MINISTERUL EDUCAŢIEI

INSPECTORATUL ŞCOLAR AL JUDEŢULUI BACĂU

LICEUL TEHNOLOGIC „ANGHEL SALIGNY” BACĂU
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e-mail: [email protected]
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Nr. ___ din __________

Proiect
Pentru obținerea atestatului de competență lingvistică pentru
absolvenții claselor cu studiu intensiv al limbii engleze

Candidat:
Polcovnicu Valentin-Sebastian

Coordonator
Prof. Puiu Lenuța

Mai 2024
British Famous Castle

CONTENTS
Introduction
Chapter I Dover
Chapter II Warwick Castle
Chapter III Leeds Castle
Chapter IV
Chapter V
Chapter VI
Conclusion
Bibliography

INTRODUCTION

Britain is strewn with ruins of castles, rubble from the centuries of her existence. Castles are
tangible relics of a remarkable past, a lengthy heritage etched in stone, as well as with the blood
and sweat of those who built, labored, fought, and died in their shadow. Ruins stir up in us a
profound awareness of those past lives. Castles have a timelessness that is awe-inspiring. That
they have endured centuries of warfare and the effects of weather is a testimony to the creativity
and power of their medieval owners. How many of us will have such long-lasting success?

As with gardens castles have had innumerable books written about them quoting design, styles,
ages and so on. I think that one or two notes are helpful in distinguishing the various types and
the logical development.

The castles that we use as our standard are those built between the 11th and 16th centuries in
Great Britain and Northern Europe. The English castle whose design was imported from
Normandy following the Norman invasion of 1066 was essentially defensive. The Normans had
to hold down a belligerent conquered people and their way was to build a network of castles.
William the Conqueror has a ring established around London, including Rochester, Windsor and
Berkampstead. These in conjunction with the Tower of London - the White Tower then - acted
as a screen around the capital. As it was said these castles were essentially defensive, designed to
protect the Norman families who were granted the land by William. They originally consisted of
a mound of earth thrown up with a tower or 'keep' on top, possibly surrounded by a palisade
around the bottom and in turn frequently surrounded by a moat. The palisade contained the
bailey. The keep was not living quarters normally but a last line of defense in case of attack and
the main living area was the bailey where the Lord had a comfortable hall and where there were
houses for his soldiers and retainers and their families, stables for the animals as well as the
various necessary service buildings, blacksmith, farrier, armourer, etc. In the case of sustained
attack the whole countryside include villagers and their beasts could be taken into the bailey for
protection and in dire necessity the whole would be withdrawn into the keep.

Originally because of the urgency needed to get them erected these structures were of wood but,
as they were vulnerable to fire, quite soon the King insisted that they be built of stone. One of the
first of these was the White Tower in the center of the Tower of London. These more substantial
buildings soon became home to the Lord and his retainers. It is an axiom of military design that
each improvement in design creates its own destruction as the attacker soon learns to overcome
the latest technology. Thus castle building became a never ending program of updating to create
defensive protection. The keep had its own curtain wall with watchtowers. These were originally
built square but it was soon found that it was easy for an attacker to use the square shape to
protect himself against defenders and also undermine the corners of the tower. A corner would
be undermined and the whole area filled with wooden props to support it. Then pigskins filled
with oil and fat would be placed in the cavity and ignited. As the flames destroyed the props so
the tower crumbled. An example of this can be seen at Rochester where the undermining of one
square corner tower is quite clear before it was rebuilt as round tower. Castle building grew
apace and it became necessary to protect the original curtain wall with its own wall culminating
in castles like the Tower of London where there are several concentric rings. England became
more settled and by the middle of the fifteenth century in Southern and Middle England except
for the King and powerful barons the smaller landowner had found that a more peaceful country
made the castle unnecessary. He had had found the castle drafty, cold and uncomfortable and
created 'fortified manor house'. This still had strong walls for defense but also had larger
windows and more doors while the interior was of wood, rather than stone, to make the whole
warmer and a less confrontational design. From then on we get the development of the 'stately
home' and palace without any defensive capabilities and from these in turn produced the great
Tudor mansions of which Hatfield House and Penshurst Place are typical and in which defense
has no part. Peace was now assumed and the history of English castle building reached its end.

In the north of England it was not so easy and until the reign of Henry VIII there were still
border attacks. The castles remained strong and well defended until well into the sixteenth
century. Thus for hundreds of years the Duke of Northumberland remained influential as much
because of the soldiers he could muster as his personality.
 Chapter I
Dover Castle

Location: Kent

When William the Conqueror defeated Harold II at Hastings he headed towards Dover where the
Angle-Saxons had already raised a burh. William improved this fortification by erecting a motte-
and-bailey. Dover Castle has the most massive tower in Britain, an almost 100-foot cube with
walls from seventeen to twenty-one feet thick. In 1216 the castle was besieged by Louis, son of
the French king but saved when Louis returned to France.

Overlooking Dover Harbour, the shortest sea-route to the Continent it barred the way of anybody
trying to invade England. Early in the 19th century Napoleon stood opposite on the cliffs of
Calais and through his telescope surveyed Dover. With the British navy controlling the seas and
the steep cliffs beneath the castle he decided against an invasion of England, immediately turned
round and invaded Russia instead. Hitler followed the same pattern and again after
contemplating the problem decided to invade Russia instead. Beneath the castle are the secret
wartime passages where the evacuation of Dunkirk and the Channel sea battle was controlled.

Chapter II
Warwi ck Castle

Location: Warwick Country

Warwick Castle was founded in 1068 and was rebuilt and updated a number of times. Today it
combines castle ruins, largely of the fourteenth century with one of the finest great houses in
England. Two small projecting towers, which date to the late fifteenth century are said to have
built as artillery platforms. Warwick Castle rises like a precipice above the River Avon. On this
natural cliff William I founded a motte castle in 1068, on lands seized from a nearby Saxon
convent. A wooden tower built on the motte was evidently still there in the reign of Henry II, by
which time a polygonal shell enclosure had been raised round the motte top. Only fragments of
the shell enclosure now remain, incorporated in the rebuilt shell, which is of much later date.
Late in the fourteenth century, by which time some additional buildings such as the great hall
and residential blocks had been put up in the bailey, the castle passed to Earl Beauchamp who
initiated a fresh programme of works. These were substantially what can be seen today. They
included restructuring the great hall and a range of other buildings on the south-east, a water-
gate, and on the west front a high and stout defensive curtain leading from a gatehouse to a very
tall polygonal tower, known as Guy's Tower, which is 39.4 metres tall. The gatehouse is a
remarkable building: a pair of towers above the doorway passage, which had portcullises and
murder-holes. Projecting from the east side of the gatehouse is a tall rectangular building leading
to another tower.

This latter tower is 45.2 meters tall and capped by a two-fold system of battlements with
machicolation all round below the battlements. It is called Caesar's Tower. The three main
storeys in the tower are each vaulted, and have stone fireplaces.

The castle is completed by curtain walling and further, much smaller, flanking towers. The wall
at the west leads up the motte to the restored shell enclosure and down again southwards to the
south range. The whole is thus a powerfully defended enclosure

Chapter III
Leeds Castle

Location: Kent

Leeds Castle, acclaimed as the most romantic castle in England, is located in south-east England,
built on two adjacent island in the river Len.

Leeds Castle was originally a manor of the Saxon royal family possibly as early as the reign of
Ethelbert IV ( 856-860). The first castle was an earthwork enclosure whose wooden palisade was
converted to stone and provided with two towers along the perimeter. This is now vanished.
Traces of arches in a vault thought to be Norman were found at the beginning of this century.
Around 1119 Robert Crevecoeur started to build a stone castle on the site, establishing his
donjon where the Gloriette now is. Stephen, Count of Blois, and his cousin the Empress Matilda
contested the crown of England. In 1139 Matilda invaded England with the help of his brother
Robert, Earl of Gloucester, who held Leeds castle, but Kent was loyal to king Stephen and
following a short siege he took control of the castle.

The castle came into the possession of Edward I (1278) . He rebuilt much of the castle as it stood
at the beginning of his reign, and enlarged it, providing an outer stone curtain round the edge of
the larger island, with cylindrical open-backed flanking towers and a square-plan water-gate on
the south-east. The gatehouse at the south-west, a single tower pierced by an arched passage was
improved. Later on, King Edward, the Confessor granted the manor to the powerful house of
Godwin.

Henry VIII, the most famous of all the owners of Leeds Castles, expended large sums in
nlarging and beautifying the whole range of buildings. At the same time, he carefully retained
the defenses of the castle for he often had cause to fear invasion from either France or the
Spanish . The king entrusted the work of alteration to his great friend Sir Henry Guidford.

Leeds has been constantly inhabited and rebuilt since then. Most of the castle today is the result
of the nineteenth-century reconstruction and addition. In 1926 Leeds was bought by the Hon.
Mrs. Wilson-Filmer, known as Lady Baillie. Immediately she began the restoration of the castle
that took her over 30 years to leave it as it stands today.

MEDIEVAL SIEGE

There are many myths and legends surrounding castle sieges. Knights in shining armor riding up
to the castle, doing hand to hand combat. Or maybe hundreds of guards streaming out of the
castles to meet their enemy. None of this is true, except in fairy tales and movies.

Most of the time, the attacking force would send a messenger to the lord of the castle and give
notice of their intentions to attack. This notice allowed the castle to surrender. Sometimes the
lord surrendered, but most often the castle was restocked and made ready for the siege. They
would restock themselves with food, supplies and drink, and add men to the garrison.

There were three ways to take a castle. The first is not to attack the castle at all - just avoid the
castle altogether and seize the lands around it. The second is direct assault, or laying siege to the
castle. The last is besieging.

Here is an account of a siege. Stone throwing mangonels attack the towers and walls every day.
The walls of the castles would hopefully be breached, and towers damaged. The enemy erects
wooden towers called belfries, taller than the castle towers, to conceal and enable bow men to
shoot arrows down into the castle. While this is going on, miners would be tunneling under the
walls and towers of the castle in preparation to collapse them.

To counter the mining, anti-mining tunnels could be dug by the castle soldiers, which insured a
ferocious hand-to-hand battle underground. Inside the castle, the guards would place a pot of
water near the castle towers and walls. When the water rippled, they would know enemy miners
were at work underneath them.
The barbican is next assaulted and taken, with a loss of men on both sides. Then the bailey is
attacked, and more men killed. Animals and some supplies would be captured. The auxiliary
buildings containing hay and grain for the castle are burned. By now, miners have succeeded in
collapsing a wall of the castle. The attackers have broken through and seized the inner bailey.
More men on both sides would be lost in this phase of the attack.

By this time, the castle defenders would have retreated to the keep. Miners would now be setting
fire to the mine tunnel under the keep. The keep. Smoke and fire are rising into the keep, and
cracks appearing in the thick walls. The defenders of the castle are forced to surrender as the
castle falls to the enemy.

Chapter IV

Thornbury Castle

Thornbury Castle is a Tudor castle in the place of Thornbury, in Gloucestershire,

England, situated next to the parish church of St Mary, founded in the Norman era. Construction
was begun in 1511 as a further residence for Edward Stafford, 3rd Duke of Buckingham (1478-
1521), of Stafford Castle in Staffordshire. It is not a true military fortress but rather an early
example of a Tudor country house, with minimal defensive attributes. As at Richmond Palace in
Surrey, the main ranges of Thornbury framed courts, of which the symmetrical entrance range,
with central gatehouse and octagonal corner towers, survives, together with two less regular side
ranges with many irregular projecting features and towers. It is now a grade I listed building that
is operated as a hotel. The site was occupied by a manor house in 930; Jasper Tudor, Duke of
Bedford & Earl of Pembroke, died in the Manor House in 1495. Part of the original plans for a
very grand residence were "well advanced",with a Licence to crenellate being granted in 1508,
before the 3rd Duke of Buckingham was beheaded for treason in 1521, by order of King Henry
VIII.

Following the 3rd Duke's death Thornbury was confiscated by King Henry VIII of
England, who stayed there for ten days in August 1535 with Queen Anne Boleyn. In 1554 Queen
Mary, who had visited Thornbury in 1525, granted the castle and manor to Henry Stafford, 1st
Baron Stafford. Following the Civil War, the castle fell into disrepair, but was renovated in 1824
by the Howard family. The castle is now a 26-room luxury hotel and restaurant, and a venue for
weddings. Between 1966 and 1986 the castle was operated as one of the UK's top restaurants by
Kenneth Bell MBE with staff including food writer Nigel Slater and MasterChef New Zealand
judge Simon Gault early in their culinary careers.

A report in March 2022 indicated that all of the bedrooms and suites of the hotel had
been refurbished. Since November 2021, the property had been a member of Relais & Châteaux.
 Chapter V
Windsor Castle

Located about an hour west of London, Windsor Castle is often called the largest and
oldest inhabited castle in the world. It is one of the official residences of Queen Elizabeth
II who spends many weekends of the year at the castle, using it for both state and private
entertaining. The earliest surviving buildings at Windsor date from the reign of Henry II
who came to the throne in 1154. Originally designed to protect Norman dominance
around the outskirts of London, Windsor Castle was built as a motte and bailey castle,
with three wards surrounding a central mound. Gradually replaced with stone
fortifications, the castle withstood a prolonged siege during the First Barons’ War at the
start of the 13th century. During the Tudor period, Henry VIII and Elizabeth I made
increasing use of the castle as a royal court and center for diplomatic entertainment.
Today, much of the castle, including the magnificent State Apartments and St Georges
Chapel can be visited.

Chapter VI
 Bondiam Castle
Located to the southeast of London in East Sussex, Bodiam Castle is considered one of
the best examples of a Medieval fortress, despite the fact that the 14th century structure
was built more for status than for strength. After the conclusion of the 100 Years’ War,
Richard II granted veteran soldier and landowner Sir Edward Dalyngigge a license to
fortify his home as a measure of protection against French invasion.

Looking like something out of a fairytale, Bodiam has all the attributes that people expect
when visiting a Medieval castle, from its soaring towers and battlements to its forbidding
portcullis and moat. The interior of the castle lies in ruin, however. It was dismantled
during the English Civil War in the 1600s to prevent the castle from being used by the
enemy. In 1829, art philanthropist John Fuller purchased the castle for 3,000 guineas to
save it from demolition.

Bibliography
https://www.vietravel.com/en/around-the-world/10-most-beautiful-castles-in-
england-v12128.aspx

https://xreferat.com/31/884-1-castles-of-england.html