Middle Ages Castles

Castles of the Middle Ages
Castles that were built in the middle ages are not only beautiful and detailed but also took a lot of work before all the tools and machines we use for buildings were created. The European nobility mostly made them and of course the royals would live in such an amazingly structured and fortified building of the middle ages. Some cities used walls to keep their enemies away, but the most powerful and efficient ones used beautifully designed castles. They evolved over the years in many ways to make them more powerful, secure, and appealing to the eye. Most of these castles were built up on hills or behind rivers so that they could be even more safe than they already were.

Castles were very important to the history
of the middle ages for a variety of reasons. One reason was that it served as a protector of cities during this time full of war and rivalries. At first castles were basically built out of wood and some mud to hold it together, but eventually they found out that armies could just set them on fire and burn them to the ground. Their solution to this problem was to make them out of stone instead and make huge thick walls that could have been up to 20 feet wide to be able to more effectively keep people out. Castles at the time also had holes in the outside walls so that when trouble did come, they were able to pin the archers near the holes so that they could shoot anyone trying to take over the city and keep them from finding their way in. Another reason they were highly important would be that they strongly helped important people, kings and nobles, protect their dominance over the land. The king was the ruler and commander of the city the castle was built in. If he simply lived in a normal house and acted like a normal man and didn’t have anything different then why would anyone treat him with respect. The castle also brought fear of the king because of how much power and weapons and things it brought along with it which brought more respect. As Machiavelli once said “It is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot be both.”

Two of the many main contributors in building these beautiful castles would be the Normans who brought upon the more Romanesque type of architecture and King Edward I who started the construction of the Gothic architecture castles.
The Normans Romanesque castles were at first made up on a large hill with a motte around it so that it was more difficult for enemy armies to reach it. The only problem with these castles however were that they were made out of wood, and soon enemies noticed that they just had to set the castles on fire. As a solution the Normans made stone castles their new technique, but because the stone was so heavy it was often hard to work with so they made relatively smaller castles then they originally did with the wood. In the end, the Normans ended up making one of the most popular castles in history known as the White Tower. Edward the I however had a different take on techniques of building castles. His style was often described as having a castle inside a castle. He took the basic design of the Norman castles and enhanced it, made it bigger, stronger, and even more prepared for warfare. He used pillars and solid walls so that the castle would stand more firm with the heavy stone material used to create it. His Gothic approach helped save many more lives and protect his city from many more
wars.

The Middle Ages were a time of many wars and many different tried and failed techniques to protect people from the armies involved. The castles were one attempt at doing so and of course different ones failed and different ones were successful. They built the castles so that it would be much more difficult for the enemies of those in the castle to get inside and take over. They built holes in the walls so that they could even shoot the armies and keep them out easier. They also made sure the castles were on high hills and often tried to find somewhere surrounded by water so that the army couldn't even get near the castle. In the end the castles helped win many wars that went on during this certain period of time.

Medieval Castles, in my opinion, are very interesting for many different reasons.
In one perspective of course they are very beautiful and detailed. It took so much work for these people to make such huge towers to protect their city and they also tried to make them physically appealing as well as strong and powerful to keep out their enemies. Most girls at a young age believe castles are for princess and they just live there and have fun and nothing goes wrong, but in reality the castles were used to protect those inside from killers and enemies. I think it’s important to learn about this because anyone can see how important it was at the time for people to stay safe and protect themselves through hard times like sometimes our world needs to do
now.

Nowadays, we have weapons of mass destruction and castles simply can’t protect places as well as they used to back in the Middle Ages. The world still has battles and wars, but they are definitely fought much different now than they were back then. If someone were to build a castle to protect something from war in this day and age then their enemy would just drop a nuclear bomb on it and destroy everything. Even Though they can’t protect anyone from war we still try to preserve the old castles so that people can go as tourists and see them in all their beauty.

In conclusion, castles of the Middle Ages are not only beautiful and amazing to look at and admire, but they also protected and helped many people from wars and battles at the time. The Normans and their Romanesque type of structures became the basic structure for many more castles and things later in time. One being King Edward I’s Gothic style castles that took the Norman's idea and not only made it bigger and better but put a castle inside another castle. All - in -all castles helped aid armies in winning wars and protecting their people and are nowadays huge tourist attraction because of their beauty and creative detail.