WEBVTT - How Castles Work 0:00:01.040 --> 0:00:04.520 Welcome to Stuff you Should Know from House Stuff Works 0:00:04.519 --> 0:00:13.800 dot com. Hey, and welcome to the podcast. I'm Josh. 0:00:13.880 --> 0:00:17.400 There's Chuck Jerry's over to my right. That would make 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:22.400 this Stuff you Should Know the most overheated, cramped, smelly, 0:00:22.440 --> 0:00:25.480 sweaty podcast on the market. I thought you can say overrated, 0:00:25.880 --> 0:00:28.880 no overheated, because we were number three today in front 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:32.200 of Mr Ricky Javas right, and since I don't recognize 0:00:32.200 --> 0:00:35.200 Alvin and the Chipmunks as a podcast, we're technically number two, 0:00:35.680 --> 0:00:41.040 right behind Ira Glass. Oh yeah, big surprise. We love 0:00:41.080 --> 0:00:43.400 Ira Glass. Let's just say that because people are gonna say, 0:00:43.400 --> 0:00:45.840 why don't you like this American life? I know that's 0:00:45.880 --> 0:00:48.640 the that's the problem with having such a substantial library 0:00:48.680 --> 0:00:51.480 of podcast So when we go back, like fifty episodes 0:00:52.080 --> 0:00:55.480 and revisit a joke, only the really hardcore s Y 0:00:55.680 --> 0:00:58.560 s K listeners know what we're talking about. You know. 0:00:58.600 --> 0:01:01.080 The people send an email and they get fifty episodes 0:01:01.120 --> 0:01:03.840 back and they're like, h right, I wish I would 0:01:03.880 --> 0:01:07.119 have held my tongue. Can we get on with this? Yeah, 0:01:07.160 --> 0:01:09.640 let's do it. Chuck did you ever? Were you ever? 0:01:09.680 --> 0:01:13.000 In the he man arguably the most homo erotic action 0:01:13.080 --> 0:01:17.240 figure created that was I was a little old for that. Well, 0:01:17.319 --> 0:01:19.920 it was right in my wheelhouse, as you would say. 0:01:20.280 --> 0:01:22.920 And I had a little toy that I like to 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.840 call Castle Gray School because that's what the manufacturers called it. 0:01:26.640 --> 0:01:28.679 Do you have you seen this? I've heard of it all. 0:01:28.800 --> 0:01:31.720 It was. It was pretty awesome. The cartoon was horrendous. 0:01:31.760 --> 0:01:33.800 Did you watch the cartoon? I was, I was too 0:01:33.840 --> 0:01:36.240 old for that. How many times do you have to 0:01:36.280 --> 0:01:38.160 go over my age? I don't know. Have you ever 0:01:38.160 --> 0:01:42.959 heard of the Base City Rollers? I know them personally. Um. Anyway, 0:01:43.000 --> 0:01:44.960 I had this little toy called Castle Gray School, and 0:01:44.959 --> 0:01:47.880 it was this big plastic castle and it was pretty awesome. 0:01:47.920 --> 0:01:54.200 It had embattlements, it had um tower, had towers, had 0:01:54.280 --> 0:01:57.240 it even had a little overhang hanging off the back 0:01:58.120 --> 0:02:02.640 um and then the the front entrance the tunnel was 0:02:02.680 --> 0:02:06.280 a mouth with fangs coming down. And it was just 0:02:06.360 --> 0:02:08.639 generally one of the cooler toys I own, to tell 0:02:08.680 --> 0:02:11.600 you the truth. And now that I've read how castles work, 0:02:12.120 --> 0:02:15.560 I could where I'd go back in time, stand next 0:02:15.600 --> 0:02:18.760 to my younger self and be like, this is the tower. 0:02:19.280 --> 0:02:23.280 This is Carl called the pork cullis, this is a 0:02:23.400 --> 0:02:28.080 murder hole, and don't start smoking. Yes, that's I would 0:02:28.080 --> 0:02:30.600 say that to young self. Oh my god, if there's 0:02:30.639 --> 0:02:33.880 one thing I could go back and change, well, if 0:02:33.919 --> 0:02:35.640 I had like three or four things I could go 0:02:35.639 --> 0:02:38.200 back and change, smoking would definitely be one of them. Yeah, 0:02:38.240 --> 0:02:41.840 it'd be taller. Uh oh wait, things you can really change. 0:02:41.960 --> 0:02:44.960 I don't. Time travel is no effect on your height. 0:02:45.080 --> 0:02:48.160 I would tell myself to grow taller. Okay, just when 0:02:48.160 --> 0:02:53.280 I still have the chance. Yeah, So let's talk castles, Chuck, okay, Josh. 0:02:53.360 --> 0:02:58.040 The word castle, like everything almost it's Latin, comes from 0:02:58.040 --> 0:03:01.440 the word castell um, which means a fortified place. That's 0:03:01.440 --> 0:03:04.880 exactly what it is, and the French shortened it lazy 0:03:04.919 --> 0:03:08.800 French people that they are from castellum to castle it 0:03:08.880 --> 0:03:13.079 means the same thing. Uh. And castles are actually very 0:03:13.080 --> 0:03:16.880 specific buildings. There's very specific speed features to them that 0:03:16.960 --> 0:03:21.080 make a castle of castle um. They're generally European, although 0:03:21.120 --> 0:03:25.160 there are some castle castles found in like the Middle 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:27.880 East in Japan, but for the most part they were 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:32.680 European in origin. In Germany, ten thousand of them in 0:03:32.760 --> 0:03:36.280 Germany alone, and they only actually existed for about five 0:03:36.400 --> 0:03:39.080 hundred years. Are they only underwent construction for about five 0:03:39.120 --> 0:03:41.320 hundred years during the High Middle Ages from the tenth 0:03:41.400 --> 0:03:45.360 to fifteen centuries. Yeah. So let's talk about the history 0:03:45.440 --> 0:03:49.560 of castles, and and not just historic castles, but the 0:03:49.600 --> 0:03:53.200 beginning of castles. Where did they come from? Chuck? Well, Josh, 0:03:53.280 --> 0:03:57.160 they evolved from the ancient walled cities back in like 0:03:57.440 --> 0:03:59.760 Troy and Babylon and Jericho. They would have big walls 0:03:59.800 --> 0:04:02.440 around on their cities for fortification. So it of all 0:04:02.520 --> 0:04:06.440 from that into Uh. The first ones were called a 0:04:06.640 --> 0:04:09.680 grod I believe is how you pronounce that, or a groad, 0:04:09.840 --> 0:04:14.320 and that consisted of basically wooden and earthen walls and 0:04:14.360 --> 0:04:16.920 then a gate with a moat around it. And that 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.200 would become one of the hallmarks of the castle was 0:04:19.240 --> 0:04:20.919 the moat. Yeah, you have to have a moat or 0:04:20.960 --> 0:04:24.799 else it's just not a castle. It depended on the terrain. 0:04:24.880 --> 0:04:28.000 Sometimes if you're on like a rocky peak, you didn't 0:04:28.040 --> 0:04:29.960 have a moat because you couldn't and you didn't need it. 0:04:30.279 --> 0:04:33.239 But most castles are known for having moats. Yeah. That's 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:37.279 thank you for the correction, Chuck, love to be corrected. Uh, 0:04:37.320 --> 0:04:41.640 There's another kind of castle that um eventually became part 0:04:41.720 --> 0:04:45.479 of the modern and by modern I mean High Middle 0:04:45.520 --> 0:04:50.920 Ages castle called a bird Freed, which you may suspect 0:04:50.960 --> 0:04:54.520 as German, but it's actually based on a Roman design 0:04:54.560 --> 0:04:57.720 that they would use these watch towers along their frontier, 0:04:58.200 --> 0:05:02.520 and those became the towers of later castles. Uh right, Josh. 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:04.599 I believe that brings us to number three, which was 0:05:04.680 --> 0:05:08.080 the Motte and Bailey castle. And that consisted of a 0:05:08.160 --> 0:05:11.279 mound which is the Mott, and that's within the open 0:05:11.320 --> 0:05:14.200 courtyard which was the bailey, and that, of course, as always, 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:17.440 is enclosed by a wall and a fortified gate. That's 0:05:17.480 --> 0:05:19.560 the key. Right. So you put all these things together, 0:05:20.000 --> 0:05:24.359 fill them with bloodthirsty knights and pooping horses, and you 0:05:24.480 --> 0:05:28.320 have the castle as we as we recognize and love it, 0:05:28.560 --> 0:05:31.600 the whole property. Yeah. Okay, so Mr smarty pants, you 0:05:31.640 --> 0:05:34.080 don't always have to have a moat, right, but most 0:05:34.080 --> 0:05:36.800 of them did have modes, right, So you had a 0:05:36.839 --> 0:05:39.440 moat which is really just a ditch dug around the 0:05:39.440 --> 0:05:42.280 outer wall of the castle. Yeah. What I love about castles, dude, 0:05:42.320 --> 0:05:48.000 sorry to interrupt, is everything is so rudimentarily genius. He 0:05:48.120 --> 0:05:50.400 sounded like me just now. It was all just genius. 0:05:50.400 --> 0:05:51.880 But it was so basic. They were like, well, we 0:05:51.880 --> 0:05:54.039 don't people get in, so let's take a big ditch 0:05:54.040 --> 0:05:56.920 around it. Well, let's build a big door with a 0:05:56.960 --> 0:06:00.520 big brace behind it. Yeah. Yeah, and if you there 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:04.599 seems to be a lot of um murderousness during this time. 0:06:04.640 --> 0:06:08.159 It was very violent time. Um, so the most of 0:06:08.200 --> 0:06:12.800 the technology and ingenuity was based towards effectively killing people 0:06:12.839 --> 0:06:15.640 in the most horrific ways you could imagine. Right, So 0:06:15.720 --> 0:06:17.840 the moat that was used to keep people out right, 0:06:17.839 --> 0:06:19.640 and if it were you could fill it with water. 0:06:20.279 --> 0:06:23.760 Everybody filled it with sewage human and otherwise. Right, you 0:06:23.800 --> 0:06:25.920 don't see that in the movie. No you don't, because 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:29.200 I can you imagine how badly that smelled. Um. And 0:06:29.400 --> 0:06:31.599 if you had you could keep it dry, although again 0:06:31.600 --> 0:06:33.960 you would fill it with sewage anyway, and if you 0:06:34.040 --> 0:06:38.640 kept it dry likely you would um bury sharpened steaks 0:06:39.600 --> 0:06:42.039 coming out at all angles. So you could push people 0:06:42.080 --> 0:06:45.159 into it and be like sinauris sucker, That's what they 0:06:45.200 --> 0:06:47.760 would say in Japan. Yeah, so you got your moat, 0:06:47.800 --> 0:06:51.240 you got your drawbridge, which you know lower the drawbridge 0:06:51.240 --> 0:06:53.200 extends over the moat, you can get in and out 0:06:53.200 --> 0:06:55.279 of the castle, and you've got that. You have the 0:06:55.279 --> 0:06:58.760 outer walls, right, and the outer wall actually, um, all 0:06:58.880 --> 0:07:01.840 castles have outer wall, some have inner walls. We'll get 0:07:01.839 --> 0:07:03.520 to that in a second. But the outer walls are 0:07:03.520 --> 0:07:07.120 actually two walls, right, um. So you have the one 0:07:07.120 --> 0:07:09.560 wall and then a space and then another wall, and 0:07:09.600 --> 0:07:12.000 then in between the two walls you fill with you 0:07:12.080 --> 0:07:14.800 backfill with rubble or stone or gravel or something to 0:07:15.000 --> 0:07:18.960 really make these things just like brick houses right right. 0:07:19.040 --> 0:07:21.600 And then some castles even had an outer outer wall 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:24.200 called a shield wall, which was even taller, right, so 0:07:24.280 --> 0:07:27.920 people could walk along the inside wall, right and not 0:07:28.200 --> 0:07:31.040 have their head lopped off with the flaming arrow exactly, 0:07:31.080 --> 0:07:34.880 which is true. They yeah, they did. That was a 0:07:34.920 --> 0:07:37.600 lot of things were made of wood, um, especially in 0:07:37.600 --> 0:07:41.800 the early days of castles, and this would would probably 0:07:41.800 --> 0:07:45.400 be pretty well, it's like a big tinder box is 0:07:45.440 --> 0:07:48.120 what you were walking around in, So flaming arrow goes 0:07:48.160 --> 0:07:50.960 a long way. Yeah, it's very effective. Right. There were 0:07:51.000 --> 0:07:54.920 also um overhangs that were initially made of wood that 0:07:55.000 --> 0:07:58.000 I found pretty cool. Remember I mentioned Castle Gray School 0:07:58.040 --> 0:08:03.000 had um a. Generally these things were called hoardings, and 0:08:03.160 --> 0:08:06.400 they would have um arrow loops, which are basically just 0:08:06.520 --> 0:08:09.680 narrow slits so you can shoot through right, and they 0:08:09.680 --> 0:08:11.680 would hang over the front of the castle, so when 0:08:11.720 --> 0:08:14.640 people were storming the front of the castle, um you 0:08:14.680 --> 0:08:17.880 could you could shoot them with arrows the arrow loops. 0:08:17.960 --> 0:08:22.080 But they also had the coolest sounding things of all time, 0:08:22.560 --> 0:08:27.200 murder holes. Murder holes were holes, but you could shoot 0:08:27.320 --> 0:08:30.520 arrows um. So basically, if you're standing on a hoarding, 0:08:30.600 --> 0:08:33.199 there are holes in the floor, so you could shoot arrows. Also, 0:08:33.559 --> 0:08:38.800 you could pour hot oil, hot metals, hot whatever exactly. 0:08:39.679 --> 0:08:44.600 And the way that the entrances were arranged the when 0:08:44.600 --> 0:08:47.120 you're walking in the entrance of the castle, right, you've 0:08:47.120 --> 0:08:49.640 crossed over the drawbridge and now you're walking in the tunnel. 0:08:50.200 --> 0:08:52.800 Um there's arrow loops on either side of you, and 0:08:52.800 --> 0:08:55.520 then above there's murder holes. So if you were able 0:08:55.559 --> 0:08:59.280 to breach the drawbridge and the gate, you were subject 0:08:59.360 --> 0:09:02.120 to having sorts of hot, horrible stuff poured on you 0:09:02.679 --> 0:09:06.200 and you were in big trouble, not fun. Uh. The 0:09:06.240 --> 0:09:10.160 other thing they had to for for defense and for protection. 0:09:10.520 --> 0:09:14.240 While defense is in defending yourself was the crenelation. Like 0:09:14.280 --> 0:09:15.720 you know, when you see the top of the tower 0:09:15.760 --> 0:09:18.200 and it's one block is higher, then the next block 0:09:18.280 --> 0:09:20.720 is low, the next block is higher. That was actually 0:09:20.960 --> 0:09:23.320 uh purposely done that way, so you could, you know, 0:09:23.360 --> 0:09:26.199 soldiers could hide behind those blocks, peek around the corner 0:09:26.200 --> 0:09:27.679 and fire and arrow, and then hide behind the tall 0:09:27.720 --> 0:09:30.280 block again. Right. And I would argue that crenelations are 0:09:30.280 --> 0:09:34.880 the most readily recognizable design of castle for sure. About 0:09:34.920 --> 0:09:37.520 you know, the little sand castle molds, even those have 0:09:37.600 --> 0:09:40.280 crenilations on them. If if they don't have the crenilations, 0:09:40.320 --> 0:09:45.400 it's really just a big rectangle, Chuck, you were talking about, 0:09:45.559 --> 0:09:48.880 um guys hiding behind the blocks of crenelation and then 0:09:49.080 --> 0:09:52.560 moving to the side and shooting an arrow. They also 0:09:52.800 --> 0:09:57.439 designed staircases in a clockwise circular fashion. Coolest fact of 0:09:57.480 --> 0:09:59.439 the show right here, Do you want to take your buddy? 0:09:59.600 --> 0:10:04.080 May I? Yes? Please? Okay? Uh, you're right clockwise while 0:10:04.120 --> 0:10:07.040 going up. This is because at the time soldiers were 0:10:07.120 --> 0:10:08.920 right handed. The fault with their right hand swung the 0:10:08.920 --> 0:10:11.480 sword of the right hand. Um, if they were left 0:10:11.520 --> 0:10:13.439 handed by nature, they were taught to fight with their 0:10:13.520 --> 0:10:17.440 right because why because left handed people were considered evil 0:10:17.600 --> 0:10:20.880 at the time. Actually, the word sinister means left handed, 0:10:21.360 --> 0:10:24.520 so weird, so they design it counterclockwise going up. So 0:10:24.679 --> 0:10:27.000 if you're flying up the stairs to go fight somebody, 0:10:27.080 --> 0:10:28.920 you had room on your right hand side to swing 0:10:28.960 --> 0:10:31.680 your weapon and it wouldn't hit the wall. Don That 0:10:31.720 --> 0:10:33.640 in That the coolest fact of the whole thing. It is. 0:10:33.679 --> 0:10:36.040 And also if you're running up the stairs and you're 0:10:36.080 --> 0:10:38.640 an archer, you can draw and you have plenty of 0:10:38.679 --> 0:10:40.880 room to draw an arrow and shoot it out of 0:10:40.920 --> 0:10:44.920 one of the arrow loops that too. Yeah, so Chuck, 0:10:45.960 --> 0:10:48.960 that's the outer wall. We've got the crenelations, we've got 0:10:48.960 --> 0:10:52.880 towers built into it, we have holdings in different variations 0:10:52.880 --> 0:10:55.560 on the holding right. Uh, and then you have the 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:58.560 inner wall. Right inside the outer wall, you would have 0:10:58.600 --> 0:11:01.240 what's called a bailey, right, which is basically is a 0:11:01.280 --> 0:11:04.720 big open courtyard. So anytime you see nights jousting like 0:11:05.040 --> 0:11:08.720 the heart throb Heath Ledger in a Night's Tale r 0:11:08.720 --> 0:11:12.400 I P right um, what they where where that joust 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:16.720 was taking place was actually inside the outside wall of 0:11:16.840 --> 0:11:19.240 the castle. Yeah, and here's the thing you want to 0:11:19.240 --> 0:11:21.320 We'll talk about the sieges later, but once you storm 0:11:21.320 --> 0:11:24.040 into the castle. It's kind of like, great, we're inside, 0:11:24.080 --> 0:11:27.240 but it's also like, oh boy, we're inside, because now 0:11:27.280 --> 0:11:29.680 you're trapped, and all the little dudes up there in 0:11:29.720 --> 0:11:31.960 the tower and on the walkways all of a sudden 0:11:31.960 --> 0:11:34.040 just turned around and start firing flaming arrows down at 0:11:34.040 --> 0:11:36.240 your head. Right, Because at the very least the castle 0:11:36.240 --> 0:11:38.720 would have an outer wall and then some sort of 0:11:38.760 --> 0:11:42.440 tower or inner fortification. A lot of castles actually had 0:11:42.480 --> 0:11:45.959 an outer wall, then the bailey, and then an inner wall, 0:11:46.360 --> 0:11:49.000 and then within that was the tower. So yeah, you 0:11:49.040 --> 0:11:51.720 were just your toast basically if you made it in 0:11:51.960 --> 0:11:54.920 and and you weren't, if you were feeling under the weather, 0:11:54.960 --> 0:11:58.760 that they that was the day you died. U the courtyard, Josh. 0:11:58.800 --> 0:12:00.640 They also use it as a marketplace ace, and they 0:12:00.640 --> 0:12:04.720 had festivals and fairs, they did soldier drilling, train horses. 0:12:05.040 --> 0:12:07.560 And then later once uh you know, castles later on 0:12:07.600 --> 0:12:09.640 became more for like the kings and the noblemen and 0:12:09.800 --> 0:12:13.520 less military in nature, and they were used for like 0:12:13.600 --> 0:12:16.160 gardens and fountains that kind of thing, right, And uh 0:12:16.200 --> 0:12:19.280 that when the nobleman actually lived in the castles, which 0:12:19.320 --> 0:12:21.960 they did, but for the most part, castles were originally 0:12:22.000 --> 0:12:27.680 made for military purposes, but then as the military technology advanced, 0:12:27.679 --> 0:12:32.640 castles became much less strong or able to withstand attacks. 0:12:32.720 --> 0:12:36.200 So the what was originally called the keep, actually what 0:12:36.200 --> 0:12:39.600 was originally called the Don john right became the keep, 0:12:39.679 --> 0:12:45.520 and the Jean or the Don Johnson it was usually 0:12:45.559 --> 0:12:49.679 pastel um the uh, that became the keep, and that's 0:12:49.679 --> 0:12:53.240 where the lord of the manner, the whoever owned the 0:12:53.320 --> 0:12:57.720 feudal surfs lived right. The other thing, because obviously you 0:12:57.760 --> 0:12:59.560 need a lot of people to keep up a castle, 0:12:59.640 --> 0:13:05.000 to work the kitchen, blacksmiths, carpenters. There were residential apartments inside, yeah, 0:13:05.040 --> 0:13:07.720 which you never really think about, you know, the fact 0:13:07.760 --> 0:13:10.040 that they had people living there on site. So it's 0:13:10.040 --> 0:13:12.600 sort of like a little live workplace scene way back 0:13:12.600 --> 0:13:16.600 in the Middle Ages. I just assumed that feudal lord 0:13:16.679 --> 0:13:22.559 slaughtered all the workers afterwards, exactly. Yeah, um the uh. 0:13:22.600 --> 0:13:26.680 They're also Chapels Chuck. And there's a castle in Scotland 0:13:27.320 --> 0:13:31.520 and the name escapes me right now, but it is 0:13:31.559 --> 0:13:34.720 supposedly the most haunted castle in the world and the 0:13:34.800 --> 0:13:37.400 reason why is one of the things that happened there 0:13:37.840 --> 0:13:41.520 was the feudal lord, the the person who owned the castle. 0:13:42.080 --> 0:13:45.480 His brother was saying mass in the chapel of the castle, 0:13:46.080 --> 0:13:48.880 and he came in and murdered his brother, beheaded him 0:13:49.080 --> 0:13:52.320 while he was saying mass. It's probably bad luck that, 0:13:52.520 --> 0:13:55.720 I don't think. I think running over gravestones is on 0:13:55.920 --> 0:13:59.800 par with that with your car. Yeah, it's pretty bad stuff. Yeah. 0:14:00.040 --> 0:14:02.600 That chapels they had lived in priests many times because 0:14:02.640 --> 0:14:05.360 they went to church every day. Back then. They had 0:14:05.720 --> 0:14:08.840 the Great Hall inside the castle, which is what you 0:14:08.840 --> 0:14:10.480 you know when you see them drinking the meat and 0:14:10.520 --> 0:14:12.440 feasting at the big table. It's in the great hall. 0:14:13.400 --> 0:14:17.000 They had storage obviously for their food and uh, the 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:19.400 horse food and all that kind of stuff. And little 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:23.640 known fact inside the keep, most rooms were heated with 0:14:23.680 --> 0:14:27.440 a fireplace. Yeah, I saw that that was worthy of 0:14:27.440 --> 0:14:29.920 putting in here. I thought that was interesting, Chuck. One 0:14:29.920 --> 0:14:31.720 of the things that I hadn't thought of until I 0:14:31.760 --> 0:14:35.560 read the article. It makes complete sense, is that um 0:14:35.880 --> 0:14:39.480 castles needed to have a self sufficient water supply. So 0:14:39.520 --> 0:14:41.960 you had to have a well within the castle walls, 0:14:42.560 --> 0:14:46.240 right Why Well, because if you were trapped in there 0:14:46.240 --> 0:14:48.440 and we'll we'll get to the siege later on. Oh 0:14:49.040 --> 0:14:52.880 that was my segue into the seas. Well. You need 0:14:52.920 --> 0:14:55.440 to have your water because when people siege, they kind 0:14:55.440 --> 0:14:57.840 of basically surround you and say, no one's coming out 0:14:57.880 --> 0:15:01.480 to get anything, right for months long time, so you 0:15:01.520 --> 0:15:03.840 better have your water and your food. And they said 0:15:03.840 --> 0:15:06.880 it just like that. I think, Actually, I thought you're 0:15:06.880 --> 0:15:08.440 gonna mention the dungeon. That's what I didn't know. You're 0:15:08.440 --> 0:15:11.960 moving on. Well, yeah, the dungeon was originally up high 0:15:12.040 --> 0:15:14.840 when it was called the Don Johnson like you said, uh, 0:15:14.880 --> 0:15:17.040 and then that became the keep and the dungeon was 0:15:17.120 --> 0:15:21.080 moved down low down. So that was just another interesting 0:15:21.120 --> 0:15:22.720 fact I thought was dungeons used to be like in 0:15:22.760 --> 0:15:25.040 the upper reaches. Yeah, you always think of dungeon is 0:15:25.080 --> 0:15:30.840 below the ground, right, but they're harder to escape from exactly, dude, binga. Uh. 0:15:30.920 --> 0:15:33.080 The other thing they had, Josh, besides the wells because 0:15:33.120 --> 0:15:34.920 they needed to get their water, was they used cisterns 0:15:35.000 --> 0:15:39.200 to collect rainwater. Very green living type of thing going on, right, 0:15:39.600 --> 0:15:42.160 Very smart to do so though. Yeah. Um so, Chuck, 0:15:42.200 --> 0:15:45.320 we were talking about sieges, remember remember that. Yeah, back 0:15:45.360 --> 0:15:48.480 to sieges. So, uh, let's say that you are you 0:15:48.600 --> 0:15:51.120 having a standing army within your castle and you're a 0:15:51.160 --> 0:15:53.360 feudal lord, and may you may or may not have 0:15:53.440 --> 0:15:55.920 just murdered your brother who while he was saying mass. 0:15:56.000 --> 0:15:58.600 But otherwise everything's hunky dory. And then all of a 0:15:58.600 --> 0:16:02.680 sudden and in eating army from another nearby lord uh 0:16:02.800 --> 0:16:05.880 comes up. So you basically batten down the hatches. To 0:16:06.080 --> 0:16:09.520 use a metaphor that doesn't really make any sense whatsoever 0:16:09.520 --> 0:16:13.640 because it's nautical in nature. Um, but basically, you you 0:16:14.280 --> 0:16:16.320 you try to fight them off as much as possible. 0:16:16.560 --> 0:16:19.760 But also you've got all of your entrances closed and guarded, 0:16:19.840 --> 0:16:22.400 and you've got people ready with hot oil at the 0:16:22.440 --> 0:16:24.840 murder holes and all that, and like we said, this 0:16:24.920 --> 0:16:28.400 can last for months or years. Yeah, the impression I 0:16:28.480 --> 0:16:29.920 got was that a lot of times there was never 0:16:29.960 --> 0:16:32.960 any fighting going on when they did the surround and 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:35.640 wait you out technique, right, and it actually led to 0:16:35.720 --> 0:16:38.720 the fewest casualties because a lot of times the invading 0:16:38.800 --> 0:16:42.360 army could negotiate the surrender of the castle. Well true, 0:16:42.520 --> 0:16:44.360 but the other side of the coin is, if you're 0:16:44.360 --> 0:16:46.920 going to be the army that surrounds the place, you 0:16:47.040 --> 0:16:49.960 gotta have your food and water too, right, So people 0:16:50.040 --> 0:16:54.280 inside the castle would use flaming arrows, catapults with flaming 0:16:54.720 --> 0:16:58.880 boulders maybe um, and shoot them into the countryside to 0:16:58.960 --> 0:17:01.480 set it on fire so the the invading army couldn't 0:17:01.480 --> 0:17:04.040 go get supplies from it, right yeah, and or for 0:17:04.119 --> 0:17:06.080 a dround and hunting that kind of stuff. But you 0:17:06.080 --> 0:17:11.080 could see some some invading army guy going the berries, right, 0:17:11.560 --> 0:17:14.840 they're on fire. That's what we counted on. Uh. The 0:17:14.880 --> 0:17:17.200 other cool thing too, if you were the invading army, 0:17:17.640 --> 0:17:20.560 you could catapult and this is not just for monty python. 0:17:21.000 --> 0:17:24.639 You could catapult like a dead cow, diseased cow, or 0:17:24.720 --> 0:17:27.400 diseased human or disease dead human into all I guess 0:17:27.440 --> 0:17:30.320 a disease live humans. All bets are off. I'm not 0:17:30.400 --> 0:17:34.000 dead yet, and you can catapult them over the wall 0:17:34.119 --> 0:17:38.639 and all of a sudden, this bovine diseased animal is 0:17:38.720 --> 0:17:41.080 just like splattered in the middle of your keep and 0:17:41.119 --> 0:17:44.800 you're in big trouble. Yeah. Uh. And I think probably 0:17:44.800 --> 0:17:48.280 the other reason that laying siege to well just waiting 0:17:48.920 --> 0:17:53.639 that kind of siege um was favored. It was because 0:17:54.520 --> 0:17:58.600 the whole reason you're attacking this castle is probably get 0:17:58.640 --> 0:18:00.679 the castle, I would think, so, so you want as 0:18:00.760 --> 0:18:04.520 little damage under the castle as possible, because if it 0:18:04.600 --> 0:18:07.840 took five I think or two to ten years to 0:18:07.880 --> 0:18:11.040 build a castle, yeah, you don't want to wait that time. 0:18:11.080 --> 0:18:13.240 You just go wait for some other schmow to build 0:18:13.280 --> 0:18:15.200 his and invade it and then take it. Yeah, it's 0:18:15.200 --> 0:18:19.440 a good idea. Yeah, that's the broadwater way, right, Uh, 0:18:19.520 --> 0:18:21.480 one of the other ways, Josh. And this, this you 0:18:21.480 --> 0:18:23.800 would think is right out of the cartoons, but actually happened. 0:18:23.800 --> 0:18:25.960 To get into a castle as you would use a 0:18:26.000 --> 0:18:28.040 scaling ladder and you would put a big, tall ladder 0:18:28.040 --> 0:18:30.080 and you would climb up it. But just like in 0:18:30.119 --> 0:18:32.800 the cartoon, you could just go up there and push 0:18:32.800 --> 0:18:35.080 the ladder off. What's the dudes are on it if 0:18:35.080 --> 0:18:37.879 you were strong enough, or you could shoot the flaming 0:18:37.920 --> 0:18:40.160 arrows at their head, which is our our favorite technique, 0:18:40.520 --> 0:18:44.520 throw objects down, pour hot oil on them, same deal, right. Uh. 0:18:44.560 --> 0:18:48.439 To get around this, you could create a um what 0:18:48.560 --> 0:18:51.560 are they called chuck A siege tower. Yeah, build your 0:18:51.600 --> 0:18:55.240 own portable tower and you have some a bunch of 0:18:55.280 --> 0:18:59.920 soldiers inside and they are waiting while some other soldiers 0:19:00.000 --> 0:19:02.479 own on the ground or pushing this tower right up 0:19:02.520 --> 0:19:04.800 against well as close as they can get to the 0:19:04.840 --> 0:19:08.440 castle and then the door opens and guys come streaming out. Yeah, dude, 0:19:08.480 --> 0:19:10.960 they would lower a plank across, you know, like a 0:19:10.960 --> 0:19:12.560 pirate ship would do. And let's say when they pulled 0:19:12.640 --> 0:19:14.679 up to another pirate ship and they would storm that 0:19:14.720 --> 0:19:17.000 way from up top. Yeah. I think that appeared in 0:19:17.119 --> 0:19:23.200 like the the last Lord of the Rings movie. No, 0:19:23.440 --> 0:19:27.359 I don't even say that. Yeah, they use that device 0:19:27.359 --> 0:19:30.800 in the Last Lord of the Rings movie. But Josh, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:32.840 that is not my favorite. And when I was talking 0:19:32.840 --> 0:19:38.000 about rudimentary genius, the battering ram, Oh yeah, you build 0:19:38.000 --> 0:19:41.520 big door, we take a big pole smash door. You know. 0:19:41.600 --> 0:19:44.560 It's funny. The fuzz still use that today. Oh yeah, 0:19:44.600 --> 0:19:47.600 those little metal things. I want one of those. You 0:19:47.640 --> 0:19:50.120 can get one. You can. Also you should probably dispose 0:19:50.200 --> 0:19:53.520 of the complimentary brass knuckles that come with your order there, right. 0:19:54.720 --> 0:19:56.840 Uh so, yeah, the battering ram obviously was It was 0:19:56.880 --> 0:19:59.760 a big tool for the invading army and um some 0:19:59.840 --> 0:20:02.560 of them were covered in like shields to prevent the 0:20:02.560 --> 0:20:05.440 flaming arrow from hitting their head. Some were wide open, 0:20:05.880 --> 0:20:09.200 and then to defend it once again, the rudimentary genius, 0:20:09.440 --> 0:20:12.000 they would like put they would slide like padding down 0:20:12.040 --> 0:20:13.879 in front of the door. They're like, oh, here they 0:20:13.880 --> 0:20:15.719 come in the battering and let's slew this mattress up 0:20:15.720 --> 0:20:19.120 against the door, which again I think that that's used 0:20:19.160 --> 0:20:22.920 in modern storming techniques by the fuzz and criminals. They 0:20:22.920 --> 0:20:26.840 would shoot flaming arrows into the door as well. Yeah, 0:20:26.880 --> 0:20:28.920 because it was would so catch the door on fire 0:20:28.960 --> 0:20:30.399 and maybe you can weaken it a little bit. I 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:33.400 think anytime there was wood, flaming arrows came into play, right, 0:20:33.840 --> 0:20:36.119 Ye always had to have a flaming arrow at the ready. 0:20:36.680 --> 0:20:41.400 Um castle's actually entered Decline, well, at least for military purposes, 0:20:41.560 --> 0:20:44.680 because of the invention of something we call the cannon. Yeah, 0:20:44.720 --> 0:20:47.160 once you had superior firepower, it doesn't matter how big 0:20:47.160 --> 0:20:50.199 your wall is exactly. Oh, we've left out one siege 0:20:50.240 --> 0:20:53.440 technique that I thought was awesome. The tunneling. Yeah, you're 0:20:53.440 --> 0:20:56.399 gonna say that. They would this this sieging army would 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:01.280 dig a tunnel all the way under the sele walls, right, 0:21:01.640 --> 0:21:04.560 and then they would they would use timber supports to 0:21:04.720 --> 0:21:06.679 hold the thing up while they were digging. When they 0:21:06.720 --> 0:21:09.480 finished digging, they would come back out set the tunnel 0:21:09.520 --> 0:21:12.240 on fire. The timber supports would burn and the the 0:21:12.280 --> 0:21:15.200 wall above would collapse because there was no longer any support. 0:21:15.480 --> 0:21:17.760 Pretty cool and that awesome. Yeah that I didn't It 0:21:17.800 --> 0:21:19.119 didn't make sense to me at first, but then I 0:21:19.160 --> 0:21:21.040 got it. So this is what you had to do 0:21:21.119 --> 0:21:23.680 to make a wall collapse. Then the cannon comes along 0:21:23.720 --> 0:21:24.960 and all you have to do is shoot a couple 0:21:24.960 --> 0:21:28.040 of cannonballs in the same place and then the wall collapses. Right, 0:21:28.080 --> 0:21:32.760 So castle's kind of fell out of use. But strangely enough, 0:21:33.119 --> 0:21:37.959