The Medieval Castle
Caernarvon Castle
There were great developments in castle building during Medieval times. The design of the keep was developed until it was a marvel of ingenuity. Caernarvon (pictures below) castle's (Wales) walls are topped with battlements with two galleries beneath contrived in the thickness of the walls. When the walls are manned, a perfect broadside of arrows could be discharged by the archers.
On the north side of the castle, the arrow slits are ingeniously arranged, so that three archers could shoot out of a single opening. The next point to be noted is that the salient angles of the walls are guarded by projecting towers so that archers could fire along the faces of the adjoining walls, if besiegers attempted to raise scaling ladders. Each tower formed a place of refuge to which the garrisons could retreat, even if their opponents breached the walls and gained an entry into the bailey. The castle does not rely upon a single entrance; it has no less then five; so that the garrison, if hard pressed at one could make a sortie from another.
The main king's gate had a drawbridge outside, with portcullises at either end of the passage. This had "murder holes" in the vault over it, from which boiling liquid could be poured down on attackers who forced the outer door, or portcullis. Alternatively, the attackers could be shot by arrows from the guard-rooms at the side. This gateway led into the outer bailey, here were the barracks for the garrison and the stables for their horses. The constable of the castle lived in the rooms in the tower over the gate.
The inner bailey was cut off from the outer bailey by a range of buildings. There was a passage-way through, called the "black alley", which was defended by portcullises at either end. The great hall, in the inner bailey, was used as the general living-room. It was the most pleasant place in the castle. The rooms in the tower are gloomy, lighted by the merest slits of windows, recessed in the very thick walls-walls so thick that in some cases, the galleries in the curtain wall are carried round outside the tower rooms. The kitchens were built against the curtain wall, in the inner bailey, between the king's gate, and the well tower. Various halls, kitchens and other necessary rooms were built against the inside of the curtain walls wherever it was convenient to do so.
Harlech & Beaumaris Castles
It looks as if the architects of Harlech & Beaumaris Castles ( Wales) said to themselves "Yes, Caernavon was not so bad, but if one wall is good, two would be better." So at Harlech & Beaumaris there are two walls. The outer range is known as the list walls. It was imperative to keep the besiegers farther away from the walls, so as to oblige their siege engines to fire at longer range. We must also remember the increased effectiveness of the bow. A shaft from a long bow was no joke; at full force it could pierce plate armour at something like 200 yards. Harlech represents the castle-builders last word in mighty defensive strength; later castle buildings became increasingly residential; while the cannon developed into a destructive force that no fortress could withstand. This is now called the concentric type of castle.
The double walls have a narrow middle ward between them, any besieging force trying to scale the outer walls would have been under fire from the battlements of the inner wall; and if they gained the middle ward all kinds of missiles could have been dropped on them. Assuming the attackers did breach the inner walls, the garrison could retire to the towers and carry on the fight there. The arrangement of the buildings in the inner ward, is less haphazard then at Caernavon, and more like that of a house.
People sometimes talk about the prettiness of an old castle ruin, as if it's builders had purposely designed it as a ruin, to add charm to a bend in a river, or cap the outline of a seaside cliff. But the more we study the plans and remains of old castles the more we realise the great ingenuity shown in their planning and the remarkable way in which they served their purpose.
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