At the same time, there are many substantial remains of stone buildings in castles earlier than this era. Stone donjons or keeps were certainly exceptional in England before the reign of Henry II., although there are a few important examples of an earlier date. It cannot be disputed, however, that a certain number of castles were provided with a stone curtain-wall[106] and other stone buildings not long after the Conquest. Curtain-walls thus built would follow the line of the earthen bank surrounding the bailey, and take the place of the timber stockade. They were at first of the simplest form. An edict of the council of Lillebonne in 1080 laid down the rule, so far as the Norman duchy was concerned, for constructing the defences of private castles; and, although the details refer primarily to the ordinary timber structure, they also have a bearing on the construction of early curtains of stone. No ditch was to be deeper than the level from which earth could be thrown by the digger, without other help, to the soil above. The stockade was to follow a course of straight lines, and to be without propugnacula and alatoria—i.e., projecting towers and battlements, and rampart-walks or galleries.[107]
The earliest type of curtain-wall would be strictly in accordance with these rules—a strong wall of stone surrounding the bailey, and climbing the sides of the mount to join the defences of the donjon. We read of the destruction by Louis VI. of France of the stone fortification with which the house of the lord of Maule was surrounded;[108] and the edict already quoted applies to fortifications on level ground, and includes, not merely castles, but strong private houses, which might not necessarily follow the castle plan. The edict, however, proceeds to forbid altogether the construction by private persons of castles on rocks or islands. The reason of this is obvious. Such isolated strongholds might become, in the hands of private owners, a centre of rebellion against the suzerain. In 1083, Hubert of Maine held out successfully against the Conqueror in his rock castle of Ste-Suzanne (Mayenne) on the Erve, “inaccessible by reason of the rocks and the thickness of the surrounding vineyards.”[109] William II. in 1095 besieged Robert Mowbray in his castle on the well-nigh impregnable rock of Bamburgh, with considerably better fortune.[110] Such rocks formed, as it were, natural mounts which made the construction of the ordinary mount-and-bailey castle upon them unnecessary. The hardness of the soil, moreover, made the construction of earthworks difficult or impossible. The natural method of defence would be to raise a stone wall which enclosed the stronghold.
BAMBURGH CASTLE: great tower
BAMBURGH CASTLE
Richmond; great tower