Introduction

You have recently been successful in gaining control of a decently sized piece of land, and you current motte-and-bailey is becoming too small for you and your followers. Your serfs also demand more safety in these uncertain times. It is up to you to design and build a castle that will be comfortable for your family, large enough for your military, and provide defense against your neighbors and their siege machines.

Task

In designing and building your castle, you must:

1. Select the ideal location for your castle, taking into account the geography of the surrounding area and the resources around you.
2. Create an elevation and floor plan for your castle, labeling the various parts of the castle, and why you included them.
3. List the specific defenses you have included in your castle against your war-loving neighbors, and the troops and equipment you already have to defend yourself. There must be space and resources in your castle to support whatever army or machines you have! (Remember, a plague of various kinds could strike at any point and wipe out part of you army...)
4. Lastly, you will have to present and defend your castle to your classmates. This will take the form of a 10-minute presentation to the class, explaining why you placed your castle where you did, what your castle looks like, and what kinds of fortifications you have. You will also have to answer questions and challenges from your classmates and Mrs. Yuenger.

Process

1. You will work in a small group of 4 students. You should select the roles of Lord, Architect, Carpenter, and General. (Click on each role to see what each role is expected to do.) Once you have done this, you must name your castle and draw a banner to accompany it, including your coat of arms.

2. You will be assigned to landscape 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5. To save your landscape, first click on the link. When your landscape comes up, first click on the picture, press Ctrl-c, open a new Word document, and press Ctrl-v to paste the picture onto the page. You should use this page to type out your rationale for placing your castle where you decide to place it.

3. Choose on the landscape where you would like to place your castle, marking it with an "x". (You will have to print out the page to mark where your castle will go.) The ideal place for your castle depends on your map, but you should take into consideration the following factors:

• The geography of the area: What can you use to keep an eye on your neighbors? What can you use to defend your castle? What can your enemies use to conceal themselves and start a sneak attack?
• Resources in the area: What is nearby that you can use? Is it better to keep food and water close to your castle or far away? Are there any resources that your neighbors would like to take from you?
• Your serfs: Your serfs work for you to provide food, clothing, and other necessities. Your castle must have easy access to all your serf villages, or they will be more likely to join your enemies as they attack you. (You can never trust those serfs...)

4. Once you have selected the position for your castle, you must design the best castle possible to withstand the assaults from your neighbors. You must label and justify the different defensive pieces you include.

Some good resources to find information about castles and their parts:

• Castles of Wales: Pictures and maps of actual castles in and around Wales. Also includes a list of castle terminology.
• Castles of Britain: Various information on most all topics about castles around the British Isle. (Checking around these various pages will give you a great idea of daily life requirements of a castle.) Includes a HUGE list of castle terms.
• Medieval Warfare: A very simple webpage including information on tactics, weapons, and armor. A little annoying.
• Castles on the Web: Also includes pictures and other information about daily life in the castle. And another dictionary of castle terms.
• Master James of St. George: Info about Master James, castle builder of King Edward I. Could provide some good guidance for the Lord.
• Medieval History Timelines: Contains not only a timeline of medieval times, but also some 3-D tours of a few castles.
• If you can't find what you are looking for in these links, I would recommend using a Google search.

5. After you have researched what you would like to include in your castle, it is time to create an elevation and floor plan for your castle. These do not have to be works of art, but they must meet certain qualifications:

• You must be able to realistically build your castle.
• You must be able to realistically build your castle using the technology that was available in the year 1400.
• Your elevation should be in color, your floor plan should be black and white.
• You must label at least 20 different castle parts between both pictures. (For example, you could label 5 on the elevation and 15 on the floor plan.)

6. To accompany the castle elevation and floor plan, you must provide a written rationale of the defensive aspects of your castle. Here you should define the 20 castle parts you have included in your castle, and why they are included. These could be for defensive use (I included a belfry to quickly put together a siege against Lady Yuenger) or for the comfort of the castle inhabitants (I included a buttery to cheer the soldiers between battles).

7. Now that your castle is designed, you must put together a list of the soldiers and armaments that will be housed in your castle. There should be a specific place on the castle plan that will house this military, and the military should reasonably fit in that space. If your military is too large for the space, it could breed illnesses, like the plague. You should also include what you plan to pay your military, and what they will be responsible for themselves. In this description of your military strengths, you should also include some of your weaknesses, and how you have planned to compensate for them.

8. Finally, you will have to present and defend your castle to your fellow classmates. In a ten-minute presentation, you will have to explain:

• Where you placed your castle
• Why you placed your castle where you did
• What your castle looks like (showing your elevation and floor plan)
• What defenses your castle has
• Why you made the decisions you did

Your classmates (and Mrs. Yuenger) will be grading this part of your presentation, and will be asking you questions about your choices.

Evaluation

Your group will be evaluated using the following rubric. This is a sliding scale for each of the parts of the process, with the maximum points you can earn at each level described at the top. If a part is not done, you can also earn a 0.

Your group will receive one grade, which you can then distribute among all the group members. For example, if your group got an 85, your group of 4 would have 340 points to distribute. You could decide that all members get an 85, or give everyone but Oswald (who was only in class for 1 day and didn't do a whole lot of work) a 95, while Oswald gets a 55. If you choose to do this, you must write down why Oswald got such a low grade, and it must be approved by Mrs. Yuenger.

Please print out a hard copy of this rubric to hand in with the rest of your project papers.

Conclusion

By now you will have realized just how difficult daily survival was in the Middle Ages. Not only was there frequent warring over land, but Lords were responsible for an incredibly large number of people and resources. Building a quality castle that could not only withstand the elements and provide comfort for your family, but also withstand the sieges of your neighbors and provide emergency protection for your serfs. But by putting in the time and research to build a quality castle, you can see how some are still standing over 700 years later.