How did William use castles to defend his new country?Date:

Castles around Great Britain, what can you notice about their locations?

Strengths of Motte & Bailey Weaknesses of Motte & Bailey

What came next after Motte & Bailey? Stone Keep castle

Make a list of similarities and differences from the Motte & Bailey Castle

What can we see going on in this Stone Keep Castle?

Draw this stone keep castle, make sure there is space for the labels

Strengths of Stone Keep Weaknesses of Stone Keep

What came next after Stone Keep? Concentric Castle

Make a list of similarities and differences from the Motte & Bailey and Stone Keep castles

Draw this concentric castle, make sure there is space for

the labels

As weapons got better it was important that castle design and defence did too! You can clearly see in this image how the concentric castle had real strengths…

BarbicanSoldiers attacking this

barbican had to get through three entrance gates with portcullises.

BarbicanSoldiers attacking this

barbican had to get through three entrance gates with portcullises.

What can you see in this picture? Can you remember the parts of this scene?

Murder Holes

Portcullis

Hot oil / waterDefending soldiers

Strengths of a concentric castle Strengths of a concentric castle

As well as building the castles for defence, the Normans also built great churches. Most of the bishops were replaced by Norman bishops, but they followed the same religion and everyone followed the word of The Pope anyway.

Where is this?

“At your request”… wrote Herbert de Losinga, first Bishop of Norwich, to the men of Lynn in 1101, "I have begun to build a church at Lynn" and St Margaret's entered the town's history, standing in the Saturday Market Place at the heart of the oldest part of the town.

Norwich Castle Ely Cathedral

Castle Rising

Castle Acre

Walsingham

Can you any more Norman buildings near us…?

What was the best way to attack and defend each castle?Date:

Sapper: A soldier who’s job it was to mine under a castle to make it collapsePortcullis: Spiked gate to protect the castle entrance, could be dropped on attacking soldiers!Siege: Setting up camp outside a castle, hoping to starve the castle into surrenderTrebuchet: Used to fire rocks and corpses into a castle, usually used during a siege

Aim: To evaluate the different ways to attack and defend castles and decide which attack was best for attacking each of our Norman castles.

As we go through this lesson, you’ll be filling in your sheet on ways to attack a castle. You should include some notes in each section and at the end you’ll decide which castle each attack is most suited to…

1. Fire (Arrows)

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

2. Battering Ram

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

3. Ladder

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

4. Belfry Tower(Siege Tower)

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

5. Catapult, Mangonel, Trebuchet

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

counterweight twisted rope

150 metres200 metres

50 metres

6. Mining

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

7. Siege

How it works Good Points Bad Points Best castle to attack

The best time to attack using a siege would be spring as the supplies within the castle from the previous castle would be running low. A castle can only withstand a siege with the amount of food and water they have inside.

Water was probably more important than food, so the attackers sent over corpses, heads, animals etc hoping to get them into the wells and poison the water – not to mention the psychological affect of seeing your own men being flung over your walls

SIEGE