Military Architecture in England During the Middle Ages

by A. Hamilton Thompson

Beaugency

Falaise

In France and Normandy, the rectangular donjon of stone began to supersede the wooden tower at an early date. At Langeais (Indre-et-Loire), Fulk the Black, count of Anjou, built a stone donjon as early as 992.[137] Three walls of this structure are left: it was oblong in form and was composed of a basement and upper floor. The masonry is largely faced with courses of small cubical stones, following the manner inherited by the Romanesque builders of France from their Roman predecessors: tiles are introduced in the arched heads of the windows in the upper stage, which are not mere loops, but have a considerable outward opening. This keep was obviously intended to be at once stronghold and dwelling-house. Such a building was a translation into stone of a wooden construction like the tower-house on the motte at Ardres. It is built on a promontory above a small stream, and is defended by a ditch on the landward side. Many of these stone towers remain in Normandy and the country round the Loire; and, as a rule, are earlier in date and larger in area than most of the similar buildings in England. The tower of Beaugency (Loiret) is an oblong on plan, measuring about 76 feet long by 66 feet broad ([116]): the present height is 115 feet. The date indicated by the masonry is about 1100.[138] The fabrics of the towers of Falaise (Calvados) and Domfront (Orne) may be attributed to Henry I. In or about 1119 he systematically garrisoned his fortresses at Rouen and other places, of which Falaise was one.[139] Domfront, from 1092 onwards, was his favourite castle.[140] Its strong position gave it an exceptional advantage as a base of operations; and in 1101, when Henry ceded his Norman possessions to his brother Robert, he kept Domfront for himself.[141] After the battle of Tinchebray (1106) Henry was lord of Normandy, and restored order in the duchy by razing the unlicensed strongholds built under Robert’s weak rule.[142] The tower of Domfront, however, and possibly that of Falaise, were not built until 1123.[143] At Domfront the castle is a large enclosure, occupying the highest point of a long hill which has a gradual eastward slope, but rises in an abrupt cliff from a narrow valley on the west, and descends steeply on the north and south. A deep ditch, through which the modern road from Caen to Angers has been carried, divided the castle from the town. The great tower lies to the east of the centre of the castle enclosure, so as to command the ditch and the town beyond. Only the north-west angle, with a portion of the adjacent walls, remains perfect. The height slightly exceeds 70 feet. The area of the whole structure is 85 feet by 70, not counting the buttresses and plinth. At Falaise ([117]) the great tower occupies nearly the whole of the summit of the isolated cliff on which it stands, the town occupying the hilly but lower ground on the north side. The length of the tower is a little less than that of Domfront, while the breadth is slightly greater. The height is about the same.

The tower of Domfront, like that of Beaugency, stood within a walled castle, where the capture of the bailey would have exposed the tower directly to the besiegers. It was therefore built with an exclusive view to strength, and its window openings, even upon the second floor above the basement, were small and narrow, those on the first floor being mere loops. On the other hand, the tower of Falaise stands high above the curtain-wall by which the ascent from the town was protected. Its outer face is of ashlar throughout, and the window openings of the two upper stages, far above the reach of stones and arrows, are double, divided by shafts with carved capitals. Both towers were separated into three parts by cross-walls; but the two upper stages at Falaise are now undivided, and at Domfront, above the basement, there remain only indications of such a division.

Returning to England, we may safely assert that, with very few exceptions, our rectangular towers belong to a period which bears, from the historical point of view, a close likeness to the period of Henry I.’s fortifications in Normandy. Henry II. pursued the same policy of destroying unlicensed castles and strengthening royal strongholds; and his building operations took the form of providing his castles with towers, such as already were a chief feature of the castles of Normandy and Maine, but were certainly very exceptional in England. The approximate date of several of these towers can be obtained from the entries in the Pipe Rolls for the reign of Henry II.[144]

Henry II., like the Conqueror, directed his attention to the defence of the main water-ways of his kingdom. The castles of the coast and of the Welsh and Scottish frontiers were also chief objects of his care. The Pipe Rolls of 1158-9 and 1160-1 contain accounts of large sums spent on the castle of Wark-on-Tweed, at the extreme north-west corner of the kingdom.[145] In 1158-9 occur charges for the tower of Gloucester,[146] at the head of the Severn estuary; and in the same and following years are many mentions of the castle and tower of the great littoral stronghold of Scarborough.[147] Berkhampstead, commanding the approach to London from the north-west, was an object of substantial expense in 1159-60 and 1161-2.[148] In 1160-1 £215. 18s. 5d. was spent in the fortification of the city of Chester:[149] work was also done at Oswestry,[150] and other accounts show that attention was paid to the victualling of castles on the Welsh border at Clun and Ruthin.[151] Accounts, beginning in 1164-5, refer to the strengthening of Shrewsbury castle.[152] Sums were spent on the tower of Bridgnorth, which commanded the defiles of the Severn between Shrewsbury and Worcester, in 1168-9 and following years;[153] and mentions of Hereford,[154] Shrawardine,[155] and Ellesmere,[156] testify to the care with which the western frontier of the kingdom was protected. Of the coast castles, apart from Scarborough, Dover has a constant place in these accounts. For example, in 1168-9, 40s. 6d. was paid for the hire of ships to bring lime from Gravesend to Dover, and £34. 5s. 4d. was spent on the work for which this was required.[157] Southampton castle was repaired in 1161-2,[158] and a well was made there in 1172-3.[159] The tower of Hastings was in progress in 1171-2.[160] In 1165-6 £256. 4s. 9d. was spent upon the castle of Orford, the great stronghold of the Suffolk coast, which was an object of large yearly expense down to 1171-2.[161] On the line of the upper Thames, continual sums were spent on the palace-castle of Windsor: the wall of the castle is referred to in 1171-2 and 1172-3.[162] Work was done at Oxford and a well made in 1172-3 and 1173-4.[163] Hertford castle was maintained to guard the Lea.[164] In addition to Dover, the castles of Rochester,[165] Chilham,[166] and Canterbury[167] protected the main routes to the narrowest part of the Channel. The chief fortress of the vale of Trent was at Nottingham, where large sums were spent in 1171-2 and 1172-3.[168] Of the inland castles of the north, the tower of Newcastle cost some £385 between 1171-2 and 1174-5[169] This forms a contrast to the small sum spent on the tower of York—£15. 7s. 3d.—in 1172-3:[170] it is clear, from the Pipe Rolls of later reigns, that this was merely a wooden structure.[171]

However, there are earlier instances of towers which are of first-class importance, and these must be briefly described before we dwell upon the characteristics of the donjons of the second half of the twelfth century. We have seen that William the Conqueror, immediately after his coronation, began the construction of certain strongholds in connection with the city of London.[172] His first work was probably to enclose within a palisade the undefended sides of the bailey, the east side of which was covered by a portion of the Roman city-wall. Before the end of his reign, the White tower had been begun as a principal feature of the castle, and was completed in the reign of William Rufus, who in 1097 built a wall about it.[173] This tower is therefore at least as early in date as most of the early square towers of Normandy and the adjacent provinces, and is considerably earlier than the towers of Falaise and Domfront. A tradition attributes the design to the direction of Gundulf, bishop of Rochester 1077-1108, who is also said to have been the builder of the donjon-like tower at Malling in Kent, originally attached to the church of St Leonard, and of the tower, the ruins of which remain, on the north side of the quire of Rochester cathedral.

The White tower is at present 90 feet in height, and is therefore much lower than the nearly contemporary tower of Beaugency. Its area, however, is far greater, covering an oblong of 118 feet from east to west by 107 feet from north to south. It is four stages in height, and was built of rubble masonry, ashlar work being confined entirely to the pilaster buttresses and windows, and the plinth. Modern repairs have made the original appearance of the tower hard to reconstruct. The entrance was upon the first floor, and was never covered by a fore-building: this entrance seems to have been in the western part of the south wall. A well-stair or vice, in a round turret at the north-east corner, was the chief means of communication between all the floors; but vices were also made from the second floor to the roof in the square turrets of the north-west and south-west angles. There is also a square turret above the place which would ordinarily be occupied by the south-east angle; but the south wall, throughout its height, is continued into an apsidal projection, which is curved round to meet the east wall. The two upper stages of this projection form the apse of St John’s chapel, with its encircling gallery. The faces of the tower and the apse are strengthened by flat buttresses at regular intervals, which are gathered in at a string on the level of the floor of the uppermost stage, and again at the level of the roof. There are no window openings in the basement, which was originally used for stores. The window openings of the first and second floors were originally narrow loops, with wide internal splays, but have been considerably enlarged, with some damage to the appearance of strength which the tower once possessed. The openings in the aisle of the chapel on the second floor, however, were wider than the rest. The third floor, being out of the range of ordinary missiles, had wide window openings: the two openings in the south wall of the larger room on this floor are double. The greatest thickness of the walls of the basement is 15 feet: the walls of the uppermost stage are from 10 to 11 feet thick.