Year 7 History Course

Commentary 

The third strand of how William took control is through his building of castles. Of course the real point here is not the castles built by William himself but the fact that he encouraged his barons to do the same. This led to hundreds of new motte and bailey castles built throughout England, with the great stone fortress of the Tower of London standing as the archetype of the next generation of Stone Keep castles. You should work through these activities in order to understand why and where William built castles, how effective these were in maintaining the power of the King, and you can try attacking a castle yourselves. You can then examine how castles developed and were used to subdue key rebellious areas such as the 'Iron Ring' of Edward I in Wales.