Motte and Bailey castles
The evolution of castles started when the Romans were around, but had turned out of fashion. In 1066 when William the conqueror insisted castles were to be built to keep guard of all his land and keep the country in control the new idea of castles re-developed and showed the wealth and strength of the owner. The castle consisted of two basic parts. The Motte was a mound of earth with, normally with a wooden tower on the top of it; this was the safest place of the castle as it was hardest to attack. The other basic part of the tower was the bailey, a larger area surrounded by a fence. Inside the bailey were usually houses where the peasants lived. Around both the Motte and the bailey the owners had dug a defensive ditch to keep soldiers from attacking from all directions. The only way in was the drawbridge, which was normally heavily guarded. The lookout towers also served the castle well. At first it was a great idea because they were simple to make and quite easy to defend, but then the drawbacks of motte and bailey castles were realized. The castles could collapse under the motte, as they are very heavy. The castles could also be burnt down because the castles were made of wood. Another defensive frailty is that after a period of time the wood would rot, become weak and be easy to smash.
Square Stone Keep Castles
From the start of the conquest the Normans had built stone keep castles, but very few of them. The peasants thought the Normans as very strong as they some times knocked down whole villages to create castles on. When the peak of the some castles erupted they were built everywhere because of their very few disadvantages. One of the longest lasting castles built in the Middle Ages today was the Tower of London. Instead of the motte being the safest place of the castle, the keep had become safer. Square keep castles were also extremely safe because of the strength of the walls; these were normally up to 5 metres thick. However, because of their weight you could not build on mottes. New windows were also improved so that at the bottom of the tower the windows were big enough to fire arrows through, but not big enough for enemies to climb through. Only higher up the walls were the windows much wider. On the ground floor was storage space and above this was a great hall were some peasants used to live. However these castles had weaknesses aswell. The defenders of the castles could do not much to fight back. Usually the attackers tried to starve the defenders out of mine under the walls of the castles so it would collapse. Also battering rams came in very useful as their was not a ditch to prevent them from being used. Mining was the main weakness of Square keep castles as the square corners were very weak against this type of attack.
Circular Castles
Round castles were the improvement of square castles. Once again they were built on ground. This idea was to avoid the mining under the square corners of the castle by not having any. When the builders were building round keeps they could not build them as big as square castles so the circular castles were often cramped. Round and square keeps were normally in the bailey of the castle. As there was not a motte any more the defences of the castles had to be improved furtherly. The strong stone wall was called a curtain wall because it surrounded the whole castle. The idea was that the wall would stop enemies from entering the bailey. This meant the keeps became less and less important. As the bailey grew safer, the buildings in it became more important. As the bailey was not built to be defended it could have thin walls and larger windows.
Concentric Castles
Concentric castles had a ringwall. One wall was a taller innermost one, the other a smaller outermost one. Concentric castles were buildings to kill attackers because of the concentrated fire. The concentric castles also used flanking fire, barbicans and machicolations. The ringwall idea also prevented shooting their own defenders because of the height range.
Concentric castles were also useful because they had lots of firing positions protecting most parts of the ground. If the outer ringwall was captured the inner ringwall could guard and protect it. Each of the walls has a variety of rounded towers from which a defender has a number of vantage points against the attackers. The only ways the attackers could breach the defence is if the attackers climb the two walls under heavy fire, or breach the heavily guarded gatehouses and drawbridge. The advantages of concentric castles are as follows; Round towers couldn't be mined as easily, larger castles can hold a greater number of defenders, inside the outer wall an attacker was still visible to defenders in a large number of towers. The symmetrical design ensures that entry to the inner most parts of the castle is heavily armed. High and low curtain walls mean that defenders on the inner and outer walls can see attackers. However, concentric castles had two major weaknesses. They were exceedingly expensive to build and if an attacking army decided to ignore them, troops within concentric castles had the choice of either staying where they were and not involving themselves in combat or leaving their place of safety and fighting on open ground.
Castles also declined in importance because of how comfortable they are to live in. Comfort is one of the most important things about the Lord of the manor and the people staying in the manor. Castles also keep declining because when new ways of attacking and breaching a castles defence system are improved new ways have to be invented to defend the castles. A prime example is how motte and bailey castles turned to stone castles, which then turned to sandstone castles.
Overall the revolution of castles has changed a lot depending on the attackers but the age of castles has come to its end when the indestructible cannons and bombs were invented. One little thing like gunpowder can change the existence of a thing that has been around for centuries.
