The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.Armitage, Ella Sophia
History
The Early Norman Castles of the British Isles.
Armitage, Ella Sophia
Architecture, Norman; Castles -- Great Britain -- History -- To 1500; Normans -- Great Britain
LAUNCESTON, or Dunheved,[488] Cornwall (Fig. 19).--There, says Domesday
Book, is the castle of the Earl of Mortain.[489] In another place it
tells us that the earl gave two manors to the bishop of Exeter "for
the exchange of the castle of Cornwall," another name for Dunheved
Castle. We have already had occasion to note that the "exchange of the
castle," in Domesday language, is an abbreviation for the exchange of
the site of the castle. The fact that the land was obtained from the
church is a proof that the castle was new, for it was not the custom of
Saxon prelates thus to fortify themselves. The motte of Launceston is
a knoll of natural rock, which has been scarped and heightened by art.
This motte now carries a circular keep, which cannot be earlier than
the 13th century.[490] There is no early Norman work whatever about
the masonry of the castle, and the remarkably elaborate fortifications
on the motte belong to a much later period.[491] The motte rises in
one corner of a roughly rectangular bailey, which covers 3 acres. It
stands outside the town walls, which still exist, and join those of
the castle, as at Totnes. Launceston was only a small manor of ten
ploughs in the time of the Confessor. In spite of the building of
the castle, the value of the manor had greatly gone down in William's
time.[492] The ten ploughs had been reduced to five.
[Illustration: FIG. 19. Launceston, Cornwall. Lewes, Sussex.]
LEWES, Sussex (Fig. 19).--The castle of Lewes is not mentioned in its
proper place in Sussex by Domesday Book, and this is another proof that
the Survey contains no inventory of castles; for that the castle was
existing at that date is rendered certain by the numerous allusions
in the Norfolk portion to "the exchange of the castle of Lewes."[493]
It is clear that at some period, possibly during the revolt of Robert
Curthose in 1079, William I. gave large estates in Norfolk to his
trusty servant, William de Warenne, in exchange for the important
castle of Lewes, which he may have preferred to keep in his own hands
at that critical period. This bargain cannot have held long, at least
as regards the castle, which continued to belong to the Warenne family
for many generations. We cannot even guess now how the matter was
settled, but the lands in Norfolk certainly remained in the hands of
the Warennes.
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