How and why have castles changed since 1066?

Answer 1

Before 1066 there were very few castles. They were not part of the culture of England. Once William invaded he began to throw up motte and bailey castles, consisting a large earthen mound with a fence around it and more often than not, but not always, a tower of some kind on the motte. These were all timber.

After the conquest, once the country was secure, William began to replace the timber castles with stone ones. These took the same form as those in France. Compare the donjon at Domfront with the the square stone keeps of Rochester and the Tower of London. Castles did not change for a hundred years or so, still using a large tower as the centre of the castle, a bailey or courtyard around it where the majority of the castle's population lived and worked, stables, kitchens, workshops, barracks.

Once King John lost Normandy in 1204 castle building in Normandy / France and England diverged and hugely different styles grew up. In England castles retained their central towers but the baileys were converted and sometimes enlarged to create more space for more luxurious accomodation than was possible in the towers. Great halls were in the bailey, mural towers, square and round, grew up along the bailey walls and gate houses became popular to give more protection for the bailey. Towers were also deemed to be less impervious as they were once King John brought down a chunk of Rochester's keep in 1216. A more sprawling castle layout was less vulnerable.

Edward I was the great castle builder in the later Medieval period, creating a ring of stone around north Wales to prevent uprisings from the conquered Welsh. These castles were the brain child of James of St George, a castle builder who took his inspiration from the vast fortresses of the Holy Land. Caernarfon castle in North Wales, had it ever been finished, would have had six port cullises and towers to house them, to protect the entrance to a castle that was all bailey with buildings and towers and walkways all around the walls.

With the advent of a more settled homeland, with focus not on internal strife but external wars, castles began to decline. They were not fortresses to make a point to the locals, to subjugate them or to provide particular protection. They were homes, and subsequent new homes became more comfortable, less martial, and castles began to fall out of favour. By Tudor times castles had already been replaced by country houses and during the Golden Age houses such as Chatsworth were built. The castle was dead and the country house was born.