Castles
Now, a good castle design is essentially a delaying tactic. It makes the assault take so long and be so costly in men and resources that it can’t be sustained long enough. Attacks were actually the most costly and most likely to fail means to take castles. Granted, if you had enough men and ladders it could work simply by overwhelming the defenders. But most medieval armies did not have that sort of manpower. Losses would be significant even in cases of victory.
Such realities mean that no one builds castles unless they expect to win. If a lord feels that they cannot garrison their castle well enough to prevent its capture, the lord will not build it. If the lord felt that they could not count on allies to provide enough reinforcements, they would not build the castle. Essentially, losing a battle over a castle meant the enemy gets a castle paid for by the other side. Therefore, no one builds a castle unless they feel they are powerful enough to keep it. This means that those who build castles feel they can either 1) outlast their enemies, 2) get reinforcements to defeat them in the field or 3) withstand direct assaults. This then means that generally castles were the domain of the most powerful, wealthiest and/or most secure.
Siege engines were also problematic. Should one be able to get close enough, they come in real handy. But that is why hilltops were common locations for castles. While moats were not built to defend against siege engines, they had the effect of blocking them. Not to mention fire – siege towers are obvious targets and are made of wood.
Bombardments were not as good of an option as one would think either. Trebuchets were powerful, but not near what gunpowder is. Often, the projectiles were much too small for the human powered trebuchets to effectively damage the targeted walls. After all, castle walls were meant to withstand this sort of attack. And like towers, it is possible to place a castle where no trebuchet is able to hit. Some castles did fall to some unusually large trebuchets, but these huge pieces were rare. Also problematic is the use of trebuchets inside the castle walls able to provide counter-battery fire. These trebuchets also have the benefits of being protected by walls. Even worse is the demolished wall forms a pile of rubble that the troops need to climb over to get into the castle. While this is by far the easiest place to get in, it advertises where the assault will come and is still hard to climb over. Sometimes the breach was formed and the castle still held out for months. Basically, the breach made an attack there easier, but still not easy.
Then there is the layers. Castles were more than just a keep. Even the most basic had a single wall around them. This meant that even taking that single outer wall still left you with the keep one had to break into. Many castles though had at least two rings of walls. So, one would do all that fighting to take a single wall, just to have to repeat that process all over again. Except this would be against a wall harder to undermine, hit with trebuchets or get towers to. Layouts were even set up so that the second wall would be difficult to hit with battering rams.
But sometimes an attack is needed. Time drains the food resources of the attackers as well – which is more of a problem for them. Supply trains were much more limited and living off the countryside can only last so long. Winter is a problem for a large group of men forced to live in tents. Just as diseases would be. The much smaller relatively speaking garrison of the castle would have much better shelter, plus be able to stretch food reserves longer. Long enough hopefully that the Lord’s allies will show up. This would catch the attackers between the castle and another enemy army.
The quickest and most effective was trickery. One castle fell when men broke into a chapel. Others hid in wagons bringing in supplies. Guards could be bribed. The running theme is the attempted seizure of the gatehouse. Once that is accomplished, the attacking army could march right in before the defenders could rally.
The labor force at the castle was normally pretty small. People like the engineer and crossbow makers all had private houses in the outer bailey and could even have their families live with them. Often their pay included clothing as well. Though naturally they had to still pay rent. Temporary workers were called in for specific tasks. These poor guys had to live communally in their workshops. The Constable was the head guy and was paid around a whopping £425 a year or 375,317.45 in 2018 dollars. But the wages of the rest of the staff came out of his pocket.
I mentioned earlier that garrisons and the personal armed retunes of lords were small. Just how small? Well Dover – the 35 acre castle mentioned above – had a regulation peacetime garrison of 174. But only 24 were normally there at any one time. Gatehouses normally had two guards and the rest of the garrison consisted of 4-5 knights sent for 2-3 month terms of garrison duty. However, there were a few important staff positions in the upkeep of castles - the most common appears to be a constable that lived in the gatehouse. They conducted business from there. This meant than the smallest number of people were allowed in on normal days. Only the most important were granted permission to enter. The entire castle population could be around 30. This counts the lord, their family, servants and the guards. They would all be fed from the castle kitchen. Everyone would attend mass at least once a day. A chapel was on site to facilitate this.
Knights when placed in garrison duty had a group of regular soldiers under their command and stationed in specific towers. They were often not allowed to live with or socialize with their men. Menial labor was performed by their personal servant. A squire was basically a knight in training and was responsible for maintaining the knight’s armor.
All the work to build castles actually was an important part of the location of villages. Construction took so long that the camps for the laborers effectively became permanent establishments. The castle thus became the reason for the village existing as well as its main landmark. To highlight this, lords would often paint the outside of their castles white so they would be more visible. Painting did protect the walls, but the color was specifically chosen for visibility.
Purpose / Function
Full blown castles could cover 2-6 acres of land and cost $5,089,590 in 2018 dollars. So, only the richest would have them. Dover covered 35 acres and cost £15,000 ($7,635,022) at a time that the King of England’s revenue was £10,000 ($5,089,590) a year. They were generally worth than investment. The lord had a strong protected house for him and a warden. They were also vital places to store supplies and weaponry for war and as a place for civilians and soldiers alike to retreat to.
While castles are extremely expensive by medieval standards, they are also extremely valuable. Pretty much all of the nobles in charge of the southern fiefs can be expected to have a castle. Like in real life, we can also expect wide variability in quality of initial construction and maintenance. A small garrison can be maintained relatively cheaply while also protecting a seat of power. Most attacks that a noble would face would not be able to sustain a long enough siege or have enough men to storm a castle. Meanwhile, the fact a castle can provide a strong base for cavalry to raid attackers and distrust supply lines makes them almost impossible to ignore. When you combine the short duration of campaigns, the defensive power of castles and the need to take them, most medieval war was short and based on sieges.
Often, the local lord would run his entire realm from the inside of a castle. In this regard the Castle was more of a capital than one would traditionally think of it. The Great Hall, typically located in the keep, was where most of this business was conducted. Dances, feasts were held here. As was the lord holding court, listening to the concerns of people and conducting negotiations. Thus, more than any other room in the castle, this one needed to be the most impressive. It had the most social and political utility.
The basic definition of a castle is a fortified private residence. This means a wall and a house to form the most primitive castle. But for all practical purposes, towers and other defensive features were added in. So were elements like chapels and gardens. Naturally, the lord who built the castle would be a prime target for any person who wants to invade. So making sure any attacks could be withstood was vitally important. The brutal power struggles of the Middle Ages means that such attacks were not just hypotheticals.
Castles were not just defensive buildings – though that was vitally important. They were also shows of strength and power for the lord who owned it. It would also be their home. Thus, good castle design needed to be able to be as good as possible at all three. But the defense was the primary purpose, followed by the show of power. After all, an impressive enough castle can signal to potential enemies that it would be stupid to try an attack. Not to say that comforts were not present, but they were less important than making sure invading armies were kept out and peasants stayed in line.
Therefore, the goal of a castle was to project power and aid in local administration. Plus there is the deterrence factor. Peasants would know the difficulty of taking castles. So too would outside threats. Which then leads to a higher perceived threshold one needs to cross in order to view victory as possible. So many potential threats might not even try. So castles have benefits even at the lower ends of quality. Which then in turn means that practically any one who can afford even a ramshackle castle would build one. But this then reinforces the idea that most castles were not the impressive monuments to construction we like to think of them as.
The most impressive ones would be limited to the richest lords and where the threats are the greatest - such as where attacks most frequently come from. For Gondor, this means closer to the border with Harad or possibly Mordor. This means where normally evenly matched forces must contend with long and otherwise open borders. Otherwise, the main role of the castle would be dealing with attacks from other nobles or peasant uprisings. Which require smaller castles.
Alterations
So, castles were often grab bags. The need for temporary security to protect the locals in the short term means that a improvised, cheap and quickly constructed castle would be the first at a given location. Then, as more time and resources are available, they would expand and upgrade the castle in question. Often, this means a mix of materials, technology levels, skill and other things that result in the castle being somewhat of a grab bag of styles and quality.
Expansions and upgrades were often limited by the finances of the lord. Naturally, there are going to be more lords at the poorer end of spectrum than the wealthier ones. Even the richer ones would not have the means to relocate a poorly placed castle. Then, a lord's domain might not have any truly great locations at all. This also has the unfortunate implication that even solid construction and materials can leave a castle exposed due to poor location. The sum total of these factors is that most castles are going to be smaller, weaker and/or in less than ideal locations.
The result was that most castles were good enough for what they were needed for. But not more. That is delaying their own capture for long enough for the attackers to give up or reinforcements to arrive. Which meant weeks at most. The many accounts of long running sieges paints a misleading picture leaving many people to assume that most castles could withstand long sieges. The reality is that most could not. Lords would abandon these much more common poorer quality castles and retreat to the better ones. Especially in the face of a clearly better opponent.
Architecture
We must remember that castles match the budget of their builders - who were normally private citizens in the form of the lord who controlled the area the castle was being built in. No lord would ever have the resources as a full nation state supported by taxation. Thus castle builders would seek to minimize construction expense. Therefore, castles will be built in natural defensive locations and mix wood, earth, and stone defenses. Similarly, they would be probably small, often only be large enough for essential personnel.
Even the military buildings (stables, barracks, siege engine storage) were kept to the outer bailey. A chapel was placed here as well to minister to the staff and soldiers. Often lords would try to make it a full church so they could get some of the tithe money. More fancy castles were practically mini villages in their own right, with forges, full granaries, breweries, kitchens, livestock areas, ponds, gardens and barns.
One modern recreation of a castle had 30 meter tall towers whose walls were 4 meters thick. Over 30,000 tons of stone were needed for this relatively modest affair. But wagons and carts were the only real mode of transportation for this huge amount of stone. This then meant that as much stone as possible was quarried from as close to the construction site as possible. This goes for all other materials as well.
Construction was seasonal lasting from spring to autumn. Once the building was done for the year, unfinished walls would be sealed with mortar so they would not be damaged during the winter. Hundreds of skilled craftsmen would be involved in the building. Thousands of hours of work would need to go into single windows and doors.
Windows were generally a defensive weakness. Basically, any hole in walls makes it easier for enemy troops to get in. This means that a lot of "windows" on lower floors and the outer walls were mere arrow slits that let in very little light. But, higher up areas and buildings in the internal areas would have large gothic style windows. This allowed the more purely residential areas to still be pleasant areas to live. Now, letting heat out was another problem with windows.
In cultures of northern Europe, that would have been an issue in the winter. But Gondor is more in line with southern Europe. So we would actually likely see more windows on castles than many real world castles. Glass was much harder to make - to the point that sheets big enough for whole windows was almost impossible. Nor was quality to modern standards as well. The result was the window being made out of many smaller pieces of cloudy glass held together. But that was expensive. So most windows would have been just literal holes in the wall with shutters opened to let light in.
Arrow loops were far more common than windows. These were often slits in the shape of a cross. But they, like windows, created a weakness in the wall. So they would often be included at the front of embrasures 6-10 feet deep that were wider at the back. To counter the increased rate of fire from attackers, multiple archers would be stationed at each one under attack. One would shoot out as the others were reloading.
Arches were integral to the construction of castles. When wood was already being over consumed and metal costly, the stone needed to fill in the gaps. Not to mention that the huge weight of the stone on the upper floors needed stone to support it. Artistically, the Byzantine Empire would alternate white stones and colored ones in arches. Given the fact that Gondor was inspired by the Byzantines, I would suspect that to be carried over too. The use of arches meant that vaulted ceilings were common features as well. Especially for hallways.
Towers were one of the key architectural elements of castles. The Keep was basically a centrally located tower with living areas that served as a possible last stand position. But many castles did not have keeps in the traditional sense. The towers built into the walls were big enough sometimes to have all the essential rooms. Other rooms like the Great Hall were extended out from the main walls.
There was also the possibility of there being a "great tower". The best distinction I can find is the Keep appears to be more civilian/all purpose and actually more heavily fortified. This is the last stand building. The Don Jon or Great Tower is taller and is used as a lookout tower and prison. But this distinction seems to have originated more recently and only really applies to castles where there are both. It must be noted that castles are defined as being fortified residences. Which means that a keep by itself, even without additional towers or walls, would still be a castle.
But when people say tower, they most often mean the ones on the outer curtain wall. Towers themselves come in many shapes and sizes. Round was a useful shape as it was more resistant to the force of trebuchet fire. But the main mostly common features are that they are taller than the walls next to them and protrude out from them. This reinforces that section of wall and allows flanking fire on enemy troops approaching the base of the walls. For this reason towers would be positioned close enough that someone on top of one tower could hit a person at the base of the tower next to it. Otherwise there would be effectively blind spots where the castle walls would be actually protecting the enemy.
Many of these towers would have fortified doors, battlements on top and quarters for men and supplies. This means taking one section of the wall does not cost one the entire castle. Each section of the castle needed to be taken independently. This compartmentalization has its benefits. Others had towers equal to or bigger in size to the keep. But a more heavily defended fall back position with much of the critical infrastructure also has its benefits too.
Towers also were known to have arrow slits instead of windows. These guys were wider on the inside and narrowed to a mere 3 inches. This allowed the archer inside as wide a range of fire as possible while restricting the potential target area for attacking archers as much as possible. While technically possible to hit the defender inside, it was for all practical purposes too difficult to do in real battle. They were also sloped downward so ground closer to the base of the walls was in sight.
Towers and walls were often wider at the base to make it easier to resist blows from battering rams and stone projectiles. It also meant that soldiers approaching the walls were further away from where defenders were shooting from when they got to the base. This made hitting them easier.
History
Castles were naturally important targets for invading armies. This resulted in sieges being more common than pitched battles. They could last months or even years in some cases.
In real life, it is likely (but unconfirmed) that most castles were made of wood. A wood castle or even simple fortified manor house would certainly be better than nothing. Stone would clearly be better. But if no local stone was available or the lord was not able to afford it, wood would have to do. The reason we assume that most castles were made of stone is because stone lasts longer. No wood castle would have survived in any state from the Middle Ages without care.
However, Gondor is unique. It is centered around a large mountain range, so availability would be less of an issue. When it was first founded, Gondor had much more wealth and power than it does at the end of the Third Age. This means that the economics would be less of an issue. I would assume that most of the castles in Gondor would be holdovers from ages past - handed down from generation to generation. The only costs would be the cheaper upkeep and modifications. The cultural traditions that would have grown up in Gondor around stone would mean that poorer lords would push their finances to the brink more than a real life lord would to get a stone castle. All of this to say that stone castles would be more common in Gondor than real life.
This also means that masons - quite important in real life castle building - would be even more valuable. They were highly paid freemen. This means they were not bound to the complex rules and duties of a serf to the lord. They often also worked at quarry workers and would pass on those skills to their children too.
The highly skilled trade called for a 7 year apprenticeship. They were paid by the stone. This meant that the masons had to work as quickly as possible and still be good. This is also the origins of identifying marks carved into each stone. The delicate work requires a huge amount of skill, precision, strength and planning to strike this balance. These guys would learn to put technique before all, which allowed for better accuracy and thus fewer mistakes to correct. This in turn allowed them to strike that balance and earn more.
Their skills made them in demand across the medieval world. Thus they could be expected to travel a lot from the different constuction sites of castles and churches. Geometry was often taught at the mason lodges. Workers would often meet there to eat and discuss ideas as well. Thus the mason's work areas became symbolic as well. The lodges were thus a sort of all in one area. Here they could eat, relax, socialize and learn from and with their fellow masons. For a highly mobile and educated workforce in a potentially dangerous industry, this has a lot of value. Add in that Gondor has a long history connected to stonework and the mason lodge can be expected to have similarly powerful cultural relevance.
It would not be unusual for other skilled craftsmen to follow similar patterns. A good carpenter, stonecutter or blacksmith would be needed in other construction sites too. Thus, there would be a lot of travel by this demographic - sometimes crossing the whole of Europe. They would pick up influences from the areas they travel through. Some would have even been on the Crusades. The result is a wide diversity of experience and improved skill in both military and religious building.
Even unskilled labor to a degree followed this. Rarely did unskilled work pay enough to allow one to survive off of savings during the off seasons of castle construction. Thus they too would move. This might mean to an urban workshop or to a farm instead of a construction site. But since they were involved in construction during the growing season, it seems unlikely they would have their own farms to go back to in the local village. Hence they too would move to where more wage labor was to be found.
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