This series is a companion to the Let’s Talk About Armies series and the Let’s Talk About Siege Warfare series from a little bit ago in which we discussed ways to structure armies and ways armies were used against fortified structures. This series will deal with the fortified structures themselves, their history, their uses, their construction, and some helpful terms for understanding how castles were put together.
Note: The emphasis of this series will be on castles of European and Middle Eastern origin during the period of 500-1500 AD. With this in mind, much of the information may be applied in general to most fortifications.
Let’s talk about: the differences between the terms “castle,” “fortress,” and “walled city.“ Castles were fortified dwellings deliberately built for the security of a local lord and his or her followers in areas subject to little or no central political control. Their primarily purpose was for defense, with other uses being incidental and auxiliary. Fortresses consisted of fortified military bases. Urban centers during the Dark Ages and early Middle Ages consisted of little more than fortified communities, or walled cities. Such towns, along with fortified dwellings, cannibalized Roman forts and other structures, were not true castles.
This series is a companion to the Let’s Talk About Armies series and the Let’s Talk About Siege Warfare series from a little bit ago in which we discussed ways to structure armies and ways armies were used against fortified structures. This series will deal with the fortified structures themselves, their history, their uses, their construction, and some helpful terms for understanding how castles were put together.
Note: The emphasis of this series will be on castles of European and Middle Eastern origin during the period of 500-1500 AD. With this in mind, much of the information may be applied in general to most fortifications.
Arrow Slit: A narrow opening in a wall or merlon through which bows or crossbows could be fired. The inside surfaces were often angled, both to reduce the size of the hole from the point of view of an attacker and to allow a defending soldier to direct his firing in an arc (of up to about 60 degrees). Arrow slits were often crossletted (in the form of a cross) to more easily accommodate crossbows.
Barbican: A stone building buttressed with towers almost always used as a gatehouse but sometimes as simply an outwork, and equipped with a drawbridge if situated on a moat.
