Warfare and Siege

Castles were a building brought about by military necessity. Their most important role was one of consolidation of conquered lands and as a military base for further excursions. A castle is unique in that it was designed for defence and attack. It stood as the largest structure for miles around, the recognised centre of controlled lands. As such the castle was the most obvious place of attack for marauding soldiers angry at the new domination of their lands by the French. This fact meant that the castle needed to be as solid and as impregnable as possible. The castle walls needed to be able to withstand medieval siege-engines whilst affording the defenders inside the ability to strike back.

Fighting Men.

In the medieval period there were two main types of fighting men: Knights or Footsoldiers. Knights were members of the nobility. To become a knight you had to train hard and be prepared to live by virtue and chivalry, it was generally accepted in the medieval period that only the sons of knights could become knights. In battle knights rode on horses and were dressed in strong metal armour designed to protect the body from sword blades and arrows. Knights also had helmets, shields and long swords. This equipment was very expensive and could often cost the equivalent of a 100 years salary of an ordinary labourer.

Footsoldiers fought on the ground, they had very little bodily protection and were usually only equipped with pikes (long spears) or bows and arrows. It was these men who were most likely to die in battle.

Both sets of men were recruited by the lord of a castle to fight for his cause and if necessary to die doing so. Knights that served a particular lord were required to do 'knight's service' at one of his castles  - this could be up to forty days.

By the 14th century some men had become professional fighters realising that they could make more money out of the sacking and pillaging (robbing) of a town than by manual labour.

The attackers found many different ways to try and force the defenders of a castle to surrender. The first was to use siege engines to try and attack the castle walls and cause as much damage as possible. There were several different types of siege engines, designed to get missiles over the tall castle walls or cause as much damage as possible. One way was to build a siege tower, or a 'belfry'. This was a quickly constructed tower of wood that could be wheeled up to the castle walls, which would then allow the attackers to fire arrows and other missiles over the walls and onto the castle defenders.

Other ways of attacking involved machinery that catapulted huge rocks and spears at the castle, this type of machinery took three forms: a ballista, a trebuchet and a mangonel. A ballista had a central lever, which was drawn back and then released, firing a giant spear. A trebuchet had a long arm with a basket for a weight on one end and a basket for large rocks at the other. As the weight was added at one end the other flew up throwing its missiles at the castle. A mangonel consisted of a cradle holding a huge rock or other missile. The cradle was pulled back and then let go, releasing the rock.

A Mangonel

The attackers also tried to 'undermine' the castle walls. This involved digging tunnels underneath the corner of one of the walls, filling it with twigs and wood and setting fire to it. The fire would eventually cause this area of wall to collapse, sometimes allowing the attackers entrance into the castle. Arrows coated in burning tar were also fired at the castle walls, the tar would stick and burn away the mortar between the bricks causing the wall to partially collapse. A 'pointer', sometimes called a 'mouse' was used to dig away at the mortar around the stones of the castle walls again in the hope of causing partial collapse.
Battering rams were made to try and break down the strong doors of the castle. These battering rams consisted of a very long, thick log that was rigged up on a mechanism with wheels. This allowed the attackers to push the battering ram along the ground and to hit the door of the castle, in the hope of smashing it in. Often the end of the battering ram would be covered in tar and set alight in the hope that this would do more damage to the castle's strong wooden doors.
	A Battering Ram

Compassion was not a word known by men at war in the Medieval period. Any means that might secure a surrender by the opposition were used. At one castle siege in Crema, Italy, in 1160, the German Emperor Frederick Barbarossa tied the captured relatives of the defenders to their siege-towers in the belief that the defenders would not set fire to them and risk the lives of their family, however they were wrong and the prisoners tied to the towers burnt to death.

If the attackers could not force their way in to the castle then their other aim was to force the defenders out. This was done by cutting off their supplies of food. The besiegers wanted to impose starvation onto the defenders in the hope of causing a quick surrender. They would burn down crops in the vicinity of the castle and slaughter livestock. At the siege of Brampton Bryan in Herefordshire during the English Civil War the castle water supply was poisoned in an attempt to weaken Lady Brilliana Harley and her men who were defending the castle. However Lady Brilliana's determination was strong and she defended her castle for 45 days until her besiegers withdrew to Gloucester.

Conditions inside the castle would begin to get worse the lower the food supplies got. people would be too weak to fight and illness and disease would begin to spread. Medical supplies, which at best were primitive, would quickly become scarce and many men would have become unable to fight or would die from their wounds. With the castle surrounded by the enemy it was impossible to get new supplies in or the wounded out. As hunger and illness set in the morale of the castle would suffer, to the advantage of the enemy. Men who had neither the spirit nor the energy to fight were a much more desirable opponent than the strong or bloodthirsty.

Sometimes the enemy would try and cause illness to those inside the castle, knowing that this would severely weaken their opponents. One particularly effective way was to poison the castle's water supply, however sometimes a castle would have an internal water tank. It has also been known for attackers to throw diseased animals over the walls of the castle in the hope of spreading disease to the inhabitants and the few animals they might be keeping inside. Without food and water and with disease rife in the castle the defenders would be at a considerable disadvantage.

If the inhabitants of the castle did surrender then their fate was in the hands of the leader of the opposition. He could choose to spare their lives or have them executed. Goodrich Castle was besieged by Colonel Birch in 1646, and on the 31st of July the inhabitants surrendered and Colonel Birch agreed terms that spared their lives. After an agreement had been reached the besiegers then had the right to sack and pillage the castle and its buildings. This meant that for three days they could seize the property and possessions of the defenders as their reward for defeating them. During these three days the victors could do as they pleased and so the sacking of a castle was often more destructive than the war that had been waged against it.

Goodrich Castle near Ross

The besiegement of a castle was not a one sided affair. The defenders of the castle had many ways of protecting their castle effectively and causing casualties to their opposing force. A castle would often have advance warning of the battle and would equip itself ready to do battle.

The ditch surrounding the castle mound was one of the first and most important defensive mechanisms that a castle presented to its enemy. If they were breached then the attackers had to fight their way up the steep sides of the motte.The idea was to prevent your enemy from coming into close quarters with your fortress. Often at this point 'sorties' (fighting groups) were sent out from the castle to attack. As they were fighting downhill they had the advantage as the men coming up were tired from the climb and the defenders could rain blows down upon them. The most effective ditches were those filled with water as they were harder and more tiring to cross and the attacker would then be forced to fight in wet and heavy clothes. Often the wet ditches were dug too deep to be crossed by men or horses.

The ditch at Almeley Castle

The defenders would also position archers along the castle walls to pick off the men of the opposing side. These archers would fire from the battlements or through the narrow openings in the castle wall called the arrow loops. Both of these enabled the defending archer a view of the enemy but also gave him protection from any return fire. They would fire flaming arrows onto the siege-towers and siege-engines of the enemy burning them down and rendering them unusable. Left: One of the arrow loops from Goodrich Castle

The defenders also used the battlements to pour things onto the attackers. This included boiling water and tar which would burn and scald the skin. They also had 'meutriers' or ' murder holes' through which they could fire arrows or pour hot things down upon the enemy. At Goodrich Castle, near Ross, these murder holes are found in the vaulting between the portcullises in the gatehouse passage. This meant that if the enemy managed to gain access to the castle then the defenders could attack and hopefully prevent the enemy from going any further. The meutriers also had another purpose; they could be used to pour water onto fires that the enemy might light in the gate passage, as fire was one of the most commonly used and most destructive forms of attack.

One of the murderholes at Goodrich Castle - viewed from the room above the gatehouse passage.

The defenders also used siege-engines such as the ballista, mangonel and trebuchet, their targets being the siege-towers and temporary bases of the enemy. Their aim was to do as much damage as possible before the tables were turned.

The inhabitants of a castle had one advantage; as the enemy had no walls to hide behind, the defenders had a better view of what they were up to. Often this advantage could be used to play tricks on the enemy. At one castle siege the inhabitants caused a scene on one side of the castle drawing the enemy to this area to see what the commotion was about. While the enemy was occupied a band of men on horseback rode out from another side of the castle and attacked them from behind. So, the defenders could also use cunning to get one up on their opponents.

During another siege the defenders, seeing that their supplies were quickly running out and that the enemy were beginning to believe that their surrender would now be imminent, filled a pig carcass with the last of their grain and threw it out over the wall. The carcass burst and the enemy seeing all the grain believed that the castle had so much that they were even feeding their pigs on it. Thinking that the siege would be a long time before it was over they gave in and rode away.

However, if the enemy was successful in preventing food and supplies from reaching the castle then victory was pretty much theirs. A castle may have had advance warning of the impending siege and been able to stockpile supplies, bring in their livestock and tank up their water but these supplies would not have lasted forever and as the stockpile went down so too would the living conditions. People need both meat and fresh vegetables to provide a healthy diet and to keep them fit and strong. Once these were in short supply then the health of the inhabitants was the first thing to suffer and they became more susceptible to disease. Without food to sustain them, the men soon became tired and could not fight with any strength.

Castles were heated by fires, once the fuel to keep these alight had been used then the castle became a cold and damp place to live. This made the inhabitants more at risk from fever, pneumonia and hypothermia, especially at night when the temperature dropped. Water was usually stored within the castle in tanks, but stagnant water is a breeding ground for diseases such as typhoid and dysentery, coupled with the poor diet this could quickly cripple the defenders.

At this point morale inside the castle was low. The strong needed to continue fighting to save the castle but the weak and ill needed treatment. When food got very, very low and there was hardly enough to go round the weak and ill would be sent outside the castle and into the mercy of the opposition. Sometimes they would be free to go but sometimes the enemy would refuse to allow the ill to pass through their lines. They couldn't return to the castle as supplies were too low so they were stuck outside the walls of the castle and often left to die a slow death.

It was usually the starvation and poor health of the besieged that ended the battle. When the defenders could fight no longer they would surrender themselves to the enemy and hope for lenient treatment. Often they would offer the enemy the more precious items from within the castle in the hope that this would spare their homes from the destructive sacking which was the right of the victors.

MG

Fighting Men Graphic supplied by animationfactory.com