Kings and Castles Read Online Free Page A

circumstances castles have to be regarded first and foremost as
military installations, introduced to subdue an unwilling population.
Unfashionable though it may be among castle scholars, there is every reason to
listen to the testimony of the half-English, half-Norman historian Orderic Vitalis , born in Shropshire within a decade of 1066, who attributed the success of Conquest to one factor above all others. ‘The
fortifications that the Normans
called castles’, he explains, ‘were scarcely known in the English provinces,
and so the English – in spite of their courage and love of fighting – could put
up only a weak resistance to their enemies’.

 
    4. Castle Acre and the Warennes

 
    Castle Acre, a wonderful little village in Norfolk, offers the most amazing
three-for-one deal. A really splendid Norman fortress, so
impressive in scale that it could command attention all by itself. A gorgeous priory, the best preserved example of its kind in England. And, as if these two were not enough, there’s also a medieval town there too,
still discernible from the layout of its streets, its earth ramparts and a
well-preserved stone gate. As the new interpretative displays and audio tour of
the priory explain, it’s one of the best locations in Britain for
seeing how the forces of violence, religion and commerce combined in the Middle
Ages to shape the landscape that we see today.
    We owe this concentration of quality sites to a family by the
name of Warenne , so called because they originally
hailed from a town called Varenne in Normandy. Like so many
men of those parts, the Warennes backed the winning
horse in 1066. ‘My ancestors came with William the Bastard and conquered their
lands with the sword’, said one of the their number
some two centuries later, brandishing an ancient, rusty blade to prove his
point. It was a exclamation born of frustration with
the interference of royal government, but such conflict with the Crown was
exceptionally rare. The story of the Warennes is, in fact, proof positive that the way to get ahead in
medieval England
was to swing a strong right arm in the service of the king.
    The founder of the family’s fortune, and therefore putative
owner of the rusty sword, was William de Warenne . One
of the Conqueror’s closest companions, he was at the front of the queue when
the spoils were being dished out. Extensive lands in Sussex
were given to him when he was barely off the boat, and he set about organizing
them around the town and castle
of Lewes. Other prizes
soon followed. By the time Domesday Book was compiled
in 1086 William was the fourth richest individual after the king himself, and
owned estates in more than a dozen English counties. The overwhelming bulk of
them were concentrated in East
Anglia, and centred on what would become
known as Castle Acre.
    Castles were, of course, one of the most striking innovations
that the Normans
introduced to the English countryside, and the earliest examples tended to be
built to a common-or-garden design. A great mound of earth raised the lord’s
residence high above its surroundings, and a larger, lower enclosure
accommodated his household and their horses. Such castles, as every schoolgirl
knows, we now call ‘ motte -and-baileys’.
    At first glance, the structure created by William de Warenne at Castle Acre would seem to be a prime example of
this type. Initial appearances, however, can be deceptive. Archaeological
investigation has revealed that, whilst the bailey probably dates to William’s
time, there was originally no motte at all. William
had instead settled for a much shallower, lightly defended enclosure, in the
middle of which he built a rather luxurious stone house (the foundations of
which can still be seen). It was only his later descendants, living through the
uncertainty of a civil war, who decided that a large mound of earth would be a
good idea after all. Castle Acre, therefore, presents a uniquely peculiar case,
a