Bow. In its simplest form the arrow-split or loophole was a long narrow vertical slit, perhaps 2 m long. In some exceptional cases, arrow-splits were very long (6.80 m in Najac castle and 8 m in Aigues-Mortes): in such cases, the niches were fitted with two levels for two archers. In other castles one chamber or niche might be fitted with more than one arrow-split or loophole, allowing one archer to shoot in various directions. As a general rule, however, large and numerous openings were to be avoided as they weakened the building and form targets for the besiegers.
A loophole might terminate in a fish-tailed base, and this was often plunged, or sloped downwards, the better to enable the archer to command the ground below. In other cases, the loophole ended at the bottom in a round hole called an oilette, like an inverted keyhole. Or there might be two oilettes, at top and bottom, in which case the loophole assumed a dumbbell shape.
Originally designed for use with bows, loopholes were eventually adapted to accommodate the crossbow. This ancient weapon was revived in the 12th century and, though forbidden by the Church in the council of Latran in 1139, was widely used in the 13th, 14th and 15th centuries. The crossbow shot a short metal arrow called a bolt with good accuracy and great power of penetration, enabling an archer to pierce armor and giving him a range up to 150 m. To use the crossbow with its small horizontal bow, vertical loopholes became cruciform, meaning that they were fitted with one or more transverse horizontal slits allowing the archer to observe, aim and shoot with efficiency. These loopholes were called crosslets.
In the so-called yard-castle and concentric castle, the keep lost a part of its significance, being no longer the lord’s dwelling place. It seems, however, that the medieval castle-builders could not renounce this symbol of power, and in many cases the donjon already existed before the concentric enceinte was constructed around it. Generally the keep played only a military role as a retreat where resistance could go on even when the rest of the castle had fallen. The weakness of such a scheme lay in the purely passive concept of defense that it represented. In the last analysis, such castles proclaimed the gospel of defeatism, the lurking conviction that in the long run the attack was always superior to the defense, that the gateway would eventually be forced or the curtain walls mined, breached or scaled, and that if then the garrison were lucky enough to withdraw into the don-
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Corner-tower, Castle of Maqueda (Spain). Maqueda Castle was situated southwest of Madrid. An ancient Roman fort, the castle was rebuilt in 981 by the Arab architect Fatho Ben Ibrahim. Reconquered by king Alfonso de Castilla in 1083, Maqueda became the domain of Don Fernando Yahez in 1153, then a possession of the military order of Cala-trava, and then a royal residence for Queen Isabella. Note the typical Moorish merlons.
World History
