"Castle" - complete 1983 David Macauley PBS TV Special

[Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] ever since William of Normandy boldly conquered England in 1066 the Norman kings of the realm and sought to solidify their power over all of Britain they met a particularly brave and stubborn foe in the Welsh who steadfastly refused to submit to any English monarch tapestry as a medieval illuminations tell of a line of Kings who for more than 200 years tried without success to bring Wales into the English nation they tell many stories of pitch battles and fierce struggle and they tell of the coming of Edward the first a king of power and vision and word saw that the key to victory in hostile Wales lay in English castles manned by English troops and controlled by loyal barons which is why on March 27th twelve hundred and eighty-three King Edward invested Kevin Lestrange as Lord of Abaddon in agriculture in rich but rebellious Northwest Wales the King's first charge to Lord Kevin build a castle there the finest that modern engineering could produce [Music] [Music] it never really was a place called Abra wyvern or a baron called Lord Kevin Lestrange I made them up but the rest of the story is quite true and here's the proof this is the castle Conway built some seven hundred years ago I first saw the Welsh castles on summer holidays with my parents I found them big dark and mysterious I remember peeking into all their murky chambers running along the passages and racing up every spiral staircase two steps ahead of my sister she remembers it slightly differently when I grew older I often thought of those childhood experiences and romantic visions but eventually I began asking some basic questions how were these castles built and why so I decided to find out I returned to Wales to visit a few of my old haunts and a number of new ones but this time when I peeked into those darkened chambers and raced sister Liz up to the tops of the towers I was inventing my own imaginary castle which I call dad a wife as a story of my castle unfolds we'll be visiting some of the real castles it's based on and finding out something about the people who live in and around them sharing my interest in history and architecture is cerebral and will help me tell the story hello David hello Sarah Sarah what interests you most about castles actually I'm more interested in the people what they would like how they lived how and why they were different from us and they were different white thing oh yes most of the people were peasants they were tied to the land they were born on and they never moved more than a few miles away from their homes they were totally controlled by and depended upon the lord of the manor they couldn't count on anything for instance the land providing enough to live on they might find themselves in political or military disputes diseases of all kinds were a continual threat and there were few known cures but for everyone rich and poor survival was the all-consuming effort if you had lived in the Middle Ages and were fortunate enough to survive birth and childhood you pretty much knew what you were expected to do for the rest of your life and only if you were exceptionally bright and industrious could you hope to rise beyond your social origins after all you probably couldn't even afford to marry unless you had an inheritance of some sort and whoever you were the chances were you would die young the most important things in life were faith in God and personal obligations to the church to the king perhaps to a guild and of course to the local Lord such as your Kevin the strange who is you'll remember had just been made Lord of abbyr wyvern and was setting sail for his new fiefdom in Wales we sailed to the mouth of the river widened I met there with master James of Barrington the famous engineer who was already at work on other castles working in Wales and Scotland I hope he proves worth his fee of three shillings of the day and I'm missing Denton son I trust you had a pleasant journey Lord Kevin is the journey from London ever a pleasant one can hardly I dare say shall we begin my order it is critical that we be able to command all the surrounding lands and control traffic and commerce through the area after surveying the entire area my lord I've decided the outcrop of rock extending into the water provides the best natural defence how I'm sure a military strategist of your skill will agree but erm and of course the river provides an obvious escape route it should won't ever prove necessary let us hope to god it does not at the foot of the outcrop over there we will lay out the town and that will provide the first ring of the castle defense hmm I am very pleased master James thank you my lord His Majesty has impressed upon me the urgency of this project after all we are in hostile territory carpenters are already building workshops and banks and I must say my lord the protection of your soldiers provides great comfort indeed if necessary precaution we know the well shall watching [Music] satisfied with the progress Kevin returned home and reported to his king as since your last visit I've laid out the boundaries of the talk which the diggers are trenching so we may build award master jen's what sufficed in King Henry's new respect my lord I have traveled throughout Europe and the Holy Land studying the great military architecture your castle will be the strongest yet seen in the kingdom I'm glad to hear it it is laid out in defensive rings the outer curtain wall will measure 300 feet on each of its sides and will be defended by towers and gate houses if by any chance an extremely unlikely one the attackers succeed in penetrating this area they will be forted by the inner curtain wall 12 feet thick and 35 feet high with 50 foot high towers an intruder would virtually have to fly here to get him a true toll against Prince Davies and his Welsh rebels in the center of the in award we have the living quarters for yourself and Lady Catherine your children and servants my wife is a particular sort of woman she will not relish living in this godforsaken odd person you see that you make her quarters as pleasing as possible you may have my assurance of that my lord over here will be the barracks for the soldiers here the Great Hall and kitchen and storerooms and here in the safest part of the castle will be the well Newcastle is only as safe as its water supply and the town it will be a simple grid of streets and blocks to be further divided into Lots very good but the time defenses the three entrances in the tower wall will be fortified with double tower gate houses it should prove quite effective most impressive but how fast can the budget we built a vast stone is being quarried and loaded on ships some of which have already set sail but when the stone arrives to maintain the pace of construction His Majesty demands I simply must have more workers and so you shall master Jones Lord Kevin sent constables to several English cities to find the multitude of workers master James required over 500 diggers were forced to march all the way from Lincolnshire [Music] some local officials grumbled since they had building projects of their own to complete but Lord Kevin's representatives spoke in the name of King Edward himself one who was pleased to come was the blacksmith Andrew from the town of Chester there are already many skilled Smith's in Chester so the call for work in a burr wipin struck me as a fine opportunity and with Lord Kevin's terms I become a master straight away without paying any guild fee it's a chance to establish myself in the new town build house and start a family [Music] am i Maude Kelly construction on above Ivan castle is at its height there are now 3,000 workers on the site and we have finally secured sufficient master craftsmen to oversee them in the July in this year of our Lord twelve hundred and eighty four we began the outer curtain and the town wall foundation as I explained to you and we last met the two stone faces are bound with mortar made of sand and lime and as the war grows the space in between is filled with rubble materials are carried up the walls on scaffolding supported by foot blocks set in holes in the doors in ourselves we find this and most official means of construction we use hoist and foliage till it light materials and tools you understand sir that the windows near the bottom of the walls and towers must be small enough so that an enemy soldier cannot climb through all the windows will be protected by iron grills and can be closed off by wooden shutters on the inside in your living quarters your gracious Lady Catherine will be pleased to note that each window will be fitted with glass of course the tops of the walls will be translated with embrasures and Merlin's each Merlin will be kept by three fearsome-looking finials I have provided for arrow loops in the Merlin's for your archers where the wedge-shaped recess cut out of the stone the archer may aim anywhere across his field of vision without exposing himself to the attackers one of the many refinements that adds up to the greatest castle I or any other Englishman has ever built [Music] [Music] when the weather turned cold the partially completed walls were covered with straw and dung to keep the new mortar from freezing and cracking and so protected the castle sat through the winter [Music] it's important to remember that the medieval castle is really a military machine and every part has a specific function for instance crenellations like these at Caernarfon art for decoration as you saw in my imaginary castle at Abra wyvern they had a practical and deadly purpose it's like today I suppose the military minds of the time we're constantly trying to come up with improvements sure look at these advanced arrow loops arranged in the wall so that an archer could shoot in two directions from the same position and the development of the arrow loop in the first place was certainly an improvement over having to expose yourself to the enemy's fire in order to shoot your own weapon it's because of improvements like these that Kenard v'n built towards the end of the 13th century his castle building at its most sophisticated before it were the first time castles cathedrals and other mammoth construction projects had taken generations to build with long delays when the money ran out it was changed all this with his castles he placed the financial resources of the entire kingdom behind them he set up a bureaucracy to handle those finances as well as planning and recruitment he also expected his lords and barons to bear a large share of the cost he drafted armies of willing and unwilling workers and so instead of taking generations Edwards castles were built in less than a decade the earliest English castles were motte-and-bailey fortifications the Motte was a high mound of earth on which stood a wooden Tower the open space at the base of the Motte was a Bailey and around the top of the Motte and the Bailey was a high wooden fence called a palisade during the early part of the 12th century these palisaded earthworks were replaced by stone structures and during the Crusades the Europeans came up against even stronger and more impressive castles in Syria that must have been an unpleasant shock I'm sure it was but they they learned well from what they saw and by the end of the 13th century many of these eastern ideas had worked their way into European castles along with a number of original improvements such as well for example here at beaumaris on the island of Anglesey is one tremendous improvement over earlier castle designs you can see that the gatehouse in the outer wall that does not line up with the gatehouse to the inner wall oh yes now should an enemy soldier get through the outer gate house and make for the inner ward he couldn't go straight in he'd have to go diagonally across the defenders field of five exactly from there all the way over to here now that bit of strategic genius was the work of one of the great architectural minds of the Middle Ages master James of st. George whose namesake appears in our story the very same [Music] in the spring the workers returned and construction went along smoothly throughout the summer of 1285 [Music] by that fall many of the towers and sections of the town wall had reached their full height [Music] and in December when the temperature dropped too low to work with wet mortar all but a few hundred of the workers once again returned home to their families through outing them the next year master James brought in a hundred extra masons to speed up work on the inner curtain and its towers as the castle drew nearer completion timbers were brought from the forests of Dean [Music] Lord Kevin brought his friend Lord Raymond Loewy Bouvier to meet master James and inspect the progress also under obligation to King Edward Lord Raymond was preparing his own castle to command the northernmost sea route to Wales there are three rooms in Avatar the lowest one the basement level is for storage in the unlikely event the walls are breached during a siege each tower may have to defend itself and so must have its own surprise the upper rooms will be used for living and working space and this must be your dungeon over here and it was not finished one day too soon just as the trap door was set in the basement floor my soldiers caught a man stealing lead from master James's storeroom I'll warrant your first guest resolved not to pay the dungeon a return visit and this is a fortress of war but no Castle is complete without a chapel for the worship of God without whose favor Oh are to no avail magnificent two full story I have scarce seen such beautiful glass or such a noble altar and deeply moved Kevin there this way please my Lords [Music] that GateHouse's are the last major construction for both castle and tan defense do please watch your footing my Lords the stairs are not as yet even since the gate houses are most vulnerable I have to design them with great care first a heavy timber portcullis can be lowered to block the entrance and beyond that a set of wooden doors which cannot be opened when the drawbar is slid into place arrow loops in the towers allow the archers to rake and pepper the area and then of course that are murder holes cut into the ceiling through which soldiers above can attack any intruders in the passageway that would imply that they could even reach this point rather difficult because the gatehouse defenses begin with the drawbridge the inner end is weighted and when supports underneath are removed that end swings down into a pit lifting the other end high above the moat most efficient and now my Lords the inner ward the very heart of the castle the barracks building is two stories high with a slate roof heaven less we have plenty of that around here the phrase erected first and the spaces between the Timbers filled with water under the soldiers will live on the second floor and the basement is for stables and many of the castles weapons and over there is the amorous yet it's been quite a sight seeing these buildings going up around the ward taking the place of our old Hut's those are top rooms of course they've the Lord and this lady in their noble ESTs Bucky the dogs have the finest of accommodation I mean look at them kennels in the east corner and next to that is the leaf award kevin's prized hunting birds everything's been thought of in the castle you no longer have to go out back when nature calls there's God hopes built right into the walls there's a round hole cut into the stone slab leading right straight down to the cesspit below though I'll admit the guard Arobin the most comfortable place on a cold winter night Oh your Great Hall will be here I placed it in a corner of the inner ward so that only two new walls of the reply [Music] [Applause] [Music] we have used the forces of nature to our advantage a system in the tower supplies a sink with running water it is convenience itself and the kitchen will prove quite adequate to service the needs of a great household such a tool [Music] even though castles were designed for military purposes their living areas were made as comfortable as possible remember window openings on the outside walls had to be kept small so an attacker couldn't get through the nicer rooms were higher up in the towers where you could safely have larger windows although the walls were eight to ten feet thick recesses like this made it easier to enjoy the light now tower rooms for the lord and lady their special guests and high-ranking officials were quite spacious and rather comfortable by the standard of the day large stone fireplaces were built into the walls which were often hung with beautiful tapestries stone cobbles jutting out of the walls supported the beams normally they had curtain beds and mattresses stuffed with straw chairs and dressing tables a typical tower had three or four rooms one on top of the other and each one served a different function but the most important room in any castle was the Great Hall this was where they congregated eight socialized we're in the Great Hall of penshurst place in Kent one of the few well-preserved halls in all of Britain the Great Hall at a bur wyvern would have looked something like this for meals the Lord lady and their important guests would have sat at a higher table everyone would sit on one side so the servants could serve more easily from the other everything except soup and sauce was eaten with the fingers bowls and even wine cups we'll share with a person sitting next to you that must have made good table manners essential our protocol was quite rigid a medieval Emily Post wrote wash your hands in the morning and if there is time your face which is exactly what I tell my daughter he was a napkin and handkerchief to wipe your mouth not your hands and it with three fingers only and don't gorge don't pick your teeth with your knife or wipe your hands on the tablecloth it sounds like good advice I don't butter your bread with your fingers but there are so many rules to remember it it could make you lose your appetite and don't spit on the table or over it I wasn't going to I should hope not after the meal the entertainment began musicians performed on loops or harps there were jokes stories epic poems and historical tales children listen to legends and fables there were tables for backgammon chess or dice and when the weather was good one could go outside for bowling or falconry in bad weather everyone gathered around the fire for warmth and to ward off the gloom by the standards of the day castle residents lived in luxury especially when you consider the lot of the Welsh peasants they lived in meager wooden shacks slept in crowded communal beds and often finished up the day cold hungry and exhausted from so many hours of strenuous labor now not all the people of Wales were peasants or lived in poverty but for the most part the standard of living hardly matched the castle life but there was another way of life somewhere between these two extremes that was growing and becoming the most influential force in medieval society and that was the life in the towns we're inside a restored medieval House of the wheeled and Dowland open-air Museum in Sussex because they were built of wooden not stone buildings this old or rather rare and hard to find this is close to what the interior of a craftsman Zoar shopkeepers house in a burr wyvern would have looked like this is a timber framed structure and the spaces between the uprights are filled with wattle and daub wattle is a woven lattice of sticks which is covered over on both sides with dog a mixture of mud cow dung and straw a stone in the center of the floor served as a hearth for heating and cooking and assured the constant danger of fire these houses like the castles and rural health were damp drafty and often overcrowded there was no glass for the windows and the running water we saw in the castle was unheard of keeping clean was a continual challenge so was eating well darts were unbalanced - not very nutritious the water wasn't always sanitary making a threat of deadly disease even greater but despite all of that so much of what we now see in Western civilization begins here in the medieval town it had it municipal laws its own gills to regulate crafts and trade and its own elected officials who are usually the leading merchants merchants shopkeepers and other members of this new middle class were fast becoming a force to be reckoned with King Edward in his time worked closely with this force for mutual benefit sheep could be raised in the hills around a bur wyvern wool was a lucrative trade item it could be sheared carded woven spun and died there then sold either in England or in Europe for a handsome profit an enterprise like that would need a town to support it and this naturally gave the king added incentive for his military campaign in Wales while the strong stone walls low taxes and the promise of a better life gave many common people their own incentive to settle in a place like other wyvern in October of 1288 more than five years after master james set out the first boundary markers ever wyvern castle was finally completed the entire outside of the castle was whitewashed making it look as if it had been carved from a single blooming piece of stone [Music] I have now turned my attention to the town only the English will be allowed to settle here at first as his Majesty wants it to be an outburst of royalty in this rebellious region and with the promise of low rents and other enticements the town will attract a goodly number of established industrious people then once a person earns a house he would certainly want to protect it if the town of castle were ever attacked I decided to settle in the town and since I was one of the first I got a building lot close to the well soon houses spread all up and down the Main streets my house has a ground floor of packed earth covered with reeds I covered the small window opens with oiled sheepskin to keep out the chill and we depend upon our fire for both heat and light trading and wolves been strong in Europe they say now the hills outside of town are covered during the day with a bur wavern sheep we hope that as we continued to grow King Edward will grant us a charter and so we can holy nearly fare like the one at Chester that would bring merchants from all over especially for our wolf maybe even Italians from across the sea imagine boy Italians in a bur Whiteman here is Thomas the shoemaker shop and over there's my close friend Oliver the tailor looks like he's opening up e shutters to start business of the day as the number of shops is increased some locations have become a bit more desirable than others though we like him well enough no one wants the spot behind Matthew the butcher's shop oh that's Robert the barbers place we aren't large enough for a full-time physician so we count on Robert to cure all manner of ills by bleeding out the bad humors the man blowing horn over there is the tents card who will take your life stock egg to be grazed hey more in the window hmm that's one Lord Kevin servants on his way to the castle and that's where I'm ed - now that I'm an official Smith there Andrew had a right to be proud of the new castle everyone in the town was impressed but whether the elegant Lady Catherine would be impressed when she arrived was another matter entirely being bound by the duties attendant upon my station in life and being my Lord's obedient wife I knew there was no choice but to go and make the best of it so on April the 23rd twelve hundred and eighty nine I arrived at the castle with my ladies-in-waiting younger children and servants for much of our married life I've been a way of fighting wherever my team needed me so Katherine has learned to manage the household on her own she is as important to the proper functioning of our family and property as iron master James and my Lord spent six years making the castle the strongest in the land I've set myself to work making it as elegant and comfortable as as a castle can possibly be I insisted that master James install fireplaces in every room of our living quarters even though it was costly I think it much to the family's benefit to relax in these smaller warmer rooms away from the drafts and noise of the Great Hall particularly in the winter when everyone is cooped up inside I hung the wars with beautiful tapestries from Normandy and Flanders and I also brought our collection of books from which the tutor Philip teaches our children I set a great store in education I oversee the training of our own soldiers and there's time I often joined them for riding or hunting I must oversee all the servants and though the soldiers may have much leisure time I can always find something for the servants to do I was working in the Forge on a quiet afternoon in May when a messenger arrived on horseback and asked to see Lord Kevin directly his message King Edward was coming for a visit in just a few days our household has been thrown into a frenzy of preparation and as I think Bethany longingly to those glittering visits to the Royal Court I am determined to make his Majesty's stay one that will not soon be forgotten first there is the matter of cleaning the castles all of it then accommodation Lord Kevin and I will relinquish our own apartment for the king's use of course we in turn will move to the stewards quarters he to the Chamberlain's the Chamberlain to the marshals the marshal to the butler's and so on [Music] the times people meanwhile are particularly excited about the royal arrival [Music] King Edward is making his entrance through town so that we can all catch a glimpse of His Royal Highness naturally all business has stopped pips lot every day you get to see a king in the evening we held a great feast for His Majesty [Music] [Music] but the purpose of the Kings visit is not entirely social though the Welsh countryside has been relatively quiet of late the King won't bear that Prince Tabitha willeth is raising an army for an assault on all the English strongholds in Wales His Majesty and I discussed strategy long into the night [Music] the modern game of chess which dates from about the time of lord kevin's castle is a fairly accurate representation of medieval warfare battles were usually small by modern standards and the real-life ratio between knights and their aides and Squires or pawns was pretty close to what we see on this board check just as in the game killing your opponent wasn't so much the object as cornering him and leaving him without options which I just did checkmate so you did let's get back to the real thing this is Harlech one of Edwards castles that actually went through a bloody siege in those days this was a dry moat and in order to reach the gatehouse you climbed the causeway and cross the drawbridge very much the way I placed it at Abra wyvern the whole concept of castle construction was to give the defender every possible advantage and that began with the high ground on which they built if there happened to be water or mountains - so much the better even today it looks impregnable and during the rebellion of 1290 for only 37 men held off an entire army here the first defense was the drawbridge it spanned the moat and connected to the end of the causeway there were weights under this end when the supports were pulled out this end dropped down into a pit and that ends swung up but even if you could get across the moat when the bridge was up it became a solid dome that's right and there were also soldiers on either side at the gatehouse and above the main entrance oh yes I see they were also protected by heavy wooden doors and behind each pair of doors was a heavy oak drawbar which slid across here and into that slot over there a portcullis slid up and down in these grooves arrows could be shot through here a second portcullis was here a second pair of doors was here and another drawbar across here now if for any reason an attacking army was able to break through the gate Sara you be the Welsh army and attack my castle I didn't know about that so as to be English against work again is this just to make a point for the sake of history I think I'd rather have your part David I'm already for you I think I know how the works must have felt of course all right now come on forward pretending you've made it over the drawbridge and through the outer gate assuming I could master James was trying to make sure you couldn't but let's say you did very well I bet my way through the door so you have and as soon as you did I dropped the portcullis behind you now you're trapped between two portcullises and my archers can get you through the arrow loops checkmate now I can dump boiling water burning coal stones possibly even a dead cat on you through this opening called a murder hole I can see why you can also see what a mess you'd be in well of course you had all the advantages that's what King Edward was paying for then let's sign you enough knots comes through the gate and instead built a wooden seat are up against the wall then I'd dump burning straw down on you and set the tower on fire all right then two can play at this game what if I just sit outside and wait for you to starve well I might get hungry after a while but don't forget I've got reinforcements on the way then that side got a tunnel under the castle wall and came in by surprise you'd be a very good general miss borne then that is the best way I didn't say that all of these methods were difficult and risky including that one but the fact that they were even tried says something about the tremendous strength of these castles well if they had to be built that strong it must also say something about the scourge and determination of the Welsh people absolutely right they were a fiercely proud brave and independent people and any English monarch who forgot that did so at his own peril as part of his program in 1284 King Edward the first named his son who was born at Caernarfon to be the first Prince of Wales and ever since that time the eldest son of every English monarch has had the title of Prince of Wales Sarah do you know what the King's first gift to his son was let me guess a toy castle you've got it let's get on with our story [Music] throughout the night Lord Kevin's soldiers stood watch from the highest towers while merchants craftsmen and farmers took turns Manning the town wall in the waters around the castle well ships prevented escape or new supplies reaching the English [Music] and as the first light of dawn broke over the mountains Prince davit and his troops grimly marched toward a believer [Music] what lay in our way we destroying the flour mill the livestock barns farmhouses I ordered all the grain fields put to the torch no longer will be supper the presence of the cursive English in our land [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] we breached the town wall then house-by-house we fought up toward the castle [Music] a few fortunate townspeople made it into the castle ahead of their Welsh pursuers who are trapped in the Gateway between the portcullises [Music] from high atop the gatehouse tower to the inner ward Lord Kevin watched the destruction and slaughter if I could only send forces up help the brave townsman on the frontline but if I leave the castle without defenses the whole siege will be lost and with the well shaman closing him I cannot open the gates for any more people escaping the carnage but now the battle has come to us outside the castle walls Devitt smen assembled in force preparing their siege towers and catapults inside the castle archers stood poised ready to unleash the first wave of arrows as the attackers came within their range my plan has been to cut off the castle from the land while our ships cut it off from the sea and to starve Kevin into surrender but when my messenger came with news that King Edward had dispatched a large force from the north I knew we could not wait I'm a sardonic they reached the wall as one attacker fell another took his place rolled as boiling water and arrows kept son away while others have to be blocked directly on the point of a sword or axe my sappers are digging a tunnel under the wall when they finish the logs supporting it will be burned then the tunnel will collapse the wall with it and we can storm the castle and send the English dogs straight to hell inside the inner ward part of the barracks became a hospital as the wounded were brought down from the walls the fighting of a castle war continued without let-up for three days as each exhausted ship was replaced by the Lynx [Music] [Music] this morning news has reached me that the troops of King Edward are less than a day away now we must make our final move I am ordering the tunnel [Music] [Applause] but throughout it all my castle remains secure and impenetrable and the wall over the surface tunnel proved too strong and thick to fall the Welsh attackers have done their worst but they were no match for our castles defenses [Music] Duffy knows the advantage is now mine we have no way of smashing their defenses before the English reinforcements arrive the best we can hope for is a stalemate to keep Kevin in check the tide of battle has turned finally I have honor I am ordering at its feet we have no choice we will need greater strength to drive this curse in English from our homeland until we do the struggle will never cease we know that God and rights are on the side of Wales and we are willing to die for our land [Music] there were more battles over at a wyvern but in the years that followed Welsh families began to take up residence outside the town wall during fairs and on market days they came in to sell and trade their goods [Music] eventually Welsh and English lived side by side and the town became too large for the wall that enclosed it when the Welsh became part of the business life of the area the castle built to subdue them became unnecessary thus the full measure of King Edward's victory wasn't achieved until almost 200 years after his death by that time Lord Kevin's mighty fortress stood empty and ruthless from neglect and when travellers came to ask directions to Abby wyvern they meant not the derelict old castle but the thriving town [Music] there weren't many castles built in Britain during the 14th century there was neither the resources nor the need Wales was successfully though reluctantly brought under English rule and the next steps had to be economic and social rather than military the great age of English and European castle-building was for the most part over the 13th century remarkable for its scholastic economic judicial and architectural achievements faded into a 14th century of more frequent Wars disease famine and disorganization by the end of the 1300s the European population had been cut nearly in half by an enemy the people of the Middle Ages dreaded far more than all the armies the most powerful princes could muster the Black Death no Castle wall could keep out the plague a terrifying infectious disease that spread through Europe beginning in 1348 [Music] nor could any castle would stand the introduction of gunpowder Cannon and other improvements to the business of war making [Music] so Edwards castles were abandoned and ignored except by bloke 'el builders who use them as quarries for stone [Music] but the great castle here at Conway which happens to be my favorite is still a powerful and stirring reminder of the past in the midst of this bustling town I can't help thinking that in the nearly 700 years since Edwards time so much has changed methods of warfare outlooks on life that these castles are still here I wonder if anything in our own civilization will last as long [Music] in spite of the romantic images they conjure up we mustn't overlook the fact that castles symbolize a long-standing and less flattering human trait man's apparently insatiable desire for conflict and conquest but in these castles there is an optimistic irony perhaps even a lesson to be learned for as impressive as the ruins are they are after all ruins neglected machines of war surrounded by life life they helped create but which has survived them and which continues to flourish long after each invincible fortress quickly and quietly succumbed to obsolescence [Music] [Applause] [Music] thanks for watching if you'd like to help us produce more compelling historical content like this please like comment below and share this video with fellow history buffs and of course be sure to subscribe to help keep history happening you

Channel: LionHeart FilmWorks

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Rating: 4.5972223 out of 5

Keywords: documentary (tv genre), castle, pbs tv, middle ages documentary, welsh castle, david macauley, pbs tv shows, pbs tv worth watching, pbs tv series full episodes, early middle ages documentary, welsh castles documentary, david macaulay, david macaulay castle, david macaulay cathedral, david macaulay pyramid, david macaulay roman city, david macaulay mill times, david macaulay the way things work, 13th century, middle ages documentary for students, Caernarfon Castle, wales, conwy

Id: e-M1giwy5M0

Length: 56min 8sec (3368 seconds)

Published: Sat Aug 31 2019