Medieval Glossary

Batardeau

A French term for a wall built across a ditch or fortification, with a sluice-gate by which the height of the water in the ditch on both sides may be regulated. To prevent this wall being used as a passage across the ditch, it is built up to an angle at the top and armed with iron spikes. To render the attempt to cross it still more more difficult, a tower of masonry is built on it.

Related term(s): Ditch; Fortification; Rampart; Parapet; Bastion; Castle
Category: Castles and Fortifications
Added: 06.01.06
Source information: Wilhelm, Thomas. A Military Dictionary and Gazetteer. Philadelphia: L.R. Hamersly & Co., 1881. 49.

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