[177] In 951 Duke Conrad, being angry with certain men of Lorraine, threw down the _towers_ of some of them; these may have been the keeps of private castles. Flodoard, _Annales_, p. 477. [178] _Presidium_ is one of those vague words which chroniclers love to use; it means a defence of any kind, and may be a town, a castle, or a garrison. The town in which this turris stood appears by the context to have been Chateau Thierry. _Cf._ Flodoard, _Annales_, pp. 924, with 933. [179] "Castrum muro factum circa eam [ecclesiam]." _Chron. Namnetense_, p. 45. "Precepit [Alanus] eis terrarium magnum in circuitu Ecclesiæ facere, sicut murus prioris castri steterat, quo facto turrem principalem _reficiens_, in ea domum suam constitit." _Ibid._ [180] Flodoard, _Annales_, pp. 931 and 949. This tower was heightened by Charles, the last of the Carlovingians, and furnished with a ditch and bank, in 988. [181] It is often supposed that these towers were derived from the _Pretoria_, or general's quarters in the Roman _castra_. It is far more probable that they were derived from mural towers. The Pretorium was not originally fortified, and it was placed in the centre of the Roman camp. But one great object of the feudal keep was to have communication with the open country. The keep of Laon was certainly on the line of the walls, as Bishop Ascelin escaped from it down a rope in 989, and got away on a horse which was waiting for him. Palgrave, _England and Normandy_, ii., 880. [182] The word _motte_ or _mota_ does not occur in any contemporary chronicle, as far as is known to the writer, before the 12th century; nor is the word _dangio_ to be found in any writer earlier than Ordericus. But the _thing_ certainly existed earlier. [183] [Fulk and his son Geoffrey] "in occidentali parte montis castellum determinaverunt.... Aggerem quoque in prospectu monasterii cum turre lignea erexerunt." _Chron. St Florentii_, in Lobineau's _Bretagne_, ii., 87. Some remains of this motte are still visible. De Salies, _Foulques Nerra_, p. 263. [184] "Elegantissimus in rebus bellicis" is the quaint language of the Angevin chronicler, 176. [185] See De Salies, _Histoire de Foulques Nerra_, which indirectly throws considerable light on the archæological question.