Warwick Castle was built in 1068 by orders of William the Conqueror. It functioned as an active castle until the early 1600s which then was converted to a country house.
Warwick Castle was first just a motte-and-bailey castle, which is essentially a castle on raised land. About a century and a half later, the stone castle was built. And in the mid 14th century, the castle defences were updated by construction of archery towers.
The first lines of defence in medieval times were bow and arrows. The stone walls protecting the castle and the estate within the castle was accompanied by a moat (which now is just a really nice dip of grass). Had outsiders tried to overtake the castle, they would have had a difficult time climbing up the straight stone walls.
The view was also breathtaking, though I could imagine back in the day, there'd be less of modernism and more open fields.
While visiting the castle, I put myself living in the late 14th century. By this time, the towers had been constructed and archers could happily, or unhappily, protect their masters. Other than being deathly afraid of getting stabbed, archers had to be posted high above the ground, which would make me an awful soldier, as I’m terrified of heights.
Being at Warwick castle in modern times made me feel like I was at an amusement park and a renaissance fair (with fairly poor participants not dressing up). It was fun wandering about the grounds and carving my initials into one of the towers (I believe it was Caesar's Tower, which had already been tagged by hundreds of initial and name carvings)
But I realised, had I lived there back in the day, I would have surely met my future husband and would be forced to love him.
