Chapter 26

[1123]The Tower had once a forebuilding, which is clearly shown in Hollar’s etching of 1646, and other ancient drawings. Mr Harold Sands, who has made a special study of the Tower, believes it to have been a late 12th-century addition.[1124]Tiles are not used in the Tower, but some of the older arches of the arcade on the top floor have voussoirs of rag, evidently continuing the tradition of tiles. Most of the arches at Colchester are headed with tiles.[1125]The room supposed to be the chapel in Bamborough keep has a round apse, but with no external projection, being formed in the thickness of the wall. The keep of Pevensey has three extraordinary apse-like projections of solid masonry attached to its foundations. See Mr Harold Sands’Report of Excavations at Pevensey.[1126]“In the course of the 12th century, the base of the walls was thickened into a plinth, in order better to resist the battering ram.” (Manuel d’Archæologie Française, ii., 463.) The keep of Pevensey has a battering plinth which is clearly original, and which throws doubt either on this theory of the plinth, or on the age of the building.[1127]It is well known that blocks of huge size are employed in Anglo-Saxon architecture, but generally only as quoins or first courses. See Baldwin Brown,The Arts in Early England, ii., 326.[1128]Baldwin Brown, “Statistics of Saxon Churches,”Builder, Sept. 1900.[1129]Mr Round gives ground for thinking that this keep was built between 1080 and 1085.Colchester Castle, p. 32.[1130]Piper’sBurgenkunde, p. 85.[1131]Schulz,Das Hofische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger, i., 59. Grose writes of Bamborough Castle: “The only fireplace in it was a grate in the middle of a large room, where some stones in the middle of the floor are burned red.” He gives no authority.Antiquities of England and Wales, iv., 57.[1132]“The type of castle created in the 10th century persisted till the Renascence.” Enlart,Manuel d’Archæologie, ii., 516.[1133]SeeAppendix N.[1134]Enlart,Manuel d’Archæologie, ii., 516. “Jusqu’au milieu du xiiièmesiècle, et dans les exemples les plus simples des époques qui suivent, le donjon est bien près de constituer à lui seul tout le château.”[1135]Abriss der Burgenkunde, 50-60.[1136]Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 352 and 428. No continental writers are entirely to be trusted about English castles; they generally get their information from Clark, and it is generally wrong.[1137]This of course explains why the castle of London is always calledThe Tower; it was originally the only tower in the fortress.[1138]TheClose Rollsmentionpaliciaor stockades at the castles of Norwich, York, Devizes, Oxford, Sarum, Fotheringay, Hereford, Mountsorel, and Dover.[1139]Close Rolls, i., 195a and 389.[1140]See Chapter VI.,p. 89, andAppendix O.[1141]Piper states that the evidence of remains proves that the lower storey was a prison. But these remains probably belong to a later date, when the donjon had been abandoned as a residence, and was becoming thedungeonto which prisoners were committed. The top storey of the keep was often used in early times as a prison for important offenders, such as Conan of Rouen, William, the brother of Duke Richard II., and Ranulf Flambard.[1142]SeeAppendix P.[1143]At Conisburgh and Orford castles there are ovens on the roofs, showing that the cooking was carried on there; these are keeps of Henry II.’s time.[1144]De Caumont says these remains are on a motte, a strange statement, as they are only a foot or two above the surrounding level.[1145]No stone castles in England are known to have been built by William Rufus; he built Carlisle Castle, but probably only in wood. As we have seen, several Welsh castles were built in his time, but all in earth and timber.[1146]Built by Archbishop William of Corbeuil.Gervase of Canterbury, R. S., ii., 382.[1147]Robert de Torigny, also called Robert de Monte, was Abbot of Mont St Michael during the lifetime of Henry II., and was a favoured courtier whose means of obtaining information were specially good. French writers are in the habit of discounting his statements, because they do not recognise the almost universal precedence of a wooden castle to the stone building, which when it is recognised, completely alters the perspective of castle dates. SeeAppendix Q.[1148]The keep of Caen, which was square, was demolished in 1793. De Caumont,Cours d’Antiquités, v., 231. The keep of Alençon is also destroyed. There are fragments of castles at Argentan, Exmes, and St Jean-le-Thomas. The keep of Vernon or Vernonnet is embedded in a factory.Guide Joanne, p. 6.[1149]The writer has also visited Vire and Le Mans, but even if the walls of the keep of Vire, of which only two sides remain, were the work of Henry I., the details, such as the corbelled lintel, the window benches, and the loop in the basement for a crossbow, point to a later period. At Le Mans, to the north of the cathedral, is a fragment of an ancient tower, built of the rudest rubble, with small quoins of ashlar; this may be the keep built by William I., which Wace says was of stone and lime (p. 234, Andresen’s edition). It is difficult to examine, being built up with cottages. Domfront, like Langeais, is only a fragment, consisting of two walls and some foundations.[1150]Dictionnaire de l’Architecture.[1151]M. M. A., i., 186.[1152]In speaking of Falaise, of course we only mean the great square keep, and not the Little Donjon attached to it at a later period, nor the fine round keep added by Talbot in the 15th century.[1153]Small spaces, such as the chapel, passages, and mural chambers, are vaulted in most keeps.[1154]Colchester keep has only two storeys now, but Mr Round argues that it must have had three, as a stairway leads upward from the second floor, in the N.W. tower, and some fragments of window cases remain as evidence.Colchester Castle, p. 92.[1155]The Tower and Colchester keep both have wells, which are seldom wanting in any keep. There was no appearance of a well at Langeais, but excavation might possibly reveal one.[1156]The first castle at Corfe was built by William’s half-brother, Robert, Count of Mortain. The keep of Corfe is sometimes attributed to him, but when we compare its masonry with that of the early hall or chapel in the middle bailey, we shall see that this date is most unlikely. Norwich was always a royal castle.[1157]Part of the basement of Norwich keep has pillars, from which it has been assumed that it was vaulted; but no trace of vaulting is to be seen.[1158]The only decoration at Corfe keep is in the oratory, which being at a vast height in one of the ruined walls is inaccessible to the ordinary visitor. Corfe was so much pulled about by Sir Christopher Hatton in Elizabeth’s reign, and is now so ruinous, that many features are obscure. Norwich has suffered greatly from restorations, and from re-casing.[1159]In 1184 Henry II. paid “for re-roofing the tower of Gisors.”Rotuli Scacc. Normanniæ, i., 72.[1160]It should be remembered that rude work is not invariably a sign of age; it may only show haste, or poverty of resources. It should also be mentioned that in theExchequer Rolls of Normandythere is an entry of £650 in 1184 for several works at Gisors, including “the wall round the motte” (murum circa motam). Possibly this may refer to a wall round the foot of the motte, which seems still to exist. The shell wall of Gisors should be compared with that of Lincoln, which is probably of the first half of the 12th century.[1161]No decagonal tower of Henry I.’s work is known to exist; all his tower keeps are square.[1162]Bower,Scotichronicon, v., 42. This passage was first pointed out by Mr George Neilson inNotes and Queries, 8th ser., viii., 321. The keep of Carlisle has been so much pulled about as to obscure most of its features. The present entrance to the basement is not original.[1163]M. M. A., i., 353.[1164]Unfortunately the greater part of these valuableRollsis still unpublished. The Pipe Roll Society is issuing a volume every year, and this year (1910) has reached the 28th Henry II.[1165]The keeps of Richmond and Bowes were only finished by Henry II.; Richmond was begun by Earl Conan, who died in 1170, when Henry appears to have taken up the work. Bowes was another of Earl Conan’s castles. Tickhill is now destroyed to the foundations, but it is clear that it was a tower. The writer has examined all the keeps mentioned in this list. It will be noticed that most of the towers took many years to build.[1166]Henry built one shell keep of rubble and rag, that of Berkeley Castle, which is not mentioned in thePipe Rolls, having been built before his accession. It is noteworthy that he did not build it for himself, but for his ally, Robert Fitz Hardinge.[1167]The basement storey of Chester keep (the only part which now remains) is also vaulted, but this can scarcely be Henry’s work, for though he spent £102 on this castle in 1159, it must have been begun by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in Stephen’s reign. Moreover, it is doubtful whether the vaulting, which is covered by whitewash, is really ancient.[1168]Leland says of Wark, “the dongeon is made of foure howses hight,” but probably he included the basement.[1169]The earliest instance of a portcullis groove with which the writer is acquainted is in the basement entrance of Colchester. It is obvious to anyone who carefully examines this entrance and the great stair to the left of it that they are additions of a later time than William’s work. The details seem to point to Henry I.’s reign. The keep of Rochester has also a portcullis groove which seems to be a later addition.[1170]King, paper on Canterbury Castle inArchæologia, vi., 298. We have not observed in any English keeps (except in this single instance) any of the elaborate plans to entrap the enemy which M. Viollet le Duc describes in his article on Donjons. He was an imaginative writer, and many of his statements should not be accepted without reserve.[1171]Wark was also an octagonal keep, but there is considerable doubt whether this octagonal building was the work of Henry II., as Lord Dacre wrote to Wolsey in 1519 concerning Wark that “the dongeon is clerely finished,” and mentions that all the storeys but one were vaulted with stone. This makes it almost certain that the castle of Wark was entirely rebuilt at this time, after having been demolished by the Scots in 1460. It is now an utter ruin, and even the foundations of the keep are buried.[1172]At Thorne, near Doncaster, where the great earls Warenne had a castle, there are the foundations, on a motte, of a keep which seems to resemble that of Orford; it ought to be thoroughly excavated.[1173]These measurements are from Grose,Antiquities, v., 74.[1174]See Payne Gallwey,The Crossbow, 309; Köhler,Kriegswesen, iii., 192. The trébuchet is first mentioned at the siege of Piacenza in 1199.[1175]As far as we can tell, the tops of keeps having generally been ruined or altered, the common arrangement was either a simple gable, or two gables resting on a cross wall, such as all the larger keeps possessed.[1176]Another consequence of the introduction of an engine of longer range was the widening of castle ditches. We frequently find works on ditches mentioned in John’s accounts.[1177]Payne Gallwey,The Crossbow, p. 3. We find it used by Louis VI. of France, before 1137. Suger’sGesta Ludovici, 10 (ed. Molinier). Ten balistarii are mentioned in Domesday Book, but they may have been engineers of the great balista, a siege machine. There is no representation of a crossbow in the Bayeux Tapestry. There are entries in thePipe Rollsof 6, 8, and 9 Henry II. of payments for arbelast, but these also may refer to the great balista.[1178]Guill. Brit. Armorici Philippides, Bouquet xvii., line 315.[1179]The bow brought by Richard from Palestine is believed to have been an improved form of crossbow, made of horn and yew, “light, elastic, and far more powerful than a bow of solid wood.” Payne Gallwey,The Crossbow.[1180]“Fenestris arcubalistaribus,” Bouquet xvii., 75. The writer has never found a single defensive loophole in any of the keeps of Henry I. or Henry II. Köhler remarks that the loopholes up to this period do not seem to be intended for shooting (Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 409), and Clark has some similar observations.[1181]Dictionnaire de l’Architecture, art. “Meurtrière.”[1182]Meyrick in hisAncient Armourquotes a charter of 1239, in which the French king grants a castle to the Count de Montfort on condition “quod non possumus habere in eodem archeriam nec arbalisteriam,” which Meyrick audaciously translates “any perpendicular loophole for archers, nor any cruciform loophole for crossbowmen.” The quotation is unfortunately given by Sir R. Payne Gallwey without the Latin original. It is at any rate probable that the cruciform loophole was forarchers; it does not appear till the time of the long-bow, which was improved and developed by Edward I., who made it the most formidable weapon of English warfare.[1183]SeeAppendix H.[1184]Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 417.[1185]In 1186, the Duke of Burgundy caused the towers and walls of his castle of Chatillon to be “hoarded” (hordiari). This duke had been a companion of Richard’s on the third crusade. William le Breton,Philippides, line 600. Richard’shurdiciaat Chateau Gaillard were two years earlier.[1186]See Dieulafoy,Le Chateau Gaillard et l’Architecture Militaire au Treizième Siècle, p. 13.[1187]The best French and German authorities are agreed about this. The holes in which the wooden beams supporting the hurdicia were placed may still be seen in many English castles, and so may the remains of the stone brackets. They would be good indications of date, were it not that hurdicia could so easily be added to a much older building.[1188]Köhler gives the reign of Frederic Barbarossa (1155-1191) as the time of the first appearance of the round keep in Germany.[1189]In spite of this, I cannot feel satisfied that the keep of Étampes is of so early a date. The decorative features appear early, but the second and third storeys are both vaulted, which is a late sign. The keep called Clifford’s Tower at York, built by Henry III. 1245 to 1259, is on the same plan as Étampes.[1190]This keep has been long destroyed.[1191]Ground entrances occur in several much earlier keeps, as at Colchester (almost certainly an addition of Henry I.’s time), Bamborough (probably Henry II.’s reign), and Richmond, where Earl Conan seems to have used a former entrance gateway to make the basement entrance of his keep. See Milward,Arch. Journ., vol. v.[1192]Built by Earl Hamelin, half-brother of Henry II., who died in 1201.[1193]Viollet le Duc, art. “Donjon.”[1194]The walls of the Tower are from 12 to 15 feet thick at the base; those of Norwich 13; the four walls of Dover respectively, 17, 18, 19, and 21 feet; Carlisle, 15 feet on two sides. (Clark.) William of Worcester tells us that Bristol keep was 25 feet thick at the base!Itin., p. 260.[1195]See Enlart,Manuel d’Archæologie Française, ii., 526.[1196]MacGibbon and Ross,Castellated Architecture of Scotland, p. 159.[1197]This type of castle was probably borrowed from the fortifications of Greek cities, which the Crusaders had observed in the East.[1198]Conway and Carnarvon consist of two adjoining courts, without any external enclosure but a moat. Flint has a great tower outside the quadrangle, which is sometimes mistakenly called a keep, but its internal arrangements show that it was not so, and it is doubtful whether it was ever roofed over. It was simply a tower to protect the entrance, taking the place of the 13th-century barbican.[1199]Köhler states that the gatehouse palace is peculiar to England: “only at Perpignan is there anything like it.”Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 480.[1200]Köhler mentions the castle of Neu Leiningen as the first example in Germany, built in 1224.Kriegswesen, iii., 475. Frederic II.’s castles were of this type. The castle of Boulogne, finished in 1231, is one of the oldest examples of the keepless type in France. Enlart,Archæologie Française, ii., 534. The Bastille of Paris was a castle of this kind. According to Hartshorne, Barnwell Castle, in Northants, is of the keepless kind, and as theHundred Rollsstate that it was built in 1264, we seem to have here a positive instance of a keepless castle in Henry III.’s reign.Arch. Inst. Newcastle, vol. 1852. And it appears to be certain that Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, built the keepless castle of Caerphilly before Edward came to the throne. See Little’sMediæval Wales, p. 87.[1201]French archæologists are enthusiastic over the keep of Chateau Gaillard, the scientific construction of the towers of the curtain, the avoidance of “dead angles,” the continuous flanking, etc. See Viollet le Duc, art. “Chateau,” and Dieulafoy,Le Chateau Gaillard.[1202]This type is extremely rare: Trim, in Ireland, and Castle Rushen, in the Isle of Man, are the only other instances known to the writer. Trim is a square tower with square turrets in the middle of each face; Castle Rushen is on the same plan, but the central part appears to have been an open court.[1203]Enlart,Archæologie Française, ii., 516.[1204]Martène’sThesaurus Anecdotorum, iv., 118. “Nulli licuit in Normannia fossatum facere in planam terram, nisi tale quod de fundo potuisset terram jactare superius sine scabello. Et ibi nulli licuit facere palicium, nisi in una regula; et id sine propugnaculis et alatoriis. Et in rupe et in insula nulli licuit facere fortitudinem, et nulli licuit in Normannia castellum facere.”[1205]The document which calls itselfLeges Henrici Primi, x., 1, declares the “castellatio trium scannorum” to be a right of the king.Scannorumis clearlyscamnorum, banks. It is noteworthy that a motte-and-bailey castle is actually a fortification with three banks: one round the top of the motte, one round the edge of the bailey, one on the counterscarp of the ditch.[1206]See the case of Benhall,Close Rolls, ii., 52b (1225).[1207]Aldreth and Burton are omitted from this list.[1208]M. and B. stand for Motte and Bailey; K. and B. for Keep and Bailey; O. for Outside the Town.

[1124]Tiles are not used in the Tower, but some of the older arches of the arcade on the top floor have voussoirs of rag, evidently continuing the tradition of tiles. Most of the arches at Colchester are headed with tiles.

[1125]The room supposed to be the chapel in Bamborough keep has a round apse, but with no external projection, being formed in the thickness of the wall. The keep of Pevensey has three extraordinary apse-like projections of solid masonry attached to its foundations. See Mr Harold Sands’Report of Excavations at Pevensey.

[1126]“In the course of the 12th century, the base of the walls was thickened into a plinth, in order better to resist the battering ram.” (Manuel d’Archæologie Française, ii., 463.) The keep of Pevensey has a battering plinth which is clearly original, and which throws doubt either on this theory of the plinth, or on the age of the building.

[1127]It is well known that blocks of huge size are employed in Anglo-Saxon architecture, but generally only as quoins or first courses. See Baldwin Brown,The Arts in Early England, ii., 326.

[1128]Baldwin Brown, “Statistics of Saxon Churches,”Builder, Sept. 1900.

[1129]Mr Round gives ground for thinking that this keep was built between 1080 and 1085.Colchester Castle, p. 32.

[1130]Piper’sBurgenkunde, p. 85.

[1131]Schulz,Das Hofische Leben zur Zeit der Minnesinger, i., 59. Grose writes of Bamborough Castle: “The only fireplace in it was a grate in the middle of a large room, where some stones in the middle of the floor are burned red.” He gives no authority.Antiquities of England and Wales, iv., 57.

[1132]“The type of castle created in the 10th century persisted till the Renascence.” Enlart,Manuel d’Archæologie, ii., 516.

[1133]SeeAppendix N.

[1134]Enlart,Manuel d’Archæologie, ii., 516. “Jusqu’au milieu du xiiièmesiècle, et dans les exemples les plus simples des époques qui suivent, le donjon est bien près de constituer à lui seul tout le château.”

[1135]Abriss der Burgenkunde, 50-60.

[1136]Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 352 and 428. No continental writers are entirely to be trusted about English castles; they generally get their information from Clark, and it is generally wrong.

[1137]This of course explains why the castle of London is always calledThe Tower; it was originally the only tower in the fortress.

[1138]TheClose Rollsmentionpaliciaor stockades at the castles of Norwich, York, Devizes, Oxford, Sarum, Fotheringay, Hereford, Mountsorel, and Dover.

[1139]Close Rolls, i., 195a and 389.

[1140]See Chapter VI.,p. 89, andAppendix O.

[1141]Piper states that the evidence of remains proves that the lower storey was a prison. But these remains probably belong to a later date, when the donjon had been abandoned as a residence, and was becoming thedungeonto which prisoners were committed. The top storey of the keep was often used in early times as a prison for important offenders, such as Conan of Rouen, William, the brother of Duke Richard II., and Ranulf Flambard.

[1142]SeeAppendix P.

[1143]At Conisburgh and Orford castles there are ovens on the roofs, showing that the cooking was carried on there; these are keeps of Henry II.’s time.

[1144]De Caumont says these remains are on a motte, a strange statement, as they are only a foot or two above the surrounding level.

[1145]No stone castles in England are known to have been built by William Rufus; he built Carlisle Castle, but probably only in wood. As we have seen, several Welsh castles were built in his time, but all in earth and timber.

[1146]Built by Archbishop William of Corbeuil.Gervase of Canterbury, R. S., ii., 382.

[1147]Robert de Torigny, also called Robert de Monte, was Abbot of Mont St Michael during the lifetime of Henry II., and was a favoured courtier whose means of obtaining information were specially good. French writers are in the habit of discounting his statements, because they do not recognise the almost universal precedence of a wooden castle to the stone building, which when it is recognised, completely alters the perspective of castle dates. SeeAppendix Q.

[1148]The keep of Caen, which was square, was demolished in 1793. De Caumont,Cours d’Antiquités, v., 231. The keep of Alençon is also destroyed. There are fragments of castles at Argentan, Exmes, and St Jean-le-Thomas. The keep of Vernon or Vernonnet is embedded in a factory.Guide Joanne, p. 6.

[1149]The writer has also visited Vire and Le Mans, but even if the walls of the keep of Vire, of which only two sides remain, were the work of Henry I., the details, such as the corbelled lintel, the window benches, and the loop in the basement for a crossbow, point to a later period. At Le Mans, to the north of the cathedral, is a fragment of an ancient tower, built of the rudest rubble, with small quoins of ashlar; this may be the keep built by William I., which Wace says was of stone and lime (p. 234, Andresen’s edition). It is difficult to examine, being built up with cottages. Domfront, like Langeais, is only a fragment, consisting of two walls and some foundations.

[1150]Dictionnaire de l’Architecture.

[1151]M. M. A., i., 186.

[1152]In speaking of Falaise, of course we only mean the great square keep, and not the Little Donjon attached to it at a later period, nor the fine round keep added by Talbot in the 15th century.

[1153]Small spaces, such as the chapel, passages, and mural chambers, are vaulted in most keeps.

[1154]Colchester keep has only two storeys now, but Mr Round argues that it must have had three, as a stairway leads upward from the second floor, in the N.W. tower, and some fragments of window cases remain as evidence.Colchester Castle, p. 92.

[1155]The Tower and Colchester keep both have wells, which are seldom wanting in any keep. There was no appearance of a well at Langeais, but excavation might possibly reveal one.

[1156]The first castle at Corfe was built by William’s half-brother, Robert, Count of Mortain. The keep of Corfe is sometimes attributed to him, but when we compare its masonry with that of the early hall or chapel in the middle bailey, we shall see that this date is most unlikely. Norwich was always a royal castle.

[1157]Part of the basement of Norwich keep has pillars, from which it has been assumed that it was vaulted; but no trace of vaulting is to be seen.

[1158]The only decoration at Corfe keep is in the oratory, which being at a vast height in one of the ruined walls is inaccessible to the ordinary visitor. Corfe was so much pulled about by Sir Christopher Hatton in Elizabeth’s reign, and is now so ruinous, that many features are obscure. Norwich has suffered greatly from restorations, and from re-casing.

[1159]In 1184 Henry II. paid “for re-roofing the tower of Gisors.”Rotuli Scacc. Normanniæ, i., 72.

[1160]It should be remembered that rude work is not invariably a sign of age; it may only show haste, or poverty of resources. It should also be mentioned that in theExchequer Rolls of Normandythere is an entry of £650 in 1184 for several works at Gisors, including “the wall round the motte” (murum circa motam). Possibly this may refer to a wall round the foot of the motte, which seems still to exist. The shell wall of Gisors should be compared with that of Lincoln, which is probably of the first half of the 12th century.

[1161]No decagonal tower of Henry I.’s work is known to exist; all his tower keeps are square.

[1162]Bower,Scotichronicon, v., 42. This passage was first pointed out by Mr George Neilson inNotes and Queries, 8th ser., viii., 321. The keep of Carlisle has been so much pulled about as to obscure most of its features. The present entrance to the basement is not original.

[1163]M. M. A., i., 353.

[1164]Unfortunately the greater part of these valuableRollsis still unpublished. The Pipe Roll Society is issuing a volume every year, and this year (1910) has reached the 28th Henry II.

[1165]The keeps of Richmond and Bowes were only finished by Henry II.; Richmond was begun by Earl Conan, who died in 1170, when Henry appears to have taken up the work. Bowes was another of Earl Conan’s castles. Tickhill is now destroyed to the foundations, but it is clear that it was a tower. The writer has examined all the keeps mentioned in this list. It will be noticed that most of the towers took many years to build.

[1166]Henry built one shell keep of rubble and rag, that of Berkeley Castle, which is not mentioned in thePipe Rolls, having been built before his accession. It is noteworthy that he did not build it for himself, but for his ally, Robert Fitz Hardinge.

[1167]The basement storey of Chester keep (the only part which now remains) is also vaulted, but this can scarcely be Henry’s work, for though he spent £102 on this castle in 1159, it must have been begun by Ranulf, Earl of Chester, in Stephen’s reign. Moreover, it is doubtful whether the vaulting, which is covered by whitewash, is really ancient.

[1168]Leland says of Wark, “the dongeon is made of foure howses hight,” but probably he included the basement.

[1169]The earliest instance of a portcullis groove with which the writer is acquainted is in the basement entrance of Colchester. It is obvious to anyone who carefully examines this entrance and the great stair to the left of it that they are additions of a later time than William’s work. The details seem to point to Henry I.’s reign. The keep of Rochester has also a portcullis groove which seems to be a later addition.

[1170]King, paper on Canterbury Castle inArchæologia, vi., 298. We have not observed in any English keeps (except in this single instance) any of the elaborate plans to entrap the enemy which M. Viollet le Duc describes in his article on Donjons. He was an imaginative writer, and many of his statements should not be accepted without reserve.

[1171]Wark was also an octagonal keep, but there is considerable doubt whether this octagonal building was the work of Henry II., as Lord Dacre wrote to Wolsey in 1519 concerning Wark that “the dongeon is clerely finished,” and mentions that all the storeys but one were vaulted with stone. This makes it almost certain that the castle of Wark was entirely rebuilt at this time, after having been demolished by the Scots in 1460. It is now an utter ruin, and even the foundations of the keep are buried.

[1172]At Thorne, near Doncaster, where the great earls Warenne had a castle, there are the foundations, on a motte, of a keep which seems to resemble that of Orford; it ought to be thoroughly excavated.

[1173]These measurements are from Grose,Antiquities, v., 74.

[1174]See Payne Gallwey,The Crossbow, 309; Köhler,Kriegswesen, iii., 192. The trébuchet is first mentioned at the siege of Piacenza in 1199.

[1175]As far as we can tell, the tops of keeps having generally been ruined or altered, the common arrangement was either a simple gable, or two gables resting on a cross wall, such as all the larger keeps possessed.

[1176]Another consequence of the introduction of an engine of longer range was the widening of castle ditches. We frequently find works on ditches mentioned in John’s accounts.

[1177]Payne Gallwey,The Crossbow, p. 3. We find it used by Louis VI. of France, before 1137. Suger’sGesta Ludovici, 10 (ed. Molinier). Ten balistarii are mentioned in Domesday Book, but they may have been engineers of the great balista, a siege machine. There is no representation of a crossbow in the Bayeux Tapestry. There are entries in thePipe Rollsof 6, 8, and 9 Henry II. of payments for arbelast, but these also may refer to the great balista.

[1178]Guill. Brit. Armorici Philippides, Bouquet xvii., line 315.

[1179]The bow brought by Richard from Palestine is believed to have been an improved form of crossbow, made of horn and yew, “light, elastic, and far more powerful than a bow of solid wood.” Payne Gallwey,The Crossbow.

[1180]“Fenestris arcubalistaribus,” Bouquet xvii., 75. The writer has never found a single defensive loophole in any of the keeps of Henry I. or Henry II. Köhler remarks that the loopholes up to this period do not seem to be intended for shooting (Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 409), and Clark has some similar observations.

[1181]Dictionnaire de l’Architecture, art. “Meurtrière.”

[1182]Meyrick in hisAncient Armourquotes a charter of 1239, in which the French king grants a castle to the Count de Montfort on condition “quod non possumus habere in eodem archeriam nec arbalisteriam,” which Meyrick audaciously translates “any perpendicular loophole for archers, nor any cruciform loophole for crossbowmen.” The quotation is unfortunately given by Sir R. Payne Gallwey without the Latin original. It is at any rate probable that the cruciform loophole was forarchers; it does not appear till the time of the long-bow, which was improved and developed by Edward I., who made it the most formidable weapon of English warfare.

[1183]SeeAppendix H.

[1184]Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 417.

[1185]In 1186, the Duke of Burgundy caused the towers and walls of his castle of Chatillon to be “hoarded” (hordiari). This duke had been a companion of Richard’s on the third crusade. William le Breton,Philippides, line 600. Richard’shurdiciaat Chateau Gaillard were two years earlier.

[1186]See Dieulafoy,Le Chateau Gaillard et l’Architecture Militaire au Treizième Siècle, p. 13.

[1187]The best French and German authorities are agreed about this. The holes in which the wooden beams supporting the hurdicia were placed may still be seen in many English castles, and so may the remains of the stone brackets. They would be good indications of date, were it not that hurdicia could so easily be added to a much older building.

[1188]Köhler gives the reign of Frederic Barbarossa (1155-1191) as the time of the first appearance of the round keep in Germany.

[1189]In spite of this, I cannot feel satisfied that the keep of Étampes is of so early a date. The decorative features appear early, but the second and third storeys are both vaulted, which is a late sign. The keep called Clifford’s Tower at York, built by Henry III. 1245 to 1259, is on the same plan as Étampes.

[1190]This keep has been long destroyed.

[1191]Ground entrances occur in several much earlier keeps, as at Colchester (almost certainly an addition of Henry I.’s time), Bamborough (probably Henry II.’s reign), and Richmond, where Earl Conan seems to have used a former entrance gateway to make the basement entrance of his keep. See Milward,Arch. Journ., vol. v.

[1192]Built by Earl Hamelin, half-brother of Henry II., who died in 1201.

[1193]Viollet le Duc, art. “Donjon.”

[1194]The walls of the Tower are from 12 to 15 feet thick at the base; those of Norwich 13; the four walls of Dover respectively, 17, 18, 19, and 21 feet; Carlisle, 15 feet on two sides. (Clark.) William of Worcester tells us that Bristol keep was 25 feet thick at the base!Itin., p. 260.

[1195]See Enlart,Manuel d’Archæologie Française, ii., 526.

[1196]MacGibbon and Ross,Castellated Architecture of Scotland, p. 159.

[1197]This type of castle was probably borrowed from the fortifications of Greek cities, which the Crusaders had observed in the East.

[1198]Conway and Carnarvon consist of two adjoining courts, without any external enclosure but a moat. Flint has a great tower outside the quadrangle, which is sometimes mistakenly called a keep, but its internal arrangements show that it was not so, and it is doubtful whether it was ever roofed over. It was simply a tower to protect the entrance, taking the place of the 13th-century barbican.

[1199]Köhler states that the gatehouse palace is peculiar to England: “only at Perpignan is there anything like it.”Entwickelung des Kriegswesen, iii., 480.

[1200]Köhler mentions the castle of Neu Leiningen as the first example in Germany, built in 1224.Kriegswesen, iii., 475. Frederic II.’s castles were of this type. The castle of Boulogne, finished in 1231, is one of the oldest examples of the keepless type in France. Enlart,Archæologie Française, ii., 534. The Bastille of Paris was a castle of this kind. According to Hartshorne, Barnwell Castle, in Northants, is of the keepless kind, and as theHundred Rollsstate that it was built in 1264, we seem to have here a positive instance of a keepless castle in Henry III.’s reign.Arch. Inst. Newcastle, vol. 1852. And it appears to be certain that Gilbert de Clare, Earl of Gloucester, built the keepless castle of Caerphilly before Edward came to the throne. See Little’sMediæval Wales, p. 87.

[1201]French archæologists are enthusiastic over the keep of Chateau Gaillard, the scientific construction of the towers of the curtain, the avoidance of “dead angles,” the continuous flanking, etc. See Viollet le Duc, art. “Chateau,” and Dieulafoy,Le Chateau Gaillard.

[1202]This type is extremely rare: Trim, in Ireland, and Castle Rushen, in the Isle of Man, are the only other instances known to the writer. Trim is a square tower with square turrets in the middle of each face; Castle Rushen is on the same plan, but the central part appears to have been an open court.

[1203]Enlart,Archæologie Française, ii., 516.

[1204]Martène’sThesaurus Anecdotorum, iv., 118. “Nulli licuit in Normannia fossatum facere in planam terram, nisi tale quod de fundo potuisset terram jactare superius sine scabello. Et ibi nulli licuit facere palicium, nisi in una regula; et id sine propugnaculis et alatoriis. Et in rupe et in insula nulli licuit facere fortitudinem, et nulli licuit in Normannia castellum facere.”

[1205]The document which calls itselfLeges Henrici Primi, x., 1, declares the “castellatio trium scannorum” to be a right of the king.Scannorumis clearlyscamnorum, banks. It is noteworthy that a motte-and-bailey castle is actually a fortification with three banks: one round the top of the motte, one round the edge of the bailey, one on the counterscarp of the ditch.

[1206]See the case of Benhall,Close Rolls, ii., 52b (1225).

[1207]Aldreth and Burton are omitted from this list.

[1208]M. and B. stand for Motte and Bailey; K. and B. for Keep and Bailey; O. for Outside the Town.

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