How wide would a motte and bailey castle be?

How wide was a bailey?

The size of a large courtyard. The motte could be 3-30 metres high.

What was the improvements of the motte and bailey castle?

Motte and Bailey castles were replaced by shell keeps and square towers. They were also replaced by concentric castles. The concentric castles were originally Motte and Bailey castles, but only some of the Motte and Baileys got to become them. Some of the first Motte and Bailey castles to be turned into concentric castles are Rochester castle and Warwick castle. They were cool

What are the strengths and weaknesses of a motte and bailey castle?

Strengths:Only take a few days to buildReally light which makes it easier to buildQuite strongBuilt on a hill so you can see the enemy approachingMade of wood- so quick and easy to buildHas a moat and a fence so it is more difficult to attack.Weaknesses:Catches fire easilyWood can rot with the rain; it generally weakens with age.Wood is a weak building material so therefore these castles could not be bigThe motte can collapse with the weight of the castle on itThey were not big enough to house large groups of troops

What did the first motte and bailey castle look like?

To find good diagrams and paintings. Click on the link below named"google image search: Motte and bailey castles" If you want me to describe it then it's a raised, flat, fortified area with a large mound on it. The large mound has a keep on it.

What are the strengths and weaknesses of a mott and bailey castle?

Motte and bailey castles were really a range of different styles of earth and timber castles, some with a single motte (mound) and a single bailey, others with two baileys and others with two mottes.The advantage of this type of fortification is that it was extremely quick and cheap to build using the local peasantry as forced labour, with local timber used in the construction. Such castles were only as strong as their outer defences - if the ditch was deep and wide and the bank high and steep, with a strong palisade along the top, a small force could defend itself for some time.The most vulnerable part of any castle is the gate or gates; some motte and bailey castles had a wooden bridge approaching the gateway that could be destroyed before an enemy arrived, or a simple drawbridge outside the wooden doors.Wooden fences around wooden buildings can always be destroyed by fire and fire arrows were often used against this type of defensive structure. The defenders could respond by hanging wet hides over the palisade and buildings and having plenty of water available to fight fires.Eventually, the attackers would fill in the ditch outside the gate and could then bring up a battering ram under a protective penthouse on wheels. As soon as the gateway was breached the defenders could only retreat to the tower (donjon) on top of the motte; this was usually the strongest feature and impossible to attack, but here they were effectively trapped and would eventually have to surrender or starve.

How did castles change from the early middle ages to the late middle ages?

For the most part, castles began as timber structures built atop Roman forts. As the Romans were great road builders, their forts were positioned in many key places, especially in regard to troop movement. The mound of earth, called a motte was fenced in with timber walls creating a bailey. Since timber can burn, castles evolved using stone instead. They began on the same premise as the motte and bailey, and added the keep: a tower in the center and the most defensible place, with narrow stairs so if attackers did reach it, they could only approach one at a time. As war tactics changed, so did the castle. The motte and bailey expanded to a serious number of walls. The lord was housed in the keep and the higher the rank, the closer the people were to the bailey. Eventually the keep became so large that if a castle came under siege, the entire village could find protection within its walls. Crenallations developed, what we recognize now as the embattlements atop a wall or tower. Many castles can document their history because the King had to approve the license to crenallate and these dates were recorded. Because of sappers (people who would tunnel under ground) the square tower corners became a liability. Round towers replaced them as they did not collapse so easily if the ground gave way due to tunneling. The moat, while it could play a defensive role, was mostly the castle's sewage system. The chamber pots were dumped out of windows and privy chutes opened outside of the walls. Raw sewage dumped onto the ground and because the castle was on the raised motte, the sewage flowed downhill where it collected at the bottom. Small men were highly paid to crawl up the privy chutes and make their way inside to open the gates. As you can imagine, no one wanted to touch them! There were many specialized defenses developed along the way, the barbican was basically a gate tower. It might contain murder holes above so if the gate was breached, people would dump hot oil, burning naptha or pitch, or quicklime on the attackers. Rocks could be dropped on people from between the crenallations. Looking at many surviving castles today, you will see narrow archer slits but many now have a large circle in the middle, these were made in later years for firearms and small cannons. Windows or large openings did not exist in the medieval castle because that would be a vulnerable point. If you see windows or wide openings in the walls, they are a later addition. Many times the castle would have a sally port: a secondary gate. Once a besieging army was tied up at the main gate fighting and trying to avoid the castle archers, the lord would bring his knights mounted on their horses through the sally and launch a counter attack trying to outflank the enemy. That was really the only way to break a siege by force from inside. The castle began its decline with the advent of gunpowder. As weapons became more accurate and powerful, it was impossible to build the stone walls thick enough to withstand them - at least from an economic point of view. But the power of flight is what rendered the castle completely obsolete. Once the airplane became something dependable, castles were useless. -- The first castles were built in the last two centuries of the Early Middle Ages. They were of a type called motte and bailey. The motte was a hill with a flat top, and was often built up by hand. The bailey was an enclosed area taking up the top of the hill. It was enclosed with walls, and the walls were made of wood. Such a castle could be built in a few weeks, but it would not last long, as the wood would rot away in a relatively short time. Later castles were mostly built of stone. The design of the castle was more complicated, and included buildings. The most important building was a keep, which was usually a massive tower with rooms for storage of food and water, and for all sorts of other purposes. The keep was often built on top of the old motte of an earlier castle. The size of the castle was greater, and there was a stone wall, called a curtain wall, around it. It usually had a moat, as had the earlier motte and bailey castles, but also had a gatehouse, and often a drawbridge. (see the link below)

What position does Stedman Bailey play?

Stedman Bailey plays Wide Receiver for the St. Louis Rams.

What are the release dates for Wide Angle - 2002 The Sand Castle 6-4?

Wide Angle - 2002 The Sand Castle 6-4 was released on: USA: 24 July 2007

A deep wide and usually water-filled trench around a castle?

A water-filled trench around a castle is known as a "moat."

What is a water filled castle defence?

a moat that is a wide ditch filled with water

How large is a castle?

Castles could be up to thousands of feet long and wide.

What is a barbican in medieval times?

Builders of castles and other defensive works knew that gateways were the most vulnerable parts of any defensive scheme. Various methods were developed to strengthen these gateways, finally adding barbicans or "outworks" as a first line of defence.A barbican was a fortified outer gateway with its own towers, drawbridge and portcullis, outside the main defenses and usually separated from them by a wide moat. The barbican protected the approaches to the gateway and acted as a very strong blockhouse with its own small garrison.Some of the earliest barbicans in stone castles were at Sherborne Old Castle in Dorset (1132 - 1137) and at Dover Castle in Kent (1170) - Dover's barbican no longer exists. Earlier motte-and-bailey castles of earth and timber almost certainly had similar outworks like these, but they leave little archaeological evidence in the ground.The link takes you to a plan of Oxford castle as it was in around 1250; the wide moat is connected to the river Isis and the barbican (H) sits on an island in the moat:The second link takes you to an image of the surviving barbican at Lewes Castle: