The essential feature of this type was a circular mound of earth surrounded by a dry ditch and flattened at the top. Around the crest of its summit was placed a timber palisade, with a wooden tower in the middle. This moated mound was styled in Old French motte (Latin mota), a word still common in French place-names. In addition to the mound, a bailey or basse court of horseshoe shape was usually appended to it, so that the mound stood on the line of the enceinte. The latter housed the domestic quarters, stables, stores, a forge and a water well. These earthworks were dug from the perimeter area, leaving a defensive ditch. In many cases the motte seems to be a later addition to an already existing wooden settlement, surrounded by a wood palisade.
Construction of new castles is attested from the Carolingian era, but their construction seems to have been related mainly to the defence of frontiers and of the main statal properties: the right to build such a structure was in fact a royal privilege. However, changes took place from the late 9th century, probably under the pressure of raids by the Vikings and Magyars, but also due to the general uncertainty of the crumbling of the Carolingian Empire. As early as 864, Charles the Bald issued an edict ordering the destruction of all the private structures erected without his permission. Hundreds of motte-and-baileys are known from north-western France, from whence they spread into Germany. There was frequent fortification of cities, monasteries, ports and rural settlements in this period. In 906, a diacon in Verona asked Berengar I of Italy for the permission to built a castle in Nogara "due to the heathens ravages".
The pagans, however, were not the sole threat leading to edification of castles: in 920, the Bishop of Adria received the permission to erect a fortress in Rovigo to "save the people either from the heathens and from evil Christians". Henry I of Germany built a series of fortresses to protect the frontier west to the Rhine: a notable example is that of Werla, in Saxony, erected in 926 as a defence against the Magyars. This consisted in a circular wooden wall, already existing in the 9th century, which the king had surrounded by a stone wall with two gates.
Factions struggling for powers in the lack of the supreme authority were in need of military fortresses, but also of a visible show of their growing power over the surrounding population. When William the Conqueror executed the Norman Conquest of England, he brought with him the practice of building a castle to protect and hold the land, by then quite familiar on the mainland of western Europe. They were an intrinsic element of his strategy of conquest, and the original castle he built at Pevensey was brought across as a prefabrication, a detail revealed by the Bayeux Tapestry. The Norman kings and their barons constructed a plethora of castles to impress, control, and conquer the native population. Lewes Castle, built by Gulielmus de Warenne, is an unusual example, as it featured two mottes. Wooden castles were built up until the 12th century.
During the 11th century Investiture Controversy in Germany and the resulting decline of the royal power, castle-building exploded as local warlords staked claims to formerly royal prerogatives in their petty states. This proliferation of castles, which made them iconic of the Middle Ages, is called "encastellation". Around the year 1100 there were in Europe thousands of castles, belonging to bishops, abbots, marquesses, counts, often small size structures erected by petty lords to mark their new conquest of a small, though prestigious (and sometimes ephemeral) power. The construction and restoration of these structure, as well as the maintenance of the garrisons, was a task of the population, which in exchange obtained the possibility to took shelter within the walls in case of peril. According to Christopher Gravette, "the castle was not just a fortress, it was also the residence of its lord".
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