Warwick Castle Course Work

Warwick castle coursework

this is a picture of Warwick castle in it’s current state.

This is Warwick castle from a birds eye view. introductionI am going to examine Warwick castle for my coursework. Warwick castle is a castle in Warwickshire. It consists of a 2 gate houses, guys tower, caesars tower,the royal hall, chapel, great hall, state rooms, the ghost tower, and the mound. Warwick castle was originally built to defend a Warwickshire. It was also a wooden built castle. It was then converted to stone. Timeline914-with the threat of invasion, Ethelda, orders building of the rampart. 1068-william the conquerer builds motte and bailey castle.

Guys tower

The mound

Caesars towerThe chaple, great hall, and the state room

Ghost tower

Royal hall

The two gatehouses

1260-stone replaces the wooden motte and bailey structure. 1264-castle successfully attacked by Simon De Montfort. 1350-Caesars tower and dungeon constructed. 1450-gatehouse and barbican completed. 1540-spy tower built, kitchen roof improved, and reinforcement of south wall completed. 1642-withstands an attack. 1871-fire spreads through the private apartments and the great hall before being contained. 1890-mill converted to an electricity generator for the lights in the castle and also to charge an electric car.

Motte and bailey castles

This is a picture of an average motte and bailey castle.

William the conqueror built motte and bailey castles in the 11th century. This was because local towns would have been patriotic and would have not wanted the foreign king to rule their land. This meant that they would riot and attack garrisons of troops. This then called for Motte and Bailey castles to be built near towns so that they could keep the local population in check and to stop or slow down rioting. So, when they desighned the castles, they were originally made so that there was only one entrance and that one entrance was only wide enough so that one person could fit through at a time. This meant that one man from the garrison of troops inside the castle could stand at the entrance and kill many of the enemys army and not die. Another advantage of this is that because the majority of the population is right handed, that meant that it made it awkward for the right handed population to attack with weapons because the wall would be on their right. When motte and bailey castles were built, they would be built on high ground

and near to another mote and bailey castle. This was done because if one castle came under attack, it could signal the other and the other castle would send some of their army to help. When they got to the actual building of the castle, they would use local resources like trees to build the castle. But, the first thing that they would do would have been to dig the ditch and put the earth dug up into a mound. They would then build the walls and the courtyard and then they would build the keep. The bailey was at the base of the motte. It had many buildings. The lord's workers, soldiers and craftspeople lived here. It also contained workshops and stables. A strong wooden fence also surrounded the bailey. A wide ditch full of water surrounded the motte and bailey. This was called a moat. It had a drawbridge. The drawbridge was built over the ditch or moat and could be raised and dropped to block access. Warwick castle would have been a typical motte and bailey castle of this time because it would have just been built. It would have had a keep, a motte, a bailey and a moat. Nobody can say that any other motte and bailey castle was better than warwicks motte and bailey castle because they were all of the same desighn.

Stone castles

After several years of having motte and bailey castles, the builders saw the impractibility of using wood and converted them to stone. The hill would have been crushed under the weight of the stone, so they got removed or used for something else. The roles of castles by this time had changed. They had now been built to defend a town or village instead of to keep it in check. The best thing about building the castles out of stone was that, at the time they were first built, they were invincible. This was because the technology available at that time was only effective against wooden structures and basiclly useless against stone. As technology advanced, the castle could be penetrated by advancements, so, advancements had to be made to the castles. Some of the earlier stone castles were Dover and Rochester. Rochester has had a history of being attacked, destroyed, and being rebuilt. It is situated near Rochester to protect Rochester.

This is warwcik castle at the moment. Warwcik castle is typical of castle at the time that it last got updated. Even though whenever it did get updated, it was roughly 100 years behind most other castles.

Stone square keepsStone square keeps were introduced because they were bigger, stronger and easier ot defend. Warwick castle does not have a stone square keep. This means that Warwick was not typical of this time at all because most castles di d have them. In the sense that Warwick castle did not have a stone square keep, this meant that it was not the finest because it would have been easier to attack. Strengthening of castlesRound keeps and round towers were built because cannons were invented. Where the towers were round, it meant that it took longer for the cannons to be aimed properly and if the angle was wrong, then the cannon ball would just bounce off of the towere or keep. Also, it meant that the whole structure was stronger. It also eliminated blind spots so now noone could hide outsode the walls. Curtain walls were made thicker to withstand more damage and they became higher to stop anything getting inside the castle. Also, there was more of a height advantage for archers defending the castle. Also, because the walls were higher, arrows attacking the castle would be affected by gravity so it would be more difficult to attack. Atehouses were built woth barbicans because when a division of troops tried to penertrate the gatehouse, archers culd stand at the top and attack them. Warwick castle had round towers, a curtain wall and a large gatehouse. This mwant that Warwick castle was fairly typical, but it was not the best example of a castle at this time. Concentric castlesThe idea of a concentric castle meant that several walls would be built. This meant that once one wall was destroyed, there would still be several more that were still defended and still attacking. There would also be more than one keep. This made it considerably hard to attack them. Concentric castles were introduced because of more advancements that were obliterating other castles. Warwick castle did not become a concentric castle. This meant that it was vulnerable to aatack and was not typical of that time. This meant that Warwick castle wasn’t the finest of its time. ConclusionTussards is probably claiming that Warwick castle is the finest because it is a very beautiful, well kept castle. This means that Tussards is justified to say it, but it isn’t the best castle. Most other castles would withstand attacks very well, but warwcik castle was casptured several times. It is however a very fine looking castle, so that could be a reason why. The castle isn’t the best developed castle, but it served its purpose.