Editing Keep (section)

===Mid-medieval keeps (late 12th–14th centuries)===
{{Multiple image|direction=horizontal|align=right|image1=Etampestour1.jpg|image2=Chateau D'Etampes keep plan.png|width=170|caption2=Keep at [[Château d'Étampes]] in France, a curved design begun in 1120}}

During the second half of the 12th century, a range of new keep designs began to appear across France and England, breaking the previous unity of the regional designs. The use of keeps in castles spread through Iberia, but some new castles never incorporated keeps in their designs. One traditional explanation for these developments emphasises the military utility of the new approaches, arguing, for example, that the curved surfaces of the new keeps helped to deflect attacks, or that they drew on lessons learnt during the Crusades from Islamic practices in the Levant.<ref>Brown, pp.53–4; King, p.81.</ref> More recent historical analysis, however, has emphasised the political and social drivers that underlay these mid-medieval changes in keep design.<ref>Liddiard (2005), pp.6–7.</ref>

Through most of the 12th century, France was divided between the Capetian kings, ruling from the [[Île-de-France]], and kings of England, who controlled Normandy and much of the west of France. Within the Capetian territories, early experimentation in new keep designs began at [[Donjon de Houdan|Houdan]] in 1120, where a circular keep was built with four round turrets; internally, however, the structure remained conventionally square.<ref>King, p.98; Gondoin, p.156.</ref> A few years later, [[Château d'Étampes]] adopted a [[quatrefoil]] design.<ref>King, p.99.</ref>{{refn|Étampes may have influenced the later [[quatrefoil]] design of the keep at [[York Castle]].<ref>Butler, p.16.</ref>|group=nb}} These designs, however, remained isolated experiments.

In the 1190s, however, the struggle for power in France began to swing in favour of [[Philip II of France|Philip II]], culminating in the Capetian capture of Normandy in 1204. Philip II started to construct completely circular keeps, such as the [[Rouen Castle#Tour Jeanne d'Arc|Tour Jeanne d'Arc]], with most built in his newly acquired territories.<ref>King, p.100; Baldwin, p.298; Châtelain, p.303.</ref> The first of Philip's new keeps was begun at the [[Louvre]] in 1190 and at least another twenty followed, all built to a consistent standard and cost.<ref>Baldwin, p.299.</ref> The architectural idea of circular keeps may have come from [[Catalonia]], where circular towers in castles formed a local tradition, and probably carried some military advantages, but Philip's intention in building these new keeps in a fresh style was clearly political, an attempt to demonstrate his new power and authority over his extended territories.<ref>Durand, pp.29, 57; Gondoin, p.156.</ref> As historian Philippe Durand suggests, these keeps provided military security and were a physical representation of the ''renouveau capétien'', or Capetian renewal.<ref>Durand, p.59.</ref>

{{Multiple image|direction=horizontal|align=left|image1=Trim Castle Gesamt.jpg|image2=Trim keep plan.png
|width=190|caption1=Keep at [[Trim Castle]] in Ireland, an angular design built in the late 12th century}}
Keep design in England began to change only towards the end of the 12th century, later than in France.<ref name=King1991P77>King, p.77.</ref> Wooden keeps on mottes ceased to be built across most of England by the 1150s, although they continued to be erected in Wales and along the [[Welsh Marches]].<ref>Pounds, p.21.</ref> By the end of the 12th century, England and Ireland saw a handful of innovative angular or polygonal keeps built, including the keep at [[Orford Castle]], with three rectangular, clasping towers built out from the high, circular central tower; the cross-shaped keep of [[Trim Castle]] and the famous polygonal design at [[Conisborough Castle|Conisborough]].<ref>Brown, pp.52–3; Heslop, pp.279, 289; Anderson, p.113; Hull, p.142.</ref> Despite these new designs, square keeps remained popular across much of England and, as late as the 1170s, square Norman great keeps were being built at [[The Castle, Newcastle|Newcastle]].<ref>Anderson, pp.114–6.</ref> Circular keep designs similar to those in France really became popular in Britain in the Welsh Marches and Scotland for only a short period during the early 13th century.<ref>King, pp.81–2.</ref>

As with the new keeps constructed in France, these Anglo-Norman designs were informed both by military thinking and by political drivers. The keep at Orford has been particularly extensively analysed in this regard, and although traditional explanations suggested that its unusual plan was the result of an experimental military design, more recent analysis concludes that the design was instead probably driven by political symbolism and the need for Henry to dominate the contested lands of [[East Anglia]].<ref name=Liddiard2005P47>Liddiard (2005), p.47.</ref> The architecture would, for mid-12th century nobility, have summoned up images of King Arthur or [[Constantinople]], then the idealised versions of royal and imperial power.<ref>Heslop, p.288-9.</ref> Even formidable military designs such as that at Château Gaillard were built with political effect in mind.<ref name=LiddiardP54>Liddiard (2005), p.54.</ref> Gaillard was designed to reaffirm Angevin authority in a fiercely disputed conflict zone and the keep, although militarily impressive, contained only an anteroom and a royal audience chamber, and was built on soft chalk and without an internal well, both serious defects from a defensive perspective.<ref name=LiddiardP54/>

During most of the medieval period, Iberia was divided between Christian and Islamic kingdoms, neither of which traditionally built keeps, instead building watchtowers or mural towers.<ref>Tuulse, p.74; Burton, p.230.</ref> By the 12th century, however, the influence of France and the various [[military order (society)|military order]]s was encouraging the development of square keeps in Christian castles across the region, and by the second half of the century this practice was spread across into the Islamic kingdoms.<ref>Tuulse, p.74; Burton, p.236; Anderson, p.151.</ref>

{{Multiple image|direction=horizontal|align=right|image1=Rouen - Tour Jeanne d'Arc 01.jpg|image2=Plan.donjon.chateau.Rouen.ground.png|width=170|caption1=|caption2=Tour Jeanne d'Arc at [[Rouen Castle]] in [[Normandy]], France, a circular design built in 1204}}
By contrast, the remainder of Europe saw stone towers being used in castles, but not in a way that fulfilled the range of functions seen in the western European keeps. In the Low Countries, it became popular for the local nobility to build stand-alone, square towers, but rarely as part of a wider castle.<ref>Purton, p.94.</ref> Similarly, square stone towers became popular in Venice, but these did not fulfil the same role as western keeps.<ref>Schulz, p.7.</ref> In Germany, rectangular stone castles began to replace motte-and-bailey castles from the 12th century onwards.<ref name=TaylorP7>Taylor, p.7.</ref> These designs included stone versions of the traditional ''Bergfriede'', which still remained distinct from the domestic keeps used in more western parts of Europe, with the occasional notable exception, such as the large, residential ''Bergfried'' at [[Eltville Castle]].<ref name=TaylorP7/>

Several designs for new castles emerged that made keeps unnecessary. One such design was the [[concentric castle|concentric]] approach, involving exterior walls guarded with towers, and perhaps supported by further, concentric layered defenses: thus castles such as [[Framlingham Castle|Framlingham]] never had a central keep. Military factors may well have driven this development: R. Brown, for example, suggests that designs with a separate keep and bailey system inherently lacked a co-ordinated and combined defensive system, and that once bailey walls were sophisticated enough, a keep became militarily unnecessary.<ref>Brown, pp.62, 72.</ref> In England, [[gatehouse]]s were also growing in size and sophistication until they too challenged the need for a keep in the same castle. The classic [[Edward I of England|Edwardian]] gatehouse, with two large, flanking towers and multiple portcullises, designed to be defended from attacks both within and outside the main castle, has been often compared to the earlier Norman keeps: some of the largest gatehouses are called gatehouse keeps for this reason.<ref>Pettifer (2000b), p.320; Brown, p.69.</ref>

The [[quadrangular castle]] design that emerged in France during the 13th century was another development that removed the need for a keep. Castles had needed additional living space since their first emergence in the 9th century; initially this had been provided by halls in the bailey, then later by ranges of chambers alongside the inside of a bailey wall, such as at [[Goodrich Castle|Goodrich]]. But French designs in the late 12th century took the layout of a contemporary unfortified manor house, whose rooms faced around a central, rectangular courtyard, and built a wall around them to form a castle.<ref>Gondoin, p.167.</ref> The result, illustrated initially at [[Château de Tanlay|Yonne]], and later at [[Château de Farcheville]], was a characteristic quadrangular layout with four large, circular corner towers. It lacked a keep, which was not needed to support this design.<ref>Châtelain, p.35.</ref>