Discover the different types of castles that developed across the Middle Ages and how they were used

WORDS JO ELPHICK

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DID YOU KNOW? Windsor Castle is the largest occupied castle in the entire world

W hen you think of the medieval period you likely imagine knights on horseback, jousting contests and, most important of all, a magnificent stone castle. But it wasn’t just ruling monarchs who owned castles, and although these imposing buildings seem very British, they actually first appeared across Central Europe.

In order to understand why castles became so popular in medieval Europe, it’s necessary to look at life in the Early Middle Ages. From 800 to 888 CE the Carolingian Empire controlled the majority of Western and Central Europe, just as the Roman Empire had before them. However, when the Carolingian way of life broke down, so too did the central government. Gradually, the nobles began fighting over individual pockets of land. Each lord wanted to regain power and control over his own area, and it wasn’t long before violence broke out across the land.

As if this infighting wasn’t bad enough, foreign warriors sensed the vulnerability of Europe after the fall of the Carolingian Empire and decided to attack. Vikings made their way to European shores and began pillaging the local villages while the Magyars of historic Hungary began looting raids all across central Europe.