Note 56 — Chapter II · ANGLO-SAXON FORTIFICATIONS

Mr Freeman says: “In the eleventh century, the word castel was introduced into our language to mark something which was evidently quite distinct from the familiar burh of ancient times.... Ordericus speaks of the thing and its name as something distinctly French: “munitiones quas Galli castella nuncupant.” The castles which were now introduced into England seem to have been new inventions in Normandy itself. William of Jumièges distinctly makes the building of castles to have been one of the main signs and causes of the general disorder of the days of William’s minority, and he seems to speak of the practice as something new.” N. C., ii., 606. It is surprising that after so clear a statement as this, Mr Freeman should have fallen under the influence of Mr Clark’s burh theory, and should completely have confused castles and boroughs.