The Importance Of Castles In Medieval Times

In Medieval Times, castles played a large role in society. A large amount of the population lived in castles, they were all kinds of different people. The castles were owned by the lords who usually inherited their power from their family. Inside the castle, lived the lords family, along with people working. Some people would stop by and stay for a short time such as entertainers and travelers. Entertainers could be either be musicians or jesters, jesters would do magic tricks, and musicians would obviously play music. Travelers were able to sop by occasionally for a charge, the people inside the castle listened to tales and stories from their past travels. Chess was also a very popular pastime activity. Since there weren't a whole lot of activities to be done, the people of the castle would eat huge feasts every night, it was great pastime and great food.

The castle was built by a lord and his people,

When lords picked out locations, they thought strategically. Lords picked areas that were very safe defensively. Generally, they picked areas that were hilly and near a large body of water to ensure they had enough natural resources. A lot of times, the area had a lot of natural defenses such as rocky mountains. Sometimes, the castles were built on passage route to stop people from getting across. If they weren't near a body of water, they would pick an area with a river around it to use for natural resources along with a moat. A moat is what surrounds most castles, it is used as defense, sometimes man made, sometimes natural. Moats can be part river and dug out.

Defense was a major role in building a castle, if someone were to build a castle and not focus on anything defensive, the castle wouldn't last very long. The first layer of defense was a moat, moats could be anywhere between 9 feet and 30 feet depending on if