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Motte-and-bailey

n A motte-and-bailey is a form of castle. Many were built in Britain, Ireland and France in the 11th and 12th centuries, favored as a relatively cheap but effective defensive fortification that could repel most small attack forces.

Construction

The 'motte' in French is a raised earth mound in the form of a small, often artificial hill and topped with a wooden or stone structure known as a keep. The earth for the mound would be taken from a ditch, dug around the motte or around the whole castle. The outer surface of the mound could be covered with clay or strengthened with wooden supports. Bigger castles might have two mottes, as at Lewes Castle. In England the Anglo-Saxons called these structures 'Grafts'. Most were originally topped with wooden structures, which could be built with readily available materials and without highly skilled labor, although many such structures were later replaced with stone keeps.

The 'bailey' is an enclosed courtyard, typically surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and overlooked by the motte. It was usually used as a living area by slaves owned by the lord of the castle or farmers. A castle could have more than one bailey, sometimes an inner and an outer, such as at Warkworth Castle, where expansion of the castle led to enclosure of a new bailey with a wall. Alternately, the multiple baileys could flank the motte, such as at Windsor Castle. The bailey was often directly connected to the ditch surrounding the motte. The bailey was often enclosed inside another wooden palisade and surrounding ditch, so as to add an extra layer of protection. It was connected to the motte by a timber drawbridge, which could be separated from the bailey as a last defence mechanism. There was in many cases another drawbridge at the entrance into the bailey that could similarly be raised for protection. The bailey would typically contain a hall, stables for the horses and cattle, a chapel, and huts for the nobleman's people.