Location: Warwick Country

Warwick Castle was founded in 1068 and was rebuilt and updated a number of times. Today it combines castle ruins, largely of the fourteenth century with one of the finest great houses in England. Two small projecting towers, which date to the late fifteenth century are said to have built as artillery platforms. Warwick Castle rises like a precipice above the River Avon. On this natural cliff William I founded a motte castle in 1068, on lands seized from a nearby Saxon convent. A wooden tower built on the motte was evidently still there in the reign of Henry II, by which time a polygonal shell enclosure had been raised round the motte top. Only fragments of the shell enclosure now remain, incorporated in the rebuilt shell, which is of much later date.

Late in the fourteenth century, by which time some additional buildings such as the great hall and residential blocks had been put up in the bailey, the castle passed to Earl Beauchamp who initiated a fresh programme of works. These were substantially what can be seen today. They included restructuring the great hall and a range of other buildings on the south-east, a water-gate, and on the west front a high and stout defensive curtain leading from a gatehouse to a very tall polygonal tower, known as Guy's Tower, which is 39.4 metres tall. The gatehouse is a remarkable building: a pair of towers above the doorway passage, which had portcullises and murder-holes. Projecting from the east side of the gatehouse is a tall rectangular building leading to another tower.

This latter tower is 45.2 meters tall and capped by a two-fold system of battlements with machicolation all round below the battlements. It is called Caesar's Tower. The three main storeys in the tower are each vaulted, and have stone fireplaces.

The castle is completed by curtain walling and further, much smaller, flanking towers. The wall at the west leads up the motte to the restored shell enclosure and down again southwards to the south range. The whole is thus a powerfully defended enclosure

Leeds Castle

Location: Kent

Leeds Castle, acclaimed as the most romantic castle in England, is located in south-east England, built on two adjacent island in the river Len.

Leeds Castle was originally a manor of the Saxon royal family possibly as early as the reign of Ethelbert IV ( 856-860). The first castle was an earthwork enclosure whose wooden palisade was converted to stone and provided with two towers along the perimeter. This is now vanished. Traces of arches in a vault thought to be Norman were found at the beginning of this century.

Around 1119 Robert Crevecoeur started to build a stone castle on the site, establishing his donjon where the Gloriette now is. Stephen, Count of Blois, and his cousin the Empress Matilda contested the crown of England. In 1139 Matilda invaded England with the help of his brother Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who held Leeds castle, but Kent was loyal to king Stephen and following a short siege he took control of the castle.

The castle came into the possession of Edward I (1278) . He rebuilt much of the castle as it stood at the beginning of his reign, and enlarged it, providing an outer stone curtain round the edge of the larger island, with cylindrical open-backed flanking towers and a square-plan water-gate on the south-east. The gatehouse at the south-west, a single tower pierced by an arched passage was improved. Later on, King Edward, the Confessor granted the manor to the powerful house of Godwin.

Henry VIII, the most famous of all the owners of Leeds Castles, expended large sums in enlarging and beautifying the whole range of

buildings. At the same time, he carefully retained the defenses of the castle for he often had cause to fear invasion from either France or the Spanish . The king entrusted the work of alteration to his great friend Sir Henry Guidford.

Leeds has been constantly inhabited and rebuilt since then. Most of the castle today is the result of the nineteenth-century reconstruction and addition. In 1926 Leeds was bought by the Hon. Mrs. Wilson-Filmer, known as Lady Baillie. Immediately she began the restoration of the castle that took her over 30 years to leave it as it stands today.

MEDIEVAL SIEGE

There are many myths and legends surrounding castle sieges. Knights in shining armor riding up to the castle, doing hand to hand combat. Or maybe hundreds of guards streaming out of the castles to meet their enemy. None of this is true, except in fairy tales and movies.

Most of the time, the attacking force would send a messenger to the lord of the castle and give notice of their intentions to attack. This notice allowed the castle to surrender. Sometimes the lord surrendered, but most often the castle was restocked and made ready for the siege. They would restock themselves with food, supplies and drink, and add men to the garrison.

There were three ways to take a castle. The first is not to attack the castle at all - just avoid the castle altogether and seize the lands around it. The second is direct assault, or laying siege to the castle. The last is besieging.

Here is an account of a siege. Stone throwing mangonels attack the towers and walls every day. The walls of the castles would hopefully be breached, and towers damaged. The enemy erects wooden towers called belfries, taller than the castle towers, to conceal and enable bow men to shoot arrows down into the castle. While this is going on, miners would be tunneling under the walls and towers of the castle in preparation to collapse them.

To counter the mining, anti-mining tunnels could be dug by the castle soldiers, which insured a ferocious hand-to-hand battle underground. Inside the castle, the guards would place a pot of water near the castle towers and walls. When the water rippled, they would know enemy miners were at work underneath them.

The barbican is next assaulted and taken, with a loss of men on both sides. Then the bailey is attacked, and more men killed. Animals and some supplies would be captured. The auxiliary buildings containing hay and grain for the castle are burned. By now, miners have succeeded in collapsing a wall of the castle. The attackers have broken through and seized the inner bailey. More men on both sides would be lost in this phase of the attack.

By this time, the castle defenders would have retreated to the keep. Miners would now be setting fire to the mine tunnel under the keep. The

keep. Smoke and fire are rising into the keep, and cracks appearing in the thick walls. The defenders of the castle are forced to surrender as the castle falls to the enemy.

The third method, called besieging, would require the enemy to wait and starve the castle garrison into surrender. This method was preferred by an attacking side. Some sieges of this type would last from six months to a year. Sometimes, the enemy would hurl dead animals into the castle grounds in hopes of spreading diseases. And, sometimes the lord of the castle would toss dead animals outside his castle, to convince the enemy they had enough supplies to carry on a siege for months.

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