It is not, however, in England that the best examples of these Early English or Transition keeps are to be found. In rectangular and shell keeps England has some fine remains, but in France Philip Augustus carried the new style of building much further, and even now there remain keep towers of that time which have defied time and the madness of the Revolution, and still remain tolerably perfect. The greatest triumph of the period, in this case early in the thirteenth century, is the tower of Coucy, probably the finest military tower in Europe. It is the keep of a castle which is itself the citadel of a town, also strongly fortified. This wonderful work, a cylinder of fine masonry about 98 feet in diameter, and rising clear and unbroken to 180 feet, was the work of Engerrand III., Sieur de Coucy, and the most powerful Baron of his age. The walls are of great thickness, and the basement and upper floors, three in number, were vaulted, each in twelve deep and pointed cells. A fosse, paved and walled, 20 feet broad and 12 feet deep, the counterscarp of which is raised as the wall of a chemise, surrounds the base, and protects it from the operations of the miner. A drawbridge, crossing this fosse, leads to the first floor of the tower by its only entrance, which is protected by a portcullis, an interior meurtrière, and a stout door. From the entrance passage a staircase ascends in the wall, at first direct, and afterwards as a turnpike, and supplies each floor, reaching finally the ramparts. The basement was the store, and above are state and other chambers. The well, of large size, is in the basement, and each floor has its fireplace and garderobe. The roof was conical, and rested upon an internal wall, outside of which was the rampart walk, protected by an unusually lofty parapet, surmounted by a heavy bold coping, and pierced by twenty-four doorways, intended to open into the timber brétasche, while between the doorways are twenty-four loops, intended to be used when the brétasche was not fixed. A curious evidence remains of the manner in which this tower was scaffolded. A double row of putlog holes are seen to wind round the tower spirally, in two parallel lines, showing that as the wall rose it was surrounded by a sloping roadway of timber, of which the main beams were thrust into the wall, and supported by struts, the lower ends of which rested upon blocks in the lower holes. A similar arrangement may be seen in the north-west tower of Harlech Castle, commencing at the top of the curtain-wall. So strong was Coucy keep that when, at the command of Mazarin, powder was exploded in its basement-chamber, and the vaultings throughout, thus lifted, fell, the cylinder, though cracked, was not thrown down. This noble example of a thirteenth-century tower has been successfully repaired by Viollet-le-Duc, who closed the fissure, and made the tower apparently as sound as ever. The vaulting, however, is gone.
Nor does Coucy, though the chief of the towers of the thirteenth century, stand alone in its magnificence. Issoudun, known as La Blanche Tour, is remarkable for the position of its entrance-door, and for its well-stair contained in the projecting spur; Tournebut, Cosson, Verneuil, Chinon, Villeneuve-le-Roi, Semur, Alluye, Bourbon-l’Archambault, and Châteaudun, are a few only of the round towers or donjons scattered over France, and dating from the latter half of the twelfth and from the thirteenth century.
There is a peculiarity in these French towers unknown in England. Where, as at Château-Gaillard, they are exposed on one side to be battered, they are constructed with a projection forming a right-angled salient from the cylinder, which thus becomes keel or boat-shaped in plain. This spur has a fine effect, and being usually solid, adds much to the strength of the tower. This projection, of which Roche-Guyon is a fine example, and which ascends the whole height of the tower, is very different from the spur-buttress, by which a round tower rises from a square base. This is especially common in Wales, and may be seen producing a good effect both at Chepstow and Goderich.
Of cylindrical keeps, either of early English or late Norman date, in England, may be mentioned Brunless, near Brecon; probably Caldecot, Monmouthshire; Coningsborough, described above; Dolbadarn, in North Wales; Launceston; Pembroke; Penrice, Glamorganshire; Skenfrith, Monmouthshire; and Tretower, county Brecon. The round tower at Barnard Castle, a very fine one, already mentioned, is later.
The reign of Henry III., 1216–1272, was long, and that prince was a munificent patron of art, and especially of architecture; nevertheless, and notwithstanding the internal dissensions of the period, the reign produced (excepting perhaps in South Wales) but few original castles, and those not remarkable for grandeur. The cause of this was that the country was already rather over-furnished with castles, so active had the Norman lords been during a century and a-half, and the positions of the existing castles being well chosen, and their keeps of a substantial character, it was found better to add to them, when space was needed, rather than construct new ones in new positions. The itinerary of John shows that almost all the great castles of the country were even then built, and the use to which they were so frequently put may well have made the successors of that sovereign anxious rather to destroy than to build. Thus Bedford, a very early and very strong castle, was held by Fulke de Bréauté against the king in person, and was only taken by assault after a vigorous siege of two months, after which it was not only dismantled, but destroyed, its ditches filled up, and the materials of its walls and towers used for other constructions. Sometimes, however, where it was desirable, as in London or at Porchester, or Winchester, or Richmond, to retain the existing castle, either enceinte walls or more extended outworks were added, affording more accommodation for troops or for live stock for the garrison. Palisades gave place to walls, and mural towers and gatehouses, of large size and great strength, were added. Sometimes, as at the Tower of London, an outer ward, encircling the older building, was added; in other cases, as at Corfe, Chepstow, and Barnard Castle, the new ward was applied on one side, or at one end. In these augmented castles the keep was still treated as an interior citadel, a last resource or refuge, and was protected by one or two lines of wall, with mural towers, usually round or half round, and by gatehouses, composed of two round towers with the entrance between them, the new area within being proportioned to the importance of the place.
These composite structures are the earliest to which the term concentric is properly applicable. Where the keep is central, and the enceinte double, as at the Tower and Dover, the result is a very perfect example of the concentric type of castle, though of course the parts are of different dates. Of Kenilworth, and probably of Bridgnorth, the original arrangement was concentric, although the central part is a ward or walled enclosure, not a single isolated keep tower, which in these is worked into the line of the inner ward wall. As the outline of most castles was materially affected by the disposition of the ground, it is obvious that no classification as regards chronology can be based altogether upon the ground plan. At Alnwick, for example, the outline of which is probably Norman, and to some extent governed by the ground, the keep stands between two wards, and is the connecting part between them, and so at Chepstow and at Pickering; while at Richmond, also Norman, the arrangement is wholly different, as it is at Porchester, where Roman walls have been turned to account.
South Wales contains some castles which appear to have been altogether built, though possibly on old sites, in the reign of Henry III., as Cilgerran, Manorbeer, Grosmont, and Whitecastle. These, especially Whitecastle, are mere enclosures of irregular plan, within a strong curtain wall, supported by mural towers almost always round, and entered between two such towers as a gatehouse. The domestic buildings or lodgings, as the hall, sleeping-rooms, kitchen, offices, and stables, which in a regular English castle were of masonry, in these Border structures, such as Whitchurch, were partly of timber, with flat or moderately-sloping roofs, built against the walls of the area.
In the royal castles, and others the “capita” of estates and seats of the greater barons, great attention was paid to domestic comfort and splendour. The records of the reign contain many sheriffs’ accounts for additions or repairs for domestic buildings within the castles, for painting the walls in fresco, or filling the windows with stained glass, all showing a vast growth in taste and luxury. More attention, indeed, was paid to these matters than to the military defences, for the pure castles in time of peace were allowed to fall into disrepair, and scarcely any garrisons were kept up within them. When a rebellion broke out, and the castles of a district were threatened, the patent and close rolls are filled with orders to the sheriffs, constables, and castellans, to supply timber, nails, lead, cordage, barrels of arrow-heads and cross-bow bolts, calthrops, bow-staves, and now and then military engines, which were collected from all quarters. All, however, was done hastily, and any masonry work erected under such circumstances is generally found to be of inferior quality, and in marked contrast to the masonry of churches and ecclesiastical buildings of the same period.
In the reign of Henry also began to be constructed fortified dwelling-houses, embattled and usually moated, but not regular castles. The invasion of the prerogative, under Stephen, led to its enforcement with strictness in the subsequent reigns, but as there were few new castles, it was chiefly in favour of fortified houses that the licentia kernellare was applied for and granted. The earliest extant licence of this character dates from this reign, and about a score altogether appear to have been issued by Henry. Of these, six only were applied for by considerable barons, and in only two cases for castles of consequence, namely, Dudley and Belvoir.