Indeed, if a besieging army lost too many men in an initial onslaught, it was often forced to retreat or give up the siege entirely. Because the costs were so high, military leaders normally did not rush into a siege. Besieging a castle involved assembling and paying an army, gathering supplies, and hauling them to the siege site. In fact the medieval siege was a complex, highly choreographed process that ended with a castle assault only when other tactics had failed to force a surrender. Sieges, likewise, involved much more than bombarding a fortress until either the garrison surrendered or the defenses were overcome. Ultimately, the siege dominated medieval warfare for at least as long as the castle dominated the social and political order of the day.Д«esieging a castle was a much more complicated affair than simply вЂrushing into the breach,вЂ™ as ShakespeareвЂ™s Henry V exhorted his troops before the 1415 siege of Harfleur. The successful castle siege skillfully combined sophisticated science with specific standards of conduct known to, but not always practiced by, the participants. Indeed, while battles such as Crcy (1346) have gleaned all the glory, it was not until the siege of Calais in the following year that the English made significant progress in their fight against France. By the late Middle Ages, few major campaigns took place without at least one castle siege. At the same time, in order to combat strengthened castle defenses, siegecraft developed. Even the simplest earth and timber motte and bailey castle, used to great effect by the Norman kings of England, validated the power of the conquering force.Дuring the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, castles evolved into powerful fortresses capable of defying intensive assaults. Throughout medieval Europe and the Middle East, the castle functioned as a private fortress that, among its other roles, physicallyвЂ“and symbolicallyвЂ“proclaimed the status and strength of its lord to all comers, friend or foe. Such battles, however, were the exception, for during the Middle Ages warfare was a much more complicated affair that more often than not involved siegecraft.ДЄfter his 1066 victory at Hastings, William the Conqueror initiated a massive castle-building program in England that was instrumental in completing the NormansвЂ™ subjugation of the Anglo-Saxons. Hastings, Bannockburn, and Agincourt come to mind.

The present-day notion of medieval warfare is of longbowmen standing shoulder to shoulder loosing arrows and knights charging across open fields before engaging in brutal hand-to-hand battle.

Mount and blade castle garrison