In the year 1066, after William the conqueror established his rule over England, he built many castles. The first few castles ever made were made as a form of defense against anyone attacking and were a symbol of power for the people living there. After a few years these castles started to evolve in terms of shape, location, substance and reason. The first castles were mainly made from timber. This was a great disadvantage as the castle could be burnt very easily and could simply be broken down by a siege tower. These castles later evolved to stronger, well maintained means of protection in 500 years.
The first castle ever made was a Motte and Bailey castle. The Motte was a tiny hill with a small tower called a Keep on top of it; the Bailey …show more content…
Their structure and shape had the crusaders to blame when they came back from Greece and Turkey. This It is called concentric as it had two walls, the larger completely surrounding the smaller. The inner wall was built of thick stone with turrets placed at intervals. The outer wall was relatively shorter than the inner wall. This came to advantage of defenders whilst an attack as archers could easily shoot towards the ground. The space between the two walls is called a ‘death hole’ because if anyone managed to be trapped in between those walls would result in death for that person. Concentric castles also had a moat placed as the first obstacle for any attacker. The reason why they are called obstacles is because these moats would be at least 30 feet deep. They were either filled with wooden stakes or with water. Other advantages were that the castles had ‘murder holes’ which were holes above the passage which allowed defenders to drop stones, boiling water/ oil or hot sand on the enemy. The disadvantages of concentric castles were that they were extremely expensive. If anyone managed to take a castle down, it would be a huge disaster for the owner. Siege warfare was the only way to take down a concentric castle; castle walls would fall down due to siege mechanisms such as ballistae, mangonel’s (catapult) or
The first castle ever made was a Motte and Bailey castle. The Motte was a tiny hill with a small tower called a Keep on top of it; the Bailey …show more content…
Their structure and shape had the crusaders to blame when they came back from Greece and Turkey. This It is called concentric as it had two walls, the larger completely surrounding the smaller. The inner wall was built of thick stone with turrets placed at intervals. The outer wall was relatively shorter than the inner wall. This came to advantage of defenders whilst an attack as archers could easily shoot towards the ground. The space between the two walls is called a ‘death hole’ because if anyone managed to be trapped in between those walls would result in death for that person. Concentric castles also had a moat placed as the first obstacle for any attacker. The reason why they are called obstacles is because these moats would be at least 30 feet deep. They were either filled with wooden stakes or with water. Other advantages were that the castles had ‘murder holes’ which were holes above the passage which allowed defenders to drop stones, boiling water/ oil or hot sand on the enemy. The disadvantages of concentric castles were that they were extremely expensive. If anyone managed to take a castle down, it would be a huge disaster for the owner. Siege warfare was the only way to take down a concentric castle; castle walls would fall down due to siege mechanisms such as ballistae, mangonel’s (catapult) or