England had known fortifications before the advent of the castle. The Iron Age peoples of Ancient Britain fortified hilltops with massive earthworks, such as Maiden Castle in Dorset, for tribal defense. The Romans dotted the countryside with innumerable military encampments and built the impressive chain of fortresses, known as the Saxon Shore forts (e.g. Portchester Castle, below), to guard South-East England from Saxon raiders in the 2nd and 3rd centuries AD. The Normans later built castles within the walls of two of these Roman Saxon Shore forts, at Pevensey in Sussex and Portchester in Hampshire. The Anglo-Saxons and the Danes ent

Evidence of a successful mining operation is to be found at Rochester Castle, Kent (photo at right). Its splendid Norman keep was originally built with four square angle turrets. In 1215, the castle was beseiged by forces under the direct command of King John. The last part of the castle to surrender was the keep. Its fall was due in large part to the King's miners who successfully mined the South-East angle turret causing its complete collapse. The keep was later repaired but with a round S.E. turret in place of the original square one.

Many of England's existing castles began as motte and bailey castles. Windsor Castle, Berkshire, perhaps England's most famous castle and the favorite home of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, is in origin a motte and bailey castle. In fact, it has two baileys (see illus. at right), one on each side of its motte, as does Arundel Castle in Sussex, home of the Dukes of Norfolk, hereditary Earl Marshals of England. Today, the mottes in both of these castles are crowned with stone towers, known as shell keeps. The conversion of the timber defences of motte and bailey castles to walls and towers of stone forms the next article in this series.

The Crusaders brought back to Europe many improvements in siegecraft and in castle design. One of the most important is hinted at in the replacement of the square by the round angle turret at Rochester. The rectangular keeps and towers that had been built in England during the 11th and 12th Centuries had the great disadvantage of presenting vulnerable corners to the crowbar and the battering ram. Not only were the corner stones easier to remove than those in a flat wall but the corner sheltered the attacker, limiting attacks on him to one direction only. The answer lay with the round tower or keep. The change from rectangular to cylindrical keeps begins in England in the later 12th Century. The transition is by no means immediate and there are several versions of the polyganol keep, that is a tower having many sides but presenting no sharp angles to invite attack.

Some topics in this essay:
England Scotland, Lateran Council, English Medieval, Feudalism Feudalism, King England, Durham Cathedral, Pevensey Sussex, Berkhamstead Hertfordshire, Kent Due, King John, motte bailey, 12th century, motte bailey castles, bailey castles, castle design, flanking towers, outer wall, flanking tower, base wall, medieval castle, castle wall, english medieval castle, inner bailey dover, 11th 12th centuries, form recognize castle,