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century keeps became fashionable once again and in england and france a number were restored or redesigned by gothic architects despite further damage to many french and spanish keeps during the wars of the 20th century keeps now form an important part of the tourist and heritage industry in europe etymology and historiography edit a 19th century reconstruction drawing of the keep at château d étampes in france since the 16th century the english word keep has commonly referred to large towers in castles 4 the word originates from around 1375 to 1376 coming from the middle english term kype meaning basket or cask and was a term applied to the shell keep at guînes said to resemble a barrel 5 the term came to be used for other shell keeps by the 15th century 4 by the 17th century the word keep lost its original reference to baskets or casks and was popularly assumed to have come from the middle english word keep meaning to hold or to protect 4 early on the use of the word keep became associated with the idea of a tower in a castle that would serve both as a fortified high status private residence and a refuge of last resort 6 the issue was complicated by the building of fortified renaissance towers in italy called tenazza that were used as defences of last resort and were also named after the italian for to hold or to keep 4 by the 19th century victorian historians incorrectly concluded that the etymology of the words keep and tenazza were linked and that all keeps had fulfilled this military function 4 as a result of this evolution in meaning the use of the term keep in historical analysis today can be problematic 7 contemporary medieval writers used various terms for the buildings we would today call keeps in latin they are variously described as turris turris castri or magna turris a tower a castle tower or a great tower 7 the 12th century french came to term them a donjon from the latin dominarium lordship an agent noun linking the physical structure with the concept of feudal authority 8 similarly medieval spanish writers called the buildings torre del homenaje or tower of homage in england donjon turned into dungeon which initially referred to a keep rather than to a place of imprisonment 9 while the term remains in common academic use some academics prefer to use the term donjon and most modern historians warn against using the term keep simplistically 10 the fortifications that we would today call keeps did not necessarily form part of a unified medieval style nor were they all used in a similar fashion during the period 10 history edit timber keeps 9th 12th centuries edit the earliest keeps were built as part of motte and bailey castles from the 10th century onwards a combination of documentary and archaeological evidence places the first such castle built at vincy in 979 11 these castles were initially 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 12 william the conqueror then introduced this form of castle into england when he invaded in 1066 and the design spread through south wales as the normans expanded up the valleys during the subsequent decades 13 reconstructed keep at saint sylvain d anjou in maine et loire in a motte and bailey design a castle would include a mound called a motte usually artificially constructed by piling up turf and soil and a bailey a lower walled enclosure a keep and a protective wall would usually be built on top of the motte some protective walls around a keep 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 14 smaller mottes could only support simple towers with room for a few soldiers whilst larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander keep 15 many wooden keeps were designed with a bretasche a square structure that overhung from the upper floors of the building enabling better defences and a more sturdy structural design 16 these wooden keeps could be protected by skins and hides to prevent them from being easily set alight during a siege 15 one contemporary account of these keeps comes from jean de colmieu around 1130 who described how the nobles of the calais region would build a mound of earth as high as they can and dig 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 reches to the top of the mound 17 at durham castle contemporaries described how the keep arose from the tumulus of rising earth with a keep reaching into thin air strong within and without a stalwart house glittering with beauty in every part 18 as well as having defensive value keeps and mottes sent a powerful political message to the local population 19 wooden keeps could be quite extensive in size and as robert higham and philip barker have noted it was possible to build very tall and massive structures 20 nb 1 as an example of what these keeps may have comprised the early 12th century chronicler lambert of ardres described the wooden keep on top of the motte at the castle of ardres where 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 the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house took their sleep 22 in the holy roman empire tall free standing wooden later stone fighting towers called bergfriede were commonly built by the 11th century either as part of motte and bailey designs or as part of hohenburgen castles with characteristic inner and outer courts 23 bergfriede which take their name from the german for a belfry had similarities to keeps but are usually distinguished from them on account of bergfriede having a smaller area or footprint usually being non residential and being typically integrated into the outer defences of a castle rather than being a safe refuge of last resort 24 nb 2 early stone keeps 10th 12th centuries edit the norman keep at colchester castle in essex built in a romanesque style on the foundations of a roman temple during the 10th century a small number of stone keeps began to be built in france such at the château de langeais in the 11th century their numbers increased as the style spread through normandy across the rest of france and into england south italy and sicily 26 some existing motte and bailey castles were converted to stone with the keep usually amongst the first parts to be upgraded while in other cases new keeps were built from scratch in stone 27 in some cases the keep and motte were built at the same time with the keep embedded in the motte as happened at ascot d oilly castle while at other castles such as lydford and wareham in england mottes were a later feature and built around a keep starting the construction of the keep at ground level and building the motte around it gave the building greater stability 28 stone keeps were introduced into ireland during the 1170s following the norman occupation of the east of the country where they were particularly popular amongst the new anglo norman lords 29 two broad types of design emerged across france and england during the period four sided stone keeps known as norman keeps or great keeps in english a donjon carré or donjon roman in french and circular shell keeps 30 nb 3 the reasons for the transition from timber to stone keeps are unclear and the process was slow and uneven taking many years to take effect across the various regions 32 traditionally it was believed that stone keeps had been adopted because of the cruder nature of wooden buildings the limited lifespan of wooden fortifications and their vulnerability to fire but recent archaeological studies have shown that many wooden castles were as robust and as sophisticated as their stone equivalents 33 some wooden keeps were not converted into stone for many years and were instead expanded in wood such as at hen domen 34 nonetheless stone became increasingly popular as a building material for keeps for both military and symbolic reasons 35 stone keep construction required skilled craftsmen unlike timber and earthworks which could be built using unfree labour or serfs these craftsmen had to be paid and stone keeps were therefore expensive 36 they were also relatively slow to erect due to the limitations of the lime mortar used during the period a keep s walls could usually be raised by a maximum of only 12 feet 3 6 metres a year the keep at scarborough was not atypical in taking ten years to build 36 the number of such keeps remained relatively low in england for example although several early stone keeps had been built after the conquest there were only somewhere between ten and fifteen in existence by 1100 and only around a hundred had been built by 1216 37 the norman keep r and prison l at goodrich castle in herefordshire england built to a square design in the early 12th century norman keeps had four sides with the corners reinforced by pilaster buttresses some keeps particularly in normandy and france had a barlongue design being rectangular in plan with their length twice their width while others particularly in england formed a square 38 these keeps could be up to four storeys high with the entrance placed on the first storey to prevent the door from being easily broken down early french keeps had external stairs in wood whilst later castles in both france and england built them in stone 39 in some cases the entrance stairs were protected by additional walls and a door producing a forebuilding 40 the strength of the norman design typically came from the thickness of the keep s walls usually made of rag stone these could be up to 24 feet 7 3 metres thick immensely strong and producing a steady temperature inside the building throughout summer and winter 41 the larger keeps were subdivided by an internal wall while the smaller versions had a single slightly cramped chamber on each floor 42 usually only the first floor would be vaulted in stone with the higher storeys supported with timbers 40 there has been extensive academic discussion of the extent to which norman keeps were designed with a military or political function in mind particularly in england earlier analyses of norman keeps focused on their military design and historians such as r brown cathcart king proposed that square keeps were adopted because of their military superiority over timber keeps most of these norman keeps were certainly extremely physically robust even though the characteristic pilaster buttresses added little real architectural strength to the design 43 many of the weaknesses inherent to their design were irrelevant during the early part of their history the corners of square keeps were theoretically vulnerable to siege engines and galleried mining but before the introduction of the trebuchet at the end of the 12th century early artillery stood little practical chance of damaging the keeps and galleried mining was rarely practised 44 similarly the corners of a square keep created dead space that defenders could not fire at but missile fire in castle sieges was less important until the introduction of the crossbow in the middle of the 12th century when arrowslits began to be introduced 45 restormel castle s shell keep in cornwall england converted to stone in the late 12th century nonetheless many stone norman keeps made considerable compromises to military utility 46 norwich castle for example included elaborate blind arcading on the outside of the building and appears to have had an entrance route designed for public ceremony rather than for defence 47 the interior of the keep at hedingham could certainly have hosted impressive ceremonies and events but contained numerous flaws from a military perspective 48 important early english and welsh keeps such as the white tower colchester and chepstow were all built in a distinctive romanesque style often reusing roman materials and sites and were almost certainly intended to impress and generate a political effect amongst local people 49 the political value of these keep designs and the social prestige they lent to their builders may help explain why they continued to be built in england into the late 12th century beyond the point when military theory would have suggested that alternative designs were adopted 50 the second early stone design emerging from the 12th century onwards was the shell keep a donjon annulaire in french which involved replacing the wooden keep on a motte or the palisade on a ringwork with a circular stone wall 51 shell keeps were sometimes further protected by an additional low protective wall called a chemise around their base buildings could then be built around the inside of the shell producing a small inner courtyard at the centre 52 the style was particularly popular in south east england and across normandy although less so elsewhere 53 restormel castle is a classic example of this development as is the later launceston castle prominent normandy and low country equivalents include gisors and the burcht van leiden these castles were amongst the most powerful fortifications of the period 54 although the circular design held military advantages over one with square corners as noted above these really mattered from only the end of the 12th century onwards the major reason for adopting a shell keep design in the 12th century at least was the circular design of the original earthworks exploited to support the keep indeed some designs were less than circular in order to accommodate irregular mottes such as that found at windsor castle 55 mid medieval keeps late 12th 14th centuries edit keep at château d étampes in france a curved design begun in 1120 during the second half of the 12th century a range of new keep designs began to appear across france and england breaking the previous unity of the regional designs the use of keeps in castles spread through iberia but some new castles never incorporated keeps in their designs one traditional explanation for these developments emphasises the military utility of the new approaches arguing for example that the curved surfaces of the new keeps helped to deflect attacks or that they drew on...