Village Life

Manor is castle or large manor house, a village and the land around it. The peasants live in a house that was built using animal dug, polluted water and mud. They build a wooden frame with timber and fill the spaces with wattle, the woven twigs and fill it. Fill these spaces with daub, slap it onto the wall and smudge it. Mix the animals blood with daub again, put it on the floor and do same thing to the wall. Make a thatched floor for the house which was made of bundles of reeds tied down to rafters. A rafter is the same of the roof. Make a wood frame and fill with gaps with twigs. For the window just make a hole and cover it with curtain.

Attacking/Defending A Castle

If I wanted to attack a castle, I will use a battering ram to knock the door down so that I could get in there and attack them. When the people attack me, I will then use arrows to attack them and maybe if I wanted to trick them, I will then dug the ground and appear on the other side (around then inside of the castle). I would also use my ballista by throwing stones or dead people to attack their castle.

In Middle Ages, people fought to own the land. The attackers use a battering ram to knock the door down so that they could get in there and attack them. They used fire arrows to attack. Ballista is also a useful weapon, they used to this by throwing a dead disease people or a stones to destroy the castle. 

The Feudal System

King owned all the land. He gave large estates to his friends and relatives included houses, barns, tools, animals, serfs or peasants. The England was too large for him to manage himself so he uses a system of sharing out the land. The king still owned it but he could lend large areas of land to people in return for their loyalty. Most of the people he lent the land to had helped him in the battle of Hastings. He was rewarding them for helping him. “Feudal” is the Latin word for “land,” so because the system was based on land, it became known as the Feudal System.

Knight: The vassal usually served as a knight. This service lasted about 40 to 60 days a year. If they actually had to fight in a war they usually did so for two months. If there was no war the knights did 40 days of training at the castle.

Villeins: They could never leave the lord’s land had to pay for everything. They paid to use the lord’s mill, oven, brew house, when their son was born and when their children get married. Some villeins ran away, but their families were fined if they did. If the villeins were caught, they would be punished. If they are lucky and avoid capture for a year and a day, then they would be freeman. And the other way of becoming a freeman was to ask the lord if you could buy your freedom. 

How Did Castle Change Over Time

In 1066 the first castle was built by William and it was called “Motte and Bailey Castle.” The castle was made out of wood. The advantages are that it was really easy and quick to build this castle. But sadly the disadvantages are because the castle was made out of wood it could easily be burn and rot. The “motte” could collapsed because of the weight of the castle is too heavy.

In 1087 the Normans built something else to make the castle stronger. It was called “Square Keep Castle.” They were made of stone and it was really tall. They actually took more time building this because its way larger than motte and bailey, lasted a long time. The disadvantages about this building are that it was hard to know if people attacking you surprisingly.

The people then kept on build a building to make the castle safer, they then built a building called “Shell Keep Castle.” They were really strong that it took a long time to built and it was made out of stone, they were made on top of a motte. The building had a weak gateway which you could attack easily and there are heavy stone castle on top, it could collapse the motte underneath it.

The latest castle to be built was called “Concentric Castle.” It was built in 1277. It was the strongest and biggest castles so it took a long time to build it. It had thick walls out and in to make it hard to attack. It has a lot of space inside for food and man to stay in.