Medieval castles evolved over time to better withstand attacks. Early castles consisted of a simple motte-and-bailey design with a wooden tower atop an artificial mound for protection. However, wood rotted easily so stone castles became more common. Castle defenses included thick curtain walls, moats, gatehouses with towers, arrow slits, and crenellations. Later designs featured concentric or multiple curtain walls to withstand siege weapons like trebuchets and battering rams. As siege techniques advanced, castles added more defenses until the 15th century when cannons introduced from China made castles obsolete through their ability to destroy stone walls.

1. Unit 3.2 The Medieval Castle
By Ms. Farida

2. Words to learn
Terminology Definition
Siege Surrounding an enemy castle allowing nobody to go in or
come out
Breach A gap in a wall or line of defense, made by attacking army
Concentric castles A castle with rings of two or more curtain walls

3. Disputes and war
• Medieval England was
often in a state of war.
Kings fought other kings.
Barons fought other
barons. Sometimes,
barons would unite and
fight their own king.
• Due to this instability,
English kings and barons
needed strong, well
defended castles in which
their families and armies
could seek protection
• The castle was the
ultimate symbol of power
in the medieval world.

4. Classic castle – Motte and bailey
• At first these were simple
motte and bailey castles
which were easy and quick
to build.
• A ditch would be dug , and
the soil from the ground
would be used to create an
artificial hill called motte.
• On top of the motte a
wooden tower would be
built.
• Beneath the tower would
be a small courtyard called
bailey

5. Classic castle – Motte and bailey
• When castle was attacked,
inhabitans would seek
shelter in the tower.
• Motte and Bailey tower
were quick and cheap to
built (wood are easy to get)
• However wood soon begin
to rot due to heavy winter
and hot summer.
• Some groups of rebellion
used fire and its easily to
be burnt down
• So it was soon replaced
with larger, stronger stone
castles

6. Defending castle
• The chief aim of castle design was to make it impossible for enemies to enter. During the medieval
period, a number of clever ideas were developed to improve a castle’s defense

7. Castle defense
Castle part Defense
Curtain walls Outer wall of castle, 12 meters thick
Moat A ditch dug to prevent siege weapons from reaching the wall
Gatehouse Towers on both side at entrance gate
Murder holes Gaps in the roof : to throw stones, waste materials and boiling
water from the top
Drawbridge A lifted bridge from gatehouse over the moat
Arrow slits Long and thin windows just wide enough to fire an arrow out of it
Crenellations Teeth like gaps on top of castle wall allowed defenders to fire
arrows and hide behind it
Keep A large stone building inside curtain wall with small slits window.
Strongly defended.

8. Attacking a castle
• Each new technology developed for defending castle would
be matched my new technology developed for attack.

9. 1. Mangonel
• A large catapult that used elastic spring to fire
rocks at castle wall in a short distance.

10. 2. Trebuchet
• A more
advanced
catapult used a
counterweight
and sling, it
could throw
large rocks at a
great distance
with strong
force perfect
for breach

11. 3. Battering ram
• Made from large tree trunk and given metal tip to batter down castle
door.
• Sometimes its hung from a frame with huge wheels for mobility

12. 4. Siege tower
• Also known as a
belfry : a large
wooden tower
with ladder inside
could be wheeled
up to castle wall
and used to climb
up and over

13. 5. Undermining
Digging tunnel beneath a castle wall and
collapsing the castle by exploding the tunner
beneath

14. 6. Siege
• If all else failed,
an army would
simply surround
a castle allowing
nobody to come
in or out. The
inhabitants inside
the castle would
slowly running
out of sources
and starved to
death until they
surrendered

15. Developments in castle building
• Castle designs
kept improving .
Missiles from
catapult could
knock a hole in
flat walls but
would glanced off
curved walls
• This technology is
called ‘Concentric
castles” based on
what they have
seen in Byzantium
and islamic world
during the Holy
Crusade

16. Concentric castles
• Have two layers of
curtain walls
• Archers could
defend inner curtain
wall and could fire
at the enemy army
as they attacked
outer curtain wall
• In 15th century, the
medieval castle
became obsolete
with the presence
of gun powder from
China
• With this new
technology ,
Cannons were used
to blow castle stone
defense.

17. Cannons
• By late 15th century , gun powder was brought from China by
foreign traders. Many cannons were installed around the castle

18. The end