Question by : What are some of the temporary fortifications used in the Middle Ages?
My question refers to the temporary fortifications used to enforce a building/city that is not a fortress. I can find a lot of information on siege weapons, but not so much on fortifications(I’m not sure how common it was). As for the time period, anything in the Middle Ages is fine.
Best answer:
Answer by Lili
There is some information on this site, which mentions a few temporary examples:
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2 Responses
Let’s see: Extra fortifications usually didn’t surround the town. The people were instead brought inside the castle walls.
Deep, wide trenches surrounding the exposed egresses to the castle were often dug and filled with water, they were called Moats. They didn’t stop the enemy but slowed them down allowing the defending archers along the castle walls to pick them off. (This may not fit the idea of ‘temporary’ as they were time consuming so would stay.)
Shallow trenches were also often dug on the more exposed egresses and filled with pitch, a flammable oil-like substance. These were set aflame at the the appropriate time surrounding the castle in a wall of fire. No one is going to cross that and live.
Also used was a wall of sharp wooden stakes stuck into the ground with their sharp points sticking at such an angle that horses and soldiers trying to break through were impaled on the stakes. I don’t know the name of this barricade though.
Sometimes, if the Lord was wealthy enough for their upkeep, attack hounds were set up in cages surrounding the castle. At the appropriate time the cages were opened and the hounds set free to ravage and maul the attackers.
Also, cauldrons of pitch or oil were placed along the top of the castle walls. When the attackers attempted to climb the walls with ladders, the caldrons were tipped over and their contents essentially cooked those unfortunates below.
Edit: I just reread the Q and realized you want info for NON fortess. The sharpened wooden stake barricade would have been a common defence and were sometimes alternated with trenches and mounds (to create higher ground for the archers). Sorry about that.
Edit2: Something I just found and learned about are Killing Fields, which was an open space between two defensive walls.When the first wall was breached the attackers would find themselvs blocked by a second wall. Soldiers stationed on top of this second wall would pick off the, now trapped, attackers below with archers, crossbows, and even large rocks.
Motte-and-bailey were ‘temporary’ defences, man-made hills (and ditches), although they were not defences for a previously existing building.
http://www.pitt.edu/~medart/menuglossary/mottebailey.htm