Keeps: Engineering or Architecture

Conisborough Castle, England (Yorkshire), ca. 1180

Motte-and-bailey castle (Pleshey, England)

Castle with stone keep (Conisborough)

Concentric w/o keep (Beaumaris)

Review of castle types

Ambleny donjon (Aisne), France, 1140-43

Tower of London, 1077-97

Loches CastleLoches, France, 1030s

Romanesque churchesStalley: Why don’t keeps belong in the architectural history major league?

Motte-and-bailey castle at Pleshey, England

Castle with stone keep (Conisborough)

Concentric w/o keep (Beaumaris)

Liddiard: Is it possible that the design of medieval castles was determined more by the dictates of architectural style and status than military utility?

Bodiam Castle, in East Sussex, England, 1385, owned by Sir Edward Dalyngrigge

“Battle for Bodiam”: Last military castle or early castellated manor house?

Bodiam Castle

How much of the architecture of earlier castles can also be attributed to motives of status?

BeaumarisPleshey Conisborough

1385129511801070

9th century Castles originate in France sometime in the last decades of the Carolingian Empire (“an architecture of chaos”) 10th century Normans develop the motte-and-bailey castle type in France. 11th century - Normans (from Normandy in France) bring the castle in motte-and-bailey form to England when they invade in 1066, along with the social system called feudalism.  Norman noblemen fight among themselves and started building private castles in stone. The approach is piecemeal without

an overall design in mind. 12th century: Royal authority grows and siege engines improve in an evolutionary struggle between attacker and defender, making it

prohibitively expensive for most private barons build castles. 12th – 13th century: Greater elaboration in defenses of castles for royal patrons (water, multiple rings of walls) counters advances in attack

machinery.  

Apogee in military castle building reached in the late 13th century with Edward I’s castles in North Wales (Conway, Beaumaris).

 14th – 15th century: Warfare is driven by battles rather than sieges (Wars of the Roses), and cannon fire made castles more and more

obsolete.  

Castles still tried to deter more aggressive forms of local violence.

  Fortified residence begins to give way to the country manor with decorative crenellations for independent aristocrats with nostalgia for chivalry.

 16th century: Henry VIII builds a chain of artillery forts across the kingdom, making medieval fortifications obsolete.

9th century Castles originate in France sometime in the last decades of the Carolingian Empire (“an architecture of chaos”) 10th century Normans develop the motte-and-bailey castle type in France. 11th century - Normans (from Normandy in France) bring the castle in motte-and-bailey form to England when they invade in 1066, along with the social system called feudalism.  Norman noblemen fight among themselves and started building private castles in stone. The approach is piecemeal without

an overall design in mind. 12th century: Royal authority grows and siege engines improve in an evolutionary struggle between attacker and defender, making it

prohibitively expensive for most private barons build castles. 12th – 13th century: Greater elaboration in defenses of castles for royal patrons (water, multiple rings of walls) counters advances in attack

machinery.  

Apogee in military castle building reached in the late 13th century with Edward I’s castles in North Wales (Conway, Beaumaris).

 14th – 15th century: Warfare is driven by battles rather than sieges (Wars of the Roses), and cannon fire made castles more and more

obsolete.  

Castles still tried to deter more aggressive forms of local violence.

  Fortified residence begins to give way to the country manor with decorative crenellations for independent aristocrats with nostalgia for chivalry.

 16th century: Henry VIII builds a chain of artillery forts across the kingdom, making medieval fortifications obsolete.

What chapters in the traditional history of the castle might be revised?

Bodiam Castle

Norman Conquest of England

Beaumaris

Pleshey Conisborough

1066

William the Conqueror (1024-87)

Anglo-Norman castlesAnglo-Saxon burhs

King Edward I(r. 1272-1307)

Leeds Castle, England (Kent), founded in 1119, building dates to 1278 (Edward I)

Ravensworth Castle, England (Yorkshire), renovations end of 14th century

Devizes Castle, England (Wiltshire), 1107-39, built by Bishop Roger of Salisbury

2.

Devizes 19th-century Neo-Anglo-Norman Castle

Launceston Castle, England (Cornwall), motte-and-bailey (1067), circular keep (13th cen.)

Founder, Robert Count of Mortainhalf brother of William the Conqueror

12th – 13th centuries: residence of the Earls of Cornwall

Dovecote on grounds of Dunster Castle, England (Somerset), possibly 14th century4.

15

Dover Castle, England, 1154-89, outer curtain walls early 13th cen. 5.

Berkhamsted Castle, England (Hertforshire), motte (1066), stone curtain wall 12th cen.

Founded by William the Conqueror in 1066

Berkhamsted Castle, England (Hertforshire), motte (1066), stone curtain wall 12th cen.

Clare Castle, England (Suffolk), motte (1070), stone shell keep (12th -13th cen.)

Founder: Robert Fitz Gilbert, first of de Clare family

Raglan Castle, England (Wales: Monmouthshire), founded 12th cen., remains date to 15th cen.

Framlingham Castle, England (Suffolk), late 12th or early 13th century

Views from Framlingham Castle

Royal foundation of Henry Igiven to Roger Bigod, 1st Earl of Norfolk

Architecture of English keeps as residences

Castle Rising (Norfolk), England, ca. 1140

Architecture of keeps as residences

Castle Rising, ca. 1140

Timber halls

Saxon royal hall at Cheddar, England, ca. 1100

Halls and Great Hall of the Saxon royal court at Yeavering, England, 7th - 9th cen.

Stone keepsStacking timber halls

Castles and keeps in England

Castle Rising

Castle Hedingham, England (Essex), ca. 1140

Founded by the first Earl of Oxford, Aubrey de Vere III (1115-94)

Great Hall of Castle Hedingham

Tower of London (White Tower), 1077-97, founded by William the Conqueror

Tower of London (White Tower), 1077-97, founded by William the Conqueror

Tower of London (White Tower), 1077-97

Tower of London (White Tower), 1077-97

St. John’s Chapel in the Tower of London (Romanesque), 1077-97

St. John’s Chapel in the Tower of London (Romanesque), 1077-97

St. John’s Chapel in the Tower of London (Romanesque), 1077-97

Elaboration of 12th-century French and English keeps

Ambleny donjon (Aisne), France, 1140-43

Étampes donjon (Île-de-France), France, 1130s