King Edward I of England made a number of military campaigns during his reign, in two of which he captured modern-day Wales. In order to hold his gains he built a series of castles, which are said to still be some of the world’s greatest strongholds. But, over 3500 kilometres away a period of fascinating castle building took place prior to Edward’s as a result of the crusades. These constructions were designed by absorbing the constructive wisdom of the crusaders and those they came into contact with. The crusader castles were built faster, larger, and stronger, to create what are without a doubt, the world’s greatest strongholds. The crusaders designed their castles to provide the essentials needed for survival while developing design techniques capable of turning a castle into a stronghold that were mimicked throughout the medieval world. Once their castles were designed the crusaders displayed a construction ability and ingenuity that turned the designs into reality, taking any material they could obtain and use it to create anything they needed. So successful was their construction that attacking forces of incredibly larger numbers were needed to capture only a select few of the castles over a hundred year period, and often the circumstances of capture were not a fault of design but an unfortunate twist of fate. Through design, construction, and history, a picture emerges of a pioneering period of military construction that was never matched.
The design of a castle is most certainly the greatest factor in its defensive capabilities, and many of the innovations credited to the development of the castle finds itself in the history of the crusades. The most significant development is the concentric castle; this is the concept in which the inner walls are able to fire over the outer walls, either because of close proximity or size. In this manner the maximum amount of firepower can be directed at any one point. Belvoir (See Fig. 1 in appendix) is not only a perfect concentric castle but is also the first datable one (circa 1168).
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The outer wall was built with flanking towers and towers enforcing the centre of each wall span, with the exception of the gatehouse wall. This wall encloses an area of 130 x 100 meters1, making it one of the largest enclosure castles, it also encloses two further walls, the first of which has only one tower because of its close proximity to the outer wall, the inner wall is built with flanking towers to support the middle bailey. A most effective passive defence design noted by Saladin “The walls built of stone and clay offered perfect protection to those behind it so that no one could appear at the entrance of his tent without putting on his armour.”2 Beaumaris, although concentric, failed to utilise the obvious advantages that came with ignoring complete symmetry in design. Belvoir’s gatehouse was designed so that the intruder must first navigate a barbican to enter the gatehouse itself. Then they are forced to enter a second barbican overlooked by a flanking tower before finally entering the castle. Beaumaris (See Fig. 2 in appendix) was designed with a gatehouse unfortunately inferior to that of Belvoir in the attempt to create the ultimate concentric castle. In the process of designing Beaumaris James of St.
George choose to break away from lessons previously learned. Beaumaris makes up for the lack in strength with both the outer curtain and the powerful inner curtain, which could have easily proved to be the most powerful castle of its time were it finished. Beaumaris was never completed because its massive costs even after 35 years of construction it was never finished, as James of St. George wrote:In case you should wonder where so much money could go in a week, we would have you know that we have needed – 400 masons, both cutters and layers, together with 2000 less skilled workmen, 100 carts, 60 wagons and 30 boats bringing stone and sea coal; 200 quarrymen; 30 smiths; and carpenters for putting in the joists and floor boards and other necessary jobs. All this takes no account of the garrison mentioned above, nor of the purchase of material, of which there will have to be a great quantity… The men’s pay has been and still is very much in arrears, and we are having the greatest difficulty in keeping them because they simply have nothing to live on.31 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.2 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.3 Thomas L.
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Jeffery. The Castles of Wales. 1995-2002. 1 October 2002 www.castlewales.com/home.html. Belvoir was finished between 1168 and 1188 by a significantly smaller workforce, with a smaller resource pool. A further concept credited to the crusaders can be found in Giblet, Chastek Rouge, Burj al –Arab, Castrum Rubrum and many other noble donjons built in the Holy Land, which although seemingly simple, this active form of defence can save a garrison from defeat. These smaller castles consisted of a donjon with a curtain wall and on some occasions flanking towers. The design was arranged so that their curtain wall or any other portion of the castle could not be used for siege machines against the donjon, were the donjon still in the defenders hands. The arrangement of inner and outer baileys at Conway and Caernarfon although effective for administering to a province, were ideal for use against one another in the event of an attack. From the smallest detail to the largest concept some of the most important parts of a castle design originate in the Holy Land, and although built earlier, display a greater understanding of passive and active design techniques than those of the “iron ring”4 (See Fig. 3 in appendix) built in Wales.
The construction of a castle is what can make the design a truly effective stronghold, building to the landscape; building to the materials available and building for strength can achieve this simple goal. To prevent mining from being an effective siege weapon, the crusaders took columns from nearby temples and placed them horizontally in the wall at Giblet. There is evidence of this also occurring elsewhere such as at Sidon, although seemingly superfluous because the castle is surrounded by shallow water. This practise increases the horizontal strength of a castle to the extent that mining will be ineffective, thus thwarting the greatest threat to castle security. It was their ability to identify the column’s potential allowed this practise to take place, 4 Thomas L. Jeffery. The Castles of Wales. 1995-2002. 1 October 2002 www.castlewales.com/home.html.along with their extensive and varied work with many different types of stone. They are credited with working with Basalt at Belvoir, Arima and Margat, volcanic stone at Kerak, limestone at Belvoir, Bourzney and Crac de Chavalier), ashlar at Giblet, Chastel Rouge, Bourge al-Arab and Crac de Chavalier along with many more, which cannot be covered at this time.
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Their skill with the various forms of stone enabled them to build in any setting regardless of the materials available.Their abilities did not cease with masonry but continued to include the mutation of the land itself. At Saone (See Fig. 5 in appendix) for example, the crusaders dug a 90-foot deep trench 450 feet long and over 60 feet wide5. This defence provided an interesting opportunity to the crusaders, a supply of stone from the castle site itself thus the trench served as a quarry. This separated the castle from the town, the donjon, which has been labelled as the greatest twelfth century donjon in existence. Its walls and towers along this same edge of the castle were also built nestled on the edge of the drop as to appear part of the cliff. No evidence of such a design relationship between the castle structure and foundation exists in Wales, it appears James of St. George did not see the advantage of such construction and choose to leave the rock faces under his castles uncut. This is odd because of the obvious hiding places provided by the uncut rock faces that can be used against the castle. The crusaders never allowed such unfinished work, knowing that the resourceful Muslims would no doubt find and use the weakness.
The Franks built Saone with a level of masonry rarely matched (they cut their blocks to have bossed centres and draft margins) in the Holy Land and circa 1132 by Robert the Leprous or his son William, why these two nobles saw it necessary to make such a finish is unknown but it only aided the castle during times of siege. Without the opportunities that Saone’s landscape offered, Crusaders sufficed in Crac de 5 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.Chavalier and Kerak by building large glacis’ which prevent any battering rams or siege machines from coming close to the walls, it also prevented direct mining (See Fig. 4 in appendix) of the walls. The glacis’ of these two castles (and actually all of the inner wall and much of the rest of the building) are built with bricks, which are smooth without any rough surfaces and cut so well that the mortar is almost invisible, preventing any attackers from scaling the defences. The crusaders built their castles to accent the surrounding landscape, and adapted to their material supplies, and changed the landscape itself to create a stronger, more defensible position. Although James of St. George had an eye for defensive positions, he did not improve them with the same thoroughness that marked the work of the crusaders.
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History is a constantly moving canvas upon which the ultimate tests take place, the Holy Land saw some of the most violent fighting in which the effectiveness of the castles built by the crusaders is made obvious. Siege techniques in western Europe were not as effective nor as well understood as in the Holy Land, the Muslims became extremely adept at siege warfare under Saladin and Baybars yet still many castles either didn’t fall or took an entire season of campaigning to capture. The general idea to effectively siege a castle was to starve or blockade it until surrender was the only option, but these castles were designed to hold enough food. Kerak when besieged by Saladin held enough food but not enough arms, a strange turn of events in the medieval ages. Margat on the other hand had supplies enough for a five-year siege. In 1269 after the garrison of Gastun retreated from the castle the Muslims “found no-one in it except for one old woman but the place was discovered to be full of grain, provisions and everything else which is stored in such forts”6. At Belvoir Saladin attempted to starve the garrison -a mere 500- but so well supplied were they that he retreated from July 1187 to March 1188.
His retreat was 6 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001. encouraged by the many sallies that the garrison made against the besiegers through one of the four posterns at the bottom of the moat during the night. Again he abandoned the siege in May of 1188, as he was having no luck against Belvoir’s excellent design features, such as a complete kitchen, hall, refectory, workshop, stables and an Arab-style bath. As an observer noticed was a point not lost on the great leader himself: “He saw that it would be necessary to employ a great number of troops to reduce this place, for it was very strong, most amply provisioned and garrisoned by determined men whom, so far, the war had spared.”7 Saladin returned the next winter, and after unsuccessful missile attacks and storming he finally succeeded by mining. Although the garrison could have retreated behind the second curtain wall, the prospect of relief was non-existent. In fact no relief would arrive until Richard I’s crusade in 1190, and as a result the garrison choose to surrender. The design brilliance of the crusaders was once again proven by the multiple sieges that the castle endured within such a short period.Saladin choose not to attack Crac de Chavalier as it appeared to be too strong and choose to move on to Tortosa and Margat where he achieved nothing more.
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At Tortosa, in 1188 Saladin captured the town surrounding the castle but could not capture the donjon, he destroyed the entire town as a result. The Welsh castle of Flint was captured in 1282 by Llywelyn during a revolt, even then no large-scale siege took place during the course of the capture. In fact most of the castles built by Edward I never were attacked, because the Welsh depended on quick attacks from the mountains and did not believe in long sieges. Although in 1405, to the dismay of Henry IV, Owen of Glendower captured Harlech and held it as his capital for a further three years. Actually, the majority of the action the Welsh fortresses saw took place during many of the wars English nobles fought over the crown; the castles built by Edward I for the English were usedagainst them by the English. It can now be easily concluded that the actual defensive worth of 7 Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.the castles in Wales were never up to par with those of the crusaders, under the constant attack by Saladin and Baybars, along with countless other leaders that seemed to live only to send the Muslim armies against the strong walls of the crusaders castles.
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The measure of a castles success must be taken with its history, design, origin and construction. The castles built by the crusaders (See Fig. 6 in appendix) were designed to use their surrounding environment to the fullest, while blending previous experiences to create effective defensive structures. The construction of the castles took place in incredible short periods of time, while showing a great level of adaptation to the materials available while not affecting the quality of the finished product. Then tested again and again, the value of these castles have been proven by the likes of Saladin and Baybars. When evaluating the castles built by Edward I in Wales, we may see the design innovations of the crusaders, but without the construction ingenuity of the crusaders, or the historical proof to their success. Which are the reasons the world’s greatest strongholds cannot be found in Wales, but in what was at one time called the Holy Land.
Glossary
Active Defence – This title is given to any design feature or actions that will completely prevent an attacker from effectively giving siege a to castle.
Bailey – The term bailey actually originates from the outer ring of wooden fortifications in a motte and bailey castle. These castles first built by the Normans, were temporary (and some pre-assembled in Normandy) strongholds soon to be replaced by the famous stone donjons. The stone curtains walls then took up the title of bailey but over time they were simply called curtain walls and the area enclosed by the wall was then referred to as the bailey.
Barbican – This is an area in the castle, which will isolate an attacker within the fortifications without actually entering the castle. An example of this would be a walled in passageway between two gatehouses. This will allow the defenders to continue assailing the attackers even after the attackers have broken through the first gatehouse.
Concentric Castle – A form of castle capable of concentrating fire on a specific spot, giving rise to the name. It functions through either overlapping walls or symmetrical design. The overlapping walls prevent the outer walls from use as weapons against the inner walls because of the increase in thickness or height, and the closeness they were built.
Curtain Wall – A wall that surrounds or forms an enclosure around an area within the castle. An example of this is the wall that would surround a bailey that could also create a circuit around an inner curtain wall.
Dead Ground – This is the area under which an attacker could be sheltered from assault originating from the curtain wall because of the corners of the towers. To solve this round towers emerged, these towers also had the advantage of being difficult to mine. Unfortunately round towers also had disadvantages, such as the difficulty to mount siege weapons on the roof, difficult living quarters, being round in shape. It was also difficult and timely to build, all of these being extremely important in crusader times, giving rise to the long period of time before the crusaders choose to accept the round tower.
Donjon – Also called a keep, this structure is in reality a great tower, but designed to become self-supporting in times of siege. They varied greatly in design and appearance, in the Holy Lands they were squatter than in Western Europe; in both regions they could appear in octagonal form, pentagonal, circular or rectangular fashion. Eventually as the prospect of living in a stone box became less appealing to nobles the donjon was ousted in favour of tower houses, and so the great towers became used as prisons because of their obvious strength. Soon the jails were moved down into the lower confines of the keeps and took the name of dungeon.
Flanking Towers – Towers built at the corners of lengths of walls to provide fire at the base of the walls and prevent the weakest part of the wall from being exposed. This portion would be the corner, which is naturally weak because of the joint in the masonry. By adding the towers the weak portions of the wall are removed and the amount of dead ground reduced.
Garrison – This is the force assigned to defend, administer or maintain a castle. This is usually the force also responsible for keeping the castle under their control throughout a siege, therefore being the besieged body as was illustrated with the Belvoir example.
Glacis – This is an angled face that finishes the base to a castle. It can be either a smooth surface cut from a cliff, or a piece of Masonic work that finishes of a rough cliff. The purpose of these is to prevent an enemy from bringing any siege machinery or mines up to the castle wall; or make ascending the face extremely difficult. It also served a secondary purpose, which was to deflect any waste or debris – either in an aggressive fashion or not – out away from the wall and toward an enemy.
“iron ring”4 – The ring of castles built for Edward I by James of St. George, a Swiss castle designer with structures to his credit all over western Europe. The ring encloses lowland Wales, while creating a barrier against attacks from the mountains by Welsh separatists.
Keep – See Donjon.
Mining – The process of tunnelling under a wall either to prevent an attacker from shifting or destroying a portion of wall. This is done by digging under the wall in question and supporting the roof with timbers until the tunnel length desired is reached. At which point the tunnel is filled with combustibles and lit on fire. This will ideally dry the mortar of the wall above to the brittle point and eventually cave the tunnel. When the tunnel caves in a portion of the wall remains without support and will thus either follow the tunnel roof down or sag under its own weight making it vulnerable to projectile fire.
Passive Defence – This is the title given to any design features or actions that will hinder or stunt an attacker’s ability to effectively siege a castle.
Bibliography
Warner, Philip. Sieges of the Middle Ages. Edinburgh: R. & R. Clark LTD., 1968 Thomas L. Jeffery. The Castles of Wales. 1995-2002. 1 October 2002 www.castlewales.com/home.html.
Microsoft Encarta Encyclopaedia. Microsoft Corporation 2001.
Hugh, Kennedy. Crusader Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Cairns, Conrad. Medieval Castles. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
Oggins, Robin S.. Castles and Fortresses. New York: Michael Freidman Publishing, 1994.
Gravett, Christopher. The History of Castles. Italy: Lyons Press, 2001
