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Example research essay topic: Cambridge Cambridge University Holy Land - 1,673 words

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King Edward I of England made a number of military campaigns during his reign, in two of which he captured modern-day Wales. In order to hold his gains he built a series of castles, which are said to still be some of the world's greatest strongholds. But, over 3500 kilometres away a period of fascinating castle building took place prior to Edward's as a result of the crusades. These constructions were designed by absorbing the constructive wisdom of the crusaders and those they came into contact with. The crusader castles were built faster, larger, and stronger, to create what are without a doubt, the world's greatest strongholds.

The crusaders designed their castles to provide the essentials needed for survival while developing design techniques capable of turning a castle into a stronghold that were mimicked throughout the medieval world. Once their castles were designed the crusaders displayed a construction ability and ingenuity that turned the designs into reality, taking any material they could obtain and use it to create anything they needed. So successful was their construction that attacking forces of incredibly larger numbers were needed to capture only a select few of the castles over a hundred year period, and often the circumstances of capture were not a fault of design but an unfortunate twist of fate. Through design, construction, and history, a picture emerges of a pioneering period of military construction that was never matched.

The design of a castle is most certainly the greatest factor in its defensive capabilities, and many of the innovations credited to the development of the castle finds itself in the history of the crusades. The most significant development is the concentric castle; this is the concept in which the inner walls are able to fire over the outer walls, either because of close proximity or size. In this manner the maximum amount of firepower can be directed at any one point. Belvoir (See Fig. 1 in appendix) is not only a perfect concentric castle but is also the first datable one (circa 1168). The outer wall was built with flanking towers and towers enforcing the centre of each wall span, with the exception of the gatehouse wall. This wall encloses an area of 130 x 100 meters 1, making it one of the largest enclosure castles, it also encloses two further walls, the first of which has only one tower because of its close proximity to the outer wall, the inner wall is built with flanking towers to support the middle bailey.

A most effective passive defence design noted by Saladin "The walls built of stone and clay offered perfect protection to those behind it so that no one could appear at the entrance of his tent without putting on his armour. " 2 Beaumaris, although concentric, failed to utilise the obvious advantages that came with ignoring complete symmetry in design. Belvoir's gatehouse was designed so that the intruder must first navigate a barbican to enter the gatehouse itself. Then they are forced to enter a second barbican overlooked by a flanking tower before finally entering the castle. Beaumaris (See Fig. 2 in appendix) was designed with a gatehouse unfortunately inferior to that of Belvoir in the attempt to create the ultimate concentric castle. In the process of designing Beaumaris James of St. George choose to break away from lessons previously learned.

Beaumaris makes up for the lack in strength with both the outer curtain and the powerful inner curtain, which could have easily proved to be the most powerful castle of its time were it finished. Beaumaris was never completed because its massive costs even after 35 years of construction it was never finished, as James of St. George wrote: In case you should wonder where so much money could go in a week, we would have you know that we have needed - 400 masons, both cutters and layers, together with 2000 less skilled workmen, 100 carts, 60 wagons and 30 boats bringing stone and sea coal; 200 quarrymen; 30 smiths; and carpenters for putting in the joists and floor boards and other necessary jobs. All this takes no account of the garrison mentioned above, nor of the purchase of material, of which there will have to be a great quantity... The men's pay has been and still is very much in arrears, and we are having the greatest difficulty in keeping them because they simply have nothing to live on. 3 1 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles.

Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 2 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. 3 Thomas L. Jeffery.

The Castles of Wales. 1995 - 2002. 1 October 2002 web Belvoir was finished between 1168 and 1188 by a significantly smaller workforce, with a smaller resource pool. A further concept credited to the crusaders can be found in Giblet, Chapter Rouge, Burj al - Arab, Castrum Rubrum and many other noble donjons built in the Holy Land, which although seemingly simple, this active form of defence can save a garrison from defeat. These smaller castles consisted of a donjon with a curtain wall and on some occasions flanking towers. The design was arranged so that their curtain wall or any other portion of the castle could not be used for siege machines against the donjon, were the donjon still in the defenders hands.

The arrangement of inner and outer baileys at Conway and Caernarfon although effective for administering to a province, were ideal for use against one another in the event of an attack. From the smallest detail to the largest concept some of the most important parts of a castle design originate in the Holy Land, and although built earlier, display a greater understanding of passive and active design techniques than those of the "iron ring" 4 (See Fig. 3 in appendix) built in Wales. The construction of a castle is what can make the design a truly effective stronghold, building to the landscape; building to the materials available and building for strength can achieve this simple goal. To prevent mining from being an effective siege weapon, the crusaders took columns from nearby temples and placed them horizontally in the wall at Giblet.

There is evidence of this also occurring elsewhere such as at Sidon, although seemingly superfluous because the castle is surrounded by shallow water. This practise increases the horizontal strength of a castle to the extent that mining will be ineffective, thus thwarting the greatest threat to castle security. It was their ability to identify the column's potential allowed this practise to take place, 4 Thomas L. Jeffery. The Castles of Wales. 1995 - 2002. 1 October 2002 web along with their extensive and varied work with many different types of stone. They are credited with working with Basalt at Belvoir, Arima and Market, volcanic stone at Kerak, limestone at Belvoir, Bourzney and Crac de Chavalier), ashlar at Giblet, Chapter Rouge, Rouge al-Arab and Crac de Chavalier along with many more, which cannot be covered at this time.

Their skill with the various forms of stone enabled them to build in any setting regardless of the materials available. Their abilities did not cease with masonry but continued to include the mutation of the land itself. At Saone (See Fig. 5 in appendix) for example, the crusaders dug a 90 -foot deep trench 450 feet long and over 60 feet wide 5. This defence provided an interesting opportunity to the crusaders, a supply of stone from the castle site itself thus the trench served as a quarry. This separated the castle from the town, the donjon, which has been labelled as the greatest twelfth century donjon in existence. Its walls and towers along this same edge of the castle were also built nestled on the edge of the drop as to appear part of the cliff.

No evidence of such a design relationship between the castle structure and foundation exists in Wales, it appears James of St. George did not see the advantage of such construction and choose to leave the rock faces under his castles uncut. This is odd because of the obvious hiding places provided by the uncut rock faces that can be used against the castle. The crusaders never allowed such unfinished work, knowing that the resourceful Muslims would no doubt find and use the weakness. The Franks built Saone with a level of masonry rarely matched (they cut their blocks to have bossed centres and draft margins) in the Holy Land and circa 1132 by Robert the Leprous or his son William, why these two nobles saw it necessary to make such a finish is unknown but it only aided the castle during times of siege. Without the opportunities that Saone's landscape offered, Crusaders sufficed in Crac de 5 Hugh, Kennedy.

Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Chavalier and Kerak by building large glacis' which prevent any battering rams or siege machines from coming close to the walls, it also prevented direct mining (See Fig. 4 in appendix) of the walls. The glacis' of these two castles (and actually all of the inner wall and much of the rest of the building) are built with bricks, which are smooth without any rough surfaces and cut so well that the mortar is almost invisible, preventing any attackers from scaling the defences. The crusaders built their castles to accent the surrounding landscape, and adapted to their material supplies, and changed the landscape itself to create a stronger, more defensible position. Although James of St.

George had an eye for defensive positions, he did not improve them with the same thoroughness that marked the work of the crusaders. History is a constantly moving canvas upon which the ultimate tests take place, the Holy Land saw some of the most violent fighting in which the effectiveness of the castles built by the crusaders is made obvious. Siege techniques in western Europe were not as effective nor as well understood as in the Holy Land, the Muslims became extremely adept at siege warfare under S...


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Research essay sample on Cambridge Cambridge University Holy Land

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