Now you might be wondering, how do you attack or defend such an impenetrable fortress. For defense the answer is quite simple, throw everything you got at the enemy. But, when you attack a castle it is a little harder.

The enemy has to attack the wall of the castle so they can get in, so you need to add protection to the walls. To ward off attackers, defenders use bows, arrows, and crossbows to pick off enemy troops. When the enemy is at your wall you can drop rocks or fire pots from holes in the merlon (shield of stone after wall).

Murder holes

Fire pots are containers with tar, oil, or hot sand which are set on fire then explodes when thrown on attackers below. The defenders could also launch caltrops, rocks, firepots, or dead cattle from catapults on large towers. The defenders of the castle made their gatehouse have to gates with a small walkway in the center, this is so that when one gate is breached, the attackers can be attacked by oil or rocks coming down murder holes on top of the walkway.

Now to attack a castle, you might need siege weapons. The most known siege weapon is the catapult. A catapult is a device that throws rocks great distances by springs and hits the walls or gatehouse. Mangarells are like catapult but they use twisted rope to launch rocks.

A trebuchet used a counter balance to throw rocks

Trebects use a counter balance to sling rocks to the walls. These siege machines didn’t just throw rocks; they can throw diseased cattle, fire pots or small stones. These machines are very devastating to bowmen on walls. Other siege weapons include the battering ram; it is a wooden structure which can be mover that can destroy walls or gates with a large ram.

If you can’t go through the wall, go over it with a siege tower. A siege tower is a movable tower that is pushed to the wall then, when it reaches the wall, a plank drops down and people can go through the tower and on the wall. Another simpler and cheaper version of the siege tower is the wooden latter, it got the job done, but it was flimsy and easily burnt.

A Siege Tower is an easy way to get over the walls

They used mantlets for protection

Shooting arrows at the enemy is also a good idea so they created a giant wooden shield called mantlets so bowmen could reload their bows or crossbows safely.

The cannon is the last siege weapon, it was introduced in the fourteenth century but not widely used till the fifteenth century. The cannon was dangerous because the castings were faulty and the cannon itself might explode. The cannon spelled the end of the castle era but their legacy still lives on.

An early cannon

A mangonel used twisted rope to launch stones, fire pots, or dead cattle

A battering ram

Fire pots explode on impact