Castles and Fortifications in the Middle Ages By: Rosario Jaramillo Cadavid

What were Castles for? • Castles were the home to the lords and their families in the Middle Ages. They were used as protection. They also kept goods and animals inside.

Keep • The keep was the most important part of the castle. Inside the keep lived the most important people which were the lord, the lady of the castle, their family, also the servants and the knights. The types of keeps were the shell keep and the rectangular keep introduced by the Normans when they invaded. The Motte and Bailey castles had rectangular keeps.

Motte and Bailey • The Motte and bailey castles were introduced by the Normans from France when they invaded the country. About 1000 castles were built like this. The most important part of the Motte and Bailey castles was the keep. The castle was built on a huge mound, it varied sizes from 25 to 80 feet. The mountain where the castle was built was so tall that it was very difficult to run them up. The Bailey varied sizes from 1 to 3 acres. Inside the Bailey lived the Lord’s followers.

This wood fence was called the palaside

This is the big Mountain that has The castle on top. It was very dificult For robbers to climb up

This was the Bailey, in here lived the Lord’s followers.

Concentric Castles

• Kings, Princes, Lords and other rich people had castles built, but the people that actually built the castles were, Journeyman, or Skilled Workers, Stone Carvers were used when stone castles were built. Unskilled workers were the ones that made all the pulling, pushing and the lifting. Thousands of people were required to build castles, it was a very difficult job.

Where were castles built? • Castles were built were there was a need for protection. It was usually in a hill. To build a castle in the correct place, it was very difficult because if it was in a hill there was little water and you could have problems with the land itself. If it was in a flat land, it was easy to rob.

What made them stand out? • Lords were the important part of the village. They lived in the castle. They controlled everything. What they kept inside the castle, as I said before, the goods. The castle also had a high status. Robbing castles was also very common in the middle ages. This made them famous. What they did when they robbed a castle was that they burned the gate down and then came in. People that lived in the castles used the curtain walls to protect themselves.

What makes Castles an important subject to study today • Castles were an important part of the development of a culture and of a society. Castles marked a great point in the development of architecture. They were like a starting point for the development of architecture. We use them today as an attraction. And some important people even as a place to live. In the present day it can be considered as an achieved status. It can be considered this way because it was a great achievement for many people. If we study about castles, we can also learn a big part of their daily life. How was it.

Major difficulties of Castles • One of the major difficulties of a castles in the middle ages were the robberies. If a Castle was robbed a huge set of people were impacted. A lot of people died. Sometimes even the lords died. The village would end in ruins. Robberies were very dangerous and it was a very big difficulty.

Social Importance • The social importance is somehow related to making castles stand out. To be important in a social way you need to stand out. To stand out to need to have social importance. lords and their families had a lot of both social and political importance. Social because they were in the higher part of the economical pyramid and as a consequence they had social importance. Political because they controlled,

What do we benefit from their legacy? • As I said before, castles were like a starting point in the development of architecture. Some houses have some castle style. They have some air. Some ideas. Castles also used some materials that we use in the present day to build our buildings and houses.

Time Line Van castle In turkey was began 850

1000

A long period Of castle Building has started 1050

Castle fences were started being built With wood

1060 Bayeux Tapestry Started

The biggining Introduction of Of the Motte and Construction Bailey castles Of the Windsor castle 1070 1066 1067 1070 The shell keep was introduced

Wood in the Tower of london was Replaced with stone 1070

Rectangular keeps

Time Line From this Year and Onwards, castles were Built in stone

Concentric Castles were built

Stone castle Was vastly enlarged

Castles with Round towers Were built

1100

1270

1300

1400

1215

From this year And on, no More Motte And Bailey Castles were built

1300

The shell Keep was Started using

1385

Bodiam Castle Was built. Curtain walled

1450

The period of castle-building has stopped

Bibliographies • Bergin, Mark. Castles. Hove: Macdonald Young, 1999. Print. • "Castles in Medieval Times." Castles in Medieval Times. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2013. • "Middle Ages Castles." Middle Ages Castles. N.p., n.d. Web. 3 Feb. 2013.

I hope you learned, and you enjoyed