Herefordshire Through Time
Herefordshire Through Time
The military role of the castle can be divided into two categories, the offensive and the defensive. The most obvious military systems were the defensive; the deep ditches surrounding the castles, the mounds on which they sat and the stone palisades and walls that defended them.
The castle needed to be prepared for attack, and men were employed to ensure that it was ready should the time come:
The soldiers of the castle would include archers and foot soldiers as well as the mounted knights.
Knights were members of the nobility who lived by a code of chivalry and virtue. They were trained to fight and were equipped with the best armour and weapons. The equipment of a knight could cost the equivalent of 100 years' salary for the average labourer. Knights were usually tied to a particular lord, meaning that they fought for his cause and performed knight's service of up to 40 days a year at one of his castles.
Foot soldiers were the ordinary men who lived and worked on the lord's estate. They would fight on foot and were usually only equipped with long pikes or spears. These men were the most likely to die in battle.
Squires, who were trainee knights from other noble families, sent to learn the skills required to one day become a knight, served the knights.
As well as these squires, heralds were also important in the daily business of the castle. Heralds were employed to carry the lord's messages from one place to another. They also designed the coats of arms for the different families. No two crests were ever the same and the herald would record the different designs in a book called an Armorial. After a battle the herald would ride around the battlefield and identify the dead or dying knights by their coats of arms.
[Original author: Miranda Greene, 2002]