Author(s): Charles Phillips

Natural History

The Haynes Medieval Castle Manual explores the background story to castle construction in Medieval Europe, showing that castles had both a domestic and defensive function. It uses the 'new' medieval castle-building project at Gu delon in Burgundy as the centerpiece for the book, examining the construction and anatomy of these awe-inspiring structures, section by section. Life inside the castle walls is explored, from the perspectives of the lowliest servants to the mighty lords and all those ranks in between. Ordinary daily routines to how a castle's inhabitants would have been fed and watered and the building itself heated and furnished are also covered. When it came to survival in times of unrest, the castle presented would-be assailants with a formidable array of defensive measures, some of which were truly frightening in their ability to inflict injury and death.