Castles - Whitstone School

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History Year 7
Home Learning Task
Designing, Attacking and Defending a Castle
Name:
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Tutor Group:_________________________________________________
Teacher:
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Given out: Monday 29 February
Parent/Carer Comment:
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Target:
Hand in: Monday 7 March
History Homework
Year 7
Designing, attacking and defending a Castle.
Introduction – Read me!
The first castles in Great Britain were built by
William the Conqueror –the man who
invaded England in 1066 and defeated
Harold Godwinson at the Battle of Hastings
in 1066.
This homework is focused on the later phases
of castle building in England and Wales
(Scotland was independent) between 1200
and 1350 AD. So, we need to think in
Medieval ways and the technology which was
used 700 to 800 years ago!
The castles William built in the 11th century
were very basic compared to the expensive
and complicated structures built in the 12th
& 13th centuries.
Spend at least 5 hours on your homework
and make sure you hand it in on time.
Think positively about homework – aim for
house points & maybe even add some
research or extra work of your own.
Best of luck,
The History Department
A stone castle built during the 12th to 13th
centuries – can you see how the castle has
changed or developed?
A Motte & Bailey castle built during William the
Conqueror’s reign to control the Saxons in the 11th
century.
Task 1 – A brief History of Medieval “Wales”.
Read carefully the extract below and then complete the questions which follow.
(Should take you 5-10 mins)
In the 11th century the part of Britain we call Wales was divided and ruled by different chiefs
and princes who fought against each other. In 1066 King William gave a lot of Wales to a group
of lords who took over more Welsh land. By 1150 the Welsh had lost most of their land to
powerful English lords who built huge castles such as Goodrich and Chepstow. However, the
Welsh fought back under a Prince called Llewellyn the Great. His son became the first “Prince
of Wales”.
In 1272 Edward I became the new King of England. His father had problems controlling the
power of the English lords in Wales, and also the Welsh who ruled an area called Gwynedd.
Edward decided to show the Welsh and the English lords that he was in charge, so he planned
an attack against North Wales to conquer the whole area. The attack was a success, and the
remaining Gwynedd Welsh hid in the mountains of Snowdonia. Edward wanted to finish the
Welsh of Gwynedd off, but Llewellyn Prince of Wales (and his brother David) rebelled against
Edward.
Edward had a cunning plan to crush the Welsh rebellion. His plan in 1283 was to build the
best and most technologically advanced castles ever seen. Edward employed a famous castle
designer called Master James of St George to build a series of new castles across North Wales –
with no expense spared!!! The castles would have armies based in them to attack the Welsh, but
would also be good to defend, and have new towns of English settlers to set up permanent
homes in Wales. The plan was a great success, and you can still visit Edward’s castles over 700
years after they were built at Conway, Beaumaris and Harlech. However, in building such
superb castles Edward ran out of money and England almost became broke!
An artist’s reconstruction of
Beaumaris Castle in North
Wales; designed by Master
James of St George.
Now answer the following 7 questions. (10-12 minutes)
1. What was the name of the Welsh Prince who fought back against the English?
2. Who became King of England in 1272?
3. Which part of Wales was particularly rebellious against England?
4. What was Edward’s plan to crush the rebellion?
5. Name 2 of Edward’s new castles?
6. Who was Edward’s castle designer?
7. Edward’s plan worked, but why wasn’t it a complete success for England?
King Edward I
and his wife
announce his son
as Prince of
Wales following
his victory against
Llewellyn.
Task 2 – Design a Castle for Edward I. (1 ½ to 2 hours)
For this task you will play the part of Master James of St George, the famous Medieval
castle designer. Edward needs you to design him a castle which can help him to conquer
Wales. Read the design brief from His Majesty before you start researching for your
design.
Dear Master James
You have been recommended to me by the Lords of France and Switzerland as the best
castle designer in all of Christendom – I do hope that this is worthy of you. I need to crush
the savage tribes of Gwynedd and I need your help. My plan is to build eight grand new
castles across northern Wales to trap the rebellious Welsh and settle northern Wales as an
English kingdom. I have chosen a location for one of these and I need you to send me the
following information…
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Your design – a plan from above & drawings of your design
Descriptions of the things you have included in your design
A list of the equipment and people you need to build it
An estimate of the cost of the work & workers
An idea of how long it will take to complete
You have a week to submit your plan to me, but as I am a King not an engineer I do need
you to explain the parts or features of the castle as clearly as possible, so that I can
understand your design. I am sure that you will be paid handsomely for your service to our
realm, and hope that you are able to design a castle which will not be too expensive, but
will help crush the rebels.
Yours as your God chosen master
Edward R
King Edward of England, France, & Ireland. (and hopefully all of Wales!)
Task 2 continued
The next few pages should help you to design a castle to
help King Edward. Remember that the aim of a castle is to
defend your army and people, help people loyal to you to
stay safe, act as a base to launch attacks against the enemy,
have space for markets, and act as a house for the lords and
ladies who are in charge.
The man on the right is now YOU! Yes YOU – he or
should I say YOU are now Master James of St George. You
need to think, plan and design a castle in a similar way to
him. When your design is marked by King Edward (your
teachers) he will be looking to see that the castle is…
 Easy to defend.
 Difficult to attack.
 Easy to supply from the sea.
 Has clever design features.
 Has good notes & explanations.
Good luck to you Master James!
Helpful Picture 1
Helpful Picture 2
You could use this picture to
show Edward how the walls
need to be built for the castle.
This might help him to
understand how expensive
castles were to build, and how
clever you are at making his
castle safe.
Helpful Picture 3
You could use this picture to show Edward how the castle
will need hundreds of different workers – some skilled
craftsmen such as blacksmiths. Remember you need to tell
him how many workers are needed and how long the castle
will take to build.
Conway Castle needed over 3000 workers to build it. This is
going to be expensive for His Majesty!
Helpful Picture 4
This diagram and the one on the following page have a lot of design features that you need to
include in your castle. You should have a keep, barbican, arrow loops instead of windows, gates,
embrasures, battlements, machiolations, murder holes, towers and most importantly a well.
You need to include and label these on your picture(s).
A lot of these features will need the best stonemasons to build them effectively. Remember
Edward needs an effective castle, not one which will collapse during a siege.
Helpful Picture 5
Helpful Picture 6
This picture of Goodrich Castle
on the borders with Wales shows
interesting designs for really strong
towers. Do you notice the thick
stone supports at the bottom of
the towers? These are called
buttresses. Buttresses helped to
prevent the collapse of walls and
towers when attacked by
trebuchets. They were expensive to
build but very important.
So far I have seen many examples of the finest
features of a 13th century castle. All of these will
help to defend the castle from attack. However, the
castle also needs to be comfortable for the lords or
even for a visit by King Edward himself during
peacetime. I therefore need to think carefully
about the rooms the castle needs. Perhaps the
castle needs to have a very secure, but also very
comfortable keep?
Helpful Picture 7
This is a cut away picture of a keep. You need to include one of
these just in case the King comes to stay! Make sure you label
rooms in the keep so that the King knows he will be happy staying there.
Helpful Picture 8
A picture of the town of Carcassone
in France.
Carcassone shows a concentric layout
or design – this means there are a series
of walls to defend or attack.
The new trend in castle
building in France is for
CONCENTRIC castles.
Edward really should have
castles built in the
concentric design.
Concentric = inner, outer and even town walls – not just relying on one
set of walls.
Hmmm Edward also said he wanted the newest
designs. Well here’s one we could use – I have
designed a new set of arrow loops for the best use of
crossbows. I hope he likes them because they will be
expensive and tricky to build. However, with these the
rebellious Welsh won’t stand a chance!
Helpful Picture 9
Helpful Picture 10
So, this is Edward’s chosen site for
the castle. Hmmm he seems a wise
King. He has chosen a site next to
the sea so that supplies can get
through in a siege, and he has
chosen a rocky piece of land which
will make the castle difficult to
undermine.
So now I need to get designing.
Remember we need pictures, a plan, labelled or explained
diagrams. We also need to tell him how many workers he
will need and how much it is all likely to cost. I think that
about £27,000 in Edward’s gold will be enough with 3000
workers. That would be about £70 million in 21st century
money; but let’s see if we can impress him.
Messages from the History Department…
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Use all of the helpful pictures to design your castle.
In the 1200s there were NO guns or cannon in England.
Especially use picture 10 for your plan.
You can and should do some research of your own to make your design
excellent.
 You should produce all of your designs on A3 paper.
 Make sure you label features and parts of your castle, and maybe even write a
note to Edward to explain the design you have created.
Enjoy!
Task 3 – Attack or Defend a 13th Century Castle.(1 ½ to 2 hours)
For this task you will play the part of a 13th Century knight/lord. This is YOU…
Sorry girls, it’s another man isn’t it. Don’t forget that
medieval society was very sexist. There were cases of female
knights but these were very very rare.
Anyway in order to understand medieval life we need to
understand such differences in their society over 700 years
ago.
Your job is to EITHER…
1. Defend a castle
OR
2. Attack a castle
Use Helpful Picture 1 as the castle to defend or attack.
What to do…
1. Decide whether you are attacking or defending a castle.
2. Write a letter to Edward to explain how you attacked or defended the castle – he
might like pictures to help you explain.
3. Do this on A3 paper and a piece of lined paper – maybe stick the lined paper to
the A3 and draw the pictures around it?
4. Make sure you explain to King Edward the weapons and tactics you used and
why you were successful.
5. As a good Christian knight you have no problem killing lots of people as long as
you can buy back a place in heaven – in your letter to Edward tell him whether
you are going to build a church, school or hospital to thank God for your success
and honour Edward’s name. (Yes medieval knights really did this!)
You can use the next page to make notes for this task.
The following pages also have some more HELPFUL PICTURES to help you with the
task.
Notes for Task 3
Helpful Picture 11
You could use this picture to show Edward how you successfully attacked (besieged) a
castle. By the way the 40 fat pigs were used – no I’m not going to tell you how – see if
you can find out for extra House Points!
Helpful Picture 12
You could use this
picture to help you
to explain to Edward
how you successfully
defended a Castle.
Helpful Picture 13
You could use this picture to help explain
your siege and describe the kinds of
“engines” or weapons they used in the
13th century to attack castles.
Sometimes ballistas were also used in
castles to defend them in a siege.
Helpful Picture 14
This is a picture of a TREBUCHET.
Trebuchets were developed as a way of
attacking castles, but could also be placed
on castle towers to defend them.
Why do you think this trebuchet is being
used to throw a dead horse into a castle?
Helpful picture 15
This shows a siege
tactic called
UNDER
MINING.
The attackers are
trying to dig under
the walls to make
them collapse.
Notice the knights
in the siege tower
on the right, and
the type of
technology they
were using – ropes,
wood, some metal.
Remember you are
supposed to be in
the 13th century so
do stick to the tech
they used.
Self Evaluation of my Homework
I am a R____________________ learner.
I know this because:
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I believe that my effort and attitude to learning for this booklet is a:
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I know this because:
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