Medieval and modern times; an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . ni-mals were hung on the side to prevent the tower from being set on fire 96 The Age of Disorder; Feudalism 97 protecting their soldiers when they crept up to the walls withtheir battering-rams and pickaxes in the hope of making a breachand so getting into thetown. But the Ger-man barbarians whooverran the RomanEmpire were unaccus-tomed to these ma-chines which thereforehad fallen into the practice oftaking towns by meansof them was kept upin the
Medieval and modern times; an introduction to the history of western Europe form the dissolution of the Roman empire to the present time . ni-mals were hung on the side to prevent the tower from being set on fire 96 The Age of Disorder; Feudalism 97 protecting their soldiers when they crept up to the walls withtheir battering-rams and pickaxes in the hope of making a breachand so getting into thetown. But the Ger-man barbarians whooverran the RomanEmpire were unaccus-tomed to these ma-chines which thereforehad fallen into the practice oftaking towns by meansof them was kept upin the Eastern Empire,and during the Cru-sades, which, as weshall see, began abouti ioo (see Chapter IX,below), they were in-troduced once moreinto western Europe,and this is the reasonwhy stone castles be-gan to be built aboutthat time. A square tower(Fig. 31) can, how-ever, be more easilyattacked than a roundtower, which has nocorners, so a centurylater round towers be-came the rule and continued to be used until about the year1500, when gunpowder and cannon had become so commonthat even the strongest castle could no longer be defended,. Fig. Tower of Beaugency This square donjon not far from Orleans,France, is one of the very earliest squaretowers that survive. It is a translation intostone of the wooden donjons that prevailedup to that time. It was built about 1100 justafter the beginning of the First Crusade. Itis about 76 by 66 feet in size and 115 feet high 98 Medieval and Modern Times Generalarrangementof a castle for it could not withstand the force of cannon balls. Theaccompanying pictures give an idea of the stone castles builtfrom about uoo to 1450 or 1500. They also show how astone-throwing machine, such as was used before the inventionof cannon, was constructed (Fig. 28). As we have no remains or good pictures of the early woodencastles on a mound, we must get our notions of the arrangement of a castle from the/ later stone fortresses, many of which can stillbe fou
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