The first castles were built for worrier kings who needed a safe base.
These castles were called mote and bailey castles and were made out of earth and wood. They often were built on steep cliffs or hills to prevent attacks. Mote and bailey castles could get burned and were not very strong witch meant that they could get destroyed quite easily. Luckily for the king and his men this type of castle was erected quite fast.
By the twelfth century castles were already starting to be built out of stone. The stone they used came from local mines. But just because I say the castles were made out of stone, does not mean that they were built with no wood.
Nearly one-fourth of the castle was made out of wood. Workmen usually used wood for scaffolding though. To haul up heavy stone or wood, workmen would use a winch and a treadmill. They got in the treadmill and ran in it (kind of like a mouse running in those little wheels people give them) and that's what made the winch lift up. Workmen had tough lives as you can see. At 5:30 am they would have breakfast which would be cheese, bread and weak cider. After that, they would go to work. 7:00 am they would meet with other workmen, some of which had to camp at the castle. 7:15 am they would talk about how their site that they were working on is going with their teammates. 7:30 am workmen would start filling in the outer walls with rubble. 8:30 am a workman might help a young workman whom just started working there. 9:00 am a load of stone arrives. 10:00 am workmen would have lunch, which would be lentil stew, bread, pork and drink ale or cider. 10:45 am they would hammer some stone. 1:00 p.m. someone might fall of some scaffolding. 4:00 p.m. a Master mason would come and check on the carvings that have done. 6:00 p.m. workmen would go back to their home and have a meal of soup and cheese. Finally at 10:00 p.m. workmen would go to bed.
Master masons were master castle builders that have trained for a very long time. To become a Master mason first, you would work until you finally became good enough to be a Journeyman. After working so hard as a Journeyman, a Master mason would come and see if you�re good enough to become a master mason. Master masons were the best workmen and sometimes they would help new workmen work. They worked as an architect, engineer, sculptor and platform builder. Master mason traveled a lot to work on different sites. While they traveled, they shared their architectural ideas with others, that�s why a lot of castles looked similar in the Middle Ages. To begin making a building, masons would first think of a plan, then start digging holes and putting up foundation. Once the walls were built high enough, workmen would begin to put scaffolding up and start building the upper half of the castle. As you can imagine this was a very dangerous and hard job.
Here is a thing that a chronicler wrote in 1117 "in this year there were violent storms, and one night the heaven seemed very red, as if there was a great fire in the sky. In January there was a great earthquake in Italy And it was a very bad year for crops because of the rain."
This chronicler wrote this in 1100 when an old English King was killed,
"He was very harsh and fierce. While he was king, much evil was done. Therefore he was hated by almost all his people and God."
Only rich people could buy books, which was really not very fair, the poor people missed out in a lot of life without these fantastic books.
The Library and all the other rooms were just some of the rooms that were built in a castle! There were much much more! Outside of the castle there were gardens, fishponds, a well and a couple of orchards.
The people who lived inside the castle were the Lord, Lady, sweeper, groom, chef, cook, ewer, butler, panther, taster, steward, musicians, jesters, jugglers, clerk, reeve, crossbowmen, archer and knights.
In the fall of the Roman Empire, whoever had enough money to pay for their costs and maybe even other people�s costs became a nobleman, noblewoman or maybe even a Lord or Lady! The Lord and Lady were the King and Queen
of the castle. Some Lords had a hard time maintaining their spot as the Lord. Lords would (to keep their position) plan wars and come back winning them.
Also, to maintain his spot he would give land to poor people and sometimes even make them wealthy. In return, the poor that he gave the land to would farm the land and
Lords had clerks all over the castle making sure his news got around. These clerks also gave the Lord news too.
The Lady was not treated quite as far as the Lord was, although her life was much better then any other woman in the Middle Ages. When the Lady was a child she was taught how to raise a household and give orders because when they were Ladies they would sometimes have to hold the household when the Lord was e. If there was a battle going on and the husband was of somewhere Ladies would have to organize the battle too! Joan Flanders had to do this. The people that worked in the castle had a far more difficult life though. Because the castle floor was made out of woven mats and people just threw their trash on the floor the sweeper had a difficult job! Sweepers would sweep all the mats of the castle floor and put fresh mats on woven by the mat weavers. The Grooms would take care of the Lord and Lady's favorite horses, spinners would spin wool that came from the Lords sheep. The falconers would train the falcons, cupberers would offer wine at meal times, carvers would carve meat, cooks would cook delicious meals, ewers would provide clean clothes for the Lords table, butlers and panthers bought and stored food and drinks. If the castle had a taster, s/he would taste the food before the lord ate it to make sure it was not poisoned. Stewards were in charge of the castle to make sure nothing went wrong, musicians, jesters and jugglers were all entertainers, Reeves would collect rents and organized the Lords farms. Clerks were the ones who took notes from the