Introduction to castles, Детальна інформація

|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, |