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At Kidadl we pride ourselves on offering families original ideas to make the most of time spent together at home or out and about, wherever you are in the world. We strive to recommend the very best things that are suggested by our community and are things we would do ourselves - our aim is to be the trusted friend to parents. Colardelle, Michel and Chantal Mazard. (1982) "Les mottes castrales et l'évolution des pouvoirs dans le Alpes du Nord. Aux origines de la seigneurie," in Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. XI, pp. 69–89. (in French)
A child's imagination is boundless, and, given the right toys, kids can dream up all sorts of things. Architecture [ edit ] Structures [ edit ] Plan of Topcliffe Castle in North Yorkshire, an archetypal motte-and-bailey design Castle Pulverbatch in Shropshire in England was built in the 11th or 12th century and abandoned by 1202. This Digital elevation model shows the motte just left of centre, with the bailey to the right (north-east) of it. [2]By the 11th century, castles were built throughout the Holy Roman Empire, which then spanned central Europe. They now typically took the form of an enclosure on a hilltop, or, on lower ground, a tall, free-standing tower (German Bergfried). [57] The largest castles had well-defined inner and outer courts, but no mottes. [58] The motte-and-bailey design began to spread into Alsace and the northern Alps from France during the first half of the 11th century, spreading further into Bohemia and Austria in the subsequent years. [59] This form of castle was closely associated with the colonisation of newly cultivated areas within the Empire, as new lords were granted lands by the emperor and built castles close to the local gród, or town. [60] motte-and-bailey castle building substantially enhanced the prestige of local nobles, and it has been suggested that their early adoption was because they were a cheaper way of imitating the more prestigious Höhenburgen built on high ground, but this is usually regarded as unlikely. [61] In many cases, bergfrieds were converted into motte and bailey designs by burying existing castle towers within the mounds. [61] Reconstructed Bergfried at Lütjenburg, Germany Brown, R. Allen. (2004) Allen Brown's English Castles. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-069-6. Brown, R. Allen. (1989) Castles From the Air. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-32932-3. De Meulemeester, Johnny. (1982) "Mottes Castrales du Comté de Flandres: État de la question d'apr les fouilles récent," Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. XI, pp. 101–115. (in French)
Creighton, Oliver Hamilton. (2005) Castles and Landscapes: Power, Community and Fortification in Medieval England. London: Equinox. ISBN 978-1-904768-67-8. Lowry, Bernard. Discovering Fortifications: From the Tudors to the Cold War. Risborough, UK: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-7478-0651-6. Van Houts, Elisabeth M. C. (2000) The Normans in Europe. Manchester: Manchester University Press. ISBN 978-0-7190-4751-0. Historic England. "Castle Pulverbatch motte and bailey castle with outer bailey, 100m NNW of Brook Cottage (1012860)". National Heritage List for England . Retrieved 28 July 2017. An alternative approach focuses on the links between this form of castle and what can be termed a feudal mode of society. The spread of motte-and-bailey castles was usually closely tied to the creation of local fiefdoms and feudal landowners, and areas without this method of governance rarely built these castles. [49] Yet another theory suggests that the design emerged as a result of the pressures of space on ringworks and that the earliest motte-and-baileys were converted ringworks. [50] [nb 1] Finally, there may be a link between the local geography and the building of motte-and-bailey castles, which are usually built on low-lying areas, in many cases subject to regular flooding. [51] Regardless of the reasons behind the initial popularity of the motte-and-bailey design, however, there is widespread agreement that the castles were first widely adopted in Normandy and Angevin territory in the 10th and 11th centuries. [52] Initial development, 10th and 11th centuries [ edit ] Reconstructed wooden keep at Saint-Sylvain-d'Anjou, FranceChâtelain, André. (1983) Châteaux Forts et Féodalité en Ile de France, du XIème au XIIIème siècle. Nonette: Créer. ISBN 978-2-902894-16-1. (in French)
Various methods were used to build mottes. Where a natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand. [21] Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower: the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it; the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within the mound; the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath; or the tower could be built first, and the mound added later. [28] One contemporary account of these structures comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, describing the Calais region in northern France. De Colmieu described how the nobles would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig a ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside the enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defences. The entrance to the fortress is by means of a bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reaches to the top of the mound". [7] At Durham Castle, contemporaries described how the motte-and-bailey superstructure arose from the "tumulus of rising earth" with a keep rising "into thin air, strong within and without" with a "stalwart house...glittering with beauty in every part". [8] Motte [ edit ] The motte and bailey defences of Launceston Castle in England Creighton, Oliver Hamilton and Robert Higham. (2003) Medieval Castles. Princes Risborough, UK: Shire Publications. ISBN 978-0-7478-0546-5. Kidadl is independent and to make our service free to you the reader we are supported by advertising. DeVries, Kelly. (2003) Medieval Military Technology. Toronto, Canada: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-921149-74-3.
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Pettifer, Adrian. (2000) Welsh Castles: a Guide by Counties. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-0-85115-778-8. Bradbury, Jim. (2009) Stephen and Matilda: the Civil War of 1139–53. Stroud, UK: The History Press. ISBN 978-0-7509-3793-1.
In practice, there was a wide number of variations to this common design. [24] A castle could have more than one bailey: at Warkworth Castle an inner and an outer bailey was constructed, or alternatively, several baileys could flank the motte, as at Windsor Castle. [25] Some baileys had two mottes, such as those at Lincoln. [25] Some mottes could be square instead of round, such as at Cabal Tump (Herefordshire). [25] [26] Instead of single ditches, occasionally double-ditch defences were built, as seen at Berkhamsted. [25] Local geography and the intent of the builder produced many unique designs. [27] Construction and maintenance [ edit ] Building the motte of Hastings Castle in East Sussex, from the Bayeux Tapestry Purton, Peter. (2009) A History of the Early Medieval Siege, c.450-1200. Woodbridge, UK: Boydell Press. ISBN 978-1-84383-448-9. Mottes were made out of earth and flattened on top, and it can be very hard to determine whether a mound is artificial or natural without excavation. [9] Some were also built over older artificial structures, such as Bronze Age barrows. [10] The size of mottes varied considerably, with these mounds being 3 metres to 30 metres in height (10–100 feet), and from 30 to 90 metres (100 to 300ft) in diameter. [11] This minimum height of 3 metres (10 feet) for mottes is usually intended to exclude smaller mounds which often had non-military purposes. [12] In England and Wales, only 7% of mottes were taller than 10 metres (33 feet) high; 24% were between 10 and 5 metres (33 and 16ft), and 69% were less than 5 metres (16 feet) tall. [13] A motte was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing the mound itself. [14] Ekroll, Oystein. (1996) "Norwegian medieval castles: building on the edge of Europe," in Château Gaillard: études de castellologie médiévale. XVIII, pp. 65–73.Nicholson, Helen J. (2004) Medieval Warfare: theory and practice of war in Europe, 300–1500. Basingstoke, UK: Palgrave Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-76330-8. A motte-and-bailey castle was made up of two structures: a motte (a type of mound – often artificial – topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep); and at least one bailey (a fortified enclosure built next to the motte). The constructive elements themselves are ancient, but the term motte-and-bailey is a relatively modern one and is not medieval in origin. [3] The word motte is the French version of the Latin mota, and in France, the word motte, generally used for a clump of turf, came to refer to a turf bank, and by the 12th century was used to refer to the castle design itself. [4] The word "bailey" comes from the Norman-French baille, or basse-cour, referring to a low yard. [5] In medieval sources, the Latin term castellum was used to describe the bailey complex within these castles. [6] It appears the rest of the turrets also spin, although they don’t cause any other movement along the castle. In neighbouring Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles appeared somewhat later in the 12th and 13th centuries and in more limited numbers than elsewhere, due to the less feudal society. [80] Except for a handful of mote and bailey castles in Norway, built in the first half of the 11th century and including the royal residence in Oslo, the design did not play a role further north in Scandinavia. [81] Bonus storybook folds out with extra graphics for extended play; place within castle walls to transform rooms or outside as a standalone piece
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