Unavailable
Unavailable
Unavailable
Ebook198 pages2 hours
Castles: Fortresses of Power
By Rosie Serdiville and John Sadler
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
()
Currently unavailable
Currently unavailable
About this ebook
Fortified structures have been in existence for thousands of years. In ancient and medieval times castles were the ultimate symbol of power, dominating their surroundings, and marking the landscape with their imposing size and impregnable designs. After the Norman conquest of England, castles exploded in popularity amongst the nobility, with William the Conqueror building an impressive thirty-six castles between 1066-1087. Windsor Castle is one example of such a castle which survives today, a monument of the remarkable architecture designed and developed in medieval England.
This concise and entertaining short history explores the life of the castle, one that often involved warfare and sieges. The castle was a first and foremost a fortress, the focus of numerous clashes which took place in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Castles became targets of sieges, such as that organized by Prince Louis of France against Dover castle in 1216, and were forced to adopt greater defensive measures.
Also explored is how they evolved from motte-and-bailey to stone keep castles, in the face of newly developed siege machines and trebuchets. The trebuchet named Warwolf, which Edward I had assembled for his siege of Scotland’s Stirling Castle, reportedly took three months to construct and was almost four hundred feet tall on completion. With features such as ‘murder-holes’ for throwing boiling oil at the attackers, the defenders in the castle fought back in earnest. Alongside such violence, the castle functioned as a residence for the nobles and their servants, often totaling several hundred in number. It was the location for extravagant banquets held in the great hall by the lord and lady, and the place where the lord carried out his administrative duties such as overseeing laws and collecting taxes.
This concise and entertaining short history explores the life of the castle, one that often involved warfare and sieges. The castle was a first and foremost a fortress, the focus of numerous clashes which took place in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Castles became targets of sieges, such as that organized by Prince Louis of France against Dover castle in 1216, and were forced to adopt greater defensive measures.
Also explored is how they evolved from motte-and-bailey to stone keep castles, in the face of newly developed siege machines and trebuchets. The trebuchet named Warwolf, which Edward I had assembled for his siege of Scotland’s Stirling Castle, reportedly took three months to construct and was almost four hundred feet tall on completion. With features such as ‘murder-holes’ for throwing boiling oil at the attackers, the defenders in the castle fought back in earnest. Alongside such violence, the castle functioned as a residence for the nobles and their servants, often totaling several hundred in number. It was the location for extravagant banquets held in the great hall by the lord and lady, and the place where the lord carried out his administrative duties such as overseeing laws and collecting taxes.
Unavailable
Read more from Rosie Serdiville
Castles: Fortresses of Power Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsAlexander the Great: Conqueror, Commander, King Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsCaesar's Greatest Victory: The Battle of Alesia, Gaul 52 BC Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsKnights: Chivalry and Violence Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Cromwell's Convicts: The Death March from Dunbar 1650 Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fighter Aces: Knights of the Skies Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Tommies: The British Army in the Trenches Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTommy Rot: WWI Poetry They Didn't Let You Read Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ode to Bully Beef: WWII Poetry They Didn't Let You Read Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings
Related to Castles
Related ebooks
Battle Castles: 500 Years of Knights and Siege Warfare Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Castles, A Very Peculiar History Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Medieval Castles of Wales Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsIn Search of Britain's Haunted Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsPeeps at Royal Palaces of Great Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMetal Detecting Medieval and Tudor Britain Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratings101 Amazing Facts about Castles Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Mirror of Literature, Amusement, and Instruction Volume 13, No. 357, February 21, 1829 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsWinchester Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsSecret Broadstairs Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA Guide to the Medieval Castles of England Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBritish Castles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsYorkshire's Secret Castles: A Concise Guide & Companion Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Little Book of Scotland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBest Castles - England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales: The Essential Guide for Visiting and Enjoying Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsMedieval Castles of England and Wales Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5War in Britain: English Heritage Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5Handbook to the Severn Valley Railway: Illustrative and Descriptive of Places along the Line from Worcester to Shrewsbury Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsDunster: A Castle at War Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBattle Story: Hastings 1066 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsEnglish Castles Explained: Britain's Living History Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Hastings 1066 Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsOffa and the Mercian Wars: The Rise and Fall of the First Great English Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Short History of Scotland Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsThe Great British Dig: History in Your Back Garden Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsBloody Scottish History: Edinburgh Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5A Hidden History of the Tower of London: England's Most Notorious Prisoners Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsA History and Guide to Scottish Castles Rating: 0 out of 5 stars0 ratingsTales from the Tower of London Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5
Wars & Military For You
The Art of War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Idaho Falls: The Untold Story of America's First Nuclear Accident Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Dr. Seuss Goes to War: The World War II Editorial Cartoons of Theodor Seuss Geisel Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5A Daily Creativity Journal Rating: 3 out of 5 stars3/5The Only Plane in the Sky: An Oral History of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5Art of War: The Definitive Interpretation of Sun Tzu's Classic Book of Strategy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Killing the SS: The Hunt for the Worst War Criminals in History Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The God Delusion Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Blitzed: Drugs in the Third Reich Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Unacknowledged: An Expose of the World's Greatest Secret Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Wager Disaster: Mayem, Mutiny and Murder in the South Seas Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5On Killing: The Psychological Cost of Learning to Kill in War and Society Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Sun Tzu's The Art of War: Bilingual Edition Complete Chinese and English Text Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11 Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Forgotten Highlander: An Incredible WWII Story of Survival in the Pacific Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5The Art of War & Other Classics of Eastern Philosophy Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Afghanistan Papers: A Secret History of the War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Last Kingdom Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5How to Hide an Empire: A History of the Greater United States Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Girls of Atomic City: The Untold Story of the Women Who Helped Win World War II Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Masters of the Air: America's Bomber Boys Who Fought the Air War Against Nazi Germany Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5God Is Not One: The Eight Rival Religions That Run the World--and Why Their Differences Matter Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5Bill O'Reilly's Legends and Lies: The Civil War Rating: 4 out of 5 stars4/5The Making of the Atomic Bomb Rating: 5 out of 5 stars5/5
Reviews for Castles
Rating: 0 out of 5 stars
0 ratings
0 ratings0 reviews