3 ms·

Think of the motte as a moat - both are defensive territory around the castle (bailey).

• bklaasen 6y ago
  That seems to be exactly the inverse of what's described by the Shackel quote in the Wikipedia article: "A Motte and Bailey castle is a medieval system of defence in which a stone tower on a mound (the Motte) is surrounded by an area of land (the Bailey) which in turn is encompassed by some sort of a barrier such as a ditch."
  • thedailymail 6y ago
    Ouch! I thought I was being clever with that mnenomic. I'm torn about whether to delete in order to prevent confusing others, or leave it up as a monument to my own error.
    • bklaasen 6y ago
      Leave it there! I was thinking your motte/moat mnemonic would be really handy as I re-read the article - but now I know the motte is definitely not the moat (actually the moat surrounding the bailey is implicit), it's the castle, so you've helped me to remember the model!