The presence or absence of fireplaces and chimneys is not a test of date. Colchester is certainly an early keep,[1129]but it is well provided with fireplaces which appear to be original. These fireplaces have not proper chimneys, but only holes in the wall a little above the fireplace. But this rudimentary form of chimney is found as late as Henry II.’s keep at Orford, and there is said to be documentary mention of a proper chimney as early as 816 in the monastery of St Gall.[1130]The entire absence of fireplaces is no proof of early date, for in Henry II.’s keep at the Peak in Derbyshire, the walls of which are almost perfect (except for their ashlar coats) there are no fireplaces at all, nor are there any in the 13th-century keep of Pembroke. It is possible that in these cases a free standing fireplace in the middle of the room, with a chimney carried up to the roof, was used. Such a fireplace is described by the poet, Chrestien of Troyes, but no example is known to exist.[1131]
But apart from details, if we look at the general plan of these four early stone castles, we shall see that it is exactly similar. It is the keep-and-bailey plan, the plan which prevailed from the 10th to the 13th century, and was not even superseded by the introduction of the keepless castle in the latter century.[1132]The motte-and-bailey type was of course only another version of the keep-and-bailey. In this primitive type of castle the all-important thing was the keep or donjon.[1133]Besides the donjon there was little else but a rampart and ditch. “Until the middle of the 12th century, and in the simpler examples of the epochs which followed, the donjon may be said to constitute in itself the whole castle.”[1134]Piper states that up to the time of the Crusades German castles do not seem to have been furnished with mural towers.[1135]Köhler, whose work treats of French and English castles as well as German, says that mural towers did not become general till the second half of the 12th century.[1136]Nevertheless, as it is highly probable that the baileys of castles were defended at first with only wooden ramparts on earthen banks, even when the donjon was of stone, it is not unlikely that mural towers of wood may have existed at an earlier period than these writers suppose. It is, however, in favour of the general absence of mural towers that the wordturris, even in 12th-century records, invariably means thekeep, as though no other towers existed.[1137]
That the baileys of some of the most important castles in England had only these wooden and earthen defences, even as late as the 13th century, can be amplyproved from theClose Rolls.[1138]Colchester Castle had only a timber wall on the banks of its bailey as late as 1215, and in 1219 thispaliciumwas blown down and an order issued for its reconstruction.[1139]
The arrangements in the stone donjons were probably the same as those we have already described when writing of the wooden ones.[1140]The basement was the storehouse for provisions,[1141]the first floor was generally the guardhouse, the second the habitation, of the lord and lady. Where there were three or four storeys, the arrangements varied, and the finest rooms are often found on the third floor. An oratory was probably an invariable feature, though it cannot always be detected in ruined keeps. One of Mr Clark’s most pronounced mistakes was his idea that these keeps were merely towers of refuge used only in time of war.[1142]History abounds with evidence that they were the permanent residences of the nobles of the 11th and 12th centuries. The cooking, as a rule, was carried on in a separate building, of which there are remains in some places.[1143]
Occasionally we find a variant of the keep-and-bailey type, which we may call the gatehouse keep. The mostremarkable instance of this kind in England is Exeter, which appears never to have had any keep but the primitive gatehouse, undoubtedly the work of Baldwin de Moeles, the first builder of the castle. In Normandy, De Caumont gives several instances of gatehouse keeps. Plessis-Grimoult (which has been visited by the writer) has a fragment of a gatehouse tower, but has also a mural tower on the line of the walls; as the castle was ruined and abandoned in 1047, these remains must be of early date.[1144]The gatehouse keep is probably an economical device for combining a citadel with the defence of the weakest part of the castle.
We must pass on to the keeps of Henry I.[1145]There is only one in England which authentic history gives to his time, that of Rochester.[1146]But the chronicler Robert de Torigny[1147]has fortunately given us a list of the keeps and castles built by Henry in Normandy, and though many of these are now destroyed, and others in ruins, a certain number are left, which, taken along with Rochester, may give us an idea of the type of keep built in Henry I.’s time. The keeps attributed by Robert to Henry I. are Arques, Gisors, Falaise,Argentan, Exmes, Domfront, Ambrières, Vire, Waure, Vernon, Evreux, Alençon, St Jean, and Coutances. How many of these survive we cannot positively say;[1148]we can only speak of those we have seen (Falaise, Domfront, and Gisors),[1149]and of Arques, described by M. Deville in hisHistoire du Chateau d’Arques, by M. Viollet le Duc in his treatise on Donjons,[1150]and by Mr G. T. Clark.[1151]
Speaking under correction, as a prolonged study of the keeps in Normandy was impossible to the writer, we should say that there is no very striking difference to be observed between the keeps of Henry I. and those built by his father. The development of the forebuilding seems to be the most important change, if indeed we are justified in assuming that the 11th-century keeps never had it; its remains can be seen at Arques, Falaise,[1152]Domfront, and Rochester. At Arques and Falaise the doorway is on the second floor, which is an innovation, a new attempt to solve the difficulty of defending the entrance. The first floor at Arques couldonly be entered by a trap from the second floor; at Falaise there is a stone stair from one to the other. Rochester is entered from the first floor. The basement storeys of Arques, Falaise, and Domfront are quite unlit; at the Tower the basement has had a number of loopholes, and the angular heads of those which remain suggest that they are at least copied from original lights. The main floors in Henry I.’s keeps are always of wood, but this was not because vaulting was then unknown, because the crypt, sub-crypt, and chapel of the Tower are vaulted, not to speak of many early churches.[1153]The four keeps mentioned have all three storeys, thus not exceeding Colchester in height;[1154]the Tower has now four storeys, but a good authority has remarked that the fourth storey has not improbably been made by dividing the third.
No marked advance is observable in the masonry of these keeps. Arques is built ofpetit appareil; Falaise of small stones in herring-bone work; Domfront of very small stones rudely coursed; Rochester of Kentish rag mixed with flint rubble. Both Falaise and Domfront have plinths of superior masonry, but there is always the possibility that these plinths are later additions. The voussoirs of the arches at Falaise, Domfront, and Rochester are larger than the rag or tile voussoirs which are used at Colchester, the Tower, and Langeais. At Rochester and Arques provision is made for carrying the water-supply from the well in thebasement to the upper floors, a provision of which there is no trace in the older keeps.[1155]
As Robert de Monte says that Henry I. built many castles in England as well as in Normandy, we naturally ask what other English keeps besides Rochester may be assigned to him. It appears to the writer that Corfe and Norwich keeps may very likely be his. Both were royal castles in his time, and both were originally wooden castles on mottes.[1156]Both these castles have forebuildings, and neither of them have floors supported on vaults.[1157]Corfe has very superior masonry, of larger stones than those used in the keeps known to be Henry I.’s, but wide-jointed. At Norwich only a very small piece of the original ashlar is left. Corfe is extremely severe in all its details, but quite corresponds to work of Henry I.’s reign.[1158]Norwich has a great deal of decoration, more advanced in style than that to be seen at Falaise, but still consistent with the first half of the 12th century. Neither keep has the least sign of Transition Norman, such as we seldom fail to find in the keeps of Henry II. Moreover, neither of them figure in thePipe Rollsof Henry II., except for repairs;and as Stephen in his harassed reign can hardly have had any money for building stone keeps, we may with some confidence ascribe these two keeps to Henry I.
A few words should be given to the castle of Gisors, which contains in itself an epitome of castle history. The first castle, built by William Rufus in 1096, was undoubtedly a wooden castle on a motte, with a stockaded bailey below it; certain portions of the present bailey walls rest on earthen banks, which probably belonged to the original castle, and show what a much smaller affair it was than the present one. Henry I., Robert de Monte tells us, strengthened this castle with a keep. Probably this was the shell wall which now crowns the motte; the smallness of the masonry (stones about 5 inches high, rudely dressed and coursed) and the slight projection of the buttresses (9 inches) agree with much of the work of his time. There would be a wooden tower inside.[1159]The chemise or shell wall is pierced by loopholes, a very unusual arrangement; they are round arched, and of very rude voussoirs.[1160]Inside this shell there is a decagonal tower, called the Tower of Thomas à Becket, which is almost certainly the work of Henry II.,[1161]as its name would indicate; the chapel of St Thomasis close to it. A stair turret of the 15th century has been added to this keep; its original entrance was, as usual, a door on the first floor, but a basement entrance was built afterwards, probably in the 13th century. Philip Augustus, after he had taken this castle from John, added to it one of the round keeps which had then become the fashion, and subsequent enlargements of the bailey converted it into a “concentric” castle, of which the motte now forms the centre.
There is one keep which is known to be of the reign of Stephen, though not built by him, that of Carlisle, built by David, King of Scotland, in 1136,[1162]a time when he thought his hold on the four northern counties of England was secure, little reckoning on the true character of his great-nephew, Henry, son of Matilda. There is no advance to be seen in this keep on those of Henry I., except that the walls are faced with ashlar. The vaulting of the basement is pronounced by Mr Clark to be very evidently a late insertion.[1163]
With the reign of Henry II. a new era opens as regards the documentary history of our ancient castles, because thePipe Rollsof that king’s reign have most fortunately been preserved.[1164]These contain the sheriff’s accounts for money spent on the building or repair of the king’s castles, and are simply invaluable for the history of castle architecture. The following is a list ofthe keeps which thePipe Rollsshow to have been built or finished by Henry II.:—
The dates given here must be taken as only roughly accurate, as owing to the meagreness of the entries in thePipe Rolls, it is not always certain whether the expenses were for the great tower or for other buildings. The list by no means includes all the work which Henry II. did on his English castles, for he was a great builder; but a good deal of his work seems to have been the substitution of stone walls with mural towers, for wooden stockades, and our list comprises all the cases in which it is clear that the keep was the work of this king.[1165]We confine our attention to the keeps, because though mural towers of stone began to be added to the walls of baileys during Henry II.’s reign (a detail which must have greatly altered the general appearance of castles), it is certain that the keep was still the most important part, and the residence of the king or noble whenever he visited the castle.
Seven out of the ten tower keeps are built onprecisely the same plan as those of Henry I. The chief advance is in the masonry. All the tower keeps of Henry II., except Dover, Chilham, and Canterbury, are or have been cased with good ashlar, of stones somewhat larger in size than those used by Henry I. The same may be said of the shell walls (namely, Windsor and Arundel); it is interesting to note that Henry II. still used this elementary form of citadel, which consisted merely of a wall round the top of a motte, with wooden buildings inside.[1166]In three cases out of the ten tower keeps, Newcastle, Bowes, and Richmond, the basement storey is vaulted, which does not occur in the older keeps.[1167]Yet such important castles as Scarborough, Dover, and Canterbury are without this provision against fire. None of these keeps appear to have more than three storeys above the basement.[1168]None of the entrances to the keeps (except Tickhill) have any portcullis grooves,[1169]nor any special contrivances for defence, except at Canterbury, where the entrance (on the first floor) takes two turns at right angles before reaching the hall to which it leads.[1170]There are nearly alwaysin the keeps of Henry II. some signs of Transition Norman in the details, such as the nook shafts at the angles of the towers of Scarborough and the Peak, certain arches at Canterbury, the Transition capitals used at Newcastle, and the filleted string round the outside of Bowes.
But we have yet to speak of three keeps of Henry II.’s reign which are on a different plan to all the others, and which point to coming changes—Chilham, Orford, and Tickhill.[1171]Chilham is an octagonal tower of three storeys, with a square annexe on one side, which appears to be original. Orford is polygonal outside, round inside. Orford indeed is one of the most extraordinary keeps to be seen anywhere, and we must regard it as an experiment, and an experiment which appears never to have been repeated.[1172]Instead of the usual Norman buttresses, this polygonal keep has three buttress towers, placed between every four of the outer faces, 22 feet wide, and 12 feet in projection.[1173]Tickhill, however, the last keep he built, is decagonal. The object of the polygonal tower was to deflect the missiles thrown from siege engines, and the round tower was evidently consideredan improvement on the polygonal for this purpose, as it subsequently supplanted the polygonal type. It is therefore rather remarkable that Henry II. built both these keeps in the second decade of his reign, and afterwards went on building square keeps like his predecessors. We have seen, however, that he built at least one polygonal tower in Normandy, that of Gisors. We must bear in mind that the Norman and Angevine frontier was the theatre of the continuous struggle of Henry II. with the French kings, Louis VII. and Philip Augustus, and that it is here that we must expect the greatest developments in military architecture.
Speaking generally, we may say that just as there was comparatively little change in armour during the 12th century until the end of Henry II.’s reign, so there was comparatively little change in military architecture during the same period. But great changes took place towards the end of the 12th century. One of these changes was a great improvement in missile engines; the trébuchet was one of the most important of these. It could throw much heavier stones than the largest catapult, and could take a more accurate aim.[1174]These new engines were useful for defence as well as attack, and this affected the architecture of castles, because flat roofs covered with lead, on which machines could be placed, were now substituted for the former sloping roofs.[1175]There are several payments for lead for roofing castles in thePipe Rollsof Henry II., the earliest being in 1166. In the reigns of John and Henry III.the mention of lead for roofing becomes much more frequent.[1176]
Hitherto, in the defence of keeps, reliance had mainly been placed upon their passive strength, though not so entirely as has been commonly assumed, since it was always the practice to shoot with arrows from the battlements round the roof of the tower. But not only was the fighting strength of the keep increased by the trébuchet, but the introduction of the crossbow gave it a defensive arm of the greatest importance. The crossbow had been known to the Romans, and was used in the early part of the 12th century, but it was forbidden by the second Lateran Council in 1139 as a weapon hateful to God.[1177]This prohibition seems actually to have been effective, as William the Breton says expressly that the crossbow was unknown to the French before the wars of Richard I. and Philip Augustus.[1178]Richard learned the use of it in the third crusade.[1179]But to use the crossbow in the defence of buildings it was necessary to construct special loopholes for shooting, splayed downwards externally, so that it was possible to aim from them. Up till this time the loopholes of castles had been purely for light and not for shooting; anyonemay see that it is impossible to take aim through an immensely thick wall unless there is a downward splay to increase the field of vision. William the Breton tells us that Richard built windows for crossbows to his towers, and this is the first mention we have of them.[1180]
From this time defensive loopholes become common in castles, and take various fanciful forms, as well as the commoner ones of the circle, square, or triangle at the base of the loop. Thecross loophole, which does not appear till the latter quarter of the 13th century, is explained by Viollet le Duc as an ingenious way of allowing three or four archers to fire in a volley.[1181]But up to the present time very little study has been given to this subject, and we must be content to leave the question for future observation to settle.[1182]
The crossbowmen not only required splayed loopholes, but also niches, large enough to accommodate at least three men, so that a continuous discharge of darts (quarrells) might be kept up. Any defensive loop which really means work will have a niche like this behind it. These niches had the defect of seriously weakening the wall.
Another innovation introduced by Richard I. wasthat of stone machicolations, orhurdicia.[1183]Whether wooden galleries round the tops of walls, with holes for dropping down stones, boiling-water, or pitch on the heads of the besiegers had not been used from the earliest times, is regarded by Köhler as extremely doubtful.[1184]They were certainly used by the Romans, and may even be seen clearly figured on the Assyrian monuments. In the Bayeux Tapestry, the picture of Bayeux Castle shows the stockade on top of the motte crested with something extremely like hurdicia. Yet the writer has found no authentic mention of them before the end of the 12th century.[1185]The stone machicolations built by Richard round his keep of Chateau Gaillard are of an unusual type, which was only rarely imitated.[1186]But from this time wooden hurdicia became universal, to judge from the numerous orders for timber forhoardingcastles and town walls in theClose Rollsof the first half of the 13th century. Towards the middle of the 13th century stone brackets for the support of wooden hurdicia began to be used; they may still be seen in the great keep of Coucy, which was begun in 1230. But machicolations entirely of stone, supported on double or triple rows of brackets, do not become common till the 14th century.[1187]
The greatest architectural change witnessed at the end of the 12th century was the victory of the round keep over the square. Round towers were built by the Romans as mural towers, but the universal type of mediæval keep appears to have been the square or oblong, until towards the end of the 12th century.[1188]The polygonal keep was probably a transitional form; we have seen that Henry II.’s polygonal keep at Orford was begun as early as 1165. Many experiments seem to have been made at the end of the 12th century, such as the addition of a stone prow to the weakest side of a keep, to enable it better to resist showers of missiles. Richard I.’s keep at Chateau Gaillard is a round keep with a solid prow of this kind. Five-sided keeps are said to be not uncommon on the left bank of the Rhine and in Nassau; this type was simply the addition of a prow to a square keep. The only English instance known to the writer is that of Mitford, Northumberland, but this is merely a five-sided keep, the prow is not solid, as at Chateau Gaillard. The castle of Étampes, whose plan is a quatrefoil, is assigned by French archæologists to this period of experiment.[1189]But the round keep was eventually the type preferred. Philip II. thought it necessary to add a round keep to the castle of Gisors, after he had taken it from John, and he adopted the round keep for all his new castles, of which the Louvre was one.[1190]
Along with the round keep, ground entrances becamecommon.[1191]Viollet le Duc states that when the French soldiers broke into the inner ward at Chateau Gaillard the defenders had no time to escape into the keep by the narrow stair which led to the first floor, and consequently this proud tower was surrendered without a blow; and that this event so impressed on Philip’s mind the danger of difficult entrances that he abandoned the old fashion. This may be true, but it is a pure guess of Le Duc’s, as there is nothing whatever to justify it in William the Breton’s circumstantial narrative. It is, however, certain that Philip adopted the ground entrance to all his keeps. In England we find ground entrances to many round keeps of the 13th century, as at Pembroke; but the older fashion was sometimes retained; Conisburgh, one of the finest keeps in England, has its entrance on the first floor.[1192]
After the introduction of the trébuchet, we might expect that the walls of keeps would be made very much thicker, and such seems to have been the case in France,[1193]but we do not find that it was the rule in England.[1194]The lower storeys were now generally instead of occasionally vaulted. In the course of the 13th century it became common to vault all the storeys. But in spite of the military advantages of the round keep, in its avoidance of angles favourable to the battering-ram, andits deflection of missiles, the square keep continued to be built in various parts of both France and England till quite late in the Middle Ages.[1195]On the Scottish border, square towers of the ancient type, with quite Norman decorations, were built as late as the 15th century.[1196]The advantage of the square tower was that it was more roomy inside, and was therefore preferred when the tower was intended for habitation.
We come now to the greatest of all the changes introduced in the 13th century: the keepless castle, in which the keep is done away with altogether, and the castle consists of a square or oblong court surrounded by a strong wall with massive towers at the angles, and in large castles, in the curtain also.[1197]Usually this inner quadrangle is encircled with an outer quadrangle of walls and towers, so that this type of castle is frequently called theconcentric. But the castles of the keepless kind are not invariably concentric; those built by Edward I. at Conway, Carnarvon, and Flint are not so.[1198]Instead of a dark and comfortless keep, the royal or noble owner is provided in this type of castle with a palatial house. In England this house is frequently attached to the gateway, forming what we may call a gatehouse palace; good examples may be seen at Beaumaris, Harlech, and Tonbridge.[1199]The gateway itself is always defended by a pair of massive towers.
Edward I. is generally credited with the introduction of this type of castle into England, but until thePipe Rollsof Henry III.’s reign have been carefully examined, we cannot be certain that it was not introduced earlier. It was certainly known in Germany fifty years before Edward’s accession to the throne, and in France as early as 1231.[1200]
It is always supposed that this type of castle was introduced by the Crusaders from Syria. But when did it make its first appearance in Syria? This is a point which, we venture to think, has not been yet sufficiently investigated. We do not believe that it can have existed in Syria at the time of the third crusade, otherwise Richard I., who is universally acknowledged to have been a first-class military architect, would have brought the idea home with him.[1201]Yet his favourite castle of Chateau Gaillard, built in accordance with the latest military science, is in the main a castle of the keep-and-bailey type, and has even a reminiscence of the motte, in the scarped rock on which the keep and inner ward are placed.
The new type of keepless castle never entirely displaced the old keep-and-bailey type. We have already seen that keeps of the old sort continued to be built till the end of the Middle Ages. Hawarden Castle has a good example of a 14th-century round keep; Warkworth a most remarkable specimen of the 15th, the plan being a square tower with polygonal turrets set on each face.[1202]In France and Germany also the old type appears to have persisted.[1203]
We have already trespassed beyond the limits of our subject; but as we offer this chapter more as a programme of work than as a categorical outline, we trust it may not be without use to the student who may feel disposed to take up this much-neglected subject.
A few words must yet be said about the state of the law relating to castles. Nothing explicit has come down to us on this subject from the 11th century in England, but it is clear that the feudal system which William introduced, and which required that all lands should revert to the king on the death of the holder, forbade the building of any castle without the king’s license, and, further, allowed only a life tenure in each case. The Council of Lillebonne in 1080 had laid it down in express terms that no one should build a castle in Normandy without the permission of the duke;[1204]and William, after his great victory over his revolted barons, had enforced the right of garrisoning their castles. He was not able to do this in England, while he must have desired to check the building of private castles as far as possible. On the other hand, he had to face the dilemma that no Norman land-holder would be safe in his usurped estates without the shelter of a castle. In this situation we have the elements of the civil strife which burst forth in Stephen’s reign, and which was ended by what we may call the anti-castle policy of Henry II.[1205]
The rights secured by this able king were often recklessly sold by his successors, but in the reign of Henry III. it was evidently illegal even to fortify an ordinary house with a ditch and stockade without royal permission.[1206]
Feudalism was an inevitable phase in the evolution of the Western nations, and it ought neither to be idealised nor execrated. After the break-up of the tribal system the nations of Europe sought refuge in the forms of imperialism which were devised by Charlemagne, and even the small and distant island of England strove to move in the same direction. But the times were not ripe for centralisation on so great a scale, and when the system of the Carlovingian Empire gave way under the inrush of Northmen and Huns, European society would have fallen into ruin had it not been for the institutions of feudalism. These offered,in place of the old blood bond of the tribe, a social compact which, though itself artificial, was so admirably adapted to the general need that it was speedily adopted by all the progressive nations of Europe. The great merit of feudalism was that it replaced the collective responsibility of the tribe by the individual responsibility of the man to his lord, and of the lord to his man. In an age when the decay of mutual trust was the worst evil of society it laid stress on individual loyalty, and insisted that personal honour should consist in the fulfilment of obligations. Being a system so wholly personal, its usefulness depended largely on the nature of the person in power, and it was therefore liable to great abuses.
But it is probable that feudalism worked better on the whole in England than in any other part of Western Europe. The worst evils of French feudalism never appeared in this country, except during the short and disastrous reign of Stephen. The strong kings of the Norman and Plantagenet Houses held in check the turbulence of the barons; and private war was never allowed to become here, as it was on the Continent, a standing evil. To follow out this subject would lead us beyond the limits of this book, but it is interesting to remember that not only the picturesque ruins of our castles, but also the neglected green hillocks of which we have treated in this work, while they point to the skilful machinery by which the Norman Conquest was riveted on the land, bear witness also to something still more important. They tell of a period of discipline and education through which the English people passed, when in spite of much oppression and sometimes even cruelty, seeds of many noble and useful things were sown, from which succeeding generations have garnered the enduring fruit.
The popular meetings of the Anglo-Saxons, those of the hundred and the shire, were held in the open air. Since many of those who attended them had to travel far, some sign was necessary to mark out the place of meeting, and some striking feature, such as a hillock, or a particular tree, or an ancient barrow, was chosen. Thus we have the Shire Oak, near Leeds, which gives its name to the wapentake of Skyrack; and in a charter of Edgar we find themot-beorhmentioned, and translatedCongressionis Collem= the meeting barrow. (M. A., ii., 324.) It does not appear that a hillock was an essential feature of these meeting-places, though this is popularly supposed to be the case, because the “Thing-wall” in Iceland and the “Tynwald” in the Isle of Man have hillocks from which laws were proclaimed. The Thingwall, or field of meeting in Iceland had a natural rock just above it, isolated by a stream, and though proclamations were made from this rock, deliberations took place on the level. (Gomme’sPrimitive Folk-Moots, 31.)
The Tynwald Hill, in the Isle of Man, which is also still used for the proclamation of new laws, was probably an ancient barrow, as there are other barrows in the immediate neighbourhood. (Kermode and Herdman,Illustrated Notes on Manx Antiquities, pp. 23 and 61.) At Thingwall, near Liverpool, and Thingwall in Wirral, both probably Norse settlements, there is no hillock.
In Scotland, the use of a former motte as a meeting-place for the baronial court appears to have been much more common than in England. Mr George Neilson’s explanation of this fact is referred to in Chapter X.,p. 307.
It has been pointed out by Schmid (Gesetze der Angelsachsen, xxxviii.) that the document calledAlfred and Guthrum’s Peacecannot belong to the year of Guthrum’s baptism at Wedmore; and Mr J. R. Green (Conquest of England, p. 151) goes further, and doubts whether the boundaries laid down in this deed refer to anything except to the East Anglian kingdom of Guthrum. But Mr Green gives no adequate reason for rejecting the generally accepted conclusion that the Watling Street was the boundary between English and Danish Mercia, which is borne out by the following facts: (1) the Danish confederacy of the five boroughs, Lincoln, Stamford, Leicester, Nottingham, and Derby, pretty well covers the part of Mercia north of Watling Street, especially when Chester is added, as it sometimes is, to the list; (2) the division into wapentakes instead of hundreds, now believed to be of Danish origin, is found in Lincolnshire, Notts, Derbyshire, Rutland, Leicestershire, and Northamptonshire. Staffordshire, it is true, is not divided into wapentakes, but it was apparently won by conquest when Ethelfleda fortified the town. Chester was occupied by her husband in 908. Watling Street furnishes such a well-defined line that it was natural to fix upon it as a frontier.
Keutgen (Untersuchungen über den Ursprung der Deutschen Stadtverfassung, 1895) appears to have been the first to notice the military origin of the Old Saxon boroughs; and Professor Maitland saw the applicability of the theory to the boroughs of Alfred and Edward the Elder. (Domesday Book and Beyond.)TheAnglo-Saxon Chronicle, in 894, speaks of “the men whose duty it was to defend the towns”; this proves that Alfred had made some special arrangement for the defence of the towns; and this arrangement must have been something quite apart from the ordinary service of thefyrdor militia, which was only due for a short time. It must have been something permanent, with an adequate economic basis, such as we have in Henry the Fowler’s plan.
If we take the chroniclers of the reign of Charlemagne and his successors in the 9th century, we find the wordcastrumconstantly used for places such as Avignon, Dijon, Macon, Rheims, Chalons, Cologne, Andernach, Bonn, Coblenz, etc., all of which are known to have been Romancastra, when there can be no doubt that thecityis meant. Take, for instance, theAnnales Mettenses(Pertz, i., 326), 737: Karl Martel hears that the Saracens have taken “castrum munitissimum Avinionem” (Avignon); he marches against them, and “predictam urbemobsidione circumdat.” But these cities are not only calledcastra, they are also calledcastella. Thus the chronicle ascribed to Hincmar calls Macon bothcastrumandcastellumin the same breath. (Migne, 125, 1298.) The fortifications built by Charlemagne against the Saxons are calledcastra,castella, andcivitates. (Chron. Moissiacense, Pertz, i., 308.Ann. Einhardi, ibid., 196, 204.) The camps of the Northmen, which as we have seen, were of great size, are also called not onlycastra, butcivitates,castella,munitiones,oppida. (Annales Fuldenses, Pertz, i., 397.) The camp built by Charles the Bald at Pistes in 868 is called acastellum, though it was evidently an enclosure of great size, as he measured out quarters in it for his nobles, and formed an elaborate scheme for its maintenance. (Hincmar,Migne, 125, 1242, 1244.) Coming to the 10th century, the following passage from Flodoard willshow the vagueness of the words in common use for fortifications: “Heribertus Ansellum Bosonis subditum, qui prædictum custodiebatcastrum(Vitry), cum ipsocastellorecipit, et Codiacum S. Remigiimunicipiumilli cum alia terra concedit. Nec longum, Bosonis fidelesoppidanorumproditione Victoriacum (Vitry) recipiunt, et Mosonum fraude pervadunt. At Heribertus, a quibusdam Mosomensibus evocatus, supervenit insperatus, et entransoppidum, porta latenter acivibusaperta, milites Bosonis, qui ad custodiam loci residebant, ibidem omnes capit.” (Migne, 135, 297.) Here it is clear thatcastrum,castellum,municipium, andoppidumall mean the same thing, and the one wordcivibusbetrays that it is acitywhich is meant. Undoubtedly the chronicler thinks it elegant to change his words as often as he can.Munitiois another word frequently used; in classical Latin it means a bulwark, a wall or bank; in the chroniclers of the 10th century it is used indifferently for a town or castle, though certain passages, such as “subversis multarum munitionibus urbium” (Flodoard, i., vi.), show that the right sense is not far from the mind of the writer. The numerous passages in which we are told of monasteries being enclosed with walls and converted intocastella, show that theenclosureis the chief idea which the chroniclers associate with this word. The citations made above are not exceptional, but typical, and could be paralleled by countless others.
Since the above was written, I have read Keutgen’sUntersuchungen über den Ursprung der Deutschen Stadtverfassung. He remarks that the Latin words for a town (in the 10th and 11th century writers) areurbs,castellum,civitas, sometimesarx; for a village,villa,oppidum,vicus. This absolutely agrees with what I have observed in these writers, except that I have certainly foundoppidumused for a town, as in the passage from Flodoard cited above.
TheBurghal Hidagehas been printed by Birch,Cartularium, iii., 671. The manuscript is very corrupt, and several of the places cannot be identified. Those which can be identified are: Hastings, Lewes, Burpham (near Arundel), Chichester, Porchester, Southampton, Winchester, Wilton, Tisbury, Shaftesbury, Twineham, Wareham, Bridport, Exeter, Halwell, Lidford, Pilton, Barnstaple, Watchet, Axbridge, Lyng (near Athelney), Langport, Bath, Malmesbury, Cricklade, Oxford, Wallingford, Buckingham, Eashing (near Guildford), and Southwark. The list thus seems to give an outline of Alfred’s kingdom as it was at his death, or at the beginning of the reign of his son. Dr Liebermann refers it to the latter date. (Leges Anglorum, 9.)
A writer in theManchester Guardiana few years ago suggested a new solution of the name Thelwall. He believes that the Thelwall raised by Edward was a boundary wall of timber, stretching from Thelwall to Runcorn. The Mersey, he argues, above Thelwall formerly broadened out into a series of swamps which would effectually defend the frontier towards the east. But westward from Thelwall there were no such obstacles, and it is assumed that Edward made a timber wall from Thelwall to Ethelfleda’s fortress at Runcorn. Some support to this hypothesis is given in the names of places between Thelwall and Runcorn: Stockton, Walton (twice), Stockham, Walford, Wallmore, and Wall-hes. Further, when the bed of the Merseywas delved for the Ship Canal, discovery was made of “a remarkable series of submerged piles, 9 feet long, arranged in two parallel ranks which were 30 feet apart. The intervals between the piles varied, but seem to have averaged 5 to 6 feet. Between the ranks were diagonal rows of upright stakes, each stake about 5 feet long, extending from either rank chevron-wise to the middle and there overlapping, so that the ground-plan of them makes a kind of herring-bone pattern. By this plan, anyone passing through would have to make a zigzag course. In some places sticks and sedges were found interwoven horizontally with the stakes, a condition of things which probably obtained throughout the whole series. The tops of the tallest piles were 10 feet below the present surface of the ground, which fact goes far toward precluding the possibility that this elaborate work may have been a fish-weir. The disposition of the stakes points to a military origin. So arranged, the advantage they offered to defending forces was enormous.” I think it worth while to reproduce this account, especially because of the place-names, but those who are learned in the construction of fish-weirs may perhaps think that the description will apply to a work of that kind.
This word, which also appears as bretagium, britagium, or bristega, evidently means a tower, as is clear from the following passages: Order from King John to erect amota et bretagiumat Roscrea, in Ireland (Sweetman’sCalendar, i., 412); Order by Henry III. to the dwellers in the Valley of Montgomery “quod sine dilatione motas suas bonis bretaschiis firmari faciant” (Close Rolls, ii., 42); Order that the timber and bretasche of Nafferton Castle be carried to Newcastle, and the bretasche to be placed at the gate of the drawbridgein place of the little towerwhich fell through defect in its foundations (Close Rolls, i., 549b).
The word is also expressly defined by William the Breton as a wooden castle: “Circuibat castrum ex omni parte, et fabricavit brestachias duplices per septem loca,castella videlicet ligneamunitissima.” (Bouquet, xvii., 78.)
See also Wright, “Illustrations of Domestic Architecture,”Arch. Journ., i., 212 and 301. In these papers it is clear that “breteske” means a tower, as there are several pictures of it. At a later period it seems to have been used for a wooden balcony made for the purpose of shooting, in the same sense as the word “hurdicium”; but I have not met with any instance of this before the 14th century.
These words refer to the wooden galleries carried round the tops of walls, to enable the defenders to throw down big stones or other missiles on those who were attempting to attack the foot of the walls. “Hurdicia quæ muros tutos reddebant.” (Philippidos, vii., 201; Bouquet, xvii.) The word “alures” is sometimes used in the same sense. See a mandamus of Henry III., cited by Turner,History of Domestic Architecture, i., 198: “To make on the same tower [of London] on the south side, at the top, deep alures of good and strong timber, entirely and well covered with lead, through which people can look even to the foot of the tower, and better defend it, if need may be.” The alures of the castle of Norwich are spoken of as early as 1187, but this mention, and one of the alures round the castle of Winchester in 1193, are the only ones I find in the 12th century in England.
This is derived from the French wordhérisson, a hedgehog, and should mean something bristling, perhaps with thorns or osiers. Several passages show that it was a defence on the counterscarp of the ditch, and it may sometimes have been a hedge. Cohausen,Befestigungen der Vorzeit, shows that hedges were frequently used in early fortifications (pp. 8-13). The following passages seem to show clearly that it was on the counterscarp of the ditch: “[Montreuil] il a bien clos, esforce e ferme de pel ehericon.” (Wace, 107.) “Reparato exterioris Ardensis munitionis valli fossato et amplificato, et sepibus et ericiis consepto et constipato.” (Lambert of Ardres, 623,circa1117.) The French poem of Jordan Fantosme, describing the siege of Wark by the Scots in 1174, says the Scots attacked and carried thehericon, and got into the ditch, but they could not take the bayle,i.e., they could not get over the palicium.
In the year 1693, the antiquary Edward Llwyd was sitting on the motte of Tomen y Rhoddwy engaged in making a very bad plan of the castle [published inArch. Camb., N.S., ii., 57]. His guide told him that he had heard his grandfather say that two earls used to live there. Llwyd called the guide an ignorant fellow. Modern traditions are generally the work of some antiquary who has succeeded in planting his theories locally; but here we have a tradition of much earlier date than the time when antiquaries began to sow tares, and such traditions have usually a shred of truth in them. Isit possible that this castle of Tomen y Rhoddwy and the neighbouring one of Llanarmon were built by the earls of Chester and Shrewsbury, who certainly went on expeditions together against Wales, and appear to have divided their conquests? It is to be noted that the township is calledBodigre yr Yarll, the township of the earls.
This information is kindly supplied by Mr Goddard H. Orpen, who writes to me: “I visited Tullow lately, and asked myself where would a Norman erect a mote, and I had no difficulty in answering: on the high ground near where the Protestant church stands. When I got up there the first thing that I noticed was that the church stood on a platform of earth 10 to 14 feet higher than the road, and that this platform was held in position by a strong retaining wall, well battered towards the bottom on one side. I then found on enquiry that the hill on which it stood and the place to the N.W. of it was called the ‘Castle Hill.’ On going round to the N.W. of the church I found a horseshoe-shaped space, scarped all round to a height of 6 to 10 feet, and rising to about 16 feet above the adjoining fields. There is no doubt that this was the site of the castle, and that it was artificially raised. To my mind there was further little doubt that it represented an earlier mote. In a field adjoining on the W. I could detect a platform of about 50 to 70 paces, with traces of a fosse round the three outer sides.... This was certainly the Castellum de Tulach mentioned in the deeds concerning Raymond le Gros’ grant to the Abbey of St Thomas.—Dublin Reg. St Thomas, pp. 111, 113.”
Mr Westropp says that the “great earthworks and fosses” on the Hill of Slane are mentioned in the “Life of St Patrick” (Journ. R. S. A. I., 1904, p. 313). What theLifereally says is: “They came to Ferta Fer Fiecc,” which is translated “the graves of Fiacc’s men”; and the notes of Muirchu Maccu-Machtheni add, “which, as fables say, were dug by the slaves of Feccol Ferchertni, one of the nine Wizards” (Tripartite Life, p. 278). It does not mention any fort, or even a hill, and though Ferta Fer Fiecc is identified with Slane, there is nothing to show what part of Slane it was.
Professor Skeat andThe New English Dictionaryderive this word from the Low Latin,dominionem, acc. ofdominio, lordship. Leland frequently speaks of the keep as the dungeon, which of course is the same word. Its modern use for a subterranean prison seems to have arisen when the keeps were abandoned for more spacious and comfortable habitations by the noble owners, and were chiefly used as prisons. The worddunio, which, as we have seen, Lambert of Ardres used for a motte, probably comes from a different root, cognate with the Anglo-Saxondun, a hill, and used in Flanders for the numerous sandhills of that coast.
We get a glimpse of these in a story given in the “Gesta Ambasiensium Dominorum,” D’Archery,Spicilegium, 278. Sulpicius the Treasurer of the Abbey of St Martin at Tours, an important personage, built a stone keep at Amboise in 1015 (Chron. Turonense Magnum), in place of the “wooden house” which his brother had held. In the time of Fulk Rechin (1066-1106), this keep was in the hands of the adherents of the counts of Blois. Hugh, son of Sulpicius, with two other men, hid themselves by night in the basement, which was used as a storehouse; it must therefore have had an entrance from outside. With the help of ropes, they climbed up a sewer into the bedchamber, which was above the cellar, and evidently had no stair communicating with the cellar. Here they found the lady of the house and two maids sleeping, and a watchman who was also asleep. While one of the men held these in terror with a drawn sword, the other two climbed up a ladder and through a trap-door up to the roof of the tower, where they unfurled the banner of Hugh. Here we see a very simple keep, which has only one storey above the basement; this may have been divided into two or more apartments, but it was thought a fitting residence for a lady of rank. It had no stairs, but all the communications were by trap-doors and ladders. We may be quite sure that the people of rank of the 11th and 12th centuries were content with much rougher accommodation than Mr Clark imagined. Even Richard I.’s much admired keep of Chateau Gaillard appears to have had no communication but ladders between the floors.