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107-539: Dunster Castle is a former motte and bailey castle, now a country house , in the village of Dunster , Somerset , England. The castle lies on the top of a steep hill called the Tor, and has been fortified since the late Anglo-Saxon period. After the Norman Conquest of England in the 11th century, William de Mohun constructed a timber castle on the site as part of the pacification of Somerset. A stone shell keep

214-409: A Benedictine priory at Dunster in 1090, along with its parent abbey at Bath . The River Avill was important for trade; the region around Dunster was rich with fisheries and vineyards , and Dunster Castle prospered. Stone fortifications were built on the site during the early 12th century, probably forming a shell keep around the top of the motte. In the late 1130s England began to descend into

321-454: A ditch or moat used in fortifications. Attackers (if they have not bridged the ditch) must descend the counterscarp and ascend the scarp. In permanent fortifications the scarp and counterscarp may be encased in stone. In less permanent fortifications, the counterscarp may be lined with paling fence set at an angle so as to give no cover to the attackers but to make advancing and retreating more difficult. If an attacker succeeds in breaching

428-523: A gas plant in the basement-central heating and new kitchens were installed within the castle. The roof of the Great Gatehouse was raised to create a more uniform sequence of battlements, and a large hall for gatherings of the local farmers installed. A new wing of servants' quarters and offices were sunk into the hill, spread over two floors leading away from the main part of the mansion. Internally, Salvin knocked through existing rooms to create

535-596: A consequence of the centralising of royal authority in the 12th century. David I encouraged Norman and French nobles to settle in Scotland, introducing a feudal mode of landholding and the use of castles as a way of controlling the contested lowlands. The quasi-independent polity of Galloway , which had resisted the rule of David and his predecessors, was a particular focus for this colonisation. The size of these Scottish castles, primarily wooden motte and bailey constructions, varied considerably, from larger designs such as

642-443: A ditch about it as wide and deep as possible. The space on top of the mound is enclosed by a palisade of very strong hewn logs, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as their means can provide. Inside the enclosure is a citadel, or keep, which commands the whole circuit of the defences. The entrance to the fortress is by means of a bridge, which, rising from the outer side of the moat and supported on posts as it ascends, reaches to

749-415: A few soldiers, whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander building. Many wooden keeps were designed with bretèches , or brattices, small balconies that projected from the upper floors of the building, allowing defenders to cover the base of the fortification wall. The early 12th-century chronicler Lambert of Ardres described the wooden keep on top of the motte at the castle of Ardres , where

856-506: A fire in 1696. At the start of the 18th century the Luttrells and Dunster Castle faced many financial challenges. Francis's son Alexander , inherited the castle when he came of age in 1704, but it was still mostly empty and carried large debts with it. Alexander died young in 1711 and his widow, Dorothy, spent almost twenty years paying off the debts. Dorothy built a new chapel, designed by Sir James Thornhill in white Portland stone , on

963-405: A grand, if ill-defended, ceremonial route into the castle. The castle was reroofed with Cornish stone tiles. By the 15th century the sea had receded, and the Luttrells created a deer park for the castle at Marshwood. Such a park would have been highly prestigious and allowed the Luttrells to engage in hunting , providing the castle with a supply of venison as well as generating income. During

1070-473: A large, square tower was built on the west side of the castle and another smaller tower on the east, both creating additional space but also making the castle deliberately asymmetrical. The 18th-century chapel at the rear was demolished and replaced with another tower, alongside a modern conservatory . A variety of windows in the styles of different historical periods were inserted in the walls, while modern Victorian technology, including gas lighting -supported by

1177-410: A more gentle incline. Where available, layers of different sorts of earth, such as clay, gravel and chalk , would be used alternatively to build in strength to the design. Layers of turf could also be added to stabilise the motte as it was built up, or a core of stones placed as the heart of the structure to provide strength. Similar issues applied to the defensive ditches, where designers found that

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1284-405: A natural hill could be used, scarping could produce a motte without the need to create an artificial mound, but more commonly much of the motte would have to be constructed by hand. Four methods existed for building a mound and a tower: the mound could either be built first, and a tower placed on top of it; the tower could alternatively be built on the original ground surface and then buried within

1391-512: A noted architect then most famous for his work at Alnwick Castle , to carry out the work between 1868 and 1872 at a total cost of £25,350 (equivalent to £1.76 million in 2010). The work included the construction of an underground reservoir , holding 40,000 imperial gallons (180,000 litres) of water to provide running water for the castle and village. Salvin aimed to create a castle that would appear to have grown up organically over time, but still appeal to Victorian aesthetic taste. Accordingly,

1498-523: A period of civil war known as the Anarchy , during which the supporters of King Stephen fought with those of the Empress Matilda for control of the kingdom. William de Mohun's eldest son, also called William , was a noted supporter of Matilda, and Dunster was considered one of her faction's strongest castles in the south-west. In 1138 forces loyal to Stephen besieged the castle; a siege castle

1605-585: A range of different castle types as motta , however, and there may not have been as many genuine motte-and-bailey castles in southern Italy as was once thought on the basis of the documentary evidence alone. In addition, there is evidence of the Norman crusaders building a motte and bailey using sand and wood in Egypt in 1221 during the Fifth Crusade . Motte-and-bailey castles became a less popular design in

1712-487: A sequence of leather tapestries showing scenes from the story of Antony and Cleopatra . The castle also holds a piano that once belonged to the composer Vivian Ellis . The gardens surrounding the castle cover approximately 6 hectares (15 acres) and include the National Plant Collection of Strawberry Trees ; the wider parkland beyond totals 277 hectares (684 acres). Just to the south of the castle

1819-639: A similar transition occurred in the 13th and 14th centuries. One factor was the introduction of stone into castle buildings. The earliest stone castles had emerged in the 10th century, with stone keeps being built on mottes along the Catalonia frontier and several, including Château de Langeais , in Angers. Although wood was a more powerful defensive material than was once thought, stone became increasingly popular for military and symbolic reasons. Some existing motte-and-bailey castles were converted to stone, with

1926-544: A stronghold and bailey construction surrounded by water, and widely built in the late medieval period. In England, motte-and-bailey earthworks were put to various uses over later years; in some cases, mottes were turned into garden features in the 18th century, or reused as military defences during the Second World War . Today, almost no mottes of motte-and-bailey castles remain in regular use in Europe, with one of

2033-439: A wall a coupure can be dug on the inside of the wall to hinder the forlorn hope , in which case the side of the ditch farthest from the breached wall and closest to the centre of the fortification is also called the counterscarp. These are tunnels or "galleries" that have been built behind the counterscarp wall inside the moat or ditch. Each gallery is pierced with loopholes for musketry , so that attacking forces that enter

2140-551: A year. In 2015, the National Trust announced plans to make the 19th-century reservoir open to the public, and the reservoir was formally opened for viewing in April 2016. Motte and bailey A motte-and-bailey castle was made up of two structures: a motte (a type of mound – often artificial – topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep ); and at least one bailey (a fortified enclosure built next to

2247-715: Is a particularly western and northern European phenomenon, most numerous in France and Britain, but also seen in Denmark, Germany, Southern Italy and occasionally beyond. European castles first emerged between the Loire river and the Rhine in the 9th and 10th centuries, after the fall of the Carolingian Empire resulted in its territory being divided among individual lords and princes and local territories became threatened by

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2354-520: Is operated by the National Trust as a tourist attraction . Little remains of the medieval castle except for the Great Gatehouse and the remains of several towers in the Lower Ward; the heart of the modern castle today is the much altered 17th-century manor house. The key features of the castle include the original 13th-century gates and several pieces of art, including a Tudor copy of Hans Eworth 's famous allegorical portrait of Sir John Luttrell , and

2461-436: Is the restored 18th-century castle watermill . In 2017 the castle received 209,245 visitors. Dunster Castle has been designated as a Grade I listed building and Scheduled Monument . The grounds are included on Register of Historic Parks and Gardens at Grade II*. The castle has required continuing maintenance work, in particular to its roof, itself an important historical feature. Efforts have been made to gradually redecorate

2568-400: Is usually intended to exclude smaller mounds which often had non-military purposes. In England and Wales, only 7% of mottes were taller than 10 metres (33 feet) high; 24% were between 10 and 5 metres (33 and 16 ft), and 69% were less than 5 metres (16 feet) tall. A motte was protected by a ditch around it, which would typically have also been a source of the earth and soil for constructing

2675-565: The Angevins , it is argued, began to build them to protect against the Viking raids, and the design spread to deal with the attacks along the Slav and Hungarian frontiers. Another argument is that, given the links between this style of castle and the Norman style, who were of Viking descent, it was in fact originally a Viking design, transported to Normandy and Anjou . The motte-and-bailey castle

2782-610: The Bass of Inverurie to smaller castles like Balmaclellan . Motte-and-bailey castles were introduced to Ireland following the Norman invasion of Ireland that began between 1166 and 1171 under first Richard de Clare and then Henry II of England , with the occupation of southern and eastern Ireland by a number of Anglo-Norman barons. The rapid Norman success depended on key economic and military advantages; their cavalry enabled Norman successes in battles, and castles enabled them to control

2889-523: The Holy Roman Empire , which then spanned central Europe. They now typically took the form of an enclosure on a hilltop, or, on lower ground, a tall, free-standing tower (German Bergfried ). The largest castles had well-defined inner and outer courts, but no mottes. The motte-and-bailey design began to spread into Alsace and the northern Alps from France during the first half of the 11th century, spreading further into Bohemia and Austria in

2996-591: The Low Countries encouraged castle building in a number of regions from the late 12th century to the 14th century. In Flanders , the first motte and bailey castles began relatively early at the end of the 11th century. The rural motte-and-bailey castles followed the traditional design, but the urban castles often lacked the traditional baileys, using parts of the town to fulfil this role instead. Motte-and-bailey castles in Flanders were particularly numerous in

3103-639: The castle in Norwich and 27 for the castle in Cambridge . The second and third waves of castle building in the late-11th century were led by the major magnates and then the more junior knights on their new estates. Some regional patterns in castle building can be seen – relatively few castles were built in East Anglia compared to the west of England or the Marches , for example; this was probably due to

3210-481: The keep and the gatehouse usually the first parts to be upgraded. Shell keeps were built on many mottes, circular stone shells running around the top of the motte, sometimes protected by a further chemise , or low protective wall, around the base. By the 14th century, a number of motte and bailey castles had been converted into powerful stone fortresses. Newer castle designs placed less emphasis on mottes. Square Norman keeps built in stone became popular following

3317-591: The terpen gave way to hege wieren , non-residential defensive towers, often on motte-like mounds, owned by the increasingly powerful nobles and landowners. On Zeeland the local lords had a high degree of independence during the 12th and 13th centuries, owing to the wider conflict for power between neighbouring Flanders and Friesland. The Zeeland lords had also built terpen mounds, but these gave way to larger werven constructions–effectively mottes–which were later termed bergen . Sometimes both terpen and werven are called vliedburg , or " refuge castles ". During

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3424-427: The "first storey was on the surface of the ground, where were cellars and granaries, and great boxes, tuns, casks, and other domestic utensils. In the storey above were the dwelling and common living rooms of the residents in which were the larders, the rooms of the bakers and butlers, and the great chamber in which the lord and his wife slept ... In the upper storey of the house were garret rooms ... In this storey also

3531-452: The 12th and 13th centuries a number of terpen mounds were turned into werven mottes, and some new werven mottes were built from scratch. Around 323 known or probable motte and bailey castles of this design are believed to have been built within the borders of the modern Netherlands . In neighbouring Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles appeared somewhat later in the 12th and 13th centuries and in more limited numbers than elsewhere, due to

3638-492: The 14th century to a castrum-curia model, where the castle was built with a fortified bailey and a fortified mound, somewhat smaller than the typical motte. By the 12th century, the castles in Western Germany began to thin in number, due to changes in land ownership, and various mottes were abandoned. In Germany and Denmark, motte-and-bailey castles also provided the model for the later wasserburg , or "water castle",

3745-817: The 15th century, England was divided by the prolonged period of civil war now called the Wars of the Roses : the Luttrells were supporters of the House of Lancaster . In 1461, Sir James Luttrell died following the Lancastrian defeat at the Second Battle of St Albans , and his family were deprived of their estates by the Yorkist Edward IV . The castle was given to the Herberts, but the Luttrells regained it on

3852-589: The Conqueror , as the Duke of Normandy , is believed to have adopted the motte-and-bailey design from neighbouring Anjou. Duke William went on to prohibit the building of castles without his consent through the Consuetudines et Justicie , with his legal definition of castles centring on the classic motte-and-bailey features of ditching, banking and palisading. By the 11th century, castles were built throughout

3959-495: The Lower Ward of the castle in 1617, and this was extensively modernised, first during the 1680s and then during the 1760s. The medieval castle walls were mostly destroyed following the siege of Dunster Castle at the end of the First English Civil War , when Parliament ordered the defences to be slighted to prevent their further use. In the 1860s and 1870s, the architect Anthony Salvin was employed to remodel

4066-560: The Magyars and the Norse. Against this background, various explanations have been put forward to explain the origins and spread of the motte-and-bailey design across western and northern Europe; there is often a tension among the academic community between explanations that stress military and social reasons for the rise of this design. One suggestion is that these castles were built particularly in order to protect against external attack –

4173-580: The Norman-French baille , or basse-cour , referring to a low yard. In medieval sources, the Latin term castellum was used to describe the bailey complex within these castles. One contemporary account of these structures comes from Jean de Colmieu around 1130, describing the Calais region in northern France. De Colmieu described how the nobles would build "a mound of earth as high as they can and dig

4280-465: The Outer Hall, a new gallery on the first floor, a billiard room, a new library and a drawing room. Much of the wooden 17th-century panelling in the parlour and the hall had to be stripped out as part of the renovations. As part of his work, Salvin appears to have used a number of rolled wrought-iron beams to span the resulting structural gaps in the building, an advanced use of that technology for

4387-516: The accession of the Lancastarian Henry VII in 1485, when Dunster was restored to James' son, Sir Hugh Luttrell. Hugh repaired the castle chapel and in the early 16th century his son, Sir Andrew Luttrell, built a new wall on the east side of the castle. Andrew's son Sir John Luttrell , who inherited the castle, was a famous soldier, diplomat , and courtier under Henry VIII and Edward VI , serving in France and in Scotland during

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4494-562: The best-known castle design, they were not always the most numerous in any given area. A popular alternative was the ringwork castle, involving a palisade being built on top of a raised earth rampart , protected by a ditch. The choice of motte and bailey or ringwork was partially driven by terrain, as mottes were typically built on low ground, and on deeper clay and alluvial soils. Another factor may have been speed, as ringworks were faster to build than mottes. Some ringwork castles were later converted into motte-and-bailey designs, by filling in

4601-527: The building of motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy accelerated as well, resulting in a broad swath of these castles across the Norman territories, around 741 motte-and-bailey castles in England and Wales alone. Having become well established in Normandy, Germany and Britain, motte-and-bailey castles began to be adopted elsewhere, mainly in northern Europe, during the 12th and 13th centuries. Conflict through

4708-469: The castle in 1726 but ran up new debts, and the castle was handed over into the control of a receiver . Henry Fownes Luttrell , who married Margaret , Alexander's daughter, and took the Luttrell name, moved to Dunster in 1747. The couple redesigned and redecorated the castle in a Rococo style, including the extensive use of the recently invented and highly fashionable wallpaper . Henry Luttrell raised

4815-537: The castle in 1954, but in 1976 Colonel Walter Luttrell gave Dunster Castle and most of its contents to the National Trust , which operates it as a tourist attraction . It is a Grade I listed building and scheduled monument . Dunster Castle was positioned on a steep, 200-foot-high (60 m) hill, sometimes called the Tor, overlooking the village of Dunster in Somerset . During the early medieval period

4922-414: The castle in a period style, using reproductions of original wallpapers and materials. The National Trust installed solar panels behind the battlements on the roof in 2008 to provide electricity and make the premises more environmentally friendly. This was the first time the National Trust have taken this approach to a Grade I listed building, and it is expected to save 1,714 kg (3,778 lb) of carbon

5029-489: The castle on Joan's death in 1404. The castle had suffered from a lack of investment during the final years of the Mohan's ownership, and Luttrell repaired and extended the castle at a cost of £252, constructing the Great Gatehouse and a barbican between 1419 and 1424. The new entrance lay at right-angles to the old and was three storeys high, built of imported Bristol red sandstone , and contained extensive apartments; it formed

5136-410: The castle to fit Victorian tastes; this work extensively changed the appearance of Dunster to make it appear more Gothic and Picturesque . Following the death of Alexander Luttrell in 1944, the family was unable to afford the death duties on his estate. The castle and surrounding lands were sold off to a property firm, the family continuing to live in the castle as tenants. The Luttrells bought back

5243-482: The castle to transfer to Elizabeth on Joan's death. At some point during this period additional stone buildings were constructed along the Lower Ward, on the side of the current mansion, and records suggest that a ditch, or moat , may have existed around the base of the Tor in the 14th century. Joan outlived Elizabeth, and in the event Sir Hugh Luttrell , who was Henry V's seneschal in Normandy , finally took over

5350-461: The castle walls as part of their feudal service. In the 13th century the Lower Ward was rebuilt in stone by Reynold Mohun; this was paid for in part by Reynold commuting his tenants' ongoing duty to repair the castle walls into a single, one-off financial payment to their lord, and partially through his marriage to a rich local heiress. A survey of the castle in 1266 described the Upper Ward on

5457-438: The castle's roofing had been covered in lead, while other parts still used wooden shingles. In 1330 Sir John de Mohun inherited the castle; John, although a notable knight, was childless and fell into considerable debt. His wife Joan took over the running of their estates, and when John died in 1376 she agreed to sell the castle to Lady Elizabeth Luttrell, the leading member of another major Norman family, for 5,000 marks , with

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5564-465: The castle, requiring the eviction of a number of tenant farmers. Henry's son, John, inherited the castle in 1780, but when his son, also called John, inherited in 1816 he chose to live in London instead, opening up Dunster Castle to the public. By 1845 the castle appeared to visitors to be past its prime: with only two of John's sisters living there and no horses or hunting dogs left in the castle grounds,

5671-405: The castle. Wherever possible, nearby streams and rivers would be dammed or diverted, creating water-filled moats, artificial lakes and other forms of water defences. In practice, there was a wide number of variations to this common design. A castle could have more than one bailey: at Warkworth Castle an inner and an outer bailey was constructed, or alternatively, several baileys could flank

5778-485: The castle. The castle and the surrounding countryside at this time was very popular with the Luttrells for fox hunting and shooting . During the Second World War the castle was used as a convalescent home for injured naval and American officers between 1943 and 1944. Alexander died in 1944, and the death duties proved crippling to Geoffrey. In 1949 he sold the castle and 3,480 hectares (8,600 acres) of

5885-535: The centre of the ringwork to produce a flat-topped motte. The reasons for why this decision was taken are unclear; motte-and-bailey castles may have been felt to be more prestigious, or easier to defend; another theory is that like the terpen in the Netherlands, or Vorburg and Hauptburg in Lower Rhineland, raising the height of the castle was done to create a drier site. The motte-and-bailey castle

5992-465: The conflicts of the Rough Wooing . In 1542, the antiquarian John Leland reported the castle keep and buildings to be considerable disrepair, with the exception of the chapel, and after Sir John's death the castle was leased out for several years, first by his daughter, Mary, and then under his brother, Thomas. By the time George Luttrell inherited the castle in 1571, it was dilapidated, with

6099-516: The construction of a smaller design than that later seen on the sites concerned. Taking into account estimates of the likely available manpower during the period, historians estimate that the larger mottes might have taken between four and nine months to build. This contrasted favourably with stone keeps of the period, which typically took up to ten years to build. Very little skilled labour was required to build motte and bailey castles, which made them very attractive propositions if forced peasant labour

6206-502: The creation of local fiefdoms and feudal landowners, and areas without this method of governance rarely built these castles. Yet another theory suggests that the design emerged as a result of the pressures of space on ringworks and that the earliest motte-and-baileys were converted ringworks. Finally, there may be a link between the local geography and the building of motte-and-bailey castles, which are usually built on low-lying areas, in many cases subject to regular flooding. Regardless of

6313-432: The date for the first motte and bailey castle, at Vincy , back to 979. The castles were built by the more powerful lords of Anjou in the late 10th and 11th centuries, in particular Fulk III and his son, Geoffrey II , who built a great number of them between 987 and 1060. Many of these earliest castles would have appeared quite crude and rustic by later standards, belying the power and prestige of their builders. William

6420-696: The existing buildings and walls to create a 16th-century Jacobean mansion with a symmetrical front and square towers, set within the older castle walls and overlooked by the keep above. The building was decorated in the latest styles, including ornamental plaster ceilings. The project ran almost three times over budget, costing Luttrell more than £1,200. When the First English Civil War began in August 1642, George's eldest son Thomas supported Parliament ; William Russell, 1st Duke of Bedford and Parliamentarian commander in Devon and Somerset, ordered him to strengthen

6527-409: The family preferring to live in their house, now known as Court House , at East Quantoxhead . In 1617 George employed the architect William Arnold , to create a new house in the Lower Ward of the castle. Arnold was an important architect in the south-west of England, and had managed the building of nearby Montacute , Cranborne House and also Wadham College, Oxford . The redesign expanded on some of

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6634-432: The few exceptions being that at Windsor Castle, converted for the storage of royal documents . Another example is Durham Castle in northern England, where the round tower is used for student accommodation . The landscape of northern Europe remains scattered with their earthworks, and many form popular tourist attractions. Counterscarp A scarp and a counterscarp are the inner and outer sides, respectively, of

6741-408: The first documentary evidence of a native Welsh castle being at Cymmer in 1116. These timber castles, including Tomen y Rhodywdd, Tomen y Faerdre , Gaer Penrhôs , were of equivalent quality to the equivalent Norman fortifications in the area, and it can prove difficult to distinguish the builders of some sites from the archaeological evidence alone. Motte-and-bailey castles in Scotland emerged as

6848-461: The first such construction in Langeais in 994. Several were built in England and Wales after the conquest; by 1216 there were around 100 in the country. These massive keeps could be either erected on top of settled, well-established mottes or could have mottes built around them – so-called "buried" keeps. The ability of mottes, especially newly built mottes, to support the heavier stone structures,

6955-631: The future Charles II stayed at the castle in May 1645. During 1645 the Royalist military cause largely collapsed, and Colonel Robert Blake led a Parliamentarian force against Dunster in October. In November, Blake established his artillery in the village and began digging mines beneath the castle walls. Dunster was briefly relieved in February 1646 but the siege resumed, and by April the Royalist position

7062-512: The garrison at Dunster. The local Royalist commander William Seymour, 2nd Duke of Somerset , attacked the castle in 1642 but was repulsed by the garrison, led by Thomas' wife Jane. In early 1643, the war in the south-west turned in favour of the King, and on 7 June 1643 the Royalists assaulted the castle again and Luttrell switched sides. Colonel Wyndham was appointed Royalist governor, and

7169-458: The ground height of the Lower Ward between 1764 and 1765 to extend the New Way all around to the front of his mansion, adding additional ornamental towers onto the inside of the Great Gatehouse in the process. A folly , Conygar Tower , was constructed by architect Richard Phelps to improve the view from the castle, and a larger park of 141 hectares (348 acres) was built just to the south of

7276-426: The higher peaks where mottes were unnecessary. In Flanders, a decline came in the 13th century as feudal society changed. In the Netherlands, cheap brick started to be used in castles from the 13th century onwards in place of earthworks, and many mottes were levelled, to help develop the surrounding, low-lying fields; these "levelled mottes" are a particularly Dutch phenomenon. In Denmark, motte and baileys gave way in

7383-460: The identification of these earthwork remains can be contentious. A small number of motte-and-bailey castles were built outside of northern Europe. In the late-12th century, the Normans invaded southern Italy and Sicily ; although they had the technology to build more modern designs, in many cases wooden motte-and-bailey castles were built instead for reasons of speed. The Italians came to refer to

7490-506: The lands to the Ashdale Property Company, retaining a tenancy of the castle for himself. The Crown Estate bought the estate from Ashdale and sold the castle back to Geoffrey in 1954. His son Colonel Walter Luttrell lived away from Dunster, and following the death of his mother – the last Luttrell to live in the property – gave the castle and most of its contents to the National Trust in 1976. Dunster Castle

7597-543: The later periods. Larger mottes took disproportionately more effort to build than their smaller equivalents, because of the volumes of earth involved. The largest mottes in England, such as that of Thetford Castle , are estimated to have required up to 24,000 man-days of work; smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000. Contemporary accounts talk of some mottes being built in a matter of days, although these low figures have led to suggestions by historians that either these figures were an underestimate, or that they refer to

7704-809: The less feudal society. Except for a handful of mote and bailey castles in Norway, built in the first half of the 11th century and including the royal residence in Oslo , the design did not play a role further north in Scandinavia. The Norman expansion into Wales slowed in the 12th century but remained an ongoing threat to the remaining native rulers. In response, the Welsh princes and lords began to build their own castles, frequently motte-and-bailey designs, usually in wood. There are indications that this may have begun from 1111 onwards under Prince Cadwgan ap Bleddyn , with

7811-433: The medieval defensive walls, rather than the entire castle, leaving Dunster damaged from the recent siege but still habitable; the walls were demolished over 12 days in August 1650 by a team of 300 workmen. The only parts of the medieval walls to survive were the Great Gatehouse and the bases of the two towers in the Lower Ward. George Luttrell died without children, and Dunster Castle passed to his brother Francis, who survived

7918-592: The mid-medieval period. In France, they were not built after the start of the 12th century, and mottes ceased to be built in most of England after around 1170, although they continued to be erected in Wales and along the Marches. Many motte-and-bailey castles were occupied relatively briefly; in England, many had been abandoned or allowed to lapse into disrepair by the 12th century. In the Low Countries and Germany,

8025-401: The moat can be directly fired upon. Counterscarp galleries were usually built into the angles of the ditch to give the widest field of fire. Occasionally, casemated artillery batteries were built into the counterscarp, but they were more commonly designed for infantry weapons only. The galleries were usually connected to the main body of the fort by a tunnel which passed under the ditch, or by

8132-416: The more prestigious Höhenburgen built on high ground, but this is usually regarded as unlikely. In many cases, bergfrieds were converted into motte and bailey designs by burying existing castle towers within the mounds. In England, William invaded from Normandy in 1066, resulting in three phases of castle building in England, around 80% of which were in the motte-and-bailey pattern. The first of these

8239-467: The motte). The constructive elements themselves are ancient, but the term motte-and-bailey is a relatively modern one and is not medieval in origin. The word motte is the French version of the Latin mota , and in France, the word motte , generally used for a clump of turf , came to refer to a turf bank, and by the 12th century was used to refer to the castle design itself. The word "bailey" comes from

8346-409: The motte, as at Windsor Castle . Some baileys had two mottes, such as those at Lincoln . Some mottes could be square instead of round, such as at Cabal Tump (Herefordshire). Instead of single ditches, occasionally double-ditch defences were built, as seen at Berkhamsted . Local geography and the intent of the builder produced many unique designs. Various methods were used to build mottes. Where

8453-429: The mound itself. A keep and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte. Some walls would be large enough to have a wall-walk around them, and the outer walls of the motte and the wall-walk could be strengthened by filling in the gap between the wooden walls with earth and stones, allowing it to carry more weight; this was called a garillum . Smaller mottes could support only simple towers with room for

8560-417: The mound; the tower could potentially be built on the original ground surface and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath; or the tower could be built first, and the mound added later. Regardless of the sequencing, artificial mottes had to be built by piling up earth; this work was undertaken by hand, using wooden shovels and hand-barrows, possibly with picks as well in

8667-407: The newly conquered territories. The new lords rapidly built castles to protect their possessions; most of these were motte-and-bailey constructions, many of them strongly defended. Unlike Wales, the indigenous Irish lords do not appear to have constructed their own castles in any significant number during the period. Between 350 and 450 motte-and-bailey castles are believed to remain today, although

8774-511: The north; a third force, under the command of William de Mohun , landed by sea along the Somerset coast. William had been granted 68 manors in the region and by 1086 had established a castle at Dunster; this would form both the caput , or principal castle, for his new lands, and help guard the coast against the threat of any fresh sea-borne attack, as well as controlling the coastal road running from Somerset to Gloucestershire . This first castle

8881-565: The political turmoil of the Commonwealth prior to the 1660 Stuart Restoration . Francis died in 1666 and the castle in 1670 passed to his second son, another Francis . He married Mary Tregonwell, a wealthy heiress worth £2,500 a year, and used her income to modernise the castle during the 1680s, including a grand staircase in the latest style. As a colonel in the local militia, during the November 1688 Glorious Revolution Francis backed

8988-449: The rear of the mansion at a cost of £1,300 (£178,000 at 2009 prices); few records of this remain, but the interior probably resembled that of the chapel at Wimpole Hall . A safer, if less grand, approach road to the castle was created, called the New Way, and the remains of the Upper Ward on top of the motte were flattened to be used as a bowling green , complete with an octagonal summer house . Dorothy's son, Alexander Luttrell , took over

9095-419: The reasons behind the initial popularity of the motte-and-bailey design, however, there is widespread agreement that the castles were first widely adopted in Normandy and Angevin territory in the 10th and 11th centuries. The earliest purely documentary evidence for motte-and-bailey castles in Normandy and Angers comes from between 1020 and 1040, but a combination of documentary and archaeological evidence pushes

9202-430: The relatively settled and prosperous nature of the east of England and reflected a shortage of unfree labour for constructing mottes. In Wales, the first wave of the Norman castles was again predominantly made of wood in a mixture of motte-and-bailey and ringwork designs. The Norman invaders spread up the valleys, using this form of castle to occupy their new territories. After the Norman conquest of England and Wales,

9309-477: The remaining servants had little to do. John's brother Henry inherited in 1857, but he too lived in London rather than at Dunster. George Luttrell inherited the castle in 1867 and began an extensive modernisation, backed by the considerable income from the Dunster estates – in a period of agricultural boom in England, the estates were producing £22,000 in revenue a year (£1.49 million at 2010 prices). It

9416-449: The removal of James II by his son-in-law William of Orange ; when William landed in Devon, Francis mustered a number of companies of infantry at Dunster on 19 November to support him, which formed the basis for the later Green Howards regiment. During this period the castle still kept an armoury of 43 muskets . Francis died heavily in debt in 1690, and his widow Mary moved the contents of the castle to London, where they were destroyed in

9523-459: The sea reached the base of the hill, close to the mouth of the River Avill , offering a natural defence and making the village an inland port. Several Iron Age hillforts were built close to Dunster, including Bat's Castle , Black Ball Camp and Grabbist Hill, but the earliest evidence of a fortification at Dunster was an Anglo-Saxon burgh . This was built on the summit of the hill and

9630-519: The south along the Lower Rhine , a fiercely contested border. Further along the coast in Friesland , the relatively decentralised, egalitarian society initially discouraged the building of motte and bailey castles, although terpen , raised "dwelling mounds" which lacked towers and were usually lower in height than a typical motte, were created instead. By the end of the medieval period, however,

9737-476: The subsequent years. This form of castle was closely associated with the colonisation of newly cultivated areas within the Empire, as new lords were granted lands by the emperor and built castles close to the local gród , or town. motte-and-bailey castle building substantially enhanced the prestige of local nobles, and it has been suggested that their early adoption was because they were a cheaper way of imitating

9844-407: The terrain. The bailey would contain a wide number of buildings, including a hall, kitchens, a chapel, barracks, stores, stables, forges or workshops, and was the centre of the castle's economic activity. The bailey was connected to the motte by a bridge, or, as often seen in England, by steps cut into the motte. Typically the ditch of the motte and the bailey joined, forming a figure of eight around

9951-415: The time. The house was refurnished with newly bought 16th and 17th-century artwork, two brass Italian cannons and a stuffed polar bear . Alexander Luttrell, who inherited Dunster Castle in 1910, chose to live at East Quantoxhead instead, and it was left empty until his son Geoffrey reoccupied the castle in 1920, redecorating some of the rooms in a contemporary style and building a polo ground alongside

10058-470: The top of the motte as containing a hall with a buttery, a pantry, a kitchen, a bakehouse, the chapel of Saint Stephen and a knight's hall, guarded by three towers. The Lower Ward included a granary , two towers and a gatehouse; one of the towers, called the Fleming Tower, was used as a prison. The castle stables lay outside the defences, further down the slope. By the end of the 13th century some of

10165-743: The top of the mound". At Durham Castle , contemporaries described how the motte-and-bailey superstructure arose from the "tumulus of rising earth" with a keep rising "into thin air, strong within and without" with a "stalwart house ... glittering with beauty in every part". Mottes were made out of earth and flattened on top, and it can be very hard to determine whether a mound is artificial or natural without excavation. Some were also built over older artificial structures, such as Bronze Age barrows . The size of mottes varied considerably, with these mounds being 3 metres to 30 metres in height (10–100 feet), and from 30 to 90 metres (100 to 300 ft) in diameter. This minimum height of 3 metres (10 feet) for mottes

10272-462: The watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep". Wooden structures on mottes could be protected by skins and hides to prevent their being easily set alight during a siege. The bailey was an enclosed courtyard overlooked by the high motte and surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and another ditch. The bailey was often kidney-shaped to fit against a circular motte but could be made in other shapes according to

10379-522: The wider the ditch was dug, the deeper and steeper the sides of the scarp could be, making it more defensive. Although militarily a motte was, as Norman Pounds describes it, "almost indestructible", they required frequent maintenance. Soil wash was a problem, particularly with steeper mounds, and mottes could be clad with wood or stone slabs to protect them. Over time, some mottes suffered from subsidence or damage from flooding, requiring repairs and stabilisation work. Although motte-and-bailey castles are

10486-528: Was a motte and bailey design, built upon the former Anglo-Saxon burgh ; the top of the Tor was scarped to form the motte, or Upper Ward, and an area below shaped to form the bailey, or Lower Ward. Somerset became more stable in the aftermath of the post-invasion period and the unsuccessful 1068 rebellion against Norman rule. It was common in the period for the Normans to build religious houses to accompany major castles, and accordingly William de Mohun endowed

10593-467: Was available, as was the case after the Norman invasion of England. Where the local workforce had to be paid – such as at Clones in Ireland, built in 1211 using imported labourers – the costs would rise quickly, in this case reaching £20. The type of soil would make a difference to the design of the motte, as clay soils could support a steeper motte, whilst sandier soils meant that a motte would need

10700-574: Was built nearby, but all trace of it has been lost. William successfully held the castle and was made the Earl of Somerset by the grateful Empress. Chroniclers complained of the way in which he subsequently raided and controlled the region by force during the war, causing much destruction. In the aftermath of the conflict, William's son, another William, inherited the castle after a short period of royal ownership under Henry II . William appears to have insisted that his tenants agree to help repair and maintain

10807-476: Was built on the motte by the start of the 12th century, and the castle survived a siege during the early years of the Anarchy . At the end of the 14th century the de Mohuns sold the castle to the Luttrell family , who continued to occupy the property until the late 20th century. The castle was expanded several times by the Luttrell family during the 17th and 18th centuries; they built a large manor house within

10914-402: Was certainly effective against assault, although as historian André Debord suggests, the historical and archaeological record of the military operation of motte-and-bailey castles remains relatively limited. An alternative approach focuses on the links between this form of castle and what can be termed a feudal mode of society. The spread of motte-and-bailey castles was usually closely tied to

11021-450: Was fashionable during the mid-Victorian period to remodel existing castles to produce what was felt to be a more consistent Gothic or sometimes Picturesque appearance and George, a keen historian, decided to follow this trend at Dunster; in the process, he also hoped to accommodate the larger household and facilities required for a 19th-century landowner: by 1881, the castle required 15 "living-in" servants alone. He employed Anthony Salvin ,

11128-402: Was limited, and many needed to be built on fresh ground. Concentric castles , relying on several lines of baileys and defensive walls, made increasingly little use of keeps or mottes at all. Across Europe, motte-and-bailey construction came to an end. At the end of the 12th century, the Welsh rulers began to build castles in stone, primarily in the principality of North Wales and usually along

11235-588: Was possibly intended to protect the region against sea-borne raiders; by the mid-11th century it was controlled by a local nobleman called Aelfric. In 1066 the Normans invaded south-east England , defeating the English forces at the battle of Hastings : in the aftermath of the victory, William the Conqueror entrusted the conquest of the south-west of England to his half-brother Robert of Mortain . Expecting stiff resistance, Robert marched west into Somerset, supported by forces under Walter of Douai , who entered from

11342-489: Was the establishment by the new king of royal castles in key strategic locations, including many towns. These urban castles could make use of the existing town's walls and fortification, but typically required the demolition of local houses to make space for them. This could cause extensive damage: records suggest that in Lincoln 166 houses were destroyed in the construction of Lincoln Castle , and that 113 were destroyed for

11449-476: Was untenable; Wyndham negotiated an honourable surrender and a Parliamentarian garrison installed. After the end of the Second English Civil War in 1649, Parliament decided to deliberately destroy, or slight , the defences of castles in key Royalist areas, including the south-west. Thomas Luttrell had died in February 1644 and his son George Luttrell convinced the authorities to destroy only

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