Concentric Castles

The greatest period in castle development occurred during the last days of the thirteenth century and the beginning of the fourteenth with the advancement of the concentric castle in Europe. The castles origins follows the crusaders back to the distant lands of Syria and consisted of a number of circuit walls and towers, usually quadrangular in plan, surrounded by another lower wall with its own flanking towers. The area between these two walls, usually only a few tens of feet apart, was divided by a number of short cross walls that segmented the tight inner courtyard; thus, if any force penetrated the first wall, they would be confined to a small specific area and immediately confronted with a like secondary defensive wall. The area in the confined space became known as the killing ground, since almost all of the initial troops into this small area were decimated by archers and falling stones from the second wall.

By the end of the fourteenth century castles were so strongly defended, that attacking them was nearly out of the question. The only option open then, was a long and drawn out siege where machines of war sat idle until famine and pestilence killed all within the massive stone walls.

Thus, the castle slowly faded from the focal point of war and lost its well known role as the defender of peasants and the gentry.