Castles - Attack and Defence.indd

ACTIVITIES
TEACHER’S KIT
CASTLES - ATTACK & DEFENCE
This information, along with the ‘Attack Cards’ and ‘Defence
Cards’ are designed to be used by teachers on self-led tours
around castles. Teach your students how castles were attacked
and how they were defended. Show your students the weapons
and tactics used, including what gruesome things were flung!
Castle design and evolution - how castles changed and why
A castle was a fortress built to protect strategic locations from enemy attack or to serve as a military base for invading
armies. It’s where Lords and their families lived and ruled the land. They were served by peasants who were controlled
by fear and their lives were extremely hard. Over time castle design changed. They were rebuilt and added to many
times during their life so there may be a mixture of features or some may have completely disappeared.
Motte and Bailey Castle - built in the 11th century by the Normans
The motte:
• Was a natural or man-made hill on which the keep stood
• Had a ditch around its base and a wooden fence called a palisade around
the top
• Had a protected entrance within which a wooden tower would be built
• Had a wooden bridge that connected it to the bailey which could be
easily burnt to protect the motte from enemy attack
The bailey:
• Wasacourtyardandwasbuiltonflatland
• Was between the gatehouse and the motte and contained guardrooms,
stables, kitchens, storerooms and a chapel
• Was also protected by a palisade and a ditch or moat around it
• Buildingsweremadeofwoodsowerevulnerabletoattacksbyfire
Stone Keep Castle - built during the 11th and 12th century
• Replacedmotteandbaileycastleswhichwereeasilydestroyedbyfire
• Defences were rebuilt in stone
• Siege machines were built which could breach the stone walls so square
keeps were built with massively thick walls
• Over time the keeps went from rectangular in shape to cylindrical
• The palisade was replaced by a wall-walk above the battlements
• Accommodation was built inside against the curtain wall leaving a
courtyard in the centre
Concentric Castle - built during the 12th and 13th century
• A second curtain wall was built. The inner wall was higher than the outer
wall so the archers could still bombard the enemy
• Turrets were placed along the wall with a wall-walk running between
• The land between the two walls was called the ‘death hole’
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ACTIVITIES
TEACHER’S KIT
CASTLES - ATTACK & DEFENCE
ATTACK CARDS
Aim it high!
Tactics:
Useacatapultknownasatrebuchettoflingstuffoverthe
castle walls on to the enemy.
Weapons:
Trebuchet-firesmissiles¼ofamile.
Stones - shatter into deadly splinters.
Plague victims/poo to spread disease!
Break through the doors!
Tactics:
Use a battering ram.
Setthewoodendooronfire.
Weapons:
Battering ram.
Flaming arrows.
Your cunning to lure them out!
Scale the walls!
Make it through the drawbridge!
Tactics:
Use grappling hooks to pull it down.
Disguise yourself and try to charm your way in.
Weapons:
Grappling hook.
Costume to disguise yourself
Your charm/wits.
Tactics:
Put ladders against the walls.
Use a siege tower to protect the soldiers.
Use grappling hooks to climb the walls.
Weapons:
Ladder.
Siege tower.
Cross the moat!
Surprise attack!
Tactics:
Look for hiding places to wait, then attack at night.
Aim for the archers on the walls.
Sneak in - through the garderobe!
Weapons:
Long bows/crossbows.
Sword.
Tactics:
Lay planks/ladders across the moat.
Setfirethetimberspikesinadrymoatordiga
channel to drain a wet moat.
Weapons:
Ladder.
Fire (or shovel to dig with!).
Siege!
Tactics:
Block roads to stop supplies of food.
Poison the water supply.
Fling diseasedover the walls to make them ill.
Weapons:
Trebuchet (catapult) & diseased animals.
Time – you need to be patient
Smash down the walls!
Tactics:
Fire heavy missiles into the walls at high speed using a
mangonel - a specialised short range catapult
Pick the weakest part of the wall.
Weapons:
Mangonel
Very big stones!
Send in the sappers!
Tactics:
Use skilled miners (sappers) to dig tunnels under the walls/
towers, using wooden poles to support the tunnel.
Burn the poles to make the tunnel and
the wall/tower collapse.
Weapons:
Miners with tools for digging.
Shoot them down!
Tactics:
Use your skilled archers to shoot the defenders.
Fire burning missiles at the wooden parts of the castle and kill
the soldiers living there.
Weapons:
Arrows.
Long bows/crossbows.
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ACTIVITIES
TEACHER’S KIT
CASTLES - ATTACK & DEFENCE
DEFENCE CARDS
On your guard!
Tactics:
Build on a hill/high ground.
Reasons:
So you can spot the enemy a long way off.
Makesaccessdifficult.
Makes mining under the walls
impossible!
Pull up the drawbridge!
Tactics:
Pull up the drawbridge and shut and bar the main door.
Reasons:
A big wooden bar makes the door
impossible to push open.
Having the drawbridge up means
you can’t cross the moat.
Barricade the entrance!
Tactics:
Lower the portcullis.
Get ready to man the murder holes.
Reasons:
It was an extra barrier to get through.
Murder holes in the ceiling let you pour boiling
oil on intruders!
Destroy it!
Tactics:
Send soldiers on horses to destroy the trebuchet.
Reasons:
Atrebuchetcanonlyfireonceinanattack,
then it must be rebuilt to be used again.
If your soldiers have killed enough enemy
soldiers there won’t be enough to rebuild it.
Undermine them!
Tactics:
Dig ‘countermines’ into the tunnels the enemy are digging
under the castle and put any captured miners in the dungeon.
Reasons:
To attack them in their own tunnel.
To make their tunnel collapse on
them!
Be prepared!
Tactics:
Stock up supplies of food, water and ammunition.
Ration what supplies you have.
Reasons:
Having plenty to eat and rationing it means
they can’t starve you out!
Moreammunitionmeansmorefighting.
Create a barrier!
Tactics:
Digamoatandfillitwithwaterorwoodenspikes.
Empty the garderobes (toilets) into the moat.
Reasons:
To stop the enemy mining under walls.
To stop the enemy using siege towers.
No one wants to swim through poo!
Curtain of stone!
Tactics:
Build high stone walls up to 6m thick.
Reasons:
Tostopthingsflungfromacatapult.
High walls means archers
can’t shoot over them.
Makes it hard for attackers to climb them.
Kick them down!
Tactics:
Kick away the ladders of attackers.
Hide on the wall walk to surprise attackers.
Reasons:
Waiting until the enemy soldiers are part way
up their ladders means you’ll kill or injure
more of them when you kick the ladder away!
Fire power!
Tactics:
Shoot the enemy from the wall walk.
Shoot from inside arrow loop windows.
Reasons:
Shooting downward makes it easier.
Arrow loops make it easy to shoot
out of and really hard to shoot in to!
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ACTIVITIES
TEACHER’S KIT
CASTLES - ATTACK & DEFENCE
ACTIVITY IDEAS
These resources can be used at any castle site in a variety of ways:
• Use the descriptions of castles to ask your students to work out what type of castle they are at.
• Share out both the attack and defence cards amongst your students. Then ask those with attack
cards to question those with defence cards to work out which is the best defence against their
form of attack at that particular castle.
• Divideyourstudentsintogroupsandgiveeachgroupadifferentattackcard.Theymustfindthe
part of the castle that it relates to and work out the best place to use that tactic (eg. the best
place to cross the moat, the weakest part of the walls etc).
• Encourage students to imagine what it would be like during a siege. They could try to work out
solutions to problems such as: Where could food and ammunition be stored? Do the arrow loops
let you defend all the ground in front of the castle? Where did the soldiers sleep?
• In opposing teams students could devise a battle plan to either withstand a siege or cause one.
Their plans could be acted out using role-play, with the opposing team looking for weaknesses in
their plans.
• Using the castle ruins and the drawings of the different methods of attack and defence as
evidence, create a reconstruction drawing showing the castle as it might have looked in the past.
• Use ‘hot seating’ activities to help students ask questions and discover more. They could imagine
that they are the defenders who have managed to capture one of the attackers who was spying
onthem.Theattackercouldbeinterrogatedtohelpthemfindoutmore.Theattackercouldthen
also describe their emotions and what it felt like to be put in the ‘hot seat’ and interrogated.
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Services Department:
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