What was the difference between dark ages castles and medieval castles?

Answer 1

The Dark Ages are the 500 or so years after the fall of the West Roman Empire. Dates used for this time are usually 476 to 1066 or something like that. It is a term that has gone out of fashion in much of the world, though it is still used in the UK. People who use the term Dark Ages often date the Middle Ages as starting with the end of the Dark Ages and lasting until 1485, when the Wars of the Roses ended.

The term Middle Ages is used by other people as a name of the whole period, usually with the dates 476 to 1453. These people use the term Early Middle Ages for the Dark Ages of 476 to 1000, High Middle ages for the period from 1000 to 1300, and Late Middle Ages for the period from 1300 to 1453.

Personally, I think neither the terms Dark Ages and Early Middle Ages is very useful. The time from 400 to 700 was the Age of Migration, characterized in Western Europe by a series of invasions by migrating peoples, often very destructive, who eventually settled down and went through a series of issues that had to be addressed as they established kingdoms with well functioning laws and customs. The later time, from 700 to 1000, included the Carolingian Renaissance, the Macedonian Renaissance, and the Ottonian Renaissance, times of great political, social, and cultural development. These two times were more different from each other than the later was from the High Middle Ages, I believe, and if the Middle Ages are to be subdivided, that should be taken into account.

Answer 2

Some people use the term Dark Ages to indicate the time from 476 to 1066, and the term Middle Ages for the time from 1066 and 1485. This question makes sense in that context.

Castles of the Dark Ages were more primitive and were usually of motte and bailey construction, with walls built of wood. They could be built in a few weeks, but were not very strong and did not last very long.

Castles of the Middle Ages (using this naming system) were built of stone. They took much longer to build and lasted better.

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Answer 3

The term Dark Ages refers to the time in history immediately following the fall of the Roman Empire (About 500AD) until the early Middle Ages (About 1000 AD) It is so named because society and government in Europe regressed to an earlier time, with no centralized or unifying body of government like the Roman Empire around, things fell into chaos with local lords and tribal chieftans vying for power until leaders like Charlemagne began to reorganize regions into cohesive kingdoms under an early form of Feudalism.