Beginning at the end of the eleventh century, the Crusades introduced
Europeans to sophisticated Byzantine and Muslim military architecture
and ushered in a new phase of castle building. As long as wars were fought
with poorly trained and undisciplined troops, and when battles were
short, bloody encounters between mobs going at each other in hand-tohand
combat, the great tower and its walled enclosure made an effective
castle. As siege techniques and equipment changed and troops of archers
and teams of siege engineers joined knights trained for single combat, the
castle design had to change to meet the new challenge (see Chapter 2).
Pembroke, on the south coast of Wales, was founded by Normans in
1093–94 (see Figures 3 and 4). The great round tower from the end of
the twelfth century shows a marked improvement in military engineering
over the square plan of earlier towers. With no corners to batter or
mine and of masonry throughout, the round tower was a significant improvement
on the earlier cubical buildings.
World History
