Castles

Prince Ruprecht III was the one who made this castle and used to live in the Heidelberg Castle.

William the I built them to protect his army, he built 500 castles made of wood, and when he had total control of England and the opposition was destroyed, he replaced these wooden castles with stronger, more stable stone castles.

William the Conqueror built castles to protect him and his men from attack by the Anglo-Saxons he had beaten in battle of Hastings. During the first few years he spent over ruling the English he ordered 500 castles to be built. These were of the Motte and Bailey variety which is a bailey (wooden stronghold) on top of a motte (man-made hill.)

Once the country was totally under his control and all of his opposition were crushed, that's when he then he replaced the "temporary" castles with more permanent stone structures. Most of these can still be visited today.

Also he needed it to show the people of England that he was in control.

hamstring

If they had a defensive wall (castle wall) they would most likely have archers. The archers would then shot the enemy if they would try to attack the castle.

Does that answer you're question?

the first castles were built in aroundAD900.

NO

The outer wall of a castle is called a curtain wall. Inside it is a ward or bailey. Sometimes a castle has a second curtain wall in the ward, providing a second line of defense in case the outer one fails. Such a castle is called a concentric castle.

There is a link to an article on concentric castles below.

Wood and Stone

Castles are mainly protected by moats. The moat surrounds the whole Castle, reducing the chances of trespasser. The walls are made of stone and are extremely strong. From the top of the turrets you can see for a long, long way. Also the turrets are exceedingly useful for shooting from. The main doors are bolted heavily so it is difficult to get in even if you have got passed the moat.
Knights,cannons,slingshots

Sure friend I research medieval history and the Castle was a very important part of the time period. A castle is where a Lord and Lady or King and Queen lived the castle was usually on a hill with large pointy wooden spikes on the hill. Some times a castle was inside a city. A castle always had strong walls stone was the favorite for being so strong. Ramparts were carved into the stone so archers crossbow men and black powder musket men could shoot down at the enemy and pour hot tar or lime stone down on them. Most castles had a drawbridge and a moat behind the drawbridge was a gate usually wooden or metal. Inside the walls were houses for soldiers and blacksmiths. Various courtyards could be found inside a castle. Inside the walls sat the palace where the Lord and Lady lived a life of luxury. In the palace were kitchens, dining hall ,bed chambers ,wine cellars ,ballrooms and so on. That's about it. I hope you found this tip helpful. Good by and God bless.

Motte and bailey castles are made out of wood which produces many advantages including: * They are reasonably strong * They are able to be built within a few weeks * They have a moat which makes invading the castle alot harder * There is a big hill that the motte is built on so the archers in the motte can shoot them with arrows whilst the attackers are scrambling up the hill * They are cheap There are also many more advantages.

Defence against attacks,

To store weapons and defensive items.

Protecting peasants and nobles,

Defence agains the dark arts..xx

"A buttress is an architectural structure built against or projecting from a wall which serves to support or reinforce the wall. Buttresses are fairly common on more ancient buildings, especially in Germany, as a means of providing support to act against the sideways forces arising out of the roof structures that lack adequate bracing." (Wikipedia)

Castles became unimportant when they were no longer able to protect its inhabitants. In the 15 century, artillery such as cannon balls and mortar were able to break through the stone walls.

Curtain wall is a term used to describe a building faced which does not carry any dead load from the building other than its own dead load, and one which transfers the horizontal loads (wind loads) that are incident upon it.

Kings reigned from castles, presiding over disputes among their subjects. They also protected both king and people during times of war in a kingdom.

Tower

How it was to live in a castle depended on the castle and who you were.

Castles, even the large ones, were usually uncomfortable to live in. There were no fireplaces or chimneys in most of them, so if there was a fire in a brazier of a room, the room was smokey and drafty, so usually the only room with a fire was the great hall, which had a high ceiling with vents to let the smoke out. One of the reasons tapestries were put on walls was that the cold stones drew the heat out of people.

The route to the facilities, whether toilet or washing, was likely to be long, and the water supply was likely not to be what we might prefer today.

Castles tended to have food stored, but the food that was stored was in case of siege, which meant lots of wheat or oats and not much else. Small castles had few places to walk around, and the large ones had courtyards that were shared with horses, workshops, and other areas.

The kitchen was likely to be in an open area or an area that was open on one side, much like a stable, so the smoke could escape easily.

The great hall, where the nobles ate, was uncomfortable, by modern standards, especially in winter, and the bedrooms were no better. At least these places were decorated, sometimes.

If you were poor, things were likely to be a bit less comfortable.

Most castles did not have people living in them, or did not have them living there for long. They were places people could hole up in if things got bad. And they were useful for impressing the natives. They might have had long term small garrisons of soldiers, but there were not likely to be many kept in any one castle over a long period of time.

Of course, if you are asking about fabulous castles, such as were occupied by the Green Knight, or Percival, or Arthur, and their ladies, that might be another matter. They were lovely, beautiful, comfy and smelled nice. The jesters were always funny, the musicians sang and played beautifully, and the jugglers never dropped anything. The knights were handsome and the ladies were great philosophers and poets in their own rights. The only problem was those castles were usually behind impassible forests and impenetrable thickets, and were also hard to find.

The Château of Azay-le-Rideau was built between 1515 and 1527, so it took eleven or twelve years to build it. There is a link below to an article on it.

Generally they had two primary functions:

1. They were used as defensive fortified structures in times of war. The medieval ages were a time of weapons far more crude than the ones used in modern warfare, so a high stone wall and thick gate would sometimes make the difference between life or death for a king or his vassals. They were by no means impenetrable, and castles were won and lost all throughout medieval history, sometimes even surrendered without an actual battle taking place. But they helped give a possibly outnumbered army a fighting chance against a larger army, and a strong castle was sometimes enough to deter a weaker force. In times of war they also sometimes provided sanctuary to peasants from the nearby countryside that would otherwise have been slaughtered by invading armies. They often included several defensive tactics and technologies depending on the size and design of the castle, and the competition between building a better castle and building better castle-destroying siege weapons was one of the main arms races of the age (along with better armor vs better swords or arrows, etc). For these reasons many castles were built in highly strategic locations, both geographically in areas they could provide a measure of control over important territories or logistics routes and physically in places where nature added some sort of extra measure of defense (a large river or cliff edge, for example).

2. Other than that, some castles served as lavish homes for royalty or their vassals (important noblemen who served the king). Some castles contained Keeps that could serve as palaces for royalty or homes for other nobility. In this sense a castle could be given as a great reward to important vassals for their loyalty or some great service. Some kings built bigger and more luxurious castles as testaments to their wealth and power.

Some castles were designed to be both important military fortresses and lavish homes, while others may have been built with a greater focus on one function or the other. Either way most castles probably ended up serving as both at one point or another.

First, in the middle ages, castles were made to protect the population of the town or village they surrounded. Later they were used as a defence for the lord, and a show of power in the feudal system. Need more info?/ use http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/development-of-castles-in-the-middle-ages.htm

the best type of castle would most likely be the motte and bailey castle.

don't listen to this guy cos he does not no anything about castles.