of their lord, the baron. To guard against uprisings of
the conquered people, the barons used villein labor to build about
a hundred great stone castles, with moats and walls with towers
around them, at easily defensible positions such as hilltops all
over the nation.

A castle could be built only with permission of the King. A
typical castle had a stone building of about four floors [a keep]
on a small, steep hill. Later it also had an open area surrounded
by a stone curtain-wall with towers at the corners. Around the
outside of the wall were ditches and banks and perhaps a moat. One
traveled over these via a drawbridge let down at the gatehouse of
the enclosing wall. On either side of the gatehouse were chambers
for the guards. Arrows could be shot through slits in the
enclosing walls. Inside the enclosed area might be stables, a
granary, barracks for the soldiers, and workshops. The only winter
feed was hay, for which the horses, breeding animals, milkcow,
and workoxen had a priority over other animals. The bulk of the
cattle were usually slaughtered and salted.

The castle building typically was entered by an outer wood
staircase to the guard room on the second floor. The first
[ground] floor had a well and was used as a storehouse and/or
dungeons for prisoners. The second floor had a two-storied great
hall, with small rooms and aisles around it within the thick
walls. There was also a chapel area on the second floor. There
were small areas of the third floor which could be used for
sleeping. The floors were wood and were reached by a spiral stone
staircase in one corner of the building. Sometimes there was a
reservoir of water on an upper level with pipes carrying the water
to floors below. Each floor had a fireplace with a slanted flue
going through the wall to the outside. There were latrines in the
corner walls with a pit or shaft down the exterior of the wall,
sometimes to the moat. Furs and wool clothes were hung on the
walls there in the summer to deter the moths. The first floor had
only arrow slits in the walls, but the higher floors had small
windows.

Some curtain-wall castles did not have a central building. In
these, the hall was built along the inside of the walls, as were
other continuous buildings. The kitchens and chapels were in the
towers. Lodgings were in buildings along the curtain-walls, or on
several floors of the towers.

The great hall was the main room of the castle. The hall was use