Castles were the product of that period of history termed the Middle Ages. Feudalism is the name applied to the military society which was created in Europe during the 9th and 10th centuries AD and reached its most developed form in Normandy in the 11th century. Feudal society resembled a pyramid. At its apex was the king who owned all the land in his kingdom (Platt 2). Immediately below the king was a group of major landholders who held their land directly from him, his tenants-in-chief. These were the great lords and magnates of the kingdom. In return for their land, they swore to give the king military service; that is, they and their retainers would fight for

Armies could force their way into a castle three ways. They could climb over its walls, knock those walls down, or could tunnel under them. The Crusaders gained ample experience in all three methods, particularly in the spectacular sieges of the First and Third Crusades. The simplest way of climbing over a castle wall was to scale it using a ladder. It was also the most hazardous method since the scaling ladder afforded the attacker no protection against whatever missiles the garrison might hurl at him. The deadliest of these missiles was the crossbow bolt (or quarrel). It was heavier than the usual arrow. It was delivered with greater force and had a greater range since it was propelled by mechanical energy, rather than the strength of a man's arm. The crossbow was a cumbersome weapon, being slow to load. On the battlefield, it was outclassed by the longbow. A trained longbow man was able to fire four or five arrows to a single bolt from the crossbowman (Thompson 117). Behind fortifications, where the crossbow user had time to load and was protected loading; the crossbow proved to be an ideal weapon. Providing for the crossbow was to have a significant influence on certain aspect of castle design. In the early thirteenth century improvements were developed in the defenses of the battlements (notched parapets built on top of a wall) to make better use of the crossbow. The crenellation (rampart built around the top of a castle with regular gaps for firing arrows or guns) was improved by increasing the number of embrasures and narrowing the merlons (solid portion between two crenels in a battlement or crenellated wall). At the same time arrow slits were incorporated into the merlons so that the bowman could fire while remaining under cover.

By the second half of the twelfth century the English Medieval castle had developed a form which we today would recognize as being that of a castle. It possessed a stone keep, shell or tower, and a gatehouse. Its enclosure or bailey was bounded by battlemented stone walls and defended by a ditch or moat. Events taking place far away from England were having a profound effect on castle design and were gradually to modify the form and structures of English castles in the next two centuries. These events were the Crusades. The Crusades were attempts by the armies of Christian Europe to seize, and retain control of Jerusalem and the other Holy Places of Christianity from the Saracenic Turks. Out of the three main Crusades, the conflict between the Crusaders and the Saracens generated continuous warfare that lasted the whole twelfth century. During the twelfth century a constant stream of military forces passed between Europe and the Levant. The war between the Crusaders and Saracens was incessant, with continuous expeditions to Palestine. The crusaders applied the knowledge experience of their expeditions to their own fortifications. At this time, the rectangular keeps and towers built in Western Eu

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Approximate Word count = 1997
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page double spaced)