The war of conquest waged by the Normans on their new subjects between 1067 and 1072 changed the face of the English landscape. Castles were the main Norman devices for stamping their authority on a hostile population. Regarding the castles built by the Normans, we can only make a few general remarks. The Normans brought nothing really new to military architecture. In fact many features of the so-called motte-and-bailey castle (basically the combination of ditch, earth rampart, and wooden palisade) had already been used in Celtic hill forts, Roman forts, and the
Anglo-Saxon burhs. Some of the Norman early stone constructions were inferior in design to those of the Romans. In fact the Normans had no organized engineering corps and their castle designers were civilian architects and master-builders who constructed indifferently military, civilian and religious buildings. The Anglo-Saxons, as we have seen, had burhs erected before 1066, but the castle was, however, definitely a Norman import. To William I fortifications were an essential part of his strategy for keeping England in subjugation once he had conquered it. It was indeed the strategic and tactical concepts which the Normans most contributed and innovated. They saw strongholds not just as simple refuge places or temporary overnight camps, nor as barracks for the soldiery, but as integral units in the administration of their realm, and as solid bases for a mobile form of warfare mainly using armored cavalry. Nonetheless the new types of fortification they introduced, notably the massive stone keep, were more ambitious and greater in size and scope than anything the Celts and Saxons had been able to achieve before them. The Celtic hill fort was a collective tribal undertaking, while the Roman fort was a public work, part of a state system defense, as was the Saxon burh. By contrast, the Norman castle, although it was a major part of their governance, was a private stronghold built, financed and occupied by a feudal landlord. The difference is radical, and must be grasped at the outset by all who wish to understand the significance of castles in British history. This point is indeed essential. There were royal castles, but nationwide these were only a small minority. They were built in nearly every instance to overawe the towns and cities, and so left the countryside, where the bulk of the population lived, virtually in the hands of local feudal magnates, great or small, good or bad.
The Normans devoted tireless enthusiasm to the task of fortress construction and they brought a measure of standardization. That is not to say that all Norman castles were exactly the same. Each was a unique example specifically intended to meet the requirements of that particular geographical and political situation, but the Normans introduced a number of typical models. When we think of a Norman castle, there rises before our mind the image of a mighty square stone tower, like the keeps at Dover, Porchester, or Rochester or the White Tower in London. Yet the huge square stone keep was the exception rather than the rule, and the great majority of Norman castles were not made of stone but of timbered earthwork.
There is no doubt that the earliest Norman castles were built as temporary overnight camps protecting Duke William, his knights and his soldiers when campaigning to complete the invasion after the victory of Hastings. They had prefabricated camps with them, a series of stout wooden panels fixed to posts, which could be hammered into the ground. Such a temporary camp was not impregnable, but strong enough to keep out disgruntled Anglo-Saxon peasants. The next morning the prefabricated elements were dismantled and stowed in wagons before the column set off again. When the expedition became a permanent conquest, the occupation of large territories and the control of hostile populations demanded more elaborate fortifications. William I’s first task was to make the country secure. To do so, he granted his barons lands and permission to build strongholds (what became the license or the “right to crenellate”) to overawe the defeated Saxons by their magnitude and to serve as military bases in case of rebellion.
World History
