The new King Harold heard that Tostig had sailed up the Humber and had taken York. Harold marched his army north to fight the Norwegians and a place called Stamford Bridge. The Norwegians were caught by surprise by Harolds army and his troops devastated the Norwegians.
Harold knew that William of Normandy would invade England and marched south on the 1st of October 1066 when he had heared that William had landed at Pevensy. Harold met William in battle at Hastings where William won the battle and Harold was famously shot in the eye. William claimed the crown of England.
When William had conquered England he divided up the land between his lords but kept a 1/5 of it for himself.
The Norman conquerors realised that with only 10,000 soldiers in England, they would be at a disadvantage if the one and a half million Anglo-Saxons decided to rebel against them. To defend the territory they had conquered, the Normans began building castles all over England. The Norman’s were master castle builders ,and looked for sites that provided natural defences such as a steep hill or a large expanse of water, and views over the landscape.
Castles were a sign of Norman power and might. They could be easily seen and acted as a deterrent. The castles warned the English that Norman soldiers lived in these castles and that any attempts to rise up against them would be met with force.
First, castles were built. These types of castles were quickly put up all over England after the to enforce Norman control.
Motte and bailey castles:
- made of wood
- quick to put up
- easy to repair
- big enough to house soldiers in safety
- had advantage of height as the castle was built on a motte; (a man-made hill) the Normans could see the English during the day
- as they were high up, local peasants could easily see them
But motte and bailey castles had a number of weaknesses:
- wood is a weak building material; therefore these castles could not be big
- wood can rot with the rain; it generally weakens with age
- wood can burn
- the motte can collapse with the weight of the castle on it
- they were not big enough to house bigger groups of troops
Once felt that the English had been tamed throughout England, he moved on to building more permanent castles - ones that would last for centuries. These are called square keep or castles. The most famous of these is the. in Kent is another fine example of a Norman square keep castle.
Square keep castles:
- made of stone so they lasted longer. Stone would not rot so the castles were a lot stronger than wooden ones.
- because stone is strong, it is possible to build up so that you have a height advantage and can see for miles.
- also the walls can be made very thick therefore making them very strong. The walls at Rochester Castle in places are ten feet thick.
- these castles were much larger than motte and bailey castles and could keep more soldiers in them.
- they were very difficult to attack because of their size.
But square keep castles also had two major weaknesses:
- If you were surrounded by the enemy there was no way out
- if the enemy attacked you, it could decide to simply starve you out by surrounding you.
Castles also had to be built strategically as in a river crossing like at Rochester castle or at a crossroads and there usually is or was a castle guarding the ports (Dover).
Rochester was granted to Williams half brother Odo who was the Bishop of Bayeux, when he was made the Earl of Kent. Rochester castle was one of the strategic castles built in Kent – it guarded the main road leading from Dover to London and the river crossing. Rochester was also a good place to launch an attack on London so holding Rochester castle was crucial for both sides. The first castle built at Rochester was by the Norman’s was a simple motte and bailey design (earth and timber). This was later rebuilt for King Rufus between 1087-89 by Gundulf, Bishop of Rochester and was one of the earliest castles in this country to be built in stone.
Rochester Castle had originally a square keep (four square towers) but in 1215 during the siege, one of the square towers was destroyed by a mine dug underneath it which was fired by pig fat after the trebuchets failed to achieve any damage on the square keep. After the siege the tower was rebuilt, but now as a round tower as a mine does not have the same effect as it has on a square tower.
