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
*WALWERN, or Tafolwern, near Llanbrynmair, in Montgomery, may have been
a Welsh castle. It is first mentioned in 1163, when Howel ap Jeuav
took it from Owen Gwynedd, who may have been its builder. The motte is
marked in the O.M. on a narrow peninsula at the junction of two streams.
1169. *ABEREINON, in Cardigan.--Built by Rhys ap Griffith, Henry II.'s
Justiciar of South Wales. "A circular moated tumulus, now called Cil y
Craig."[997] (It is marked on the 25-inch O.M.)
1177. *RHAIDR GWY.--Also built by Rhys ap Griffith, no doubt as a
menace to Powys, as this castle was afterwards sorely contested. It is
a motte-and-bailey castle, the motte being known as Tower Mount.[998]
* * * * *
All these castles are of the motte-and-bailey type, and prove the
adoption by the Welsh of Norman customs.[999] It will be noticed that
in the first instances they were built by men who were specially under
Norman influences. But probably the fashion was soon more widely
followed, although these are the only recorded cases.
The contribution made by the castles of Wales to the general theory
of the origin of mottes in these islands is very important. Leaving
out the seven castles attributed to the Welsh, we find that out of
seventy-one castles built by the Normans, fifty-three, or very nearly
three-fourths, still have mottes; while in the remaining eighteen,
either the sites have been so altered as to destroy the original plan,
or there is a probability that a motte has formerly existed.
CHAPTER X
MOTTE-CASTLES IN SCOTLAND
The Scottish historians of the 19th century have amply recognised the
Anglo-Norman occupation of Scotland, which took place in the 11th and
12th centuries, ever since its extent and importance were demonstrated
by Chalmers in his _Caledonia_. Occupation is not too strong a word to
use, although it was an occupation about which history is strangely
silent, and which seems to have provoked little resistance except in
the Keltic parts of the country. But it meant the transformation of
Scotland from a tribal Keltic kingdom into an organised feudal state,
and in the accomplishment of this transformation the greater part of
the best lands in Scotland passed into the hands of English refugees or
Norman and Flemish adventurers.
The movement began in the days of Malcolm Canmore, when his English
queen, the sainted Margaret, undoubtedly favoured the reception
of English refugees of noble birth, some of whom were her own
relations.[1000] Very soon, the English refugees were followed by
Norman refugees, who had either fallen under the displeasure of the
king of England, like the Montgomeries, or were the cadets of some
Norman family, wishful to carve out fresh fortunes for themselves, like
the Fitz Alans, the ancestors of the Stuarts. The immigration continued
during the reign of the sons of Margaret, but seems to have reached its
culminating point under David I. (1124-1153).
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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