In a fortified town the castle was the lodging of the leader and his soldiers. It was connected with the ramparts of the place, and had one or more special outlets; it was further provided with defences on the side of the town itself, so that upon occasion it became an isolated stronghold.
The Castle of Carcassonne is a famous example of such offensive and defensive fortification. It was built in the first years of the twelfth century, and is composed of various lodgings for the chief and his garrison, defended east and north, on the side towards the city, by towers and curtains (Fig. 175). At the south-west angle independent reducts and towers guard the courtyards and approaches. The west front overlooks the open country, and here was placed the gate, which was defended by a series of formidable devices so ingenious as to preclude all possibility of surprise.
176. LOCHES CASTLE. KEEP
During the Romanesque and Gothic periods the castle was a miniature town, with its own fortified enceinte, composed of walls reinforced by towers which served as refuges at various points of the circumference, and formed so many reducts for the arrest of assailants.
The keep was the citadel of this miniature town, the temporary lodging of the lord whose vassals lived in the internal offices, and whose soldiers occupied the gate-house buildings and the towers of the ramparts. The noble sought to give his special habitation the most formidable aspect possible, and thereby to strike terror to the beholder, a very necessary device in those days of conflict when the friend of night was often the implacable foe of morning. "In times of peace the keep was the receptacle for the treasure, arms, and archives of the family; but the lord did not lodge there; he only took up his quarters in the keep with his wife and children in time of war. As it was not possible for him to defend the place alone, he surrounded himself with a band of the most devoted of his followers who shared his dwelling. From thence he exercised a scrupulous surveillance over the garrison and its approaches, for the keep was always placed at the most vulnerable point of the fortress, and he and his bodyguard held the horde of vassals and retainers in due subservience; as they were able to pass in and out at all hours by secret and well-guarded passages, the garrison was kept in ignorance of the exact means of defence, the lord, as was natural, doing all in his power to make them appear formidable."[66]
[66] Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire, vol. v.
Castles and keeps of stone were generally built upon the natural scarp of some spur commanding two valleys and near the banks of a river; the primitive mounds of the feudal fortresses were abandoned; as we have already remarked, these were in many cases artificial, and would have been quite inadequate to the support of the huge masses of masonry of the new architecture.