Concentric rings of walls were pretty much the norm. In a typical setup there were three: the outer city walls, the castle proper, and then the inner keep (or donjon).
Yes, that's true. What I should have said made my head hurt was seeing the Motte and Bailey inside of an already walled city where the stone outer walls tower over the walls of the Motte and Bailey itself.
Yes, that's true. What I should have said made my head hurt was seeing the Motte and Bailey inside of an already walled city where the stone outer walls tower over the walls of the Motte and Bailey itself.
To be fair, given that you can only build out one urban tile at a time, this Motte and Bailey likely used to be outside the city before the population grew and the urban area expanded around it.
Yes, that's true. What I should have said made my head hurt was seeing the Motte and Bailey inside of an already walled city where the stone outer walls tower over the walls of the Motte and Bailey itself.
On the other hand, the White Tower, the original part of the Tower of London, is one of the largest donjon structures in Europe, and has two other sets of walls around it, and the only reason it doesn't have a motte under it is that it was built on Tower Hill and so already overlooked the city of London of the time.
The Motte and Baileys were originally built very quickly with stone or stone and timber Baileys, wooden sockade walls around it and all in a thrown-up Motte hill to dominate the Saxon population (or the Sicilian population down south) under the Normans and so were frequently built in the Saxon towns, later being expanded and rebuilt all in stone as 'castles' with the original Bailey becoming a donjon or Keep within the castle walls and all within the city walls.
To be fair, given that you can only build out one urban tile at a time, this Motte and Bailey likely used to be outside the city before the population grew and the urban area expanded around it.
The outer city walls are indeed pretty monstrous. I think it's a missed opportunity that the different technological stages of the walls have almost exactly the same dimensions, to the point where it's rather difficult to tell them apart. It would have helped both with visual recognition and historical immersion if they had made the Ancient walls lower and thinner than the Medieval walls.
eh? Norman Motte and Bailey stone walls has no catwaks? meow. What does it do? a kind of military base or fortification? or administrative center?
What does this unique quarter 'Dungeon' do? Does it holds a dragon or any bad monster or beast beneath?
Several new Norman city names were brought to lighting the Modern Age livestream, including Hastinges, Loundres, Wincastre, and others that are clearly Early Middle English names for English cities (Hastings, London, and Winchester).
This tends to indicate more than ever that this civ is more the Norman English dynasty than a pan-Norman culture that includes Normandy, England, Sicily, etc.
Several new Norman city names were brought to lighting the Modern Age livestream, including Hastinges, Loundres, Wincastre, and others that are clearly Early Middle English names for English cities (Hastings, London, and Winchester).
This tends to indicate more than ever that this civ is more the Norman English dynasty than a pan-Norman culture that includes Normandy, England, Sicily, etc.
Slight quibble, but some of those names are (Anglo-)Norman/Old French, and not Middle English. Hastinges is how it's written in the Domesday Book, and Lundres is the Old French/Anglo-Norman name for London. Wincestre (Wyncestre in game, but close enough) is noted as being both Anglo-Norman and Middle English though.
Everwyk (York), on the other hand, is definitely a Middle English name: a variant of the more common Everwik.
Also, going back and looking at the video, I realized that the Normans also have a town called Kaem, the modern Norman name for Caen. I believe the full list of Norman cities known as of now is: Rouen, Fécamp, Kaem/Caen, Falaise, Hastings/Hastinges, Lundres/London, Wyncester/Winchester, Everwyk/York, and possibly Risila/Lille(?)
I definitely agree that the civ is not trying to emulate further Norman holdings like Sicily, but it seems to be a composite blend of Normandy/Norman England to me
Slight quibble, but some of those names are (Anglo-)Norman/Old French, and not Middle English. Hastinges is how it's written in the Domesday Book, and Lundres is the Old French/Anglo-Norman name for London. Wincestre (Wyncestre in game, but close enough) is noted as being both Anglo-Norman and Middle English though.
Everwyk (York), on the other hand, is definitely a Middle English name: a variant of the more common Everwik.
Also, going back and looking at the video, I realized that the Normans also have a town called Kaem, the modern Norman name for Caen. I believe the full list of Norman cities known as of now is: Rouen, Fécamp, Kaem/Caen, Falaise, Hastings/Hastinges, Lundres/London, Wyncester/Winchester, Everwyk/York, and possibly Risila/Lille(?)
I definitely agree that the civ is not trying to emulate further Norman holdings like Sicily, but it seems to be a composite blend of Normandy/Norman England to me
At the point in time that they appear to be focusing on, the Norman dynasty included both England and Normandy, so having cities from both the Kingdom and the Duchy makes sense. However, despite having a whole kingdom, many of the Norman kings of England spent most or all of their time in Normandy and left operation of the kingdom to their nobles, as England was quite a backwater at the time. And that's why the Norman capital is Rouen instead of Loundres.
The Roman name was Eboracum, with Ebor meaning Yew in Celtic. The Saxons changed it to Eoforwyk because Ebor sounded like Eofor to them. The Norse and Danes who made it their local capital in the viking age called it Jorvik, with the J having a Y sound. It went through the Norman period as Everwyk as pronunciation changed. And by the end of Middle English it had been mush-mouthed into York.
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