The need for fortifications has spanned the time of mankind. Since the beginning of human history, people have needed protection from wild animals, and more importantly, invaders from afar. Mankind has always vied for space and resources and thus created enemies out of others who were competing for the same resources. Fortifications have many types and uses for different areas of the world.
Probably some of the earliest fortifications would be stone walls to provide a buffer for wild animals and enemies. These walls could be easily constructed with stone from local areas. An early example of a wall used to fortify an area was Hadrian’s wall in Britain. Roman Emperor Hadrian ordered the construction of the wall starting in 122AD to protect the Roman border from invaders from Scotland(Caledonia at the time) that Rome had not conquered. This wall stretched for more than 70 miles across the British Isle and was constructed mostly of stone, with fortifications at regular intervals. Roman troops were stationed at these fortifications, called milecastles. While not true castles, these were fortified structures that Roman troops used to defend themselves from attack. Antoher example of an early wall was the Great Wall of China. It was begun in the second century AD. Streteching for almost 3000 miles, it is the longest manmade structure in the world. These two are ancient examples of fortifications used to keep invaders out. A recent example would be the Berlin Wall. This wall was used to keep citizens from leaving East Germany. All of these examples were eventually circumvented or abandoned.
Though many such as the Romans built fortifications, such as forts upon hillsides, none was really what we think of as a castle. The first true castles appeared around the year 1000AD. They were not, however, the huge stone fortresses we typically think of. They were mostly made from wood and included palisades for outer defense walls. The builders usually built up mounds of soil and put the main structures on the manmade hills. These were called motte and bailey castles. The motte was the raised manmade hill that the keep sits upon. The bailey was the area surrounded by the lower palisade walls. These made for easily buildable initial fortifications, however, they did have one distinct disadvantage; they were very susceptible to fire attacks.
So, the natural progression for castles was toward building with stone. As the need for permanent fortifications grew, so did the construction of stone castles. First, the outer walls or wooden palisades were replaced with stone walls. These were not susceptible to fire attack and were very hard to defeat with battering rams. The best way to defeat them was by mining under them to weaken the foundations and make the walls crumble. As stone is a much more time and resource consuming building material, these castles took much longer to build and needed many well trained workers to complete. As with any application, the complexity and cost of the stone castle became greater with time. We will discuss the details in later articles of the changes from AD1000 until the height of castle building in the 13th and 14th centuries AD.
By the 13th century, as stated earlier, castle building was at its peak, with fortifications appearing all over the known world. Castles consisted of outer defense walls, moats, great defensive towers, and the main keep. Other structures were within the castle walls, and the the castles were centers of commerce, garrisons, and homes of Lords, Kings, and other nobility. Many castle structures were built during this time by Crusading Knights to the Holy Lands. These were outposts in a hostile land. We will also cover these in later articles. We also will cover castles in other parts of the world other than Europe, such as in Asia and the Middle East.
The downfall of the stone castle fortification, was the invention of gunpowder. Gunpowder first appeared in China almost 900BC, but spread to Europe in the 12th or 13th centuries AD. With this invention, artillery and cannons came along that made short work out of defeating fortified castle walls. What had taken months and years to accomplish could be done in days with gunpowder and artillery. Castles did not disappear immediately, however. Gunpowder and artillery was only available to the most elite and rich of Nobility in the beginning. Castles were still great fortifications and held up during times of seige and in hostile territories. They still made for good defensive and offensive positions for war. The decline of the castle structures as fortifications was very apparent by the 14th and 15th centuries AD as advances in gunpowder and artillery made construction of artillery resistant walls economically unfeasible. After this time, wealthy Nobility began building castles and palaces with more architectural features instead of features for warefare. They began changing to a fortified home instead of a fortified castle. We will discuss these in later articles. For the most part, castle construction ended by the late 17th century AD. While castles have been built since then and are under construction now, the age of castle fortifications was pretty much over then. They were too expensive to build and maintain, and they were no match for more modern warfighting machines.
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If you are currently planning to build a castle or are currently building a castle, please email us and we would like to include your progress in our website. We would like to see some pictures of your castle or look at you plans. We think that with the uncertainty of the current world, many people will be building more and more fortified structures in the coming years. We hope to help those considering such structures with their plans.
