Natural defences
The location of the castle sometimes counts as an extra defense. For example, a castle built upon a hill makes it less easy to reach when attempting to charge up the slope. In addition, if it is surrounded by water, the enemy will find it difficult getting access to the castle, in this case it is man made, it is called a moat. Also, if the enemy attempts to tunnel into the castle, the moat prevents this. Interestingly, did you know that the people within the castle might place a bowl of water upon the floor;if the water surface vibrated, then that meant that someone was trying to tunnel under!?
Weaponry defenses
A common defence that fits in this category is an arrow loop:this allows a defender to fire their arrows from under cover.The style of arrow loops vary-some are bigger than others, which allows a wider shooting range. In addition, murder holes, openings in the floor allowed defenders to unleash missiles or boiling hot liquids upon any attacker unfortunate enough to stumble underneath one. These were usually located in the vaulting over the gate defences.
Wall defences
The largest castle defence category, defenders incorporated numerous wall type defences such as towers, parapets, bastions etc. into the castle. The curtain wall surrounded the bailey or castle buildings;it was often connected to the flanking towers. This wall's thickness could range from around two metres to over six metres. Upon the curtain wall there would be an allure, a wall walk along the top that was accessed by a wooden or stone staircase parallel to the wall, or in some cases, a mural tower. Allures were paved with stone slabs:sometimes, there would be arrow loops present in the wall therefore the defender would fire their arrows under cover through the slits from the allure.Later, the allure developed into more complex defences like flying parapets and machicolations.
Wall defences 2
Shielding the defenders was an embattled wall, a parapet: machicolations were openings on the bottom edges a protruding parapet and the allure, through which defenders could drop various missiles. Battlements, a castle trademark provided something like an allure along the wall summit, which acted as a fighting platform and prevented escalade. A batter, the angled footing of a tower acted as a deflecting surface e.g it could make missiles dropped by the defenders ricochet horizontally then launch at the approaching opponent. Protecting the castle entrance was a barbican- it confined the enemy to a narrow front and sometimes consisted of a disorientating series of twists and turns. Following on, there might be a drawbridge, an iconic bridge that could be raised or lowered for access to the actual inner entrance. Finally, there would be the gatehouse, the inner castle entrance that probably would contain at least one portcullis(strong metal gate, as depicted in the Lego photo on the left).
Wall defences III
Just about all castles had towers like flanking towers or mural towers. The purpose of these was that they provided access to lookout points, wall walks and sleeping quarters for the castle garrison. A similar structure, the keep was a self-sufficient, last resort as well as a place of refuge used during a siege. Majority of keeps were square or rectangular, despite the fact that round keeps did occur sometimes. A lot of keeps were over 80 feet high in addition to having walls over 17 metres thick!!
Conclusion
To summarise, entrepreneurs invented many defences to counter invaders, and they required a vast range of logic on top of experience in order to invent such powerful defences to protect their home.
THE END. THANK YOU FOR READING:)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
THE END. THANK YOU FOR READING:)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!