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Forum:	School Projects
Topic:	Castle Size and Capacity

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Amy Dolan I need to know the approximate size and living capacity of Medieval Castles. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Glaive203 The subject is too broad-there were just too many different types of castles in different times and countries.Starting with the earliest stone castles as examples,the french developed donjons(our dungeons,miscalled "keeps") from their fortified halls,which only gradually took the form of "great towers".These early dungeons had wooden floors supported on wooden beams and were limited in breath by the maximum size of oak beams(about 60 feet),when early medieval masons wanted a breath greater than this they had to build a wall across the middle of a dungeon-so the largest "keeps" would have had interior breath of around 120' by 180',such a dungeon would have at least two more floors,besides the ground floor(which was more like our basements).These early dungeons were slowly rivaled by polygonal and round dungeons some of which had stone floors and finally by true Gothic dungeons like coucy which were all stone and had not massive walls like the earliest dungeons,nor massive walls propped up with buttresses;but walls built like gothic cathedrals with interior aches supporting the wall.Most castles built on the dungeon principle could comfortable house only a couple of hundred people,while coucy(Which had the largest dungeon ever built) could house a thousand in the dungeon,had 4 other towers nearly as large and interior buildings built all along it's courtyard.In contrast to france the holy Romans(germans and north italians) built keepless castles right from the start based on the "enclosure principle" rather than on the Dungeon principle of france.Basicly early german castles consisted of a walled courtyard containing a hall in which they lived in,a bergfried(or watch tower) and a shildmauer which is hard to describe,being something between a non-residential gatehouse and a very fortified wall section which was the main defense and entrance to their castles. These two types of castles influenced each other throughout the middle ages.
Merlin As Glaive203 showed in his long statement, there can't be given any approximate size of a medieval castle. The largest provided place for a king's entourage, whereas the most common didn't much differ from a peasants home (except for the fortifications). Such a small castle had living capacity only for a nobleman's family (often including 3 generations with closest relatives and a few maids and manservants) and his animals (cows, horses, sheep and always some dogs for hunting).
Merlin
wurdsmiff Agreed, try Philip's collection of plans to get an idea of how layouts and size varied, and this is only in England!! http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/Plans/intro.html

------------------
Demeure par la verite
Visit my web-site at
www.castlesontheweb.com/members/wurdsmiff/castles.htm
Gordon.
[This message has been edited by wurdsmiff (edited 10-30-2000).]

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T O P I C R E V I E W
Amy Dolan	I need to know the approximate size and living capacity of Medieval Castles. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Glaive203	The subject is too broad-there were just too many different types of castles in different times and countries.Starting with the earliest stone castles as examples,the french developed donjons(our dungeons,miscalled "keeps") from their fortified halls,which only gradually took the form of "great towers".These early dungeons had wooden floors supported on wooden beams and were limited in breath by the maximum size of oak beams(about 60 feet),when early medieval masons wanted a breath greater than this they had to build a wall across the middle of a dungeon-so the largest "keeps" would have had interior breath of around 120' by 180',such a dungeon would have at least two more floors,besides the ground floor(which was more like our basements).These early dungeons were slowly rivaled by polygonal and round dungeons some of which had stone floors and finally by true Gothic dungeons like coucy which were all stone and had not massive walls like the earliest dungeons,nor massive walls propped up with buttresses;but walls built like gothic cathedrals with interior aches supporting the wall.Most castles built on the dungeon principle could comfortable house only a couple of hundred people,while coucy(Which had the largest dungeon ever built) could house a thousand in the dungeon,had 4 other towers nearly as large and interior buildings built all along it's courtyard.In contrast to france the holy Romans(germans and north italians) built keepless castles right from the start based on the "enclosure principle" rather than on the Dungeon principle of france.Basicly early german castles consisted of a walled courtyard containing a hall in which they lived in,a bergfried(or watch tower) and a shildmauer which is hard to describe,being something between a non-residential gatehouse and a very fortified wall section which was the main defense and entrance to their castles. These two types of castles influenced each other throughout the middle ages.
Merlin	As Glaive203 showed in his long statement, there can't be given any approximate size of a medieval castle. The largest provided place for a king's entourage, whereas the most common didn't much differ from a peasants home (except for the fortifications). Such a small castle had living capacity only for a nobleman's family (often including 3 generations with closest relatives and a few maids and manservants) and his animals (cows, horses, sheep and always some dogs for hunting). Merlin
wurdsmiff	Agreed, try Philip's collection of plans to get an idea of how layouts and size varied, and this is only in England!! http://www.castlesontheweb.com/members/philipdavis/Plans/intro.html ------------------ Demeure par la verite Visit my web-site at www.castlesontheweb.com/members/wurdsmiff/castles.htm Gordon. [This message has been edited by wurdsmiff (edited 10-30-2000).]