A postern is a secondary

door A door is a hinged or otherwise movable barrier that allows ingress (entry) into and egress (exit) from an enclosure. The created opening in the wall is a ''doorway'' or ''portal''. A door's essential and primary purpose is to provide security b ...

gate A gate or gateway is a point of entry to or from a space enclosed by walls. The word derived from old Norse "gat" meaning road or path; But other terms include ''yett and port''. The concept originally referred to the gap or hole in the wall ...

in a

fortification A fortification is a military construction or building designed for the defense of territories in warfare, and is also used to establish rule in a region during peacetime. The term is derived from Latin ''fortis'' ("strong") and ''facere ...

such as a

city wall A defensive wall is a fortification usually used to protect a city, town or other settlement from potential aggressors. The walls can range from simple palisades or earthworks to extensive military fortifications with towers, bastions and gates ...

castle A castle is a type of fortified structure built during the Middle Ages predominantly by the nobility or royalty and by military orders. Scholars debate the scope of the word ''castle'', but usually consider it to be the private fortified r ...

curtain wall. Posterns were often located in a concealed location which allowed the occupants to come and go inconspicuously. In the event of a

siege A siege is a military blockade of a city, or fortress, with the intent of conquering by attrition, or a well-prepared assault. This derives from la, sedere, lit=to sit. Siege warfare is a form of constant, low-intensity conflict characteriz ...

, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing defenders to make a

sortie A sortie (from the French word meaning ''exit'' or from Latin root ''surgere'' meaning to "rise up") is a deployment or dispatch of one military unit, be it an aircraft An aircraft is a vehicle that is able to flight, fly by gaining supp ...

on the besiegers. Placed in a less exposed, less visible location, they were usually relatively small, and therefore easily defensible.Van Emden, Wolgang. "Castle in Medieval French Literature", ''The Medieval Castle: Romance and Reality'' (Kathryn L. Reyerson, Faye Powe, eds.) U of Minnesota Press, 1991, p.17

Tactical use

Posterns were one of the essential means of ensuring safe communication between the

enceinte Enceinte (from Latin incinctus: girdled, surrounded) is a French term that refers to the "main defensive enclosure of a fortification". For a castle, this is the main defensive line of wall towers and curtain walls enclosing the position. For ...

and the outerworks of a defensive fortification. An 1850

West Point The United States Military Academy (USMA), also known Metonymy, metonymically as West Point or simply as Army, is a United States service academies, United States service academy in West Point, New York. It was originally established as a f ...

course summary on permanent fortifications discusses the placement and construction of posterns.

Examples

*In 1896, C.R. Condor, writing for the London Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society viewed Zion Gate in

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

, built west of one of the city's medieval main gates, as a likely postern. Also mentioned were the postern of St. Lazarus, west of the

Damascus Gate The Damascus Gate is one of the main Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It is located in the wall on the city's northwest side and connects to a highway leading out to Nablus, which in the Hebrew Bible was called Shechem or Sichem, and from t ...

; the postern of the Tanners' Gate; and the postern of the Madeleine at

Herod's Gate Herod's Gate ( ar, باب الزاهرة, Bab az-Zahra, ) is one of the seven open Gates of the Old City of Jerusalem. It connects the Muslim Quarter inside of the old city to the eponymic Palestinian neighbourhood of Bab az-Zahra, situated just ...

. Right of the

Golden Gate The Golden Gate is a strait on the west coast of North America that connects San Francisco Bay to the Pacific Ocean. It is defined by the headlands of the San Francisco Peninsula and the Marin Peninsula, and, since 1937, has been spanned by t ...

is a small postern called the Gate of Jehosaphat. *The city walls of York contained a number of posterns; at North Street Tower, the postern gate was demolished to accommodate the

Great North of England Railway The Great North of England Railway (GNER) was an early British railway company. Its main line, opened in 1841 was between York and Darlington, and originally it was planned to extend to Newcastle. Mergers In 1846 it was absorbed by the Newcastl ...

. The tower still stands. There were also posterns at

Fishergate Fishergate is a street and surrounding area of York, England. History Fishergate runs along a strip of slightly raised ground, east of the River Ouse. Archaeological investigations have found evidence of prehistoric occupation, before the ...

, and Longwalk. Around 1672, the Castlegate postern was made wide enough for carriages. The fourteenth-century Layerthorpe Bridge, a crossing of the Foss, adjacent to the King's Pool, was once attached to a postern in the city wall, known as Layerthorpe Postern. The original

Skeldergate Skeldergate is a street in the city centre of York, in England. The street is now primarily residential, with many of its warehouse buildings having been converted into apartments. History During the Roman Eboracum period, the area in which Ske ...

postern was only large enough to allow pedestrian traffic to and from the city. *In

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

, there was a postern in the east city wall called Windsore Postern. There were at least three posterns in the wall at New College Gardens. *The Tower Hill Postern was a small fortified entrance at the eastern terminal point to the London Wall, at the junction of the Wall and the Tower of London moat. In the early 17th century the City and the Crown contested ownership of the postern as part of a Tower boundary dispute. Moorgate was built by upgrading a postern built in 1415, and enlarged in 1472 and 1511.

Literature

In literature, a postern features in the ''Le Chanson de Girart de Roussillon'', where the hero makes use of one to escape when betrayed; as does

Renaud de Montauban Renaud de Montauban (; also spelled ''Renaut'', ''Renault'', Italian: ''Rinaldo di Montalbano'', Dutch: ''Reinout van Montalba(e)n'') was a legendary hero and knight which appeared in a 12th-century Old French ''chanson de geste'' known as ' ...

in the

chanson de geste The ''chanson de geste'' (, from Latin 'deeds, actions accomplished') is a medieval narrative, a type of epic poem that appears at the dawn of French literature. The earliest known poems of this genre date from the late 11th and early 12th c ...

The Four Sons of Aymon ''The Four Sons of Aymon'' (french: esQuatre fils Aymon, nl, De Vier Heemskinderen, german: Die Vier Haimonskinder), sometimes also referred to as ''Renaud de Montauban'' (after its main character) is a medieval tale spun around the four sons ...

. A postern also provided a safe retreat for

Ogier the Dane Ogier the Dane (french: ; da, ) is a legendary paladin of Charlemagne who appears in many Old French ''chansons de geste''. In particular, he features as the protagonist in ''La Chevalerie Ogier'' (ca. 1220), which belongs to the ''Geste de ...

. In Malory's

Le Morte d'Arthur ' (originally written as '; inaccurate Middle French for "The Death of Arthur") is a 15th-century Middle English prose reworking by Sir Thomas Malory of tales about the legendary King Arthur, Guinevere, Lancelot, Merlin and the Knights of the ...

, " La Cote de Male Tayle" is rescued at the Castle Orgulous when a damsel slips through the postern to find his horse and ties it to the postern so that La Cote de Male Tayle can escape the 100 knights assailing him.Malory, Thomas. ''Le Morte D'Arthur'', Chap IV, Library of Alexandria, 1904
/ref> The term is occasionally used in other contexts referring to a secondary door placed after a main entrance. File:Tour Barker York 3.jpg, North Street Postern Tower (aka Barker Tower), York Image:Poterne remparts de Provins.JPG, Postern in the

rampart Rampart may refer to: * Rampart (fortification), a defensive wall or bank around a castle, fort or settlement Rampart may also refer to: * "O'er the Ramparts We Watched" is a key line from " The Star-Spangled Banner", the national anthem of the ...

of Provins,

Seine-et-Marne Seine-et-Marne () is a department in the Île-de-France region in Northern France. Named after the rivers Seine and Marne, it is the region's largest department with an area of 5,915 square kilometres (2,284 square miles); it roughly covers its ...

, France File:Newport_Arch.jpg, The postern of

Newport Arch Newport Arch is a 3rd-century Roman gate in the city of Lincoln, Lincolnshire. It is a Scheduled monument and Grade I listed building and is reputedly the oldest arch in the United Kingdom still used by traffic. History The arch was remodelle ...

, built by the ancient Romans in Lincoln, England, located to the right of the larger main arch, and used for pedestrian traffic

References

{{Fortifications Castle architecture Types of gates