ABOUT FACTS NET Ancient

What could have been harder to conquer, in the old days, than a stout stone castle? This was the ultimate fortification, yet these heavy stone works were overrun regularly. Sometimes it didn't take very long, but other times starvation was used and it took quite a while for the castle's occupants to surrender. Many methods had been discovered for attacking castles. I think that one of the most fascinating ones is tunneling. Tunnels would be dug under the keystone and this could bring down an entire wall or tower. The way it worked was that a tunnel was dug under the castle and wooden beams held it up. The next thing the attackers would do when the tunnel was finished was set it on fire. The fire would destroy the beams, the tunnel would collapse and the castle would fall down. This must have been a sight to see.

Another method used to attack a castle was the use of a siege tower. A siege tower was a wooden tower with many floors. It was built on wheels and ideally it was taller than the walls it would attack. The reason for this height was so the archers inside the tower could fire down upon the castles defenders. There was a problem though. Most castles were surrounded by a moat or ditch just so this couldn't happen. Because of this, the ditch or moat had to be filled in first, so that the tower could be rolled over it and placed against the wall. Filling in the moat or ditch was not an easy task. All the time the work was going on, arrows were being shot at you, rocks were being thrown and maybe even hot oil was being poured on you. If the siege tower did get to the walls, there was a good chance that the castle would be overrun. Sometimes ladders would also be put up against the wall and troops would try and climb up to the top of the wall.

Another method of attacking a castle was to use a large weapon that threw stones, later a cannon were used. The idea was to pound the walls until they weakened enough that part of the wall would collapse. Trebuchets were the most feared rock hurling machines. The trebuchet was a machine that had a beam mounted on a support that was attached to a platform on wheels. At one end of the beam was a cup or net to hold the rock and at the other end was a large bucket filled with heavy stones. When the buckets was allowed to drop it would swing the beam, hurling the stone toward its target. Since the trebuchets was very accurate it could hit the same spot on the wall over and over again, causing quite a lot of damage. Given enough time, a portion of the wall would collapse.

As hard as it is to believe, germ warfare was also used. If someone died from the plague, their body might be hurled over the castle wall with the hope that the plague would spread inside the castle, killing its defenders. This was not a pretty sight as bodies were hurled over and over again through the air onto the castle grounds.

Lastly, there was the siege. No one really liked the siege. The siege was a weapon that employed time as the weapon. The idea was to surround the castle, shutting off all contact with the outside world. Nothing could get in or out. This meant that no food would be brought in and if there wasn't a viable water supply inside, there was really a problem for the defenders, but water really wasn't a problem for most castles, it was food. You didn't just cut off the food supply and win the battle. Sometimes a siege would take years because the castle would have a stockpile of food and you would have to wait for that to be used up. According to Homer, Greeks set up a siege against the city of Troy that lasted ten years.

As castles progressed they were built deeper, thicker, larger and stronger and things like tunneling were no longer feasible because the walls went down too far and set upon rock. Castles were always being improved and at the end of their time, castles were built in such a way that they were composed of several killing zones that were almost impossible to storm. You had walls defending walls defending walls and areas where there were only narrow entrances into the castle and these were protected by vats of hot oil or many archers. In these areas you would have to pass through several gates that could be closed to block you progress.

The defenders of castles were it a better position as the design of castles advanced. The stair case going up to the towers favored a right hand person on the descending side because knights used their right hand to swing their swords and their left to hold their shields and the space on the right side going up the staircase was limited preventing a full sword swing. Another advantage was that the higher up you were the more range your bows had. The archers on the walls could shoot further than those on the ground. The walls and towers had slits in them, giving more cover to the defender than the attacker. The later castles had extremely thick walls to prevent a trebuchet from pounding its way through. Many castles were constructed on top of a hill forcing the enemy to have to climb up the hill while they were under fire from the castle.

Edinburgh castle is a fine example of this, yet it was conquered several times. When you look at it, you wonder how this ever happened?

Most castles had an inner and outer wall for defense. Concentric castles were built that make the best use of the angles in the design. A concentric castle has an inner wall that is higher than its outer wall. The walls contained many towers for protection with many vantage points and the whole castle is usually surrounded by water. These types of castles can hold a very large number of defenders. Since the outer wall was lower than the inner wall, defenders on both walls can fire on the attackers, increasing fire power substantially.

With the advent of accurate cannon, the days of the castles were finished because no earth or rock fortification could stand up to cannon fire.