Decaying animals catapulted over battlements, flaming arrows raining from the sky and red-hot sand poured down ladders to repel advancing bloodthirsty hordes. Castle warfare was a grim and grisly business, and every aspect of it is brought to life in this book.

Decaying animals catapulted over battlements, flaming arrows raining from the sky and red-hot sand poured down ladders to repel advancing bloodthirsty hordes. Castle warfare was a grim and grisly business, and every aspect of it is brought to life in this book. Through colorful illustrations and accounts of actual sieges in every chapter, you'll discover how armies from medieval times up to the English Civil War attacked and besieged British castles and how changing weaponry shaped the defenses we see the remains of today. As castle design developed, attackers had to change their tactics and introduce new siege methods to bring the walls down. The weapons, siege engines and mining techniques used are described in detail here, alongside diagrams showing how they worked and details of the defensive structures erected to counter them.