| tart --> | | | | meant many months, sometimes even a year or |
| In the later centuries of the Middle Ages siege | | | | more. The sieging army would station itself around |
| engines were often employed to take down the | | | | the castle and not allow any form of commerce. |
| walls of a medieval castle. But in the early | | | | Eventually the inhabitants would surrender due to |
| centuries an attacking army often did not have | | | | imminent starvation. |
| the skill, resources, or time to build and use siege | | | | Biological warfare: Yep that's right. A sieging force |
| engines so they employed other very ingenious | | | | could launch the remains of rotting corpses into |
| methods including biological warfare. | | | | the castle causing outbreaks of life-threatening |
| A Medieval Castle is a fortress built out of | | | | illness. |
| thousands of tons of stone and designed for | | | | Simple Storm: The sieging force could carry on an |
| maximum safety and security yet they were still | | | | all out attack at various points of the castle. This |
| taken and often by very devious means. Here | | | | overwhelming would hopefully break through in |
| were some of these simpler and less technological | | | | some places causing a collapse in defenses. |
| ways that castles were sieged. | | | | Tunneling: The sieging army would actually dig |
| Deception: Spies were used to infiltrate the castle. | | | | tunnels under the castle. The hope was not so |
| They could, at night, open the castle gates or | | | | much for an entry into the castle but for a way |
| wreak havoc on the interior defenses of the | | | | to collapse the castle defenses. It was because of |
| castle. The most famous case of this tactic is the | | | | this technique that many Medieval Castles had |
| Trojan Horse. | | | | moats around them. A moat would cause the |
| Treachery: Someone trusted within the power | | | | collapse and filling with water of any attempted |
| structure of the castle could give misleading | | | | tunnels. |
| information that would bring down the castle. He | | | | Because the walls and fortifications of medieval |
| could for example report that there were many | | | | castles were so well built an attacking army would |
| more troops sieging the castle than there actually | | | | often employ methods that didn't directly attack |
| were. This would induce the castle residents to | | | | them. Instead they found and used a host of |
| either revolt or surrender out of fear. | | | | other means to either attack the inhabitants or |
| Starvation: This was a method used but it often | | | | get them to surrender. |