{{Short description|Secondary door or gate in a fortification}} [[File:Festung Dömitz Bastion Held.JPG|thumb|Postern doubling as a sallyport in the flank of a bastion at Dömitz Fortress in Germany]]
A '''postern''' is a secondary door or gate in a fortification such as a city wall or castle curtain wall. Posterns were often placed in concealed locations, allowing inconspicuous entrance and exit. In the event of a siege, a postern could act as a sally port, allowing defenders to make a sortie on the besiegers. Placed in a less exposed, less visible location, they were usually relatively small, and therefore easily defensible.<ref name=van>[https://books.google.com/books?id=m-TqPC6cRNYC&dq=Postern&pg=PA18 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] {{ISBN|9780816620036}}</ref>
==Tactical use== Posterns were one of the essential means of ensuring safe communication between the enceinte and the outerworks of a defensive fortification.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=aGXzAAAAMAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA154 Straith, Hector. ''Treatise on Fortification and Artillery'', W. Allen, 1858, p.153]</ref> An 1850 West Point course summary on permanent fortifications discusses the placement and construction of posterns.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=9d9xBkzC0vgC&dq=Postern&pg=PA140 Mahan, Dennis Hart. ''Summary of the Course of Permanent Fortification'', U.S. Military Academy Press, 1850, pp.139 et seq.]</ref>
==Examples== *In 1896, C.R. Condor, writing for the London Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society viewed Zion Gate in Jerusalem, 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 postern of the Tanners' Gate; and the postern of the Madeleine at Herod's Gate.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=1DpRAQAAIAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=RA1-PA4 Condor, C.R., "The City of Jerusalem", Palestine Pilgrims' Text Society, London, 1896, p.4]</ref> Right of the Golden Gate is a small postern called the Gate of Jehosaphat.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=X3BTAAAAYAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA83 de Saulcy, Félicien. ''Narrative of a Journey Round the Dead Sea'', R. Bentley, 1854, p.83]</ref> *The city walls of York contained a number of posterns; at North Street Tower,<ref>[https://www.pastscape.org.uk/hob.aspx?hob_id=536734 "North Street Postern Tower", Historic England]</ref> the postern gate was demolished to accommodate the Great North of England Railway. The tower still stands.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=WbNYAAAAcAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA36 ''The Strangers' Guide to the City of York'', Blyth & Moore, 1850, p.36]</ref> There were also posterns at Fishergate, and Longwalk.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=0XFbAAAAQAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA230-IA3 Britton, J. and Brayley, E.W., ''The beauties of England and Wales'', 1812, p.31]</ref> Around 1672, the Castlegate postern was made wide enough for carriages.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=RQoNAAAAYAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA81 Davies, Robert. ''Walks Through the City of York'', Chapman and Hall, 1880, p.81]</ref> 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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Hk1CqD5m-GEC&dq=Postern&pg=PA215 "York City Walls", ''The Antiquary'', 1889, p.215]</ref> The original Skeldergate postern was only large enough to allow pedestrian traffic to and from the city.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=QzcGAQAAIAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA305 Cooper, Thomas Parsons. ''York: the Story of Its Walls, Bars, and Castles'', E. Stock, 1904, p.318]</ref> *In Oxford, there was a postern in the east city wall called Windsore Postern.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=M2kJAAAAIAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA646 Wood, Anthony. ''Survey of Antiquities of the City of Oxford'', Clarendon Press, 1889, pp. 108-109, 646]</ref> There were at least three posterns in the wall at New College Gardens.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=tldNAAAAMAAJ&dq=Postern&pg=PA83 Salter, Herbert Edward. ''Records of Mediæval Oxford'', Oxford Chronicle Company, Lltd., 1912, p.83]</ref> *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.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=m1HVs4PpV9YC&dq=Postern&pg=PA427 ''Analytical Index to the Series of Records Known as the Remembrancia'', 1878, p.427]</ref> 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 in the ''chanson de geste'' The Four Sons of Aymon. A postern also provided a safe retreat for Ogier the Dane.<ref name=van/>
In Thomas Malory's ''Le Morte d'Arthur'', "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 hundred knights assailing him.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=Gmhfg0CkZ-AC&dq=Postern&pg=PT350 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.
<gallery class="center" widths="150" heights="145"> File:Tour Barker York 3.jpg|North Street Postern Tower (aka Barker Tower), York File:Poterne remparts de Provins.JPG|Postern in the rampart of Provins, Seine-et-Marne, France </gallery>
==See also==
==References== {{reflist|30em}}
{{commons category|Posterns}} {{Fortifications}}
Category:Castle architecture Category:Types of gates