Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the AnarchyRound, John Horace
History
Geoffrey de Mandeville: A study of the Anarchy
Round, John Horace
Great Britain -- History -- Stephen, 1135-1154; Mandeville, Geoffrey de, earl of Essex, -1144
Here then we have at length the explanation of a difficulty often
raised. Why is "the Tower of London" so styled?[977] And although, in
England, the style may now be unique, men spoke in the days of which I
write of the "Tower" of Bristol or of Rochester as of the Tower of
Gloucester.[978] Abroad, the form was more persistent, and
special attention may be drawn to the Tower of Le Mans ("Turris
Cenomannica),"[979] because the expression "regia turris" which
Ordericus applies to it is precisely that which Florence of Worcester
applies, in 1114, to the Tower of London, to which it bore an affinity
in its relation to the Roman Wall.[980]
All that I have said of the "turris" keep is applicable to the "mota"
also, _mutatis mutandis_, for the _motte_, though its name was
occasionally extended to the whole fortress, was essentially the actual
keep, the crowned mound, as is well brought out in the passages quoted
by Mr. Clark from French charters:—
"Le motte _et les fossez d'entour_ ... le motte de Maiex ... le motte
de mon manoir de Caieux _et les fossez d'entour_."[981]
Here the "fossez d'entour" represent the surrounding works, the
"castellum" referred to in the charters of the Empress. But between "the
right to hold a moot there," "the moat (_sic_) and castle" as Mr. Hallam
rendered it, "the moat (_sic_) probably the _motte_" of Mr. Clark (ii.
112), and the clever evasion "mote" in the _Reports on the Dignity of a
Peer_ (_Third Report_, p. 163), the unfortunate "mota" of Hereford has
had a singular fate.
* * * * *
And now for the results of those conclusions that I have here
endeavoured to set forth. The three castles to which I shall apply them
are those of Rochester, of Newcastle, and of Arques.
In an elaborate article on the keep of Rochester, Mr. Hartshorne showed
that it was erected, not as was believed by Gundulf, but by Archbishop
William of Corbeuil,[982] between 1126 and 1139. But he did not attempt
to explain what was the "castle of stone" which Gundulf is recorded to
have there constructed. As everything turns on the exact wording, I here
give the relevant portions of the document in point: —
"Quomodo Willelmus Rex filius Willelmi Regis rogatu Lanfranci
Archiepiscopi concessit et confirmavit Rofensi ecclesiæ S. Andreæ
Apostoli ad victum Monachorum manerium nomine Hedenham; quare Gundulfus
Episcopus _Castrum_ Rofense _lapideum_ totum de suo proprio Regi
construxit.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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