A report on Castle and William the Conqueror

Dating back to the early 12th century, the Alcázar of Segovia is one of the most distinctive castles in Europe.

William as depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry during the Battle of Hastings, lifting his helmet to show that he is still alive

Built in 1385, Bodiam Castle in East Sussex, England, is surrounded by a water-filled moat.

Château de Falaise in Falaise, Lower Normandy, France; William was born in an earlier building here.

The Norman White Tower, the keep of the Tower of London, exemplifies all uses of a castle including city defence, a residence, and a place of refuge in times of crisis.

Diagram showing William's family relationships. Names with "---" under them were opponents of William, and names with "+++" were supporters of William. Some relatives switched sides over time, and are marked with both symbols.

Windsor Castle in England was founded as a fortification during the Norman Conquest and today is one of the principal official residences of Queen Elizabeth II.

Column at the site of the Battle of Val-ès-Dunes

Baba Vida medieval castle build on the banks of the Danube in Vidin, Bulgaria

Image from the Bayeux Tapestry showing William with his half-brothers. William is in the centre, Odo is on the left with empty hands, and Robert is on the right with a sword in his hand.

São Jorge Castle in Lisbon, Portugal, with a bridge over a moat

The signatures of William I and Matilda are the first two large crosses on the Accord of Winchester from 1072.

The wooden palisades on top of mottes were often later replaced with stone, as in this example at Château de Gisors in France.

Family relationships of the claimants to the English throne in 1066, and others involved in the struggle. Kings of England are shown in bold.

A courtyard of the 14th-century Raseborg Castle in Finland

Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry whose text indicates William supplying weapons to Harold during Harold's trip to the continent in 1064

The 14th-century keep of Château de Vincennes near Paris towers above the castle's curtain wall. The wall exhibits features common to castle architecture: a gatehouse, corner towers, and machicolations.

Beaumaris Castle in Anglesey, North Wales, with curtain walls between the lower outer towers, and higher inner curtain walls between the higher inner towers.

Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry showing Normans preparing for the invasion of England

A 13th-century gatehouse in the château de Châteaubriant, France. It connects the upper ward to the lower one.

Modern-day site of the Battle of Stamford Bridge in the East Riding of Yorkshire

Caerlaverock Castle in Scotland is surrounded by a moat.

Scene from the Bayeux Tapestry depicting the Battle of Hastings.

Daorson, Bosnia, built around a prehistoric central fortified settlement or acropolis (existed there cca. 17/16th c. to the end of the Bronze Age, cca. 9/8th c. BCE), surrounded by cyclopean walls (similar to Mycenae) dated to the 4th c. BCE.

The remains of Baile Hill, the second motte-and-bailey castle built by William in York

Borġ in-Nadur fort in Malta, built during the Tarxien phase and used until the Bronze Age.

Norwich Castle. The keep dates to after the Revolt of the Earls, but the castle mound is earlier.

The Bayeux Tapestry contains one of the earliest representations of a castle. It depicts attackers of the Château de Dinan in France using fire, a major threat to wooden castles.

Map showing William's lands in 1087 (the light pink areas were controlled by William)

Built in 1138, Castle Rising in Norfolk, England is an example of an elaborate donjon.

The White Tower in London, begun by William

Albarrana tower in Paderne Castle, Portugal

The gatehouse to the inner ward of Beeston Castle in Cheshire, England, was built in the 1220s, and has an entrance between two D-shaped towers.

A page from the Domesday Book for Warwickshire

Krak des Chevaliers in Syria is a concentric castle built with both rectangular and rounded towers. It is one of the best-preserved Crusader castles.

William's grave before the high altar in the Abbaye-aux-Hommes, Caen

The design of Edward I's Harlech Castle (built in the 1280s) in North Wales was influenced by his experience of the Crusades.

Statue of William the Conqueror in Falaise, France

The northern walls of the Gran Castello in Gozo, Malta, were built in the 15th century.

Corvin Castle in Transylvania (built between 1446 and 1480) was one of the biggest in Eastern Europe at that time.

The angled bastion, as used in Copertino Castle in Italy, was developed around 1500. First used in Italy, it allowed the evolution of artillery forts that eventually took over the military role of castles.

Neuschwanstein is a 19th-century historicist (neoromanesque) castle built by Ludwig II of Bavaria, inspired by the romanticism of the time.

Castello Dei Baroni, a country residence in Wardija, Malta, designed with castle-like features.

A 19th-century depiction by Eugène Viollet-le-Duc of the construction of the large tower at Coucy Castle in France, with scaffolding and masons at work. The putlog holes mark the position of the scaffolding in earlier stages of construction. The tower was blown up in 1917.

Experimental archeology castle building at Guédelon Castle site in France (2015).

God Speed! by Edmund Blair Leighton, 1900: a late Victorian view of a lady giving a favour to a knight about to do battle.

Highland castles such as Château de Montségur in southern France have become the popular idea of where castles should be found because they are photogenic, where in reality castles were built in a variety of places due to a range of considerations.

Srebrenik Fortress in Srebrenik, Bosnia: inaccessibility of location with only a narrow bridge traversing deep canyon provides excellent protection.

Almourol Castle in Portugal, which stands on a small islet in the Tejo River.

Tavastia Castle in Hämeenlinna, Finland, one of the northernmost castles in Europe. The exact date of construction of the castle is unclear, as far as it is known to have been built in the late 13th century, but the first mention of it in contemporary documents is from 1308. It was built close to Lake Vanajavesi.

An early 13th-century drawing by Matthew Paris showing contemporary warfare, including the use of castles (here Lincoln Castle), crossbowmen and mounted knights.

A reconstructed trebuchet at Château des Baux in Bouches-du-Rhône in the south of France.

As William the Conqueror advanced through England, he fortified key positions to secure the land he had taken.

- Castle

As part of his efforts to secure England, William ordered many castles, keeps, and mottes built – among them the central keep of the Tower of London, the White Tower.

- William the Conqueror

2 related topics with Alpha

Warwick Castle

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An old map published around 1610 by John Speed showing Warwick; the castle is in the south of the town, next to the River Avon.

The motte of the Norman motte-and-bailey castle is called Ethelfleda's Mound

Caesar's Tower was built between 1330 and 1360

The Bear and Clarence Towers which were built by King Richard III in the 1480s

A gibbet, previously on display in the dungeon in the basement of Caesar's Tower

The castle's south facade as seen across the River Avon

The chapel was built by Fulke Greville in the early 1600s

The east front of Warwick Castle from the outer court, painted by Canaletto in 1752.

The east front of Warwick Castle from inside the courtyard, painted by Canaletto in 1752.

Warwick Castle, painted by William Pitt about 1870

Merlin Entertainments provides extensive maintenance for the property, as here on Ethelfleda's Mound

One of the groups of wax figures in the castle; Lord Brooke, a young Winston Churchill and Spencer Cavendish

One of the first views of the castle for tourists entering the grounds

The Warwick Castle trebuchet is currently the largest one in the world (2009)

It was reconstructed based on 13th-century drawings, and functions properly (2018)

Warwick Castle trebuchet from the rear (2010)

Close up of the walking cage on the trebuchet (2010)

Warwick Castle is a medieval castle developed from a wooden fort, originally built by William the Conqueror during 1068.

Keep

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A 19th-century reconstruction of the keep at Château d'Étampes

Reconstructed wooden keep at Saint-Sylvain-d'Anjou

1899 Ordnance Survey map of the fortified Royal Naval Dockyard (to become the North Yard on completion of the South Yard shown then under construction) in the Imperial fortress colony of Bermuda, with its Keep at the northern (right) end

A keep (from the Middle English kype) is a type of fortified tower built within castles during the Middle Ages by European nobility.

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.