Compare And Contrast Motte And Bailey Castles

The motte and bailey castles were a design of castles that were much present in England, after the Norman Conquest of England in 1066. The construction of these castles would be the start of a massive castle building program in England and Wales. With the Norman Conquest, William the Conqueror knew they had to build something to protect themselves, so they built the motte and bailey castles, which have been a success for them before. They were able to capture huge areas of land to build their castles and they also built them on areas that they were able to conquer. William would assign a loyal noble of his to a castle and move on to capture new territory. The motte and bailey castles were so important in the successful Norman conquest and

The castles were built with mainly stone including, limestone, flint, sandstone, and hard chalk. Lime mortars (mixture of lime, coal, and water) kept the stones intact. There was also access fresh water within the castle. The most notable aspects of concentric castles were defensive tactics as these castles had everything. They built certain buildings round and that would be a way that defenders would be able to remain unseen. There were tactics like moats (deep ditches surrounding the complex), barbicans (death traps used to defend the main entrance), murder holes (objects like heavy stone and boiling water was dropped through these), and gatehouses that would lead into a castle with a portcullis. A portcullis was a heavy, grilled door that would be vertically dropped to protect the main entrance of the castle. These defensive tactics allowed these expensive castles to become very useful

Like I said earlier, these castles were very easy and cheap to build and the building happened fast. The next model of castle were the stone keep castles built from 1100 onwards. They were developed from the successful motte and bailey castles, but some changes were made including how it was taller, and more towers having square corners. Some stone keeps were also rebuilt motte and bailey castles. Then the concentric castles come in and they are built from 1250 onwards. The concentric castle design was actually copied from Middle Eastern castles and like I said, included incredible defensive features like rounded towers, moats, and gatehouses. The next castle wasn't built necessarily for defensive purposes but to express the power and status of a noble and demonstrate a strong relationship between a king and his nobility. These were fortified manor houses and some changes in these was that they were made more comfortable. They included much bigger and seperate rooms as well as more towers and windows. The last castles built in this time period were coastal castles and they could be compared to the concentric castles more than the fortified manor houses. Some features with these castles included thick and layered, but low stone walls, gun ports, and cannon