Throughout history the manner of house man could or did build has established his hold on the land, his ability to advance technologically and the structure of his family, society and in the case of the castle -- politics. A castle was power; and marriages, family alliances and family social standing all hinged on the control of a castle or large manor. Therefore, a castle was more than a place to curl up by the fire or rest with family in relative privacy. It was a place of business where hundreds of people often lived and worked.
The first European castles were called "motte-and-bailey," built as a military command posts or fortifications. Used throughout continental Europe, the motte-and-bailey system entered England in 1066 with the invasion of William the Conqueror's Norman army. In one day the Normans had completed the timber and earthwork fortress brought over in pieces from France. French chronicler, Jean de Colmieu described the "motte-and-bailey" fortress:
". . . It is the custom of the nobles of the neighborhood to make a mound of earth as high as they can and then encircle it with a ditch as wide and deep as possible. They enclose the space on top of the mound with a palisade of very strong hewn logs firmly fixed together, strengthened at intervals by as many towers as they have means for. Within the enclosure is a house, a central citadel or keep which commands the whole circuit of the defense. The entrance to the fortress is across a bridge."
The central keep was usually made of wood or stone and was often only big enough to house the lord of the castle and his immediate family. Therefore, a large space below the motte called the bailey was cleared to accommodate the army, animals and supplies.
As castles continued to be built across Europe as strongholds from which lords, knights, and kings could secure whole stretches of land economically and politically, the size, structure, and strength of the castles increased into the stone monoliths that we can see today throughout Europe. But how did the family or household live behind those walls?
