In France we visited a medieval siege camp in Larresingle, France. There was a castle there too.We got to wear some chain mail and choose a helmet. We couldn’t throw tomatoes or potatoes at each other in the stacks as they hadn’t made it to Europe yet. George thought that he wouldn’t wear chain mail again as it pulled the hairs out of his arms! But knights always had a fibre or leather suit underneath which also gave further protection. The helmets were made out of fibre glass which was much lighter, but still heavy on your head and hopeless to see out of! How on earth a knight could carry that much weight and wield weapons in a battle?
The castle we were pretending to attack had slits in the walls and platforms for archers and trebuchets and arrow throwing machines. They would throw boiling water, rocks and pooh and so on from the ramparts. (manure was funny in translation as the guide didn’t know that word and we didn’t know the French, we worked it out from an excellent miming routine however! – ed.) Larresingle had two keeps, a draw bridge a moat (not full anymore) and a portcullis. As attackers we had ladders, a 60cm horn which the dressed up presenter could blow very loudly.(We could all make it work a bit if we vibrated our lips as if you were playing a trumpet – ed.).They had a wheeled shield that about 8 men could hide under and push towards the walls without being killed. They had 5 siege engines and we were able to help fire three of them. We fired balls filled with water. We were able to lift the presenter up in the air with a trebuchet – it was fun! We also shot some arrows at a knight model. We dressed up too. There were all sorts of costumes. Monk, knight, peasant, but it was very hot to dress up. We made cannon balls for the trebuchets by chipping at rocks and we made some money out of lead with a pair of stamps (gold is too dear, but is also quite soft!) We saw a tool for twisting threads into rope.
The presenter showed us reproduction cannons too. There was a snake canon because the barrel is a long coiled piece of brass like a spiral. We didn’t get to fire these. The whole display and show was amazing. We were there all afternoon with just our family and the presenter to ourselves!
The tower also contained the Royal Mint, where the coins were made. It had to be secure.
The Tower Of London and Fit for a king
The tower was a royal Palace during medieval times, it was built as a defensive castle during the Norman Conquest. However they built their castle on top of Roman remains as the site was a good one beside the river. It was always meant to be a fortress and a stronghold. But it has also been a royal residence and could be used for defence. It is still protected by Beefeaters or Yoemen. To be in the Yoemanry you have to have special skills and been high ranking in the army. There is one New Zealand yeoman. The tower is one of the oldest buildings in London and it still houses the Crown Jewels. The Jewels are heavily guarded with red coat soldiers, cannon, videos, safes and big, very thick doors. They had massive opals, diamonds and other precious stones in the crowns and sceptres or sticks of state. Shimmering huge gold bowls and all manner of treasure. We were not allowed to take pictures. The Black Prince Ruby is not a
ruby but a rhutile (evidently, according to Henry –ed.) The Elizabeth Diamond is 5cm across. (Henry was carried away by the Jewel shops where you can buy miniature or copies of bits and pieces, we bought a glittery knight for the Christmas tree!)
There are many walls and towers, there are several gates, one leads to the river and is called “Watergate”. Prisoners came in this way from the Thames River. The moat is now drained. It became very stinky as it was stagnant. There are still some medieval living quarters there with very old furnishings.
We saw siege engines being operated here and the presenters were dressed up in medieval gear. The clothes were interesting. There was a professional soldier, a peasant soldier and his wife who joined the fight and a lady whose husband was killed by the nasty Scots!
We loved the armory were set up on a plastic frame like an airfix kit. Then a video of animated building of the airfix kit. You couldn’t see any hands building but the armour was pushed out and all the parts taken out and painted and put together on a model man. It was exciting and crafty to see. Some of the real pieces on display were held in place by giant plastic airfix sections. Other bits of armour were put together as if on a horse or a man. “ I would like a set of armour!”
Knights
We found out that you had to be rich to be a knight. You had to buy your own armour, horse and weapons. The armour would have cost more than a poor person’s house. Most soldiers were poor serfs or peasants who went to battle on foot. Often they wouldn’t have much to fight with. Sometimes they weren’t trained, but just had to do what they were told and then get home afterwards to plant the fields or do the harvesting. Barons kept better trained men, they had a pole weapon, a sword and a small shield some protective clothes with plates on their hands, elbows and shoulders with strips or splints of metal between them to stop their arms being cut by swords. Disciplined foot soldiers and archers became more common later on in the middle ages and this was the end of the big, heavy knights. One archer could take down a knight form a distance. Sometimes barons were almost more powerful than the King as he didn’t have an army but relied on the help of the Barons. He had to keep them happy and they had to serve the King.
We also visited castles in England. There was Chepstowe Castle, it was great. We bought a wooden model of a siege engine to build at home. We also visited one in Abergavenny in Wales, where we bought some daggers made of wood. We have had lots of battles.
Images the first ones above, except for the one of our presenter at Larresingle being pulled up by us on a siege engine. -Ed
Each village was owned by a lord and his lady. They made all the rues and decisions for the village. The next person down was the steward who worked for the lord, he was better off than the peasants. Then there was the bailiff who ran the estate day to day. Then there was the Reeve who was elected by the peasants. He made sure that nothing was stolen. The peasants did not own their land or house and paid rent in the form of crops and so on. The lord owned the mill, the grape press and so the villages had to use these and give part of their harvest to the Lord.
Trousers were a pair of hose or legs that were tied on at the to the doublet, this is why we have a pair of trousers!
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