[Illustration: PIERREFONDS A castle near Paris built about 1400 A.D. by a brother of the king of France. It was dismantled in 1632 A.D., but was carefully restored in the nineteenth century by order of Napoleon III. The exterior faithfully reproduces the appearance of a medieval fortress.]
THE CASTLE AS A FORTRESS
Defense formed the primary purpose of the castle. Until the introduction of gunpowder and cannon, the only siege engines employed were those known in ancient times. They included machines for hurling heavy stones and iron bolts, battering rams, and movable towers, from which the besiegers crossed over to the walls. Such engines could best be used on firm, level ground. Consequently, a castle would often be erected on a high cliff or hill, or on an island, or in the center of a swamp. A castle without such natural defenses would be surrounded by a deep ditch (the "moat"), usually filled with water. If the besiegers could not batter down or undermine the massive walls, they adopted the slower method of a blockade and tried to starve the garrison into surrendering. But ordinarily a well-built, well- provisioned castle was impregnable. Behind its frowning battlements even a petty lord could defy a royal army.
[Illustration: CHÂTEAU GAILLARD (RESTORED) The finest of all medieval castles. Located on a high hill overlooking the Seine about twenty miles from Rouen. Built by Richard the Lion hearted within a twelvemonth (1197-1198 AD) and by him called Saucy Castle. It was captured a few years later by the French king Philip Augustus and was dismantled early in the seventeenth century. The castle consisted of three distinct series of fortifications, besides the keep which in this case was merely a strong tower.]
A CASTLE DESCRIBED
A visitor to a medieval castle crossed the drawbridge over the moat and approached the narrow doorway, which was protected by a tower on each side. If he was admitted, the iron grating ("portcullis") rose slowly on its creaking pulleys, the heavy, wooden doors swung open, and he found himself in the courtyard commanded by the great central tower ("keep"), where the lord and his family lived, especially in time of war. At the summit of the keep rose a platform whence the sentinel surveyed the country far and wide; below, two stories underground, lay the prison, dark, damp, and dirty. As the visitor walked about the court-yard, he came upon the hall, used as the lord's residence in time of peace, the armory, the chapel, the kitchens, and the stables. A spacious castle might contain, in fact, all the buildings necessary for the support of the lord's servants and soldiers.
[Illustration: KING AND JESTER
From a manuscript of the early fifteenth century.]
THE CASTLE AS A RESIDENCE
The medieval castle formed a good fortress, but a poor home. Its small rooms, lighted only by narrow windows, heated only by fireplaces, badly ventilated, and provided with little furniture, must have been indeed cheerless. Toward the close of the feudal period, when life became more luxurious, the castle began to look less like a dungeon. Windows were widened and provided with panes of painted glass, walls were hung with costly tapestries, and floors were covered with thick Oriental rugs. The nobles became attached to their castle homes and often took their names from those of their estates.