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 The first castle
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Matthew Member |
posted 10-07-2000 08:25 AM
  
I am 9 years old and I am doing a school project on castles and I would like to know the answers to these questions: Which counrtry first started building castles? |
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wurdsmiff unregistered |
posted 10-07-2000 09:07 AM
No one really knows for certain when castles started to appear, many buildings you would not think of as being castles could be called castles by some people. No one really invented castles, they were developed in the same way that houses, and clothes developed. They started somewhere and changed as more were built and needs changed. The first references to buildings called castles appear in Europe in the 9th century, though it was the Normans who started to build what you would call a castle in Britain. Castles began to appear in Britain after the battle of Hastings in 1066 when the Normans from Normandy in France invaded. They started to share out the land and began building castles to defend themselves and to show how strong they were. all castles were built so that the people who were inside could defend themselves. That meant that they were designed so that anyone who tried to get in would either find it very difficult, or get hurt in trying. If that is what you mean by traps then castles were full of things like that. If you mean places where people would go and never get back out or be hurt in trying, then some castles had things like that too. Try clicking on these links to find out more. http://www.personal.psu.edu/faculty/n/x/nxd10/castles.htm http://www.nationalgeographic.com/features/97/castles/enter.html http://www.castlesontheweb.com/quest/Forum9/HTML/000057.html ------------------ Gordon. |
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Merlin Senior Member |
posted 10-11-2000 07:51 AM
An answer to your last question: Not every castle had a to keep a "treasure" like a big pot filled with gold coins. But the castles of the richer lords contained various precious things like pieces of art, expensive robes, etc. In times of war, it was very usual to hide the treasure (gold, silver, coins) somewhere in the ground or embedded in a wall. Archeologists are lucky to find some of them from time to time. Merlin |
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Glaive203 Senior Member |
posted 10-26-2000 05:01 AM
<<<which country invented castles?>>> France if you mean stone ones. <<< Who invented them?>>> No single individual they evolved from fortified halls;but the first lord to use them strategicly was fulk Nerra. <<<Were there many traps in castles>>> Almost none;but there were numerous defensive positions in them. <<< Where did they keep the treasure?>>>Several places:the silver vessels/plate would have been kept on display in his hall when not in use and this would normally be the chief treasure of a castle and could be as large as 1,000-1500 pounds of the stuff in the case of a great lord.Tapestries which could be as valuable as are paintings would also be displayed in his hall,as would the lesser treasures of stained glass windows which were made to be taken with the lord when he travelled.His chapel would also have sacred vessels also made out of silver and would repeat the treasures of the hall on a lesser scale.Finally jewels,bags of coins and what not would be stored in his treasure ark.Normally this was a chest mounted on four long legs and with a curved rather than flat top.There would be three keys to it one held by the lord,one by his steward and the last by his chamberlain.The ark itself would normally be stored i the lord's chamber/solar=a large communal bedroom where the lord,his wife(wives),married retainers/vassals and maidens sent to his court to be raised would sleep.Oops-I forgot books and curios.Books could be treasures both because of the artwork in them and because they were sometmes covered with jewelled covers made of gold,silver or even ivory.Such would have been stored in ambries(imagine a large bookcase with doors and the shelves were slanted to raise and display the cover of the books which were not stored in rows like our books).The ambries would have been in both hall and chapel.Lords also collected natural wonders like dinosaur bones. |
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