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... aladin and Baybars yet still many castles either didn't fall or took an entire season of campaigning to capture. The general idea to effectively siege a castle was to starve or blockade it until surrender was the only option, but these castles were designed to hold enough food. Kerry when besieged by Saladin held enough food but not enough arms, a strange turn of events in the medieval ages. Margat on the other hand had supplies enough for a five-year siege. In 1269 after the garrison of Gaston retreated from the castle the Muslims "found no-one in it except for one old woman but the place was discovered to be full of grain, provisions and everything else which is stored in such forts" 6.
At Belvoir Saladin attempted to starve the garrison -a mere 500 - but so well supplied were they that he retreated from July 1187 to March 1188. His retreat was 6 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. encouraged by the many sallies that the garrison made against the besiegers through one of the four posterns at the bottom of the moat during the night. Again he abandoned the siege in May of 1188, as he was having no luck against Belvoir's excellent design features, such as a complete kitchen, hall, refectory, workshop, stables and an Arab-style bath.
As an observer noticed was a point not lost on the great leader himself: "He saw that it would be necessary to employ a great number of troops to reduce this place, for it was very strong, most amply provisioned and garrisoned by determined men whom, so far, the war had spared. " 7 Saladin returned the next winter, and after unsuccessful missile attacks and storming he finally succeeded by mining. Although the garrison could have retreated behind the second curtain wall, the prospect of relief was non-existent. In fact no relief would arrive until Richard I's crusade in 1190, and as a result the garrison choose to surrender. The design brilliance of the crusaders was once again proven by the multiple sieges that the castle endured within such a short period. Saladin choose not to attack Crac de Chevalier as it appeared to be too strong and choose to move on to Tortosa and Margat where he achieved nothing more.
At Tortosa, in 1188 Saladin captured the town surrounding the castle but could not capture the donjon, he destroyed the entire town as a result. The Welsh castle of Flint was captured in 1282 by Llywelyn during a revolt, even then no large-scale siege took place during the course of the capture. In fact most of the castles built by Edward I never were attacked, because the Welsh depended on quick attacks from the mountains and did not believe in long sieges. Although in 1405, to the dismay of Henry IV, Owen of Glendower captured Harlech and held it as his capital for a further three years. Actually, the majority of the action the Welsh fortresses saw took place during many of the wars English nobles fought over the crown; the castles built by Edward I for the English were used against them by the English. It can now be easily concluded that the actual defensive worth of 7 Hugh, Kennedy.
Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. the castles in Wales were never up to par with those of the crusaders, under the constant attack by Saladin and Baybars, along with countless other leaders that seemed to live only to send the Muslim armies against the strong walls of the crusaders castles. The measure of a castles success must be taken with its history, design, origin and construction. The castles built by the crusaders (See Fig. 6 in appendix) were designed to use their surrounding environment to the fullest, while blending previous experiences to create effective defensive structures. The construction of the castles took place in incredible short periods of time, while showing a great level of adaptation to the materials available while not affecting the quality of the finished product.
Then tested again and again, the value of these castles have been proven by the likes of Saladin and Baybars. When evaluating the castles built by Edward I in Wales, we may see the design innovations of the crusaders, but without the construction ingenuity of the crusaders, or the historical proof to their success. Which are the reasons the world's greatest strongholds cannot be found in Wales, but in what was at one time called the Holy Land. Glossary Active Defence - This title is given to any design feature or actions that will completely prevent an attacker from effectively giving siege a to castle. Bailey - The term bailey actually originates from the outer ring of wooden fortifications in a motte and bailey castle. These castles first built by the Normans, were temporary (and some pre-assembled in Normandy) strongholds soon to be replaced by the famous stone donjons.
The stone curtains walls then took up the title of bailey but over time they were simply called curtain walls and the area enclosed by the wall was then referred to as the bailey. Barbican - This is an area in the castle, which will isolate an attacker within the fortifications without actually entering the castle. An example of this would be a walled in passageway between two gatehouses. This will allow the defenders to continue assailing the attackers even after the attackers have broken through the first gatehouse. Concentric Castle - A form of castle capable of concentrating fire on a specific spot, giving rise to the name.
It functions through either overlapping walls or symmetrical design. The overlapping walls prevent the outer walls from use as weapons against the inner walls because of the increase in thickness or height, and the closeness they were built. Curtain Wall - A wall that surrounds or forms an enclosure around an area within the castle. An example of this is the wall that would surround a bailey that could also create a circuit around an inner curtain wall. Dead Ground - This is the area under which an attacker could be sheltered from assault originating from the curtain wall because of the corners of the towers. To solve this round towers emerged, these towers also had the advantage of being difficult to mine.
Unfortunately round towers also had disadvantages, such as the difficulty to mount siege weapons on the roof, difficult living quarters, being round in shape. It was also difficult and timely to build, all of these being extremely important in crusader times, giving rise to the long period of time before the crusaders choose to accept the round tower. Donjon - Also called a keep, this structure is in reality a great tower, but designed to become self-supporting in times of siege. They varied greatly in design and appearance, in the Holy Lands they were squatter than in Western Europe; in both regions they could appear in octagonal form, pentagonal, circular or rectangular fashion. Eventually as the prospect of living in a stone box became less appealing to nobles the donjon was ousted in favour of tower houses, and so the great towers became used as prisons because of their obvious strength. Soon the jails were moved down into the lower confines of the keeps and took the name of dungeon.
Flanking Towers - Towers built at the corners of lengths of walls to provide fire at the base of the walls and prevent the weakest part of the wall from being exposed. This portion would be the corner, which is naturally weak because of the joint in the masonry. By adding the towers the weak portions of the wall are removed and the amount of dead ground reduced. Garrison - This is the force assigned to defend, administer or maintain a castle. This is usually the force also responsible for keeping the castle under their control throughout a siege, therefore being the besieged body as was illustrated with the Belvoir example. Glacis - This is an angled face that finishes the base to a castle.
It can be either a smooth surface cut from a cliff, or a piece of Masonic work that finishes of a rough cliff. The purpose of these is to prevent an enemy from bringing any siege machinery or mines up to the castle wall; or make ascending the face extremely difficult. It also served a secondary purpose, which was to deflect any waste or debris - either in an aggressive fashion or not - out away from the wall and toward an enemy. "iron ring" 4 - The ring of castles built for Edward I by James of St. George, a Swiss castle designer with structures to his credit all over western Europe. The ring encloses lowland Wales, while creating a barrier against attacks from the mountains by Welsh separatists.
Keep - See Donjon. Mining - The process of tunnelling under a wall either to prevent an attacker from shifting or destroying a portion of wall. This is done by digging under the wall in question and supporting the roof with timbers until the tunnel length desired is reached. At which point the tunnel is filled with combustibles and lit on fire. This will ideally dry the mortar of the wall above to the brittle point and eventually cave the tunnel. When the tunnel caves in a portion of the wall remains without support and will thus either follow the tunnel roof down or sag under its own weight making it vulnerable to projectile fire.
Passive Defence - This is the title given to any design features or actions that will hinder or stunt an attacker's ability to effectively siege a castle. Bibliography Warner, Philip. Sieges of the Middle Ages. Edinburgh: R. & R.
Clark LTD. , 1968 Thomas L. Jeffery. The Castles of Wales. 1995 - 2002. 1 October 2002 web Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. Microsoft Corporation 2001. Hugh, Kennedy.
Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Cairns, Conrad. Medieval Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. Origins, Robin S...
Castles and Fortresses. New York: Michael Freedman Publishing, 1994. Gravest, Christopher. The History of Castles. Italy: Lyons Press, 2001
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