Castle Architecture
Training for War

Training for War

Lists (Lices)

Lists (Lices) at Carcassonne

Lists (Lices) at Carcassonne

The Lists (lices) is the area between the inner and outer walls of a castle por town with two sets of defensive walls.

Jousts were often conducted in the lists - hense the expression "to join the lists" - meaning to sign up for a fight.

Butts

An archery butts is an archery practice field, with mounds of earth used for the targets. The name originally referred to the targets themselves, but over time came to mean the platforms that held the targets as well.

In medieval times, it was compulsory for all yeomen in England to learn archery.

For example, ‘The Butts’, in Alton, Hampshire, was an area for training archers in the Middle Ages.

Learn More about Castle Architecture

• External & Natural defenses: 
  • Cliffs and Mountain Tops
  • Rivers & Lakes
  • Moats and Ditches (douves)
  • Ravelins
• Towers:
  • The Keep (Donjon)
  • Citadels
  • Watch Towers
  • Wall Towers (Towers and Curtain walls)
  • Bartizans (Echaugettes)
• Walls:
  • Curtain Walls
  • Battlements & Crenellations
  • Bossing
  • Taluses
  • Chemins de Rondes
  • Hourdes
  • Machicolations (Machicoulis)
  • Brattices (Breteches)
  • Meutrieres
  • Murder holes
  • Arrow Loops
  • Canoniers
  • Slighting a Castle
• Gateways:
  • Gates,
  • Elevated Doorways
  • Flanking Towers
  • The Portcullis
  • The Drawbridge
  • Barbicans
  • Postern Gates
• Prisons:
  • dungeons
  • cachets
  • oubliettes
  • torture chambers
• Domestic Elements:
  • Stairways
  • Doors & Door Locks
  • Fireplaces
  • Windows
  • Streets
  • Roofs
  • Kitchens
  • Wells & Cisterns
  • Latrines & Garderobes
• Training for War
  • Lists
  • Butts
• The Practicalities of Castle Building