Medieval warfare is a fantasizing period in which many role players like to act out. (I consider myself a freak). Now I can go on and on about every detail, but I am sure I could turn this into a book…and you don’t want to read THAT much… if you do Go to the LIBRARY! That’s where I learned it… also by historical movies and all that junk but that’s a different story.

Warning: This is a long article, that I turned into small sections for easier reading.

The Castle: The Medieval age was a very dangerous time. Castles were created to protect the ruler, the land, and the common folk, though some were also just meant to be military outpost. The defenders of the castles had many ways to defend it, while attacking forces had many different methods to destroy the defenses.
The castle had simple and complex ways for the garrison to defend it. Castles tended to use natural defenses to make their defenses stronger, faster and with less work. Sometimes they would build their castle nears a river, or on a hill or cliff to gain the advantage of height. It would be the first ring of defense that proved to be very effective.

The Curtain: The castles main line of resistance was the large stone wall, known as a Curtain. It had projecting towers at intervals of 100 or so meters. The ground in front of the Curtain was kept free of all cover, and if there was a moat, the ground would be cleared well beyond it. Castles usually had two lines of Curtains, the outer curtain and inner curtain. The inner curtain was always taller than the outer curtain. Most of the time, the outer j could have been 300 feet long on all four sides, twenty feet high and eight feet thick. The towers on this wall would be of the same thickness, but ten feet higher to provide a good view of the curtain on the other side. The inner curtain measured about 200 feet to a side, twenty-five feet high and twelve feet thick, and its towers would be fifty feet high. The height of the inner curtain made it possible to reinforce the soldiers on the outer curtain.

The towers were perfectly vertical, except along the bottom of the outer face, where they spread out at a sharp angle. The sloping base, which is called a batter, had two functions. It strengthened the wall and it created a surface, which stones and other missiles could bounce off towards the enemy if dropped from the wall.

The Battlements: When a section of the wall reached walking level (Its maximum height) its battlement or crenellation was constructed. This was a wall consisting of alternating high and low segments called Merlons. In some castles, three vertical some spikes called finials capped every merlon, and immediately below each arrow loop was a square putlog hole. If the castle was preparing for battle, beams or logs were extended through these holes to support a temporary wooden balcony or hording from which missiles and arrows could be dropped and fired more accurately toward the base of the walls from the murder holes made with the balcony.

Drawbridges: There were many different types of drawbridges, some as a simple flat piece of timber, others with complex mechanisms. The earlier kind was a flat timber platform that was designed to pivot on an axle, like a seesaw. The inner end of the bridge was weighted and when the supports were removed, it swung down into a specially pit cut into the rock between the towers. As the same time, the other end would swing upward, thus breaking the connection across the moat and blocking the entrance.

Another style is one that is most known. The good old fashion one with the chains that pulled it up? It is pretty simple to figure out how that is done. There is a wheel that two or more men would man to slowly crank the bridge up, then placing a large wooden spike through one of the holes to stop it from falling.

The Gatehouse: The Gatehouse was one of the weakest points in a wall, defenders created many advantage points make it one of the worse places to attack. It was made up of two large towers on either side of the entrance. In between the two towers of each gate house; a row of parallel stone arches supported a room above the road.

From this room a heavy timber grille called a portcullis could be lowered to block the opening. The portcullis slid up and down in the groves cut into the walls on both sides. The bottom of each vertical piece of portcullis was pointed and capped with Iron. The face of the portcullis was also clad with Iron for additional strength. Beyond the portcullis, a set of heavy wooden doors were also reinforced with iron straps. Immediately behind the doors were two holes, across the roadway, and set into the other hole to further secure the doors.

From the same room that the portcullis came from, there were large holes called Murder holes. These were used to drop rocks, shoot arrows or pour boiling oil/water onto the attackers. There were also arrow loops on the ground level of the gatehouse, which gave the defenders complete control of the entry area.

Arrow loops or windows had recess cut into the thickness of the wall. The recess behind an arrow loop was a vertical wedge shaped space-designed o give the archer more flexibility in aiming his bow.

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