Ask anyone to visualize the Middle Ages and, almost inevitably, they will come up with the image of a castle. Castles are some of the most popular historic sites on the planet and, together with the great cathedrals, they are one of the most evocative features of the Medieval Age.
Castles can exert a powerful hold on our imagination as they bring back memories of great battles and chivalry while providing an excellent starting point for the study of medieval history.
How did castles originated?
The subject itself is a complex matter as it involves several factors. The concept of a fortified settlement is an ancient one, originating more than 2.000 years ago in the Indus Valley, Egypt, and China, where settlements were protected by large walls. Such defensive structures were slower to develop in Europe until hill forts appeared and began to spread across. It was the Romans that were most famous for their formidable defensive structures such as coastal forts, flanking round towers or fortified towns. In fact, castle designers have been largely influenced by Roman architecture; moreover, many castles used former Roman structures as foundations.
So what makes a castle so unique ? We will tell you in a few moments.
First, let’s jump back in time to the moment when castles appeared for the first time. At the beginning of the 9th century, Charles the Great founded a large empire in western and central Europe. The large kingdom is known as the Carolingian Empire; it was the first great empire established in Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire. However, the Carolingian Empire only lasted for about 90 years. At its fall, the vast land was divided among individual lords and princes.
These local lords assumed responsibility for the economy and for the government in the area they controlled. But they had to find a way to protect against attacks by the Muslims, Vikings and, most importantly, other local lords who wished to extend their territory. On the other hand, they needed administrative centers to control the land and show off their power.
That is how castles originated. Although there is a considerable debate on the castles original purposes, it is generally agreed that these nobles started building castles for 3 main reasons:
1. Military. Castles provided protection against enemy raids in the area immediately surrounding them, but they were also offensive tools that could be used as a base of operations in enemy territory.
As we will see, castles defenses evolved from the primitive motte-and-bailey castles to the formidable concentric castles which constituted the high point in medieval military architecture.
2. Administrative. Castles were not just defensive sites but also enhanced the lord's control over his lands. They formed a center of administration, providing the noble with a place to hold court.
Many castles were used to control important nearby features such as travel routes, mills, fertile land, or a water source.
3. Symbols of power. Although, at the beginning castles were built to offer protection and control nearby land, not all the elements of castle architecture were military in nature. For these local lords, showing off their power was a key element. As a consequence, the castle's appearance and size tend to reflect the prestige and power of its occupant. As castle design evolved, aesthetics of the design would become more important and the castle original military purpose would shift towards a comfortable country house.
So let’s get back to our question. What makes castles unique?
A European innovation, a castle is considered to be the private fortified residence of a lord or noble, reflecting the multi-functional use of these buildings.
Most importantly, while castles had always some military aspects in their design, they also had to contain a household structure within their walls.
These aspects set them apart from other similar structures such as:
a fortress, which was not always a residence for a noble or lord
a fortified settlement, which was a public defense
a palace or a country house, which was not fortified
Nevertheless, there are many similarities among these types of construction and many castles lost their fortifications over time evolving into grand palaces or country houses.
Two key elements to remember before we go any further:
Although, as we will see, castles have many common elements, no two castles are alike; each castle design depends on several factors including the selected position and landscape or the amount of money the noble was willing to spend.
Most of the castles developed over time. As a result, many primitive “motte-and-bailey” castles are now invisible – they are used as foundations or sites for more impressive stone castles. Alternatively, many stone castles that were built in the 10th and 11th centuries were later enlarged and renovated to turn them into more comfortable residences.
How did castles come to England?
We know now that castles are not a British innovation. Despite that, Britain and Ireland have some of the most impressive castles in the world. Therefore, the next question should be how did castles arrive on British soil?
Castles were brought to England by William the Conqueror, after the Norman conquest in 1066. Prior to that, castles were virtually unknown on the island. On the other hand, Normans have been building castles long before the battle of Hastings.
As William advanced through England, he needed to fortify key positions to secure the land he had taken. To do so, he built several castles which he used to guard against rebellion and control the land. Each castle was given to a noble who was sympathetic to William the Conqueror; in return for his loyalty to William, the lord could keep the castle which helped him secure his power over the local lands.
William and his army could then proceed forward to capture new territories in England, Wales and Scotland.
Another crucial aspect was that most of the early Norman castles were cheap motte-and-bailey castles (made primarily of timber and earth) that were easy and quick to construct. Each of this structures held power over a small area of the British Island – consolidating the Normans’ successful conquest.
However, after William’s death in 1087, the Norman barons who owned the castles, began to use them for private war. If the English King was not powerful enough, they would even try to challenge his authority. From the 12th century on, royal authority has strengthen and castles could only be constructed if a “Licence to crenellate” was granted by the King.
All in all, more than 1500 castles were built in England alone during the next 5 centuries.
How were castles built and how did castle-design evolve over time?
If we are asked to visualize a castle, most of us will come with the image of a grand building made up of stone, with several towers and an impressive keep, maybe a massive gatehouse, battlements and arrow slits and a deep moat that surrounds the entire edifice.
However, the original castles had little to do with that image.
The Motte-and-Bailey Castles – the original castle design
The motte-and-bailey castle was a true European innovation. While the concept of ditches, ramparts, and stone walls as defensive measures is ancient, raising a motte is a medieval innovation.
Originally, these castles were constructed from timber and earth alone; they were cheap and easy to build and didn’t require any special design.
The fortification consisted of a wooden keep that was placed on a raised earthwork called a motte, overlooking an enclosed courtyard called the bailey.
As we can see, these castles included three main elements:
The Motte
The Motte (the word derives from Old French) was a large earthen mound with a ditch surrounding its base. It was often artificial, meaning it had to be built by piling up earth, but sometimes it incorporated a pre-existing feature of the landscape, such as a nearby hill.
Large mottes could be as high as 30 meters and as large as 90 meters in diameter, but they were rarely used. That’s because it took an enormous effort to pile up such a huge volume of earth.
The motte was flattened on top to make place for the wooden keep.
The Keep
The keep on top of the motte was the castle's main defensive element. It was surrounded by a protective wall, originally made of wood. Small mottes could only support a simple tower but larger mottes could be equipped with a much grander edifice with several rooms.
The keep on top of the motte was the castle's last line of defense and it was the place where the lord of the castle (together with his wife) inhabited. Larger towers were also equipped with cellars and granaries, more living rooms as well as rooms for the watchmen and the servants appointed to keep the house.
It was not uncommon for the tower to be built and then partially buried within the mound, the buried part forming a cellar beneath.
The bailey
For the bailey, a raised area alongside the motte was flattened, forming an even yard. The yard was surrounded by a wooden fence called a palisade and another ditch. The bailey was the center of domestic life within the castle and could contain a wide number of buildings, including a hall, kitchens, stores, stables, a chapel, barracks and workshops.
The bailey was linked to the motte either by a flying bridge stretching between the two, or, more commonly in England, by steps cut into the motte. Sometimes, the ditches were filled with water by damming or diverting nearby streams forming water-filled moats.
In practice, no two motte-and-baileys were exactly the same although most of them shared the three common elements. A castle could have had more than one bailey and a good example is Windsor Castle where several baileys flank the motte. Alternatively, some castles were designed with a single bailey and two mottes, such as Lincoln Castle. Fundamentally, the design of each castle adapted to its natural surroundings.
Why were motte-and-baileys so popular?
Motte-and-bailey castles were immensely popular for nearly 200 years. The Normans were huge advocates of this type of castle design and in fact, motte-and-baileys were decisive in their successful conquest of the British Isles.
Despite the simple and relatively rough design, motte-and-baileys still had excellent defensive capabilities. The attackers were soon to find out that the keep on top of the motte was surprisingly hard to capture as the height of the motte and the ditch surrounding it gave defenders quite a big advantage. Moreover, Norman designers found that the wider the ditch was dug, the deeper and steeper the sides of the scarp could be, making life even more difficult for the attackers.
One of the biggest advantages was that this type of castle was extremely cheap and easy to build. Designers could use an existing mound or hill for foundations which could save even more time.
Construction didn’t require any special materials (earth and timber were always nearby) and it could be carried out with unskilled men. This meant that a motte-and-bailey could be quickly put together, allowing the Normans to move on and conquer the next town.
As a marker of their success, almost 1,000 motte-and-bailey castles were built in England, then Wales, and then Scotland.
However, by the end of the 11th century, motte-and-bailey castles (especially those made entirely out of earth and timber) began to fall from favor.
Motte-and-baileys decline
One of the main flaws of the motte-and-bailey design was that almost the entire structure was made of timber. Because timber burns easily, firing flaming arrows at the castle could have devastating consequences.
The proliferation of this design across the UK and Northern Europe allowed the attackers to develop various strategies to defeat the castle and, over time, these tactics became increasingly efficient. Sophisticated fire-launching techniques aiming to burn down the castle have been develop; attachers also found out that because mottes often had a broad base, they could climb the hill from many different directions, surprising the defenders inside the keep.
Another disadvantage was that timber tends to rot easily; as a result, castles quickly ran into disrepair and were often abandoned or required some serious (and often extensive) maintenance work.
Small and medium mottes could not sustain a large keep; this meant that the living quarters for the noble were quite small and didn’t have much grandeur.
To build a large tower that could properly accommodate the lord and his servants, castles needed a large motte. However, a large motte was extremely difficult to build as it took disproportionately more effort to pile up the earth than in case of smaller hills. Just to give you an example, a large motte is estimated to have required up to 24,000 man-days of work while smaller ones required perhaps as little as 1,000.
As a consequence, castle design had to develop to keep out attackers. To avoid the perils of fire and to increase the castle defense and durability, one obvious solution was to replace (wherever possible) timber with stone.
Evolution of the motte-and-bailey design step 1: Shell Keep Castles
One would think that the best solution in increasing the castle defense is to replace the wooden keep with a stone keep. However, at first, this solution presented some disadvantages:
Stone was much more expensive, hard to manipulate and it required skilled workforce.
Castle engineers during the Norman period did not trust the motte to support the enormous weight of a stone keep
A common solution was to replace the wooden palisade around the keep and the one surrounding the bailey with a stone wall. That’s how the so called shell keep castles appeared.
Shell Keep castles were relatively short lived and few were ever built as the style faded after the 1210s in favor of the stone castles. The main idea behind a shell keep castle was to replace the wooden outer wall which had previously encircled the castle with a stone wall.
The so called stone shell simply contained the existing wooden buildings, and acted as a shield against attackers.
Because castle designers were concerned that a heavy shell may cause the hill to subside, the stone walls that wrapped the castle were relatively small in size and encircled only the top of the Motte.
As you can imagine, the word shell keep only refers to the stone wall around the keep on top of the motte. However, most often, the wooden palisade surrounding the bailey was also replaced with a stone wall. As another defensive measure, castle-inhabitants began to reposition the wooden buildings to back onto the newly constructed stone wall.
Shell keep castles faded from fashion at the beginning of the 13th century as the entire castle design shifted from the motte-and-bailey style to fully fledged stone castles which was the next stage of castle development.
Evolution of the motte-and-bailey design step 2: Stone Keeps
Stone keep castles took a much longer time to be built and they were very expensive. Where time and money allowed, stone buildings were built over preexisting wooden towers.
Stone towers offered greater protection and defensive capability although at significant cost and effort. In general, stone keeps needed larger mottes that could support the enormous weight of stone.
Motte-and-baileys became less popular in the mid-medieval period. From the end of the 12th century, a new scientific approach in castle design had emerged and the great era of stone castles had begun. Some motte-and-bailey castles were abandoned or allowed to lapse into disrepair; those with wooden keeps have rotted away while the mottes look now like odd hills, scattering the countryside.
However, many motte-and-bailey castles were used as foundations for the newly designed stone castles.
Stone Castles: The Grandest and strongest Castles
Stone Castles were the natural evolution after motte-and-bailey castles began to fall from fashion. Although they were easy to build and quite cheap, motte-and-baileys would quickly ran into disrepair and, more importantly, they were extremely vulnerable to fire.
Attackers got smarter, sophisticated fire-launching techniques had been developed and it was only a matter of time before the strategies to seize these castles became common knowledge.
Moreover, stone buildings could be much larger and grander than simple wooden designs, providing much more luxurious accommodation for nobles who sought to demonstrate their influence and power.
The first stone castle built in England was the famous White Tower of the Tower of London. It was completed at the end of the 11th century. Throughout most of the 12th century, stone castles continued to be built alongside traditional motte-and-baileys.
What was so special about Stone Castles?
There were three crucial aspects that made stone castles desirable.
Firstly, stone buildings were much stronger and offered greater protection compared to wooden structures. Stone castles could survive attacks using fire, although some elements (such as roofs) were still made of wood.
Stone walls could also offer greater protection against catapults and siege engines that were increasingly used in sieges from the 11th century onwards. However, they certainly weren’t undefeatable.
Secondly, stone castles would last for centuries (many of them survived to this day) whereas wood lasted just years or, best scenario, decades.
And last but not least, these castles were imposing and monumental buildings that would command huge respect to any noble able to afford them.
How were these castles built?
Stone castles were extremely expensive and took a great deal of time to build. If some motte-and-bailey castles could be constructed in less than a month, a medium size stone castle would have taken a minimum of five years to build, while a large size stone castles more than ten.
When building in stone, one of the primarily concerns of medieval builders was to have quarries close at hand. As opposed to motte-and-baileys that could be built with unskilled men, stone castles required skilled workmen such as masons (both cutters and layers), quarrymen, smiths and carpenters.
Medieval machines and inventions became indispensable during construction. For example, the treadwheel crane was a wooden, human powered, hoisting and lowering device that was used both during the Roman period and the Middle Ages in the building of castles and cathedrals. Moreover, the techniques of building wooden scaffolding were constantly improved.
By the late 1100s, stone castles became so expensive that only the King and the richest nobles could afford them. If the cost of an exceptionally expensive motte-and-bailey castle was as low as £20, the cost of a large stone castle could go as high as £10,000 and even more.
Needless to say that should a castle be destroyed, most but the richest noble owners would have been financially ruined.
Not only were stone castles expensive to build in the first place, but they were a nightmare to look after. They were large,cold and frequently leaky buildings and often contained a lot of unseasoned timber. As a result, they needed careful upkeep and their constant maintenance was extremely expensive.
The castle layout
Castle design largely depended upon local demands and the purpose and function of each castle. No two stone castles had the same layout; some castles may have been designed to culture an air of luxury and grandeur while others might have been built to be as strong and as defensive as possible.
However, most medieval castles shared some common features. So let’s take a look at some of the most important parts of a stone castle.
The keep
The keep was the heart of every medieval castle and the most strongly defended point before the introduction of concentric defense. The great innovation of stone castles was the replacement of the wooden tower of a motte-and-bailey castle with a taller and stronger tower rendered in stone.
The keep was the residence of the lord who owned the castle and his wife, but it could also be used by his guests or representatives. Stone buildings would provide a much more luxurious accommodation compared to the earlier wooden towers. They could include grand fireplaces for heat and for comfort, larger and more comfortable rooms and better protection from the rain and from the cold.
In later Medieval times as castles began to transform into sumptuous buildings, the nobles began to live in more luxurious chambers and the keep was used exclusively as a stronghold.
Besides providing accommodation for the lords of the castle, the keep was also the last line of defense. The sheer thickness of the stone walls served as protection against siege engines such as catapults or trebuchets. Moreover, stone keeps were usually tall enough to make scaling it with ladders or movable wooden scaffolding difficult, while providing an excellent viewpoint for archers shooting at attacking enemies.
The keep was the heart of any stone castle and usually the first part to be built. Radiating out from it, we would discover many other domestic buildings and further fortifications all dependent on each castle size and intended purpose.
The bailey
The bailey was a fortified enclosure containing the castle’s domestic buildings. As opposed to early motte-and-bailey castles, where the bailey was normally surrounded by a wooden palisade, stone castles were protected by a thick stone wall, wrapping around the entire castle, and enclosing both the Keep and the Bailey.
While the keep was the residence of the lord in charge, the bailey was the home of the rest of the lord's household and gave them protection. The bailey could contain many buildings such as the kitchens, the stables, the chapel, the bakery etc. Water was supplied by a well or by cistern. However, many times water was highly polluted and it was wiser to drink beer, which was sterilized during the brewing process. That is one reason why beer was so important to Medieval life; in fact, many castles had their own breweries.
Next, let’s see some of the domestic buildings found inside the bailey.
The Kitchens
Entertaining guests was part of the castle's social life. Many nobles aimed to impress their guests and show of the castle’s grandeur. Large and elaborate kitchens would help secure the power of the castle’s Lord in front of his important visitors.
The most elaborate kitchens were set to cook the fish and the game that was caught when hunting in the castle grounds. This would have given the castle an additional prestige as hunting was one of the most enjoyable activity of the time.
The Great Hall
The Great Hall was the focus of social life in any Medieval Castle. It was usually the (or one of the) biggest and grandest rooms, where the Lord of the house held feasts and banquets in honor of his important guests.
When a great banquet was held, the Great Hall was carefully prepared to impress the audience. The guests of honor were seated in front of the hall, near the Lord of the castle and his wife. The further you were seated from them, the less important you were.
The Stables
Horses were extremely valuable in Medieval times. They were essential in battle but also used as means of transportation and communication. A powerful Lord would have owned may war-horses.
Large stables also included haylofts and space for the grooms to live.
Other defensive features
The keep was the castle’s main defensive element, but it was by no means the only one. Other fortifications were added to enhance the castle's defensive capabilities and make an attack against it as difficult as possible.
The curtain wall
The curtain wall was the castle's main layer of defense, wrapping around the outside of the castle to protect all the domestic buildings and the keep. Curtain walls had to be tall enough to make scaling the walls with ladders difficult and tick enough to withstand bombardment from siege engines.
A stone wall could have been as tick as 3m and as high as 12m, although sizes varied greatly between castles. To further increase the wall’s strength, the center of the wall was made using hard rocks and rubble, while the two outer parts were built by laying gigantic stones, somehow similar to today bricks.
On top of the wall, walkways were designed to allow defenders to rain missiles on enemies below, while special stone-parapets (know as battlements) gave the defenders further protection as they could hide behind them.
The Gatehouse
The Gatehouse was the weakest part in the defense of any castle. No matter how strong the outer walls were, attackers could always use the main route into the castle as the focus point of their attack.
Castle designers had to think of a way to overcome this major problem. Obviously, you could not build a castle without a main entrance, as people and supplies needed a way to walk in and out of the castle in times of peace.
As a consequence, fortifications and obstacles were built around the entrance to Medieval castles to make life as difficult as possible for the attackers. To protect the entrance, towers were added on each site of the gate. The passage through the gatehouse was lengthened and a series of defenses were designed inside the gatehouse to make a direct assault more challenging.
For example, a portcullis (which comes from the French word “porte coulissante”, meaning sliding door) was a wooden or, more likely, metal grill which was lowered from the ceiling in front of the attackers to block the passage. A gatehouse could have been equipped with one or more portcullises. It was not uncommon to trap an intruder between two portcullises: first, the portcullis at the end of the gatehouse was lowered in front of the attacker, and then, before he could escape, the one at the start was also lowered, trapping the intruder between the two metal grills.
The passage through the gatehouse was riddled with traps. Murder holes were openings in the ceiling of the passage used by the defenders to poor various deadly things on the attackers, such as boiling water (oil was too expensive and hard to obtain), rocks and other heavy objects. Water could also be poured down these holes to extinguish fires.
Arrow slits were small openings in the stone wall true which archers defending the castle would fire against enemies inside the gatehouse.
As we can see, attacking true a well defended gatehouse would have been a very difficult proposition.
Moreover, as we will see, many castles were surrounded by water-filled moats, meaning that attackers would have had to find a way to cross these moats before even reaching the gatehouse.
Moats and Water Defenses
Most of British Castles are found in low-lying areas and few had the chance to take advantage of a particular site, such as perching upon rocky outcrops (Goodrich Castle or Stirling Castle) or being protected by sheer cliffs (Dunnottar Castle).
A moat was a defensive ditch built around the castle, and it could be either dry or filled with water. They were usually crossed by a drawbridge which was removed when attackers were nearby.
A water-filled moat had mainly two purposes. Firstly, it would try to push devices such as siege-engines or catapults as far away as possible from the castle walls; as a result, it would be harder for attackers to be accurate when firing missiles.
Secondly, the moat could prevent attachers from burrowing beneath the castle to undermine the outer walls.
Few castles had the advantage of a fresh-flowing natural moat; this meant that most often moats were made by damming nearby rivers to create a stagnant pond around the castle. Unfortunately, all the sewage from inside the castle would have been directed straight into the stagnant moat, so you can imagine the smell !
In later castles, moats were designed to make the castle appear grander and more impressive, rather than have a real defensive role. One of the best examples is Bodiam Castle where the moat is now regarded more as an ornamental feature than a defense.
Turrets and Towers
In the early stone castles, the keep was the biggest and most important tower, while the rest of the towers (if there were any) had more of a secondary role. Generally, these were positioned along the curtain wall to allow archers to fire at enemy attackers along the wall.
In later designs however (as we will soon discuss), castle towers were a crucial part of the castle’s defensive strategy. The new approach was to design castles on a symmetrical plan with towers on each of the corners.
Originally, towers were built in a square shape. However, attackers soon found out that by burrowing under one of the corners of the square foundations, they could undermine the entire tower, with devastating consequences for the defenders. Castle designers responded by building round towers, with no corners which could be undermined. That is why, late Medieval Castles had circular towers.
Innovation in castle design
Until the end of the 12th century, stone-built and earth and timber castles were widely used, but by the late 1100’s, motte-and -bailey castles made of earth and timber began to fail out of fashion. Castle designers realized it was preferable to build in more durable stone.
However, stone castles built until the late 12th century, had few defensive features: a high central keep, sometimes a water-fill moat that surrounded the castle and some square towers along the curtain wall and flanking the gatehouse, that was often poorly defended. The shape of the castle would have been dictated by the surrounding land, which meant that every castle had a different design and layout.
Why the need to innovate castle design?
Over time, attacker’s tactics became more elaborate and the strategies to seize these castles became more and more common knowledge.
Attackers quickly discovered that they could undermine the fortifications by burrowing under the foundations. The new powerful siege-engines that were developed (such as the catapult or the trebuchet) were able to blast through the stone walls. Moreover, because of the few towers, defenders would have had a difficult time in interpreting where an enemy army might have been coming from, especially if the attackers were coming from various directions.
The late 12th century innovation
It was evident that there was a need for an innovation in castle defense. Therefore, newly constructed castles would have a regular shape: square or polygonal. Circular towers had been designed at each of the corners and sometimes these towers would have protruded from the walls and featured arrow slits on each level to allow archers to target anyone nearing or at the curtain wall.
These new castles did not always needed a keep, but where the keep did exist, it was no longer square but polygonal or cylindrical. Sometimes, the keep was sacrificed to save money. In these latter situations, the space inside the towers would have made up for the loss of the keep and provide additional space for habitation.
Gatehouses were strongly defended and they were equipped with more deadly traps to make a direct assault difficult. Several portcullises were added to block the passage and possibly trap intruders between them, while murder holes and arrow slits were used to create panic among attackers.
Concentric Castles, the high point in castle design
Concentric castles represent one of the high points in Medieval military architecture. The main idea behind a concentric castle is “a castle within a castle”. Basically, the castle is surrounded by two independent rings of curtain walls: the inner wall was always higher than the outer wall providing a vantage point for archers, firing at the enemy.
The great innovation was that the outer wall was not used simply to reinforce the inner one. Instead, each wrapping wall was considered individually and they were designed to be separate obstacles for invaders to overcome.
The word concentric does not imply that these castles were circular; in fact, most of them were either square or polygonal.
Because of the two separate walls, concentric castles would have had two separate wards: the outer ward, between the inner and outer walls and the inner ward, inside the inner wall.
The keep was not a necessary element; in fact, most concentric castles were built without a central keep. However, it was always necessary to build towers facing in all directions.
Concentric castles had many great advantages. In order to take the castle, attackers would have had to penetrate at least two walls or pass through a heavily-defended gatehouse. They were often caught in the area between the two curtain walls, nicknamed ‘the death area’. Here, they were at the mercy of the archers shooting from atop the inner wall, with nowhere to hide.
Moreover, siege-engines could not be brought close to the castle, as many also had a water-filled moat surrounding the outer wall. Because of the distance to the castle, accuracy would have been quite low and the best attackers could hope for is breach the outer wall with their catapults.
Because of the symmetrical shape and the towers facing all directions, defenders had a much better view across the surrounding countryside. In fact, at their peak-time, concentric castles were so formidable, that attacking them seemed hopeless. The only hope would have been to starve out the castle by laying it to siege. However, most concentric castles were even equipped to overcome siege.
Nevertheless, building a concentric castle was phenomenally expensive and only the King and the powerful military orders, such as the Hospitallers and the Templars could afford to build or maintain such a structure. Moreover, it took such a long time to construct the castle, that often by the time it was completed, it wasn’t needed any longer.
Over time, attackers got smarter as well. Realizing that mounting a full-scale attack on such a formidable fortress was useless, they would instead try to starve out the castle by laying it to siege, making a mockery of the huge effort spent in building the elaborate fortifications.
Some outstanding examples of concentric castles are the “iron-ring” of castles built by King Edward I in the 13th century in Wales (including Beaumaris Castle, Caernarfon Castle or Conwy Castle)… which nearly bankrupted him.
Decline of the castles and the end of the “castle-story”
Castles had been a pivotal point of medieval society for nearly 6 centuries. They had evolved from the rather primitive motte-and-bailey castles to the mighty concentric castles. However, with the advent of gunpowder and the development of new weapons and tactics to overrun these fortifications, castles became increasingly difficult to defend.
From the mid of the 15th century, canons became the preferred siege weapon and their effectiveness was demonstrated by Mehmed II at the Fall of Constantinople. Castle designers response was to build thicker walls or to pile an earthen bank behind a castle's curtain wall to absorb some of the shock of impact.
Nevertheless, canons became increasingly stronger and more concessions had to be made in the castle’s defenses to withstand a siege with such powerful weapons. However, the new techniques to deal with improved cannon fire made them uncomfortable and undesirable places to live. Instead, newly designed star-forts began to take over from the defensive role of castles. Pioneered in Italy, these forts were actually permanent artillery fortifications exclusively designed to withstand cannon fire.
Another important aspect was that 15th century conflicts were more likely to be resolved by pitched battle, rather than by the siege.
As a consequence, true castles went into decline. In the 16th century, the construction of a chain of artillery fortifications by Henry VIII showed that it was now the state that had responsibility for war and national defense.
Castles continued to be built, but now the grandeur and aesthetics of the design became the most important aspect. Luxurious homes were created inside fortified walls. Although they could still provide protection from low levels of violence, their original defensive purpose was taken over by civil buildings such as star-forts, towers or bastions. The age of the castle, and thus the ‘castle story’, was over.
Castles were eventually succeeded by country houses and palaces as high status residences. From the 18th century onwards, there was a renewed interest in castles as a part of a romantic revival of Gothic architecture. New impressive country houses were built in a "castle style", with towers and crenellations, but they were solely for display and had no military purpose whatsoever.