The Purpose of Thornbury Castle Essay - 1766 Words

The Purpose of Thornbury Castle Thornbury castle Since Thornbury castle started being built in 1511 it has been in the centre of a debate with historians whether it is a castle built for defence or a luxurious palace for show. When I went to Thornbury castle you can see lots of different features that would confuse you in deciding what Thornbury castle was built for. There are lots of different features showing both. This picture shows some arrow slits. As you walk around the castle you see things like arrow slits and gun loops in the walls showing they were probably built in case of an attack. Around the outer and inner gateway walls there are portcullis grooves which were†¦show more content†¦These two sources show that there was meant to have been a moat, this is also a way of protecting castles from attack. The deep moat would have strengthened the defences of the gunports and the massive portcullis. When I visited Thornbury Castle their was an old ruined part this is meant to be the army barracks for the purpose of retaining men, on the ground floor it was meant to be stables and on the floors above reached by wooden staircases, were living quarters for the hired army its hard to say how many men Buckingham would have had it might have been hundreds or possibly a thousand, with which Buckingham intended to assert his independence and viewed of fortifying himself against the king. Under Henry the VIII no-one was meant to own their own army but why was Edward Stafford building room for so many people? Then in the outer court there is a wide open space which may have been meant to for a training ground for his army. These pictures show the old soldiers barracks. These are the things which make Thornbury castle look like it was built for defence:-  · Arrow stilts  · Gun loops  · Portcullis grooves  · crenellations  · machicolations  · army barracks  · moat  · massive court yard Thornbury castle was no rugged castle; rather, a development of the highly decorative defensible palace. There was no