Counter-castle

It did not support the immediate siege of a castle, but was constructed as a base in an area of rival power in order to prevent enemy attempts to expand their influence and control.

After scholars like Joachim Zeune had concerned themselves in the 1980s and 1990s more with the symbolism of medieval fortifications, subsequent research began to be more critical of the then established theses.

The Norman Conquest of England had undergone long preparation and is generally reckoned as one of the most notable military-strategic campaigns of the early High Middle Ages.

The English Army under King Harold succeeded in repelling the Vikings but now exhausted, had to fight roughly 7,000 well-equipped Norman warriors.

In addition to mottes, circular ramparts with palisades were built and older Celtic or Saxon fortifications were reactivated.

The wooden components of these wood and earth castles had in some cases been prepared on the continent and were later assembled on the spot.

Right at the start of his conquest of Celtic Wales, the English king, Edward I, ordered in 1277 the construction of several castles at strategically important places.

Within a short period of time a complete network of the most modern fortifications sprang up, which are today seen as the epitome of mediaeval profane architecture.

During the siege of larger, fortified cities and towns castles were sometimes built as protection against sallies and relief troops.

For example, in 1117, King Baldwin I built a counter-castle "ad coercendum praedictam urbem" (to conquer the aforementioned town) of Tyre near İskenderun.

Around Petra the castles of Montreal/Shobaq (1115) and Li Vaux Moisee were built and, in 1116, fortified strongpoints were added at Aqaba and on the Isle de Graye/Jazirat Fara’un.

In 1142, construction started on the mighty fortress of Kerak (Krak de Moab) in northern Transjordan, to which a harbour on the Dead Sea belonged.

Between 1136 and 1142 four strong castles (at Castrum Arnaldi, Beth Gibelin, Ibelin and Blanchegarde) were built around the Egyptian-held city of Ashkelon.

In the Holy Roman Empire, the term Trutzburg was commonly used to describe the defensive character of a castle that defied all attacks.