Why did Castle Design Change Over Time?

● Learning Objectives:

●1) To understand and explain the weaknesses of Motte and Bailey castles.

●2) To suggest and analyse how and why castles developed their defensive features.

Starter:

Look at this picture of a Motte and Bailey castle.

List all of its weaknesses if it was to be attacked.

Extension task: How would you fix its weaknesses? What would you do to make it less easy to destroy?

Starter

Starter Feedback!

Why was the Motte and Bailey castle vulnerable to attack?

The biggest weakness was the material they were made of – wood. Like the story of the Three Little Pigs, wooden buildings can be burnt down by fire.

Because the castles were not built to last, they were only a temporary solution. The castles would often rot as they were made from wood.

How would you fix this problem?

Activity●You will now need to solve the following

problems.

●Write your solutions to these problems – you can suggest more than one solution if you can think of them!

Methods of Attacking a Castle

Problem 1 - Battering RamThis batters down doors and breaks windows allowing attackers to enter the castle.

Problem 2- Windows●Soldiers can climb in through large

windows – how will you stop this?

Problem 3 – Siege Towers●Siege towers can be wheeled to the castle

walls and soldiers can enter the castle this way – how will you stop it?

Problem 4 – having a single door as entrance to the castleAttackers can break into the main entrance once theyhave broken the door –even if it is not on the ground floor.

How will you defend the entrance?

Problem 5- underminingAttackers can dig a tunnel under the corner of your square keep castle and the corner will then collapse allowing enemy soldiers to enter– what will you do to stop this?

Problem 6 – trebuchets and catapultsTrebuchets and catapults can fire stone balls from over a hundred metres away to break down the walls. How will you stop them getting close enough to destroy all of your castle?

Problem 7 - GunpowderGunpowder enables cannon to destroy the walls of your castle in a few hours. How can you protect your castle from this?

Activity

●Now look at the following pictures of castles and decide if you think your solutions would work. If not what would you have to change to make them work?

Stopping a battering ram AND solving the problem of windows

Stoppingsiegetowers

Stoppingtrebuchetsand catapults

Protecting the entrance

How to stop undermining

Stopping Cannons at Deal Castle

Extended Writing - Why Castles Changed Over Time● Introduction – The earliest castles were ……….style. But these had a number

of problems.

● Paragraph – One of the problems with these was that……… Another problem was…….

● Paragraph – the problem of …….. was solved by….. this was a good solution because……

● Conclusion – there was one big problem for castles and that was the invention of….This was the biggest problem because……

● Remember – Level 3 will be simple description but level 4 will EXPLAIN what the problems were and how they were solved.

Research and write about Oakham castle.● What type of castle is it? ● What did it replace? ● When was it built and by who? You should consider ● the location of the castle and resources around it, ● how it was originally designed, ● how it was adapted over time, ● when and why it declined

Research and write about a castle near OakhamYou can chose –Lincoln, Belvoir, Newark or Rockingham. What type of castle is it? What did it replace? When was it built and by who? The location of the castle and resources around it, How it was originally designed. How it was adapted over time. When and why it declined.