The Medieval Castle part 2

The easiest way to attack a castle was to starve the occupants but this was not always possible. In  order to starve the occupants of the castle you had to catch them by surprise if not they would have time to collect supplies to survive. 

To get through the walls of the castle the attacker would use a “catapult” which would throw stones or red-hot coals at the castle until it was weakened. The attackers, covered by the archers, would approach the castle wall and fill the moat with stones and earth. They would put logs down to cross the moat and use a tree trunk to batter down the weak spot in the wall or the door.

Storming towers, tall wooden towers covered in wet hide, so that they wouldn’t burn, were rolled up against the castle walls with soldiers on it so that they could get across the wall.

When the doors were finally opened the first man to go across into the waiting swords had to be very brave, as it was going to certain death.  If none of these battle plans worked, as a last resort, the attackers would dig a hole under the castle to get in.

The army was usually composed of knights or peasants, but during the 12th century hiring knights was very popular. Some lords would also rent heavy military equipment from a siege engineer.

As soon as the lord was notified that the castle was going to be attacked, he would start building his army and preparing the defences. His army was composed mostly of knights and peasants that worked and lived in his castle. They would defend the castle by throwing boiling water on the attacks, pushing over storm towers and shooting them with arrows.