24 posts
Starving a castle was the slow way to win a siege. Instead of breaking the walls, the attackers closed every road in and out, then waited for food to run out. This guide explains why armies chose to wait, what a blockade…
A curtain wall was the stone wall that ran round a castle and joined its towers together. It was the castle's outer skin. This post explains what it was, how it was built to defend, and how to read one yourself, with one…
A castle keep was the great tower of a castle, and at castles such as Goodrich and Middleham it is the oldest part, the core the rest grew around. English Heritage often calls it the "great tower or keep", and both names…
A licence to crenellate was the king's permission for a lord to fortify his house: to give it battlements, and with them the look and some of the strength of a castle. If you have visited an English castle and read that…
What was a castle moat for? A moat was a deep ditch around a castle, often filled with water, that kept attackers away from the walls. One of its jobs is easy to miss: English Heritage says moats, or even artificial…
What were arrow loops for? They let a castle's defenders shoot at attackers while standing behind thick stone. English Heritage's Goodrich Castle glossary defines an arrow-loop as a narrow vertical window slit in castle…
What was a castle drawbridge? It was a bridge across a castle's moat or ditch that could be raised, so the way in disappeared when danger came. English Heritage's glossary defines a drawbridge as a bridge, especially one…
What was a springald? It was a medieval siege engine that shot heavy bolts, a kind of giant mechanical bow built into a wooden frame. Castles and armies used bolt-throwers like it alongside stone-throwing catapults. This…
What was a battering ram? It was one of the simplest siege weapons of the Middle Ages: a heavy beam, usually a tree trunk, swung again and again against a castle or town gate until the gate broke. This post explains how…
Castle hoardings were wooden galleries built out from the top of a castle wall. Their floors hung out past the face of the wall, so defenders could drop stones and other missiles straight down on attackers at its foot.…
What was a bombard? It was one of the first great siege guns: a huge cannon that fired heavy stone balls at castle and town walls. For centuries a strong stone wall could hold out for weeks or months. Bombards changed…
A castle gatehouse solved the hardest problem in castle building. Every wall needs a way in, and every way in is a hole that an enemy can try to force. Builders did not hide that weak point. They turned it into the…
Did castles use boiling oil? Hardly ever, according to English Heritage. The picture of defenders tipping cauldrons of boiling oil over the battlements is common in films, but English Heritage says hot oil was rarely…
Undermining a castle meant attacking it from below. Miners dug a tunnel under the wall, held the roof up with timber, then burned the timber so the wall above fell in. It was slow, dirty and dangerous work, and it…
How long did a medieval siege last? The honest answer is anywhere from a few weeks to more than a year. English Heritage's accounts of sieges in England include one that ended after six weeks, one that ran from October…
A siege tower was a tall wooden tower on wheels, pushed up to a castle wall so soldiers could fight from the top and then cross onto the battlements. That is the short answer. The longer one is more interesting, because…
A barbican was an outer defense built in front of a castle's gate, so that attackers had to fight their way through it before they even reached the gate itself. If you have seen the word on a castle's site plan and…
A portcullis is a heavy grille of wood or iron that drops down in grooves to close a castle's gate passage. You have seen one in every castle picture: the latticed gate hanging above an archway. What is harder to picture…
A motte and bailey castle had two parts: a high earth mound with a tower on top (the motte), and a fenced or walled yard beside or below it (the bailey). It was one of the most common castle designs in England after the…
Trebuchet vs mangonel is a question with a messy history, because the people who wrote about these machines in the Middle Ages did not use the names as neatly as a textbook would like. Even today, two careful sources can…
Longbow vs crossbow is one of the oldest arguments in medieval history, and most answers pick a winner. The people who look after these weapons tell a more useful story. The Royal Armouries, the national museum of arms…
Did arrows pierce plate armor? Mostly, no. The Royal Armouries, the UK's national museum of arms and armour, says good armor was quite effective against arrows, and that only a small share of shots probably got through,…
Most siege stories are told from outside the walls: the army arrives, the machines go up, the stones fly. But how did castles defend against a siege? The short answer is preparation. A castle that held was usually one…
Trebuchet, mangonel, ballista, battering ram: you meet these names in history lessons and castle tours, often without a clear picture of how they worked. Medieval siege weapons were machines built to do one of four jobs:…