1. The Political World of Eleventh-Century France

4. Seal of Louis VI “the Fat,” King of France (on left) and seal of William the Conqueror as duke of Normany (on right)

5. Seal of William I the Conqueror, duke of Normandy 1035-1087, and king of England 1066-87

6. King Harold II (Godwineson), 1066 Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1070

7. William the Conqueror feasting

8. Motte and Bailey Castle (drawing Jeffrey Thomas) (top) and Wiston Castle, Wales, c. 1140 (bottom)
Motte and Bailey castles were the earliest and least elaborate castles
The term refers to a hill (motte) and an enclosure at its base surrounded by a ditch and palisade. The hill was often man-made

9. Building a Motte and Bailey castle (Bayeux Tapestry, ca. 1075)

10. William the Conqueror takes the Castle of Dinan (Bayeux Tapestry, ca

11. Count Fulk Nerra of Anjou’s castles ( ) from Nicholas Hooper and Matthew Bennett, Atlas of Warfare: The Middle Ages, (Cambridge U. Press, 1996)

12. Fulk Nerra’s Castles: Loches (southeast Anjou, 980s), on right, and Beaugency (on the Loire between Blois and Orleans, 1020s), on left

13. Charging Knights from the Bayeux Tapestry (c.1075)

14. Knights from Codex of 1028 (Encyclopedia of Mauro Rabano)

15. Bayeux Tapestry: Bishop Odo of Bayeux (on left)
Bayeux Tapestry: Bishop Odo of Bayeux (on left). Rochester Castle, built by Archbishop of Canterbury, William de Corbeil in 1127