The design of each castle basically adapted to its natural surroundings. Sometimes the ditches were filled with water by damming or diverting nearby streams forming water-filled moats. A new online only channel for history lovers, Popular in Europe from the 10th century, some historians. We provide high-quality teaching and revision materials for UK and international history curriculum.

A major factor for the success of the motte-and-bailey was that the castles could be hastily and cheaply constructed, and with local building materials. They demonstrated his control of the population, ensured protection for his soldiers, and solidified his rule in remote parts of the country. Motte and Bailey Castles Facts & Worksheets, Download Motte and Bailey Castles Worksheets, Historical background of motte and bailey castles. Do you want to save dozens of hours in time? This was the factor that allowed the Normans to consolidate their power very quickly, as they moved on to conquer each region. The biggest advantage of the motte and bailey design was how extremely cheap and easy it was to build. Even shooting firing arrows at the castle could have devastating effects. They were abandoned because they required extensive and often costly repairs and ongoing maintenance. The bailey was linked to the motte either by a flying bridge stretching between the two, or, more commonly in England, by steps cut into the motte. It is harder to find a well-preserved motte and bailey compared to other types of castles. The smaller mottes could only support a simple tower but the larger ones could support more complex structures that often contain multiple rooms. This meant that there was little space to house soldiers and peasants, let alone the stature yearned for by many nobles. The RAF Hero, and the Son Born 8 Months After He Died, 10 of the Best Christmas Gifts Ideas for History Lovers. It was connected to the keep on the motte by a wooden flying bridge, or by steps cut into the motte itself. Many of them were used as the foundations for the newly designed stone castles, and such, the motte and bailey castles morphed, and endured, for a couple of hundred years more. As a result, from 1066 to 1087 William and the Normans built nearly 700 motte and bailey castles across England and Wales. This was because timber burns easily. These castles, which were relatively quick to build, but difficult to capture, formed a key part of William’s strategy for controlling his new domain. Motte and bailey castles were fortifications that had a wooden or stone keep situated on a raised area of ground called a motte, accompanied by an enclosed courtyard, or bailey, surrounded by a protective ditch and palisade. The reason for this was that it took an enormous effort to pile up such a huge volume of earth. The bailey, an enclosure of flattened land, lay at the bottom of the motte. How Were British and French Colonial African Forces Treated? While the concept of ditches, ramparts and stone walls as defensive measures is ancient, raising a motte is a medieval innovation. eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'historyhit_com-banner-1','ezslot_20',161,'0','0'])); This narrow, steep approach to the keep made it easy to defend if attackers breached the bailey. These words describe the most important aspects of the castles’ design. Attackers would often find out that the keep on top of the motte was extremely hard to capture as the height of the motte and the ditch surrounding it gave its defenders significant advantages. Our worksheet bundle includes a fact file and printable worksheets and student activities.

Additionally, a ditch would have been dug around the bottom of the motte. They were cheap and easy to build and didn’t require any special design.

Many motte and bailey castles were abandoned or allowed to lapse into disrepair.

The keep which stood on top of the mound was often just a simple wooden tower, but on larger mounds, complex wooden structures could be built. Some castles had more than one bailey, and a good example of this is Windsor Castle in England, where several baileys flank the motte. A motte could thus be raised in a few months, compared to a stone keep, which might take up to ten years.

The bailey was usually kidney-shaped to fit against a circular motte, but frequently, the terrain dictated its shape.

The first motte-and-bailey castle was built at Vincy, Northern France, in 979. They were relatively easy to build with unskilled labour, however, they were formidable.

The Normans were huge advocates of this type of castle design and this was also a decisive factor in their conquest of the British Isles. However, not all of these structures were abandoned. The earliest of these castles were constructed from timber and earth alone. It was always surrounded by a protective wall, be it from wood or stone. In September 1066 William the Conqueror landed in England with his Norman invasion force. Notably, at Windsor Castle, the former motte and bailey was renovated in the 19th century, and is now used as an archive for royal documents. It is very hard to determine whether a mound is man-made or natural without excavation. According to William of Poitiers, William the Conqueror’s chaplain, the motte and bailey at Dover was built in only eight days.

The Most Daring Escapes From The Tower of London, Dan Jones on The History in Game of Thrones, Simon de Montfort, England’s First Parliamentarian. The motte was flattened on top in order for the keep to be constructed. Mottes varied in size, ranging from 25 feet to up to 80 feet in height.

The keep on top of the motte served as the castle’s primary defensive element. Also, in the more remote west and north of England, peasants could be forced to construct the castles, as the structures required little skilled labour. A few baileys, like that of Lincoln Castle, even had two mottes. emphasise the military and defensive capabilities of motte and baileys, especially in repelling Viking, Slavic and Hungarian raids into Europe. It was often artificially made – it was built by piling up the earth, but sometimes it incorporated a pre-existing feature of the landscape, like a hill, for example. Mottes varied considerably in size, usually with the minimum height being at around 3 metres. Often, the ditch of the motte and the bailey joined, forming a figure of eight around the castle.

These facts, alongside others, forced the noble class to forego the simple motte and bailey design and turn to more complex design principles to build the large castles that their status and people needed for economics, politics, and defense. After he invaded England in 1066, William needed to construct castles in large numbers. It is believed that over 1000 motte and bailey castles were built in England by the Normans. eval(ez_write_tag([[250,250],'historyhit_com-large-mobile-banner-2','ezslot_18',146,'0','0'])); At Hastings Castle in East Sussex, close to where William the Conqueror defeated Harold Godwinson, the ruins of the stone motte and bailey still stand atop the cliffs.

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