Human Heritage: A World History

Chapter 24: Feudal Society

Web Activity Lesson Plans

“Building Castles”

Introduction
Students have read about the characteristics of feudal societies and the reasons that nobles built castles during the Middle Ages. In this exercise, students will research castle building materials and methods to develop an understanding of the challenges nobles faced in creating their fortresses.

Lesson Description
Students will use information from the Castles of Britain Web site to learn how castles were built. Students will browse the "About Castles" topic to discover the ways that castles were useful to nobles. In the "Building a Castle" topic, students will discover the structural characteristics that made a castle able to withstand battle. Students will read about the reasons that people abandoned castles in the "Decline of the Castle" topic. Students will then answer four questions and apply this information by designing a building plan of their own castle. They may use the "Ground Plans" topic for ideas.

Instruction Objectives

1. Students will be able to explain the characteristics of castles and which features made them a good source of defense for the nobles who built them.
2. Students will be able to use this knowledge to design a building plan of a castle.

Student Web Activity Answers

1. To withstand battles, castles were built with walls 8–20 feet thick. Rounded towers deflected the damage of cannon balls and other missiles. Curtain walls, which surrounded castles, provided protection and the ability to watch for invaders. The gatehouse to the curtain wall permitted entrance to the castle but also had strategic qualities. Iron grates, heavy wooden doors, arrow slits, and murder holes helped to make gatehouses more secure. Moats and drawbridges added to some castles' security. Finally, castles were usually built on top of a hill so that guards could see into the distance and so that it would be difficult for the enemy to carry heavy weapons up the hill to invade.
2. It was difficult and expensive to get stone and timber, in the quantities needed, to the castle site. Lead, iron, and tin were expensive building materials that had to be mined in Wales. Since castle building required skilled craftspeople, labor costs were enormous. Additionally, building could only occur between April and November, and even then the builders were completely at the mercy of the weather.
3. Nobility built castles for several reasons. First and foremost, castles were built to remind subjects of the nobility's wealth and power and to ensure control of the kingdom. Nobility also used the castles as a reward to their most loyal subjects, knights, or barons.
4. By the 15th century, there was less emphasis on defense of British properties. People began to build living quarters that were designed for greater comfort. Firearms, cannons, and gunfire all took their toll on castles in wartime. But the greatest reason that castles decayed was that they were no longer inhabited, and townspeople and time dismantled them.
5. Students' drawings will vary.