With the outer walls down, it was time to storm the courtyards and break into the keep
WHAT TO DO WITH THE ENEMY
After defeat, what was left of the defenders had to be dealt with
TAKE PRISONERS
The defenders would eject women and children out of the keep. This cruel tactic gave the attackers prisoners to be used as a bargaining tool for surrender, but now only the best fighters remained, and with a much larger food supply.
TOTAL ANNIHILATION
A popular method of ending a siege was killing all those that stood in the way. Sometimes the nobility were held for ransom, but at others, like the siege of Bedford Castle in 1224, everyone could be killed as a warning to others.
NEW TENANTS
If the castle was in a strategic location or was an influential power base, the invading army would take it for their own. It would act as an outpost on the frontier of a land and the former defenders would be exiled or enslaved.
IT’S A TRAP
Defenders of a castle would implement all types of booby traps. These would be left for the new occupants to find for themselves, and sometimes it was done the hard way. Using a captured prisoner would be a good tactic.
RAZE TO THE GROUND
The advent of the cannon made castles much easier to demolish. For many castles, the English Civil War was the last hurrah, but they still proved valuable, such as when Stirling Castle held out against the Jacobites a century later.