|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 |
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|Leeds Castle |
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|[pic] |
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|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 enlarging and beautifying the whole range of |
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|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. |
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|MEDIEVAL SIEGE |
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|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. |
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|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. |
|The third method, called besieging, would require the enemy to wait |
|and starve the castle garrison into surrender. This method was |
|preferred by an attacking side. Some sieges of this type would last |
|from six months to a year. Sometimes, the enemy would hurl dead |
|animals into the castle grounds in hopes of spreading diseases. And, |
|sometimes the lord of the castle would toss dead animals outside his |
|castle, to convince the enemy they had enough supplies to carry on a |
|siege for months. |
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|CASTLES WITH GHOSTS |
|What story would be complete without a haunted castle. Here is some |
|of the castles that are reportedly haunted in England. |
|Berry Pomeroy Castle, Devon Said to be haunted by the daughter of a |
|wicked baron who, as a consequence of an enforced relationship with |
|her father, bore him a child, which he strangled. |
|Dover Castle, Kent Dover Castle is associated with numerous |
|ghosts and strange sounds. In the King's bedroom, the lower half of a|
|man has been seen walking through the doorway. The specter of a woman|
|dressed in a red dress has been seen at the west stairway of the |
|keep. The sounds of a creaking doorway opening and closing where a |
|door used to be, but isn't anymore, have been heard. |
|Featherstone Castle, Northumberland The castle is associated with a |
|ghostly bridal party. Baron Featherstonehaugh had arranged for his |
|daughter to marry a relative of his choice, even though the daughter |
|was in love with someone else. The wedding party left for the |
|"traditional hunt" after the wedding, leaving the baron behind to |
|make arrangements for the banquet. When the party failed to return by|
|midnight, the baron began to fear the worst. Sitting alone at the |
|table, he heard horses crossing the drawbridge. The door opened and |
|the party entered. But, they made no sound and passed through |
|furniture. The wedding party had been ambushed and killed. On the |
|anniversary of the wedding, the party can still be seen heading |
|towards the castle. . |
|Lowther Castle, Cumbria Haunted by Sir James Lowther. He was very |
|unhappy with a prearranged marriage, and fell in love with a farmer's|
|daughter. When she suddenly grew ill and died, Sir James refused to |
|believe she was dead and left her on the bed. She was finally moved |
|and placed in a coffin with a glass lid, which he set in a cupboard |
|where he could look at her. She was finally buried, and Sir James |
|died unloved and unmourned. At his funeral his coffin began to sway |
|as it was lowered into the ground. His spectral coach and ungroomed |
|horses can be seen being driven through the parklands of the castle. |
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|Tower of London In 1816, a guard saw what he described afterwards as |
|"a shadowy bear walking up the stairs in the twilight." He lunged at |
|it with his bayonet, which shattered against the wall. The ghostly |
|presence walked on unaffected and the guard, having told his unlikely|
|story to others, died of shock a few days later. |
|Windsor Castle, Berkshire Queen Elizabeth I's ghost has been seen in |
|the library. A young guard shot and killed himself and another guard |
|on duty saw him afterwards. |
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SOURSES
1. www.castles.org
2. www.castles-of-britain.com
3. www.castlesofengland.com
4. www.heartofeurope.com
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