The motte-and-bailey castle

The earliest distinctive European fortification characteristic of feudal patterns of social organization and warfare was the motte-and-bailey castle, which appeared in the 10th and 11th centuries between the Rhine and Loire rivers and eventually spread to most of western Europe. The motte-and-bailey castle consisted of an elevated mound of earth, called the motte, which was crowned with a timber palisade and surrounded by a defensive ditch that also separated the motte from a palisaded outer compound, called the bailey. Access to the motte was by means of an elevated bridge across the ditch from the bailey. The earliest motte-and-bailey castles were built where the ground was suitable and timber available, these factors apparently taking precedence over considerations such as proximity to arable land or trade routes. Later on, as feudal social and economic relationships became more entrenched, castles were sited more for economic, tactical, and strategic advantage and were built of imported stone. The timber palisade was replaced with a keep, or donjon, of dressed stone, and the entire enclosure, called the enceinte, was surrounded by a wall.

The motte-and-bailey castle was not the only pattern of European fortification. There was, for example, a tradition of fortified towns, stemming from Roman fortification, that enjoyed a tenuous existence throughout the Dark Ages, particularly in the Mediterranean world.

Stone fortifications

The greatest weakness of timber fortifications was vulnerability to fire; in addition, a determined attacker, given enough archers to achieve fire dominance over the palisade, could quickly chop his way in. A stone curtain wall, on the other hand, had none of these deficiencies. It could be made high enough to frustrate improvised escalade and, unlike a wooden palisade, could be fitted with a parapet and crenellated firing positions along the top to give cover to defending archers and crossbowmen. Stone required little maintenance or upkeep, and it suffered by comparison with timber only in the high capital investment required to build with it.

Given walls high enough to defeat casual escalade, the prime threats to stone fortresses were the battering ram and attempts to pry chunks out of the wall or undermine it. Since these tactics benefited from an unprotected footing at the base of the wall, most of the refinements of medieval fortress architecture were intended to deny an undisturbed approach. Where terrain permitted, a moat was dug around the enceinte. Towers were made with massive, protruding feet to frustrate attempts at mining. Protruding towers also enabled defenders to bring flanking fire along the face and foot of the wall, and the towers were made higher than the wall to give additional range to archers and crossbowmen. The walls themselves were fitted with provisions for hoardings, which were overhanging wooden galleries from which arrows, stones, and unpleasant substances such as boiling tar and pitch could be dropped or poured on an attacker. Hoardings gave way to machicolations, permanent overhanging galleries of stone that became a distinctive feature of medieval European fortress architecture.

Castle entrances, which were few and small to begin with, were protected by barbicans, low-lying outworks dominated by the walls and towers behind. Gates were generally deeply recessed and backed by a portcullis, a latticework grate suspended in a slot that could be dropped quickly to prevent surprise entry. The gate could also be sealed by means of a drawbridge. These measures were sufficiently effective that medieval sieges were settled more often by treachery, starvation, or disease than by breached walls and undermined towers.

The trebuchet

In general, the mechanical artillery of medieval times was inferior to that of the classical world. The one exception was the trebuchet, an engine worked by counterpoise. Counterpoise engines appeared in the 12th century and largely replaced torsion engines by the middle of the 13th. The trebuchet worked something like a seesaw. Suspended from an elevated wooden frame, the arm of the trebuchet pivoted from a point about one-quarter of the way down its length. A large weight, or counterpoise, was suspended from the short end, and the long end was fitted with a hollowed-out spoonlike cavity or a sling. (A sling added substantially to the trebuchet’s range.) The long end was winched down, raising the counterpoise; a stone or other missile was put into the spoon or sling, and the arm was released to fly upward, hurling the missile in a high, looping arc toward its target. Though almost anything could be thrown, spherical projectiles of cut stone were the preferred ammunition.

Trebuchets might have a fixed counterpoise, a pivoted counterpoise, or a counterpoise that could be slid up and down the arm to adjust for range. Ropes were frequently attached to the counterpoise to be pulled on for extra power. Modern experiments suggest that a trebuchet with an arm about 50 feet (15 meters) long would have been capable of throwing a 300-pound (135-kilogram) stone to a distance of 300 yards (275 meters); such a trebuchet would have had a counterpoise of about 10 tons. Though the rate of fire was slow, and prodigious quantities of timber and labour were required to build and serve one, a large trebuchet could do serious damage to stone fortifications. The machines were apparently quite accurate, and small trebuchets were useful in sweeping parapets of archers and crossbowmen.

Greek fire

Greek fire was a weapon that had a decisive tactical and strategic impact in the defense of the Byzantine Empire. It was first used in 673, against the Arabs at the siege of Constantinople. It was viscous and burned fiercely, even in water. Sand and—according to legend—urine were the only effective means of extinguishing the flames. It was expelled by a pumplike device similar to a 19th-century hand-pumped fire engine, and it may also have been thrown from catapults in breakable containers. Although the exact ingredients of Greek fire were a Byzantine state secret, other powers eventually developed and used similar compositions. The original formula was lost and remains unknown.

Greek fire was particularly effective in naval combat, and it constituted one of the few incendiary weapons of warfare afloat that were used effectively without backfiring on their users. It may have been used following the sack of Constantinople by Venetian-supported Crusaders in 1204, but it probably disappeared from use after the fall of Constantinople to the Turks in 1453.