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fourthgrader Member |
posted 12-29-1999 11:13 AM
  
Who invented castle building and when? I'm nine years old. |
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Philip Davis unregistered |
posted 12-29-1999 12:57 PM
No one can be said to have invented the castle. The idea of putting a wall around your home to protect it from enemies is obvious and very ancient. People have been doing it for thousands of years. The answer to this question depends very much on what you mean by castle. The earliest known stone walls and tower are from Jericho and date back 10,000 years. These are substantial walls 3m thick. These fortifications protected the new stone age town. The standard definition of castle, though, is the fortified residence of a feudal lord. Feudalism is the ownership of land for military service. This started in Mainland Europe in the 9th century as a response to the invasion of Europe by Vikings (known as Northmen or Normans in France), Arabs and Huns and to the breakdown of a strong central state with an army. Early earthwork castles date from this period. These early earthworks were a simple bank of earth with a wooden fence, they were surrounded by a ditch which might (or might not) have water in it. These were not strong fortifications and some writers do not consider them castles. For these writers the presence of at least one tower is the deciding factor for a true castle. The true castle, with a tower of some sort, dates to the end of the tenth century. Often the tower was a earth mound, known as a motte, with a wooden watch tower but stone towers were also built. The earliest stone castle is debatable but Langéais, in France, is still mainly standing as it approaches its 1000th birthday in the next few years, and Doué-la-Fontaine, also in France, is probable over a thousand years old. One of my favourite books - Castles of the British Isles by Plantagent Somerset Fry (ISBN 0 7153 9895 4) has a very good chapter on the development of castles. This is quite a serious book with some difficult words to understand but most children's books seem to miss the development of the castle out. See if you can borrow a couple from a library. ------------------ |
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