Editing Keep (section)

{{Short description|Fortified tower built in the Middle Ages}}
{{other uses}}
{{Redirect2|Donjon|Castle keep|other uses of Donjon|Donjon (disambiguation)|the film|Castle Keep}}
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[[File:Rochester zamek fc11 (cropped).jpg|thumb|upright=1.4|The [[Norman architecture|Norman]] ({{circa|1126}}) keep of [[Rochester Castle]], England (rear). The shorter rectangular tower attached to the keep is its [[wiktionary:forebuilding|forebuilding]], and the [[curtain wall (fortification)|curtain wall]] is in the foreground.<ref>{{National Heritage List for England|num=1336100|short=yes}}</ref>]]
A '''keep''' is a type of [[fortified tower]] built within [[castle]]s during the [[Middle Ages]] by European [[nobility]]. Scholars have debated the scope of the word ''keep'', but usually consider it to refer to large towers in castles that were fortified residences, used as a refuge of last resort should the rest of the castle fall to an adversary. The first keeps were made of timber and formed a key part of the [[motte-and-bailey castle]]s that emerged in [[Normandy]] and [[County of Anjou|Anjou]] during the 10th century; the design spread to England, Portugal,<ref>Barroca (1991), p. 121</ref> south Italy and Sicily. As a result of the [[Norman Conquest]] of England in 1066, use spread into Wales during the second half of the 11th century and into Ireland in the 1170s. The Anglo-Normans and French rulers began to build stone keeps during the 10th and 11th centuries, including Norman keeps, with a square or rectangular design, and circular [[shell keep]]s. Stone keeps carried considerable political as well as military importance and could take a decade or more to build.

During the 12th century, new designs began to be introduced – in France, [[quatrefoil]]-shaped keeps were introduced, while in England [[polygon]]al towers were built. By the end of the century, French and English keep designs began to diverge: [[Philip II of France]] built a sequence of circular keeps as part of his bid to stamp his royal authority on his new territories, while in England castles were built without keeps. In Spain, keeps were increasingly incorporated into both Christian and Islamic castles, although in [[Germany]] tall fighting towers called ''[[bergfried]]e'' were preferred to keeps in the western fashion. In the second half of the 14th century, there was a resurgence in the building of keeps. In France, the keep at [[Château de Vincennes|Vincennes]] near Paris began a fashion for tall, heavily [[machicolation|machicolated]] designs, a trend adopted in Spain most prominently through the [[Valladolid]] school of Spanish castle design. Meanwhile, tower keeps in England became popular amongst the most wealthy nobles: these large keeps, each uniquely designed, formed part of the grandest castles built during the period.

In the 15th century, the protective function of keeps was compromised by improved [[artillery]]. For example, in 1464 during the [[Wars of the Roses]], the keep of [[Bamburgh Castle]] on the Northumberland coast, previously considered to be impregnable, was defeated with [[Bombard (weapon)|bombard]]s.<ref>{{cite book|author=Bottomley, Frank|title=The Castle Explorer's Guide|publisher=Crown Publishers|year=1983|isbn=0-517-42172-0|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/castleexplorersg00bott}}</ref> By the 16th century, keeps were slowly falling out of fashion as fortifications and residences. Many were destroyed in civil wars between the 17th and 18th centuries or incorporated into gardens as an alternative to [[folly|follies]]. During the 19th century, keeps became fashionable once again, and in England and France, a number were restored or redesigned by Gothic architects. Despite further damage to many French and Spanish keeps during the wars of the 20th century, keeps now form an important part of the tourist and heritage industry in Europe.