into England, but until the Pipe Rolls of Henry III.’s reign have been carefully examined, we cannot be certain that it was not introduced earlier. It was certainly known in Germany fifty years before Edward’s accession to the throne, and in France as early as 1231.[1200]

It is always supposed that this type of castle was introduced by the Crusaders from Syria. But when did it make its first appearance in Syria? This is a point which, we venture to think, has not been yet sufficiently investigated. We do not believe that it can have existed in Syria at the time of the third crusade, otherwise Richard I., who is universally acknowledged to have been a first-class military architect, would have brought the idea home with him.[1201] Yet his favourite castle of Chateau Gaillard, built in accordance with the latest military science, is in the main a castle of the keep-and-bailey type, and has even a reminiscence of the motte, in the scarped rock on which the keep and inner ward are placed.

The new type of keepless castle never entirely displaced the old keep-and-bailey type. We have already seen that keeps of the old sort continued to be built till the end of the Middle Ages. Hawarden Castle has a good example of a 14th-century round keep; Warkworth a most remarkable specimen of the 15th, the plan being a square tower with polygonal turrets set on each face.[1202] In France and Germany also the old type appears to have persisted.[1203]

We have already trespassed beyond the limits of our subject; but as we offer this chapter more as a programme of work than as a categorical outline, we trust it may not be without use to the student who may feel disposed to take up this much-neglected subject.

A few words must yet be said about the state of the law relating to castles. Nothing explicit has come down to us on this subject from the 11th century in England, but it is clear that the feudal system which William introduced, and which required that all lands should revert to the king on the death of the holder, forbade the building of any castle without the king’s license, and, further, allowed only a life tenure in each case. The Council of Lillebonne in 1080 had laid it down in express terms that no one should build a castle in Normandy without the permission of the duke;[1204] and William, after his great victory over his revolted barons, had enforced the right of garrisoning their castles. He was not able to do this in England, while he must have desired to check the building of private castles as far as possible. On the other hand, he had to face the dilemma that no Norman land-holder would be safe in his usurped estates without the shelter of a castle. In this situation we have the elements of the civil strife which burst forth in Stephen’s reign, and which was ended by what we may call the anti-castle policy of Henry II.[1205]

The rights secured by this able king were often recklessly sold by his successors, but in the reign of Henry III. it was evidently illegal even to fortify an ordinary house with a ditch and stockade without royal permission.[1206]

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Feudalism was an inevitable phase in the evolution of the Western nations, and it ought neither to be idealised nor execrated. After the break-up of the tribal system the nations of Europe sought refuge in the forms of imperialism which were devised by Charlemagne, and even the small and distant island of England strove to move in the same direction. But the times were not ripe for centralisation on so great a scale, and when the system of the Carlovingian Empire gave way under the inrush of Northmen and Huns, European society would have fallen into ruin had it not been for the institutions of feudalism. These offered, in place of the old blood bond of the tribe, a social compact which, though itself artificial, was so admirably adapted to the general need that it was speedily adopted by all the progressive nations of Europe. The great merit of feudalism was that it replaced the collective responsibility of the tribe by the individual responsibility of the man to his lord, and of the lord to his man. In an age when the decay of mutual trust was the worst evil of society it laid stress on individual loyalty, and insisted that personal honour should consist in the fulfilment of obligations. Being a system so wholly personal, its usefulness depended largely on the nature of the person in power, and it was therefore liable to great abuses.

But it is probable that feudalism worked better on the whole in England than in any other part of Western Europe. The worst evils of French feudalism never appeared in this country, except during the short and disastrous reign of Stephen. The strong kings of the Norman and Plantagenet Houses held in check the turbulence of the barons; and private war was never allowed to become here, as it was on the Continent, a standing evil. To follow out this subject would lead us beyond the limits of this book, but it is interesting to remember that not only the picturesque ruins of our castles, but also the neglected green hillocks of which we have treated in this work, while they point to the skilful machinery by which the Norman Conquest was riveted on the land, bear witness also to something still more important. They tell of a period of discipline and education through which the English people passed, when in spite of much oppression and sometimes even cruelty, seeds of many noble and useful things were sown, from which succeeding generations have garnered the enduring fruit.

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[APPENDICES]

[APPENDIX A]
PRIMITIVE FOLK-MOOTS

The popular meetings of the Anglo-Saxons, those of the hundred and the shire, were held in the open air. Since many of those who attended them had to travel far, some sign was necessary to mark out the place of meeting, and some striking feature, such as a hillock, or a particular tree, or an ancient barrow, was chosen. Thus we have the Shire Oak, near Leeds, which gives its name to the wapentake of Skyrack; and in a charter of Edgar we find the mot-beorh mentioned, and translated Congressionis Collem = the meeting barrow. (M. A., ii., 324.) It does not appear that a hillock was an essential feature of these meeting-places, though this is popularly supposed to be the case, because the “Thing-wall” in Iceland and the “Tynwald” in the Isle of Man have hillocks from which laws were proclaimed. The Thingwall, or field of meeting in Iceland had a natural rock just above it, isolated by a stream, and though proclamations were made from this rock, deliberations took place on the level. (Gomme’s Primitive Folk-Moots, 31.)

The Tynwald Hill, in the Isle of Man, which is also still used for the proclamation of new laws, was probably an ancient barrow, as there are other barrows in the immediate neighbourhood. (Kermode and Herdman, Illustrated Notes on Manx Antiquities, pp. 23 and 61.) At Thingwall, near Liverpool, and Thingwall in Wirral, both probably Norse settlements, there is no hillock.

In Scotland, the use of a former motte as a meeting-place for the baronial court appears to have been much more common than in England. Mr George Neilson’s explanation of this fact is referred to in Chapter X., [p. 307].

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[APPENDIX B]
WATLING STREET AND THE DANELAGH

It has been pointed out by Schmid (Gesetze der Angelsachsen, xxxviii.) that the document called Alfred and Guthrum’s Peace cannot belong to the year of Guthrum’s baptism at Wedmore; and Mr J. R. Green (Conquest of England, p. 151) goes further, and doubts whether the boundaries laid down in this deed refer to anything except to the East Anglian kingdom of Guthrum. But Mr Green gives no adequate reason for rejecting the generally accepted conclusion that the Watling Street was the boundary between English and Danish Mercia, which is borne out by the following facts: (1) the Danish confederacy of the five boroughs, Lincoln, Stamford, Leicester, Nottingham, and Derby, pretty well covers the part of Mercia north of Watling Street, especially when Chester is added, as it sometimes is, to the list; (2) the division into wapentakes instead of hundreds, now believed to be of Danish origin, is found in Lincolnshire, Notts, Derbyshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire. Staffordshire, it is true, is not divided into wapentakes, but it was apparently won by conquest when Ethelfleda fortified the town. Chester was occupied by her husband in 908. Watling Street furnishes such a well-defined line that it was natural to fix upon it as a frontier.

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[APPENDIX C]
THE MILITARY ORIGIN OF ALFRED’S BOROUGHS

Keutgen (Untersuchungen über den Ursprung der Deutschen Stadtverfassung, 1895) appears to have been the first to notice the military origin of the Old Saxon boroughs; and Professor Maitland saw the applicability of the theory to the boroughs of Alfred and Edward the Elder. (Domesday Book and Beyond.) The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 894, speaks of “the men whose duty it was to defend the towns”; this proves that Alfred had made some special arrangement for the defence of the towns; and this arrangement must have been something quite apart from the ordinary service of the fyrd or militia, which was only due for a short time. It must have been something permanent, with an adequate economic basis, such as we have in Henry the Fowler’s plan.

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[APPENDIX D]
THE WORDS “CASTRUM” AND “CASTELLUM”

If we take the chroniclers of the reign of Charlemagne and his successors in the 9th century, we find the word castrum constantly used for places such as Avignon, Dijon, Macon, Rheims, Chalons, Cologne, Andernach, Bonn, Coblenz, etc., all of which are known to have been Roman castra, when there can be no doubt that the city is meant. Take, for instance, the Annales Mettenses (Pertz, i., 326), 737: Karl Martel hears that the Saracens have taken “castrum munitissimum Avinionem” (Avignon); he marches against them, and “predictam urbem obsidione circumdat.” But these cities are not only called castra, they are also called castella. Thus the chronicle ascribed to Hincmar calls Macon both castrum and castellum in the same breath. (Migne, 125, 1298.) The fortifications built by Charlemagne against the Saxons are called castra, castella, and civitates. (Chron. Moissiacense, Pertz, i., 308. Ann. Einhardi, ibid., 196, 204.) The camps of the Northmen, which as we have seen, were of great size, are also called not only castra, but civitates, castella, munitiones, oppida. (Annales Fuldenses, Pertz, i., 397.) The camp built by Charles the Bald at Pistes in 868 is called a castellum, though it was evidently an enclosure of great size, as he measured out quarters in it for his nobles, and formed an elaborate scheme for its maintenance. (Hincmar, Migne, 125, 1242, 1244.) Coming to the 10th century, the following passage from Flodoard will show the vagueness of the words in common use for fortifications: “Heribertus Ansellum Bosonis subditum, qui prædictum custodiebat castrum (Vitry), cum ipso castello recipit, et Codiacum S. Remigii municipium illi cum alia terra concedit. Nec longum, Bosonis fideles oppidanorum proditione Victoriacum (Vitry) recipiunt, et Mosonum fraude pervadunt. At Heribertus, a quibusdam Mosomensibus evocatus, supervenit insperatus, et entrans oppidum, porta latenter a civibus aperta, milites Bosonis, qui ad custodiam loci residebant, ibidem omnes capit.” (Migne, 135, 297.) Here it is clear that castrum, castellum, municipium, and oppidum all mean the same thing, and the one word civibus betrays that it is a city which is meant. Undoubtedly the chronicler thinks it elegant to change his words as often as he can. Munitio is another word frequently used; in classical Latin it means a bulwark, a wall or bank; in the chroniclers of the 10th century it is used indifferently for a town or castle, though certain passages, such as “subversis multarum munitionibus urbium” (Flodoard, i., vi.), show that the right sense is not far from the mind of the writer. The numerous passages in which we are told of monasteries being enclosed with walls and converted into castella, show that the enclosure is the chief idea which the chroniclers associate with this word. The citations made above are not exceptional, but typical, and could be paralleled by countless others.

Since the above was written, I have read Keutgen’s Untersuchungen über den Ursprung der Deutschen Stadtverfassung. He remarks that the Latin words for a town (in the 10th and 11th century writers) are urbs, castellum, civitas, sometimes arx; for a village, villa, oppidum, vicus. This absolutely agrees with what I have observed in these writers, except that I have certainly found oppidum used for a town, as in the passage from Flodoard cited above.

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[APPENDIX E]
THE BURGHAL HIDAGE

The Burghal Hidage has been printed by Birch, Cartularium, iii., 671. The manuscript is very corrupt, and several of the places cannot be identified. Those which can be identified are: Hastings, Lewes, Burpham (near Arundel), Chichester, Porchester, Southampton, Winchester, Wilton, Tisbury, Shaftesbury, Twineham, Wareham, Bridport, Exeter, Halwell, Lidford, Pilton, Barnstaple, Watchet, Axbridge, Lyng (near Athelney), Langport, Bath, Malmesbury, Cricklade, Oxford, Wallingford, Buckingham, Eashing (near Guildford), and Southwark. The list thus seems to give an outline of Alfred’s kingdom as it was at his death, or at the beginning of the reign of his son. Dr Liebermann refers it to the latter date. (Leges Anglorum, 9.)

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[APPENDIX F]
THELWALL

A writer in the Manchester Guardian a few years ago suggested a new solution of the name Thelwall. He believes that the Thelwall raised by Edward was a boundary wall of timber, stretching from Thelwall to Runcorn. The Mersey, he argues, above Thelwall formerly broadened out into a series of swamps which would effectually defend the frontier towards the east. But westward from Thelwall there were no such obstacles, and it is assumed that Edward made a timber wall from Thelwall to Ethelfleda’s fortress at Runcorn. Some support to this hypothesis is given in the names of places between Thelwall and Runcorn: Stockton, Walton (twice), Stockham, Walford, Wallmore, and Wall-hes. Further, when the bed of the Mersey was delved for the Ship Canal, discovery was made of “a remarkable series of submerged piles, 9 feet long, arranged in two parallel ranks which were 30 feet apart. The intervals between the piles varied, but seem to have averaged 5 to 6 feet. Between the ranks were diagonal rows of upright stakes, each stake about 5 feet long, extending from either rank chevron-wise to the middle and there overlapping, so that the ground-plan of them makes a kind of herring-bone pattern. By this plan, anyone passing through would have to make a zigzag course. In some places sticks and sedges were found interwoven horizontally with the stakes, a condition of things which probably obtained throughout the whole series. The tops of the tallest piles were 10 feet below the present surface of the ground, which fact goes far toward precluding the possibility that this elaborate work may have been a fish-weir. The disposition of the stakes points to a military origin. So arranged, the advantage they offered to defending forces was enormous.” I think it worth while to reproduce this account, especially because of the place-names, but those who are learned in the construction of fish-weirs may perhaps think that the description will apply to a work of that kind.

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[APPENDIX G]
THE WORD “BRETASCHE”

This word, which also appears as bretagium, britagium, or bristega, evidently means a tower, as is clear from the following passages: Order from King John to erect a mota et bretagium at Roscrea, in Ireland (Sweetman’s Calendar, i., 412); Order by Henry III. to the dwellers in the Valley of Montgomery “quod sine dilatione motas suas bonis bretaschiis firmari faciant” (Close Rolls, ii., 42); Order that the timber and bretasche of Nafferton Castle be carried to Newcastle, and the bretasche to be placed at the gate of the drawbridge in place of the little tower which fell through defect in its foundations (Close Rolls, i., 549b).

The word is also expressly defined by William the Breton as a wooden castle: “Circuibat castrum ex omni parte, et fabricavit brestachias duplices per septem loca, castella videlicet lignea munitissima.” (Bouquet, xvii., 78.)

See also Wright, “Illustrations of Domestic Architecture,” Arch. Journ., i., 212 and 301. In these papers it is clear that “breteske” means a tower, as there are several pictures of it. At a later period it seems to have been used for a wooden balcony made for the purpose of shooting, in the same sense as the word “hurdicium”; but I have not met with any instance of this before the 14th century.

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[APPENDIX H]
THE WORDS “HURDICIUM” AND “HORDIARI”

These words refer to the wooden galleries carried round the tops of walls, to enable the defenders to throw down big stones or other missiles on those who were attempting to attack the foot of the walls. “Hurdicia quæ muros tutos reddebant.” (Philippidos, vii., 201; Bouquet, xvii.) The word “alures” is sometimes used in the same sense. See a mandamus of Henry III., cited by Turner, History of Domestic Architecture, i., 198: “To make on the same tower [of London] on the south side, at the top, deep alures of good and strong timber, entirely and well covered with lead, through which people can look even to the foot of the tower, and better defend it, if need may be.” The alures of the castle of Norwich are spoken of as early as 1187, but this mention, and one of the alures round the castle of Winchester in 1193, are the only ones I find in the 12th century in England.

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[APPENDIX I]
“HERICIO, ERICIO, HERITO, HERISSON”

This is derived from the French word hérisson, a hedgehog, and should mean something bristling, perhaps with thorns or osiers. Several passages show that it was a defence on the counterscarp of the ditch, and it may sometimes have been a hedge. Cohausen, Befestigungen der Vorzeit, shows that hedges were frequently used in early fortifications (pp. 8-13). The following passages seem to show clearly that it was on the counterscarp of the ditch: “[Montreuil] il a bien clos, esforce e ferme de pel e hericon.” (Wace, 107.) “Reparato exterioris Ardensis munitionis valli fossato et amplificato, et sepibus et ericiis consepto et constipato.” (Lambert of Ardres, 623, circa 1117.) The French poem of Jordan Fantosme, describing the siege of Wark by the Scots in 1174, says the Scots attacked and carried the hericon, and got into the ditch, but they could not take the bayle, i.e., they could not get over the palicium.

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[APPENDIX K]
THE CASTLE OF YALE

In the year 1693, the antiquary Edward Llwyd was sitting on the motte of Tomen y Rhoddwy engaged in making a very bad plan of the castle [published in Arch. Camb., N.S., ii., 57]. His guide told him that he had heard his grandfather say that two earls used to live there. Llwyd called the guide an ignorant fellow. Modern traditions are generally the work of some antiquary who has succeeded in planting his theories locally; but here we have a tradition of much earlier date than the time when antiquaries began to sow tares, and such traditions have usually a shred of truth in them. Is it possible that this castle of Tomen y Rhoddwy and the neighbouring one of Llanarmon were built by the earls of Chester and Shrewsbury, who certainly went on expeditions together against Wales, and appear to have divided their conquests? It is to be noted that the township is called Bodigre yr Yarll, the township of the earls.

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[APPENDIX L]
THE CASTLE OF TULLOW OR “COLLACHT,” [p. 335]

This information is kindly supplied by Mr Goddard H. Orpen, who writes to me: “I visited Tullow lately, and asked myself where would a Norman erect a mote, and I had no difficulty in answering: on the high ground near where the Protestant church stands. When I got up there the first thing that I noticed was that the church stood on a platform of earth 10 to 14 feet higher than the road, and that this platform was held in position by a strong retaining wall, well battered towards the bottom on one side. I then found on enquiry that the hill on which it stood and the place to the N.W. of it was called the ‘Castle Hill.’ On going round to the N.W. of the church I found a horseshoe-shaped space, scarped all round to a height of 6 to 10 feet, and rising to about 16 feet above the adjoining fields. There is no doubt that this was the site of the castle, and that it was artificially raised. To my mind there was further little doubt that it represented an earlier mote. In a field adjoining on the W. I could detect a platform of about 50 to 70 paces, with traces of a fosse round the three outer sides.... This was certainly the Castellum de Tulach mentioned in the deeds concerning Raymond le Gros’ grant to the Abbey of St Thomas.—Dublin Reg. St Thomas, pp. 111, 113.”

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[APPENDIX M]
THE CASTLE OF SLANE

Mr Westropp says that the “great earthworks and fosses” on the Hill of Slane are mentioned in the “Life of St Patrick” (Journ. R. S. A. I., 1904, p. 313). What the Life really says is: “They came to Ferta Fer Fiecc,” which is translated “the graves of Fiacc’s men”; and the notes of Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni add, “which, as fables say, were dug by the slaves of Feccol Ferchertni, one of the nine Wizards” (Tripartite Life, p. 278). It does not mention any fort, or even a hill, and though Ferta Fer Fiecc is identified with Slane, there is nothing to show what part of Slane it was.

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[APPENDIX N]
THE WORD “DONJON”

Professor Skeat and The New English Dictionary derive this word from the Low Latin, dominionem, acc. of dominio, lordship. Leland frequently speaks of the keep as the dungeon, which of course is the same word. Its modern use for a subterranean prison seems to have arisen when the keeps were abandoned for more spacious and comfortable habitations by the noble owners, and were chiefly used as prisons. The word dunio, which, as we have seen, Lambert of Ardres used for a motte, probably comes from a different root, cognate with the Anglo-Saxon dun, a hill, and used in Flanders for the numerous sandhills of that coast.

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[APPENDIX O]
THE ARRANGEMENTS IN EARLY KEEPS

We get a glimpse of these in a story given in the “Gesta Ambasiensium Dominorum,” D’Archery, Spicilegium, 278. Sulpicius the Treasurer of the Abbey of St Martin at Tours, an important personage, built a stone keep at Amboise in 1015 (Chron. Turonense Magnum), in place of the “wooden house” which his brother had held. In the time of Fulk Rechin (1066-1106), this keep was in the hands of the adherents of the counts of Blois. Hugh, son of Sulpicius, with two other men, hid themselves by night in the basement, which was used as a storehouse; it must therefore have had an entrance from outside. With the help of ropes, they climbed up a sewer into the bedchamber, which was above the cellar, and evidently had no stair communicating with the cellar. Here they found the lady of the house and two maids sleeping, and a watchman who was also asleep. While one of the men held these in terror with a drawn sword, the other two climbed up a ladder and through a trap-door up to the roof of the tower, where they unfurled the banner of Hugh. Here we see a very simple keep, which has only one storey above the basement; this may have been divided into two or more apartments, but it was thought a fitting residence for a lady of rank. It had no stairs, but all the communications were by trap-doors and ladders. We may be quite sure that the people of rank of the 11th and 12th centuries were content with much rougher accommodation than Mr Clark imagined. Even Richard I.’s much admired keep of Chateau Gaillard appears to have had no communication but ladders between the floors.

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[APPENDIX P]
KEEPS AS RESIDENCES

The description of a keep which we have already given from Lambert of Ardres (Chap. VI.) is sufficient to prove that even wooden keeps in the 12th century were used as permanent residences, and this is confirmed by many scattered notices in the various chronicles of France and England. It was not till late in the 13th century that the desire for more comfortable rooms led to the building of chambers in the courtyard.

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[APPENDIX Q]
CASTLES BUILT BY HENRY I.

The castles, which according to Robert de Monte, Henry I. built altogether [ex integro] were Drincourt, Chateauneuf-sur-Epte, Verneuil, Nonancourt, Bonmoulins, Colmemont, Pontorson, St Denis-en-Lyons, and Vaudreuil. Many of these may have been wooden castles; Chateauneuf-sur-Epte almost certainly was; it has now a round donjon on a motte. The “Tour Grise” at Verneuil is certainly not the work of Henry I., but belongs to the 13th century.

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[APPENDIX R]
THE SO-CALLED SHELL KEEP

We have three accounts of motte-castles from the 12th century: that of Alexander Neckham, in the treatise De Utensilibus; that of Laurence of Durham, cited in Chapter VII., [p. 147]; and the well-known description of the castle of Marchem, also cited in Chapter VI., [p. 88]. All these three describe the top of the motte as surrounded by a wall (of course of wood), within which is built a wooden tower. The account of Marchem says that it was built in the middle of the area. This supports the conjecture in the text. Mr H. E. Malden has shown (Surrey Archæolog. Collections, xvi., 28) that the keep of Guildford is of later date than the stone wall round the top of the motte. Remove this tower, and there would be what is commonly called a shell keep. It would appear, therefore, that it was a common practice to change the bank or stockade round the top of the motte into a stone wall (no doubt as a defence against fire), leaving the keep inside still of wood. Four of the pictures from the Bayeux Tapestry (see [Frontispiece]) all give the idea of a wooden tower inside a stockade on a motte.

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[APPENDIX S]
PROFESSOR LLOYD’S “HISTORY OF WALES”

I regret that this valuable work did not appear until too late for me to make use of it in my chapter on Welsh Castles. It is worth while to note the following points in which Professor Lloyd’s conclusions differ from or confirm those which I have been led to adopt.

Aberystwyth and Aberrheiddiol.—“After the destruction of the last Aberystwyth Castle of the older situation in 1143, the chief stronghold of the district was moved to the mouth of the Rheiddiol, a position which it ever afterwards retained, though people still insisted on calling it Aberystwyth” (514). “The original castle of Aberystwyth crowned the slight eminence at the back of the farm of Tan y Castell, which lies in the Ystwyth valley 1½ miles S. of the town. There is the further evidence of the name, and the earthworks still visible on the summit” (426, note).

Carreghova.—I ought perhaps to have included this castle in my list, though on the actual map its site is within the English border; but as there are absolutely no remains of it [D. H. M.] it does not affect the question I am discussing.

Cardigan and Cilgerran.—“Dingeraint cannot be Cilgerran, because Cilgerran is derived from Cerran, with the feminine inflection, not from Geraint; nor is Cilgerran ‘close to the fall of the Teifi into the sea,’ as the chronicler says Dingeraint was. The castle built by Earl Roger was probably Cardigan” (401). Professor Lloyd afterwards identifies Cilgerran with the castle of Emlyn (661). This seems to me questionable, as the “New Castle of Emlyn,” first mentioned in Edward I.’s reign, presupposes an older castle, and as I have stated, a mound answering to the older castle still exists not far from the stone castle.

Carmarthen.—Professor Lloyd thinks this castle stood at the present farm of Rhyd y Gors, about a mile below the town; but I see no reason to alter the conclusion to which I was led by Mr Floyd’s paper, that the Rhyd y Gors of the castle was a ford at Carmarthen itself. The fact that Henry I. founded a cell to Battle Abbey at Carmarthen (431) seems to me an additional piece of evidence that the castle was there; castle and abbey nearly always went together.

Dinweiler.—Professor Lloyd assumes Dinweiler to be the same as the castle in Mabudryd built by Earl Gilbert, and to be situated at or near Pencader (501). It should be noted, however, that Dinweiler reads Dinefor in MS. B. of the Brut, in 1158. I am in error in supposing St Clair to be the castle of Mabudryd (following a writer in Archæologia Cambrensis), as St Clair is not in that commote. Professor Lloyd’s map of the cantrefs and commotes differs widely from that of previous writers.

Llangadoc.—“Luchewein” should not be identified with this castle; Professor Lloyd thinks it may refer to a castle at Llwch Owain, a lake in the parish of Llanarthney, where there is an entrenchment known as Castell y Garreg.

Maud’s Castle.—Camden identified “Matildis castrum” with Colewent or Colwyn, but Professor Lloyd is of opinion that “a careful collation of the English and Welsh authorities for the events of the years 1198 and 1231 will make it clear that Payne’s Castle and Maud’s Castle are the same.” This of course does not affect what is said about Colwyn Castle in the text.

Montgomery.—Professor Lloyd deems that the emphasis laid (especially in the Charter Rolls, i., 101) on the fact that the building of Henry III.’s reign was New Montgomery, leaves no doubt that the former town and castle stood elsewhere, probably at Hên Domen. This, if true, would greatly strengthen my case, as Hên Domen is an admirable motte and bailey.

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[SCHEDULE OF ENGLISH CASTLES KNOWN TO DATE FROM THE ELEVENTH CENTURY][1207]