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THE ENGLISH Downloaded from HISTORICAL REVIEW NO. LXXXIII.—JULY 1906* http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ Mote and Bretesche Building in Ireland L THE BRETESCHE. NEW light upon the nature of the first fortresses built by the at Simon Fraser University on June 6, 2015 A Normans in Ireland may, I think, be gained from a consider- ation of the number and distribution of certain Irish place names involving one or other of the terms mote and breteache. The mote names, indeed, are so obvious that they have not been alto- gether overlooked, but their significance has, I think, been missed, while even the existence of the bretesche names has not hitherto been suspected. To take the latter, as the more important for our argument, first: The word Brittas, sometimes slightly modified, constitutes or 'fonnB part of the names of thirty-seven townlands in Ireland. From the form of the name and from the distribution and posi- tions of the townlands I think it may be shown that the word ' Brittas' is not of Irish origin at all, but represents the Old French breUtcke, or rather, more immediately, an AHglo-Norman or a Middle-EngliBh form of that word. From all the available data it may be inferred that the term was used in Ireland in early Anglo- Norman times to denote a complete fortress, consisting of a wooden tower, often but not always placed on a mote, or mound of earth, surrounded by a fosse and earthen rampart, and (as we may suppose) further protected by a palisade ; that these towers we*e erected by Anglo-Norman or English settlers in the twelfth and early part of the thirteenth centuries; that though in some early cases there is evidence that they were the principal fortresses VOL. XXI. NO. T.TTTTTT- K B * All rights reserved 418 MOTE AND BRETESCHE July erected on the feudal holdings, yet in general the positions of those that have left their names on the townlands seem to indicate that they were subsidiary to stone castles, and were placed on the frontiers of districts occupied by the English to watch or guard some pass or other probable line of approach of hostile Irish tribes.1 Later in the thirteenth century, when castles were com- monly built of stone and many of the earlier bretescb.es were re- placed by stone castles, the name bretesche—in various forms— came to be applied to wooden towers and crenelated parapets, built as mere adjuncts to stone castles on the ramparts and else- Downloaded from where. This is the principal meaning of the term generally given in our dictionaries, but the term in this sense has not, I think, affected our place names. An Irish etymology of the name has indeed been suggested by Dr. Joyce.1 I say ' suggested,' because his interpretation of the http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ word is really a guess, for the word iB not, I believe, supported by any pre-Norman, or indeed any early, text. There is said to be a word brit, meaning' speckled,' but even this word seems to rest on no ^ood evidence.1 Assuming, however, the adjective brit, ' speckled,' the form brittas, ' a speckled place,' is only arrived at by analogy to some other abstract nouns which are formed from adjectives by the addition of -«. It is in itself, apart from these place names, entirely unattested. But even assuming that there was an Irish at Simon Fraser University on June 6, 2015 "word britas or briotas, meaning a speckled place, the form Bally- brittas could hardly have arisen among a purely Irish-speaking people. We should expect a genitive inflexion with or without the article, and the Anglicised result would be BaUinvrittish, or Bally- brittish, or something of that sort. Too much stress should not be laid on this last point, as irregularities occur. It may, however, be noted that the word brittas is not to be found in combination with dun, liss, rath, moin, magh, drum, don, carrick, caher, or, so 1 Probably these subsidiary or frontier bretesehes partially indicate the result of royal writs in the year 1200 and again in 1216, ordering all persons holding lands in the marches to fortify their castles or lands under pain of confiscation (Calendar of Documents relating to Ireland, ed. Sweetman, TOL i. nog. 125, 674. This Calendar is hereinafter referred to as C.DJ.) ' Irish Names of Places, vol. ii. pp. 14, 389. » O'Brien's Irish-Engl. Diet. -(1768) gives, ' Brit and Brtac signify speckled, spotted, particoloured, or painted; hence Britineach and Briltxnniot, the Hazles (measles), as being a speckled or painted distemper [unfortunately the word is BruiUnech, Arehiv far celt. PhiL, connected with bruit, to become hot, boil], hence also Briotnach or Breatnach, a Britton or Welshman, whence Brittania compounded of Brit, painted, and ta'n or tain, an Irish or Celtic word meaning a country.' This last derivation is virtually taken from Camden and is quite worthless. Besides the word apparently referred to, brith, painted, is Old Welsh, not Irish. Dinneen's Dictionary gives Briotas as a topographical word only (probably taking it from Joyce), and does not give brit or briot at alL O'Beilly does not give briotas, bnt gives ' speckled' aa one of the meanings of briot, taking the word from Shaw's Dictionary of Scottish Gaelic 1906 BUILDING IN IRELAND 419 far as I can discover, with any of the common elements of place names, except 60%. That Brittas really represents the Old French bvctesche will appear more clearly when the distribution of the name has been examined, its earlier forms noted, and its identity shown, in one case with ' La Bretasche ' and in another with the ' Bretaschia ' of thirteenth- century records. Here we may note that the 0. F. bretesche took a great many forms, amongst others breteske, bretaske, and britasche* The English forms are also very numerous, and are classified in the New English Dictionary (s.v. ' Brattice') under three different Downloaded from types. It is enough here to mention the Middle-English brutaske, brytasqe, from the Old Northern French breteske, bretaske, bretesque. ' The early forms in bru- and bry-, apparently of English or Anglo- French origin, are due perhaps to the obscurity of the first vowel.' The only example before the fourteenth century given in the New http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ English Dictionary is from Robert of Gloucester, circa 1297. The passage is— Atfce lasts hii aende Al the brutaske withoute & the bragge brende, Vor he was al of tre [wood]; & Sir Maci & his Flowe in to the tour an hey, tho hii seye this, & defendede horn vaste, the wale hii mi3te iwis.s at Simon Fraser University on June 6, 2015 The brutaske is here opposed to the high tower, probably a stone keep, and, like the bridge, was probably of wood and com- bustible. But earlier in the century the name seems to have been applied, in Ireland at any rate, to the whole fortress. The forms above mentioned might, I think, have given rise to the name which has gradually settled down into Brittas, but the comparative uniformity of the present spelling of the townland names is due to the system pursued by the Ordnance surveyors. In earlier documents we often find the name spelled Brytace, Brettas, Brettys, &c, and sometimes, very significantly, with the French or the English article before the name. The military term has survived in some place names in France in a similar way; thus ' La Grande et Petite Breteche' at Tours, in ancient Touraine, ' La Breteche ' in the commune of ' St. Nom la Breteche,' department of Seine et Oise, ' la fordt' and ' le chateau de la Bretesche' in Loire Inferieure.6 Further research would probably largely add to these examples. AB to the time when these bretesches were erected we have 4 Godefroy, Diet, de Vancienne Langite Francaise. » Robert of Gloucester's Chronicle, R.S. 1. 11094 et seqq., Hearne's ed. p. 636. • Diet, des Communes de France, Joanne, 1864. Bescherelle, in his Dictionnaire, says, under ' Breteche,' Ac, ' Ce mot s'est conserve en France dans quelqnea lieux on il y avait des forteresses, eomme a la Brestoche pres Nangis en Brie, qui est la mtme chose qne la Bretesohe.' Cf. Godefroy. E E 2 420 MOTE AND BRETESCHE July some direct evidence. Henry II brought some wooden towers (castella li/piea or bret-eschiae) over with him, and materials for building others.7 As there were no walled towns to besiege—Dublin, Waterford, and Wexford were already in Strongbow's hands—these would seem to have been for defence. At any rate there seems to me no good reason to doubt that the fortresses built by Eichard the Fleming at Slane and Hugh de Lacy at Trim, described in the Song of Da-mot,* were of the ' mote and bretesche' typo, and the natural inference, supported, I think, by lines 3202-8205, is that the feoffees in general of Richard FitzGilbert and Hugh de Lacy Downloaded from fortified their lands in a similar way. A remarkable entry in the ' Annals of Loch Ce,' under the year 1208, gives an indication of the nature of the first castle at Meelick, on the Shannon, in the country of the O'Maddens. http://ehr.oxfordjournals.org/ A hosting by William Burke, accompanied by the foreigners of Htmster and Meath, into Connaught, when he erected a castle at Mfleo. in Sil Anmchadha, and the place where the castle was erected was round the great church of that place, which was lined [or better ' filled '] ° round with earth and stones up to the pinnacles.