Keep

For other uses, see Keep (disambiguation).

The keep of Scarborough Castle.

12th century keep (Rouen, France)

A keep is a strong central tower which normally forms the heart of a castle. Often the keep is the most defended area of a castle, and as such may form the main habitation area, or contain important stores such as the armoury or the main well. An earlier word for a keep, still used for some medieval monuments, especially in in France is donjon.

Keeps come in a remarkable variety of shapes and sizes. They can be of 'square' variety, generally found on the British Isles, cylindrical, octagonal, regular and irregular polygonal forms, or a combination or several of these features.

Although the most common form of a keep was a stone building in the centre of a set of walls, some castles were in fact no more than a keep. Often these are simply referred to as tower houses.

Development

While most medieval castles have a keep, the form of the structure varies with geography and time. As the keep was a defensive structure, the shaping trend changed to accommodate for the developments in weapon technology. For example, the round keep was first introduced as a defense to the battering ram. A battering ram could cause severe damage to a square keep but would merely glance off the side of a rounded one. Also, a round corner is much harder to undermine than a square one.

Early keeps were often simply square towers with very thick walls, which later developed into the Norman Keep (see below). By the 13th Century, great round keeps had become popular, and remained prominent in France until the end of the midieval period. These included towers with triangular projections (like Chateau Gaillard or "multi-lobed" keeps like Clifford's Tower. In England, from the end of the 13th Century onwards many castles were built without traditional keeps, instead preferring a concentric plan in which the great gatehouse often replaced the keep as a the last refuge for the defenders. As great lords became more interested in grand halls and comfortable living quarters, the keep lost its domestic role (which was minimal in the case of most round keeps anyway) as well.

Norman Keeps

The square keep most common in the British Isles is the Norman Keep, so-called because they were the built all across the England and Ireland by Norman lords. Norman keeps usually have several distinguishing features in common and the type was very popular during the 11th and 12th Century. Most have towers at each corner, which usually extend above the main keep to form watchtowers. In many cases spiral staircases were contained in or near these corner towers, which served to strengthen the vulnerable corners of the building. Another common feature was the forebuilding, which contained the entryway to the keep (and therefore its most vulnerable point. This structure extended from the side of the keep, and was often approached by stairs as the entryway was usually above ground level. Sometimes a drawbridge guarded the top of the stairs. Inside, there is usually a central dividing wall that cuts the interior in two. The living quarters for the lord of the castle were at the top of the keep, with the great hall(s) below and storage rooms at the bottom. Examples of keeps on this general plan can be seen all across England adn Ireland, with some examples in France as well. Famous Norman Keeps included the Tower of London, Rochester Castle, Dover Castle and Castle Rising.

One unique form is the shell-keep which essentially a masonry 'fossilization' of a palisade lining the top of a castle defensive mound or motte. These are different than most keeps in that they are not towers, but baileys, though their purpose as a last refuge, as well as living quarters, remains the same. In a shell-keep a strong wall was built around the top of the motte, and the domestic buildings were built against it, leaving a round courtyard in the middle. Good examples are Restormel Castle in Cornwall and Carisbrooke Castle on the Isle of Wight.

Famous keeps

One of the most famous keeps in Europe is the celebrated White Tower of The Tower of London, constructed by William the Conqueror in the aftermath of the Norman Conquest. Another example is the massive keep of Rochester Castle that still towers over the city today. The cylindrical donjon of Rouen, shown at right, is all that remains of the large city fortress where Joan of Arc was imprisoned during her trial for heresy. The largest keep in existence is the donjon of Château de Vincennes in a suburb of Paris. The title was held previously by the donjon of Coucy in Picardy.