Literally all of these misconceptions were told to us by our last guide visiting a castle here in germany (Rheinland Pfalz) lmao. And i thought so many times, that it didnt make sense .
From my experience building things in Minecraft. I prefer stairs being on left from entrance. After all you do not want instinctively fall from stairs going there in the night. But at the same time, there was literally no problem to put them other way around, to keep symmetry in specific places. So yes. 3/4 seams to be the usual ratio.
Last Summer I visited a bunch of castles in the Eifel region, and in one of the guided tours we had the tour guide spout all that nonsense whereas in the next castle we had a different tour guide debunk it all.
I love his castle videos, but I also like when he talks about fantasy topics like what weapons a monster would use or when he discusses "bikini armor for science". 😂 Its just a joy listening to him talk about what he loves.
I suspect that, especially in banquet halls, the wall tapestries would help with the noise level. Imagine having all the people of a banquet, party, or other gathering in a giant stone room with hard stone or plaster wall surface. Vast amounts of sound reflection and echo, raising the noise floor and forcing people to then speak even louder to be heard. (Like the noise level in a modern restaurant with an 'industrial' theme' of bare brick walls and exposed beam ceiling) The fabrics of wall tapestries would absorb some of that reflected noise, break that feedback loops, and make for a quieter more enjoyable environment (in addition to looking great)
"I suspect that, especially in banquet halls, the wall tapestries would help with the noise level." Yup. I have lots of small wallhanging textile stuff myself and part of why is because they dampen sound and noise far better than most other things. My hangings cover maybe 10% of the walls in total and it's still very noticeable. So if you go big on it, it will absolutely make a difference. "The fabrics of wall tapestries would absorb some of that reflected noise" Yeah. You can even buy special textile hangings nowadays that are specifically made to dampen noise while looking nice. Generally they're either multilayered textile, or they're textile on top of some other material(anything from rubber to foam to what's essentially pillows filled with feathers), and while many of them wouldn't be available in medieval times, some would. I'd break the bank account if i wanted to put up a full set of those though, even if just in my apartment. And textiles were EXPENSIVE in medieval times, so yeah, the pretty stuff was for the rich. Though i've read that it was not rare for people with less money to use textiles too worn out to be used for clothes or such, sew together enough of them in a collage and it became a decent improvised tapestry, improving both looks and reducing draft.
I don’t think using Castell Coch as an example is a good idea. It was basically built as a folly and a romanticised version of a medieval castle. cadw.gov.wales/more-about-castell-coch
Far more tapestries are a layer of insulation. Every little helps when you are trying to keep some place warm. There are multiple reasons to have them. Do not assume they were as expensive back then, they would be made when people had nothing important to do.
2:15 "The person at the lower level has the advantage in combat..." As if millions of Star Wars fans suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
The spiral staircase is one of the few rare circumstances where being higher up is not the most advantageous position. In almost every other circumstance, yes, having the high ground is preferrential, as it is generally easier to attack or advance from a higher position. Here is an excerpt from The Art Of War, by Sun Tzu (written around 500BC) -With regard to precipitous heights, if you are beforehand with your adversary, you should occupy the raised and sunny spots, and there you should wait for him to come up. -If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away. -If you are situated at a great distance from the enemy, and the strength of the two armies is equal, it is not easy to provoke a battle, and fighting will be to your disadvantage.
@@superme63 Generally high gound is most useful for armies, because when you're higher up you have better visibility, your archers have longer range than enemy archers, the enemy has to come uphill which makes them tired, and any push or charge is way stronger when performed downhill compared to having to do it uphill. One on One fighting the advantages aren't that great
because the lower only has access to your mostly none vital areas and not your mostly vital areas and the higher has access to your mostly vital areas and not your mostly none vital areas the lower has the advantage....makes sense
@@DoverBlood86 If I'm standing on some stairs below you, I have full access to your crotch from below (where there is no armor), while you have full access to all my armor, which was designed to protect from the front, back, sides, and blows from above... but yeah, you do you.
Who would want to fight on a staircase? Go to the nexxt floor and throw rocks down virtually impossible to avoid! Spiral staircases accend clockwise so right handed people can carry a load in their right hand and climb the outer gentle gradient. Most that decend into basements usually turn tthe other way.
They also work as insulation (I didn't hear him talking about it, if he did, I'm sorry). Stone is great at holding its temperature, which means a cold stone will be cold for a very long time and is very hard to heat up. Not only is cloth a warmer material than stone, but it also creates a layer of air between the cloth and the stone. If that sounds familiar to you: It's the same principle how thermos bottles work (just much more efficient). So when you heat up your room, much more energy is kept within the room and isn't wasted heating up the cold stone walls.
@@Far1988 While that does work in the modern world. You would not heat these rooms at all. Because if they heated them they would have fireplaces in which many rooms did not. Only rooms that had fireplaces would be heated. The wall carpets act as a sound damping device along with making things pretty. Remember it requires a lot of labor to cut and split firewood and someone would have to be doing this everyday all year round to stock enough firewood for each castle. This would require places to stack and dry firewood. You can find a large number of styles in how they stacked firewood. Not only for heat, for cooking as well. Those who could afford it would get coal if there were mines nearby. Coal would have been popular from the 1300s on up. A lot of coal would have been used. Mines were likely all over the place.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice! I'm such a tactile person, I don't think I'd have the same restraint, especially in that dressed stone room 😍
I made my wife's dreams come true, and we were married in a castle. But you sure wouldn't have known it from the look on her face as we were bouncing around during the ceremony.
Hi a experimental historian here from the netherlands... An theorie on why most stairs are clockwiese, is that most people are right handed. When you carry heavy things up, like a bucket of water, when you have a clockwise stair, you can use your strongest arm to carry and your left to hold balance... So the preferance for building a clock or counter clock wise seems to be dictated by war/fighting on the stairs but on a pratical daily life bases.
How many times would you have to go up and down ALL the stairs and across all the floors to know them by "instinct" so that when you're running around with adrenaline going that you wouldn't trip? I went to one where the stairs lead to bedrooms, the noble family would not like troops of soldiers going up and down the stairs twenty times a day.
@@jonh8790 my birth town has a 1300-ish built "sorcerer's tower" (was used as a prison from the 1500s to 1800s which seems impossible in our era 300 years !) I would be curious to know it has uneven stairs lol but I doubt it as the name and prison use came much later it was a lookout tower initially oh well
@@SerunaXI Lol. That and having a castle that allows you to be mobile inside the castle lets you adapt to changing conditions of a siege BEFORE the enemy gets inside, making them less likely to get inside in the first place.
@@WorldArchivist Fine. Deleted so you can downvote this comment to oblivion then, because I'm clearly a humorless idiot and deserve to be yelled at for stupidity.
It is interesting how we feel that rough stone and unpainted furniture is "authentic". If we were to see a TV show or movie with authentic furniture that is painted, it would look wrong. It is bigger than just medieval timeframes. All of the bold white marble statues that we think of from Greek antiquity were painted with bold colors in a way that we would consider "garish" or "tacky" by todays standards. If a time period movie showed the statues painted... people would complain. And the Egyptian pyramids were covered with a fine layer of white limestone... they would be blazingly white, not the sandstone color we associate with them.
nah ...the more i learn about the truth the more disillusioned i am by hollywood's illiteracy on basically everything, to the point i just assume its all alternate reality
The one with the marble statues was something I was impressed by when I played Assassins Creed Odyssey. Think of the game what you want, but some of the armour in that game and the depiction of ancient greek was fairly well done. They may have gone overboard with the size of the god statues in the game, though.
The thing with the marble statues I'm not sure how much we know about. I read somewhere that there's barely any surviving paint, so we can only make up the most general idea of what the finished statue would look like. Those "recreations" you see with the very basic, flat, uniform colors may be wildly inaccurate. It would make sense that they put as much care into the paint as they did into the carving. But since we can't really know, we have no idea about the specific style (This is me half-remembering something I read that made sense, some of it may be bs, someone else will have more specific knowledge)
@@maxkore278 About the only thing that golden age Hollywood got right was colour on the costumes in the old Technicolor films. Medieval people _loved_ their vivid colours and bold patterns. John the Bowyer would look at Errol Flynn's _Robin Hood_ costume and think 'nice'.
On the uneven steps item. The college I went to had a very old General Ed building. There were two staircases, one was a service staircase sort of in the back and the other was the main staircase. The main staircase had marble treads. So many students had gone up and down the staircase over the 100+ years that the treads from first to second floor had prominent dips in them. While second to third weren't as noticeable and third to fourth were basically non-existent. Things get worn out when they get used. Even if the stairs were perfect when they were put in 700 years ago, they have had 700 years of deferred maintenance too.
Yes. Dips from wear is one thing. What uneven steps are talked about here is that the hole slap of steps go from say 10.1cm high, 10.7cm high. 09.8cm high. And possibly and very likely is that at one end of a 2m wide staircase to be 10cm exactly, but on the other end 10.2cm, or heck 10.5cm! Okay. 10cm high steps are probably a bad example. What is the length of a rope? A staircase usually is what? 15cm? 17cm? Like believe me. If a staircase at a school or library whatever is randomly off by even a single cm in the middle of the staircase? And it is not worn but built badly? In modern times? Modern materials? Swears and curses. Some of the most cruel things you can do in construction is making a staircase with one step or a couple off by 1cm or more. We are simply not expecting things like that today.
it's not just steps. It was customary to touch the bottom part of some pillars in front of Saint Peters Basilica's entrance as you entered and over the many houndreds of years those were totally abrased too, it's now I think even not allowed to touch them anymore. I can easily see the same thing happen to walls in stairways and hallways that are common places to put your hand on for stability in walking.
@@TheDiner50 Yep. Main hospital in my city is exactly that. Like EVERY stair is a trip hazard, way too high, and every few steps are different, i though i would trip and die first week (they were also much longer then most other staircases by some damn reason).
yeah we view people back in the day as cynical and uncaring, and sure standards were different. But it was also much more free and simple, like you just not gonna remain in power if the people that serve you hate you. Then you just end up dead. And fairnness was supoer important in a time when all you had was you trust in others to get shit done. Now day we can have reports and checkups, but back then, lies were so easy, so the punishment for doing them was high to make sure people stayed in line. Else everything could fall apart fast.
22:59 Shad, I haven't had as much of a chance to watch your videos lately, the downside of growing old. But your nerding out over the hooks for the tapestry was heartwarming, and part of what made me subscribe to you way back then.
Shad nerds about the polished, fitted sandstone masonry in this Mediaeval room. Shad nerds about the tapestry hooks that held up curtains that HID the polished, fitted sandstone walls in this Mediaeval room.
I've actually used a lot of your advice in making my own castles, it has helped a lot! I haven't built one in Enshrouded yet, but I'm rather proud of the one I'm building in Valheim.
I am a farm/ranch boy and we always had a large pot on the cast-iron wood stove. That pot was always filled with chili and anyone who was hungry would come in, scoop out a cup and walk off. As the chili level dropped, mother would refill it and, at times, we ate chili 3x a day. When my father was born, his older brothers got so tired of chili at every meal, they stole the pot and buried it in the desert outside Red Rock.
I love your genuine delight at seeing the wall tapestry hooks! I knew that castles had them (you can thank Redwall and other books I read for that), but actually seeing them recreated...beautiful! Also, I wish more homes had window alcoves and book nooks these days. Is it weird that I want to rub my hand against the smooth-looking stone?
That's so interesting about the furniture being painted! By modern aesthetics, colorful furniture like that looks like something made for children, but it totally makes sense when you think about the expense required to obtain those pigments. People always place more value on things which are difficult to get--and as what is difficult to get changes over the years, so do our tastes.
At 20:32 Undressed stone walls.... If the stones are rough, undressed, it gives more area for the plaster to grab a hold of. Plaster would probably fall off a dress stone wall rather quickly....
Shad, this is one of the best videos I've seen on this channel. The editing is tight, no repetition, no ranting, just a knowledgeable guy explaining some cool stuff. Best of all, you look genuinely excited and happy and that's so great to see. Extremely well done, sir. Can't wait to see the rest.
I imagine a medieval construction company explaining away why they botched the job on the stairs and flooring: "You see, Mylord, the uneven ground and unequal stairs are intentional: In case of an attack..."
If you want examples of all sorts of armor, weapons, decorations, statues, paintings, mundane items and what not you can check out: SKD-Daphne and their online collection. Its the online database for basicly the complete Saxony (germany) historic treasure. You might need to use a translater since most of it is in german. But its great and filled with a ton of details (up to the exact materials and measurements of clothing).
You missed a very salient point when talking about “garish” walls and furniture in a castle. It appears that in all the rooms you were in had electrical lights. So, yes, authentically painted, decorated furniture (etc) were all bright. Take those same rooms and illuminate them strictly with fire: candles, torches and the occasional oil lamp. Suddenly, the “garish” walls and furniture are muted in color, yet stand out. Polished furniture would blend into the gloom except for the immediate area of illumination. Good myth busting video. Cheers!
@@TonyM540 Thank you. I’m a medieval historian and have toured several castles, and the Tower of London. Having fought in full plate for years, I try to envision what life was truly like for our ancestors. They were quite a hardy bunch! Cheers
True. It reminds me of what many say about GBA games about how they are "oversatuarated" when you view them on a modern LED screen. However if you view them on the original with the double filter with no backlight you can see why they did it that way. The GBA had 8 bit color just like the SNES and there were tons of ports. They could have made the colors identical but doing that would have made them appear far too muted.
Anybody else notice that YT is actually giving us recommendations to Shads vids? After his complaint video I have gotten more recommendations in the last 11 days than in the last 5 months.
I noticed that as well, I watched the video when it came out, because I checked his page, as it's the only way I could actually see his content, and then boom, recommended feed was practically half shad, older stuff included
I live a few miles away from Castell Coch so it has always been a favourite and a first port of call where we take visitors. It was great to see Tretower Court and castle too as I first visited there as a student an 1982 and loved it ever since.I have usually visited at least once a year ever since. I haven't been now since lockdown so thanks for reminding me I must go there soon this year. Loved your video, thank you. PS, the tapestries or wall coverings would also have helped to make the rooms warmer, maybe not by much but they needed all the help they could get.
About the tapestries, i'd like to add that it wasn't only for decoration or, as many people said in the comments for noise levels, but for warmth too! The thick fabric protected from touching the freezing stones (especially in winter) and trapped a layer of air that kept the room's temperature somewhat level. It also help that normally a lot of people lived under the same roof and would warm up the air just by mooving and breathing. They still needed to layer their clothing and light up fires, but I bet it could be quite cosy in the bedrooms and such.
Stirling castle in Scotland has made a great effort of restoring and recreating lots of original wall decoration, tapestry painting and furnishings. It's definitely worth a tour whenever you get the chance. They even have some actors there doing things that the people would do who lived there and who you can ask and who will tell you what you want to know... They keep doing a fantastic job there!
Its why almost all the best fantasy writers are British or in the case of the few good foreigners such as Bernard Cornwell they are anglophiles who spent years visiting the UK and learned everything they could about British history before writing their books.
This makes zero sense. It assumes fantasy and British are synonymous. XD Nearly every culture around the world made castles but the vicious Brit empire wrote history to their liking for a long time. I'd argue most fantasy sucks because it's myopic and obsessed with one set of ideas that are focused on Europe as the end all, be all, or medieval life.
The other flaw with Misconception #2 is that most soldiers train to fight in fields, and fields aren't flat, so why would an uneven floor be a greater hindrance than a hillock with knee-high grass and hidden holes in it?
@@zzzbetty2915 Además, cualquiera que intente caminar llevando una reproducción del calzado medieval, de clase media o alta, agradecerá muchísimo una buena capa de tierra e higiénica paja; más por los resbalones que por nivelación o ruido. Las suelas de cuero duro, incluso las que se desgastan intencionalmente, patinan endiabladamente sobre la piedra lisa (y si llevas armas... ).
Soldiers were rarely trained back in the day is what a lot of people are missing. Take an army coming from London to Stirling, that's hundreds of miles they need to walk with their stuff and a lot of the time the troops weren't like modern armies, where strict training regimes exist, most of a soldiers life was walking.
@@TheJpf79 That is not correct. A standing army was a group of soldiers who spent their time training when they weren't marching to, involved in, or marching back from a war. They had to train on a frequent basis to maintain the body conditioning needed to use the weapons of the era. As such, they did quite a bit of training, some of it while on the road as well. Conscripts on the other hand were farmers and other common laborer types who were pressed into service to augment the army to have the numbers needed to hopefully win the war. They are the ones you're thinking of that typically had little to no training. However, they also regularly worked in places with uneven footing, so uneven floors wouldn't be much of a hindrance to them when invading a castle.
@@Razmoudah Hello from 15 minutes away from Stirling Castle Scotland, how many "standing armies" do you think were around during the times when men were storming castle walls with ladders? Do you think King Richard trained his crusaders for years and years before the went on crusade? Do not tell people that things aren't true because you have invented something in your own imagination, Kings may have had men at arms but they did not have "standing armies" Depending on the day they may have had fuedal levies which were bodies of men brought by lords, these were NOT TRAINED "standing armies" Stop talking schiedt lad.
Thanks for talking about the staircase. That has always seemed such a strange tactic people would claim. If I lived in a castle uneven stairs would probably destroy me long before the enemy showed up so they seemed like an unlikely design choice for a defender to want.
I really enjoyed seeing this. I know this is not something that is possible all the time because of the cost of travel, it really was great to take these tours with you!
2 месяца назад+2
I got to visit a few in Ireland back in 2001. Namely Blarney and Bunratty. The tour guides there did explain to us what they referred to as _"stumble stairs"_ which they attributed to the reason you mention, along with the height of the doorways at the exits of the stairwell. (Made to compel besieging forces to bend or duck when passing through the doorways, putting them at a disadvantage defensively.) Whether that's all accurate or not I suppose we'll never know for certain.
Caerphilly castle is literally on my doorstep. Locals used to get in for essentially free (£2 a year). I spent many a summer just hanging around inside it! There's nothing like running around, hacking at you friends with swords (even wooden ones) in a real castle. So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
@@bvyup2112 I would LOVE to see Mayan ruins! 😀 We're especially lucky in Caerphilly as there's so much of our castle intact (or restored). Plus we have The Leaning Tower!
Castle misconception #13: Not all castles come equipped with a Shad. There is only one Shad and he is located in Australia. However a Shad exchange programme could be set up so castles can temporarily have a Shad on site.
Honestly my fav form of Shadiversity content. I like the conceptual fun things, but and seeing him go in depth on more historical elements is where I started with his channel. Hope you can keep it up despite the tough times.
Loved this video a lot! Some of my favorite videos were just shad sitting and talking about a topic like history or castles and this is like that with bonus features.
I’m so pleased that you got some real ‘back room’ parts of the castles and they allowed your filming and encouraged your passion. Really enjoyed your unpicking of medieval fallacies.
Well again pigments and metal were very valuable at the time, so metal hooks on the wall is something that they would not put on for any minor reason. After all you need to get the ore, smelt and purify it to be worked on, witch takes massive amount of work. Then the blacksmith needs to heat and mold it into shape required, while knowing how to prevent it from separating as the wrought iron was not that pure. They developed methods to somewhat industrialize the process to make far better quality proper steel, but even wrought iron was never really cheap.
Been watching your content for years, being born and bred in Wales Castles are pretty much a normal part of our everyday life. Amazing to see you visit places I’ve been to many many times, awesome to see someone enthusiastically appreciating what so many around here take for granted. Thanks man x
This is by far my favourite type of content on your channel and i am so glad i'm seeing this. History about castles is sooo fun. Was gonna ask Shad how passionate are you about History in and of itself as in regarding purely Going to a sight like a castle and just talking abt it's history and so on so forth or talking about specific event like a famous battle or so on so forth, versus the culture how people lived how people acted and so on so forth. Love seeing this content and i am so happy that i am finally getting these recommendations back up. Hopefully Shadiversity lives on for years to come!
@@Colt1775 That reminds me of the book "The Lion of the North, a tale of the times of Gustavous Adolphus." At one point, the MC and a few Scottish soldiers are surrounded in a church tower by a bunch of angry peasants. The MC had the idea of placing the door on the stairs with 2 pikemen at the top.
One common misconception that you missed and made in the video is the idea that the large iron pots were stew/porridge pots directly as their primary purpose. they were more often filled with water, and containers and pouches and sealable pots submerged into them to cook multiple items at once for the length of time each item needs to be cooked for. even dense breads. where in the pot they were could also control the temp as they'd be packed fairly full. it was rare that they would be used directly as cooking pots/vessels themselves despite how movies portray them.
Last year I visited estonia and was amazed by Kuresaares castle and so after I returned home I whent and visited Bauskas castle near my home. Castles do indeed rule more when you can touch them.
Wouldn't any original iron fittings have rusted away over the centuries? Nails may have been driven in by a Victorian (or later) user/owner to support wall hangings for a special event. Many of our ancient buildings were updated over the centuries, and have been "restored" to an earlier state in recent times by ripping out the improvements.
I think the idea of "it's bumpy and uneven on purpose" doesn't work for a few reasons. While Castles are known for their defense, battles were rare compared to the happenings of daily life. Castles had friendly and neutral guests far often than they have invaders. It should also be considered that people who grew up in a time where flat floors were rare were probably more trip averse than people of today. So a slightly uneven ground or steps wouldn't be nearly the inconvenience to an invader than it would be to a time traveler like us who are expecting very flat floors and even staircases.
Also, just how did the invaders get there? Probably marching many many kilometres on even more uneven ground... And your average training field very likely also was bumpy... So actually perfectly flat and smoot surface might be better advantage...
YES! People lived their entire lives on uneven surfaces. Something as simple as going to the latrine at night would have you trudging almost blind over planks that would sink in rain, warp in heat, and had to be replaced every couple of years at most. People were just used to walking on uneven surfaces, so a puny staircase with some steps slightly higher than others wasn't an obstacle at all.
Loved the video! I grew up in North Wales in a village called Dolwyddelan, which has its own castle. Great to see all of the castles I grew up around and kind of took for granted, but you taught me far more than I ever knew about them, really cool!
Finally some castle content! That's why I subbed years ago :) I love how Shad freaks out about the hooks in the wall and the guide is just standing there, staring at him, not knowing what is happening 😅
Absolutely brilliant work, sir. You've done your research and presented a great run-down with clear in-person examples. I can't express how much I love this video.
As much as I enjoy the Medieval Mythbuster style videos here on Shadiversity, this is the kind of content I enjoy the most. Watching a fellow medieval enthusiast talking about the subject he adores addressing misconceptions about the medieval period in a comprehensive and respectful manner
As said by many others, this is your best content. More of this, even when you aren't able to visit the UK all the time, I love even the Shad in a chair discussing castles stuff. That informal university-like feel is an excellent win for your channel and must be among the cheapest content to produce. Consider more of it.
SHAD!!!! Please don’t give up! You’re always so fun to watch. Please don’t let the harassment of you by the algorithm ruin your passion to share your love for history with us!
Regarding painted furniture and walls, they may seem garish but remember we are looking at them with electric lightings and not as how the rooms would had been lit with natural sunlight, candles, or oil lamps. Colors look very different under different light sources.
One thing I've noticed in the past and in this video is that many people tend to analyse castles only by their defensive capabilities. In reality, a lot of space was devoted to daily life.
Love your content Shad! Logic dictates that just because some castles have certain characteristics doesn’t mean that they all do, even if they were all built by the same guy at the same time which of course is not the case. As much as I love history the level of deduction that goes into it varies greatly depending on sources and exactly how much was recorded and how much is being guessed based on physical evidence.
20:40 I love that you talk about the wall carpets. I always read about wall carpets in Robert Louise Stevenson and other historical pieces, but I couldn't quite envision where/how they hung, how continuous they were.
I worked as a security Guard at a castle for some time. There were a lot of paintings in the castle, like so so so many paintings. And when you look at them, you notice something. They were all dark in color. The reason was very simple. (btw when I say castle, it was more like a big home, it was a very late almost too late medi eval castle) The reason was that black color was expensive. The most expensive color you can have at the time. And that is the reason the paintings where so dark, it was to show "hey, I can afford black paintings, a lot of them too, look in awe about my wealth". So I totally get it when Shad says that people of the past wanted to show of what they had. They absolutely did.
@TerminusTartaros I don’t really believe that. I would think it was easy to make black paint; you just need charcoal. It is true though that black fabric was difficult and expensive to make. Some reasons medieval paintings are dark: (list stolen from Andrew Meyers on Quora) - There was an informal recipe for the use of colors that was passed down. There was a dictate that shadows should be brown etc. - There was a scarcity of different pigments, not yet developed, and many were fugitive with time. - Oil and varnishes darken with time - Dirt and soot accumulates on painting surfaces. They need cleaning. - Oil paints become somewhat transparent with time. This allows the darker underpainting to come through. Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is called that because it was long thought to depict a night scene, but it was just the thick layer of darkened varnish that made it so dark. It’s a day scene!
@@Brinta3 Lamp black or soot black I think was the preferred paint source. It came ready powdered and was purer than charcoal. You got it from the chimney.
how old were these paintings? had any been restored in the last 20-40 years? look at some of the before & after pics of old restored paintings, and you can see the brilliant effect of removing hundreds of years of dust, smoke and grime. smoke from pre-electric lighting & heating was probably the biggest factor, I'm guessing.
I have never seen this Australian before I’ve learned more within the first 10 minutes than I have learned from other presenters. He offers his own interpretation, backed up with examples and his experience. Well done.🇬🇧🏴🇬🇸
Looks to not be sharpened. If the blade isn't sharpened, most customs treat it as just a giant block of steel. A blunt sword is no more dangerous than any other chunk of metal.
@@Ranstone It's hard to tell on camera, either way. However, you can see him just grab it by the blade, so it clearly doesn't have an edge even if it was steel.
Aussie border guard: "Anythin' ta declare that yer bringin inter Stralya?" (Yes, I used to watch a lot of that old Aussie Border Control documentary show) Shad: "Sword!"
Castles were my favorite things as a wee kid, this channel is a goldmine for me finally learning about them since nobody taught anything for us in school.
So, just a thought, maybe they made clockwise stair cases because people are usually right-handed, so if you were carrying a lamp while navigating stairs at night, and going down stairs, it would feel more natural to carry the lamp in your left hand, and use your right hand as a guide along the wall, ready to brace yourself should your footing slip. I think this because I grew up with a clockwise staircase in my house, and trying to go down spiral stairs is very disconcerting. Being right handed, we also generally put our weight on our right foot when descending, and if you make the stairs clockwise, you have more footing at the right side going down, making descent that much safer and surer of footing. I also found that running up clockwise stairs is easier for right-handed people, because you can grip the central column with your right hand to counteract the centripetal force you generate as you run up, and right-handed people generally have stronger grip in their right hand. Just some insight from having lived in a home with spiral stairs for 20-some years. Remember, castles were homes, and while defenses are something to consider, I think a lot of decisions are gonna be made around aspects of daily living more so than aspects of warfare - which may never even happen to your castle. Personally, I think fighting on stairs, spiral or not, is already gonna be very challenging. I just have my doubts that the direction of spiral had much to do with combat/defense, and more likely was due to what's better for daily life. I could be wrong, so whatever.
At a friend's house the stairs are not spiral, but they don't have a landing at the turning point between floors and instead go around. There's no handrail on the downwards-righthand wall, only in the centre. Those are the only stairs I ever fell down face first. So yes, having a handrail on the right when going down is essential.
I lived in Germany for nearly 8 years, and spent a lot of time touring castles and talking with historians. The fact is that strategy and tactics changed through the years. Just because one castle doesn't have a certain defensive measure, does not mean that the defensive measure wasn't used later or earlier. For example, in one castle there was an obvious change that was made to the arches leading into the castle. See, when the castle was first built, the arches were high enough so that someone on horse back could ride all the way into the inner parts of the castle. Later, they lowered the archway. Why? To help defend the castle, they wanted to to make it impossible for the enemy to ride their horses through the arches. Why? Because a mounted soldier had an advantage, and if they forced them off their horses, it would give the defenders the advantage. The defensive measure of building spiral staircases going one direction is true...but for a different time, a different strategy, and likely, a different geographic location.
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Literally all of these misconceptions were told to us by our last guide visiting a castle here in germany (Rheinland Pfalz) lmao. And i thought so many times, that it didnt make sense .
Was that Burg Eltz by any chance? I will be visiting it soon xD
From my experience building things in Minecraft. I prefer stairs being on left from entrance. After all you do not want instinctively fall from stairs going there in the night. But at the same time, there was literally no problem to put them other way around, to keep symmetry in specific places. So yes. 3/4 seams to be the usual ratio.
@@jackjosh1981 Sounds like you just hover around trying to get his attention. 🫡
Yeh, I knew about the spiral staircase thing from a little plaque in a castle.
Last Summer I visited a bunch of castles in the Eifel region, and in one of the guided tours we had the tour guide spout all that nonsense whereas in the next castle we had a different tour guide debunk it all.
I don’t know why but Shadiversity talking about Castles is my favorite content from him. Nothing insane, just him and some Stone Walls and Houses
I love his castle videos, but I also like when he talks about fantasy topics like what weapons a monster would use or when he discusses "bikini armor for science". 😂
Its just a joy listening to him talk about what he loves.
@@maxpowers9129 It really does feel nice when you see someone genuinely enjoy the thing they talk about with clear interest in it.
cuz castles are awesome?
I've been missing the sketchup content tbh
Machicolations!
I suspect that, especially in banquet halls, the wall tapestries would help with the noise level. Imagine having all the people of a banquet, party, or other gathering in a giant stone room with hard stone or plaster wall surface. Vast amounts of sound reflection and echo, raising the noise floor and forcing people to then speak even louder to be heard. (Like the noise level in a modern restaurant with an 'industrial' theme' of bare brick walls and exposed beam ceiling) The fabrics of wall tapestries would absorb some of that reflected noise, break that feedback loops, and make for a quieter more enjoyable environment (in addition to looking great)
"I suspect that, especially in banquet halls, the wall tapestries would help with the noise level."
Yup. I have lots of small wallhanging textile stuff myself and part of why is because they dampen sound and noise far better than most other things. My hangings cover maybe 10% of the walls in total and it's still very noticeable. So if you go big on it, it will absolutely make a difference.
"The fabrics of wall tapestries would absorb some of that reflected noise"
Yeah. You can even buy special textile hangings nowadays that are specifically made to dampen noise while looking nice. Generally they're either multilayered textile, or they're textile on top of some other material(anything from rubber to foam to what's essentially pillows filled with feathers), and while many of them wouldn't be available in medieval times, some would.
I'd break the bank account if i wanted to put up a full set of those though, even if just in my apartment. And textiles were EXPENSIVE in medieval times, so yeah, the pretty stuff was for the rich. Though i've read that it was not rare for people with less money to use textiles too worn out to be used for clothes or such, sew together enough of them in a collage and it became a decent improvised tapestry, improving both looks and reducing draft.
You can even hear the difference in echo between the dressed stone room and the fully decorated room with wall hangings.
I don’t think using Castell Coch as an example is a good idea. It was basically built as a folly and a romanticised version of a medieval castle.
cadw.gov.wales/more-about-castell-coch
There was definitely a district difference in the room with all the drapery, Shad's voice wasn't echoing nearly so much.
Far more tapestries are a layer of insulation. Every little helps when you are trying to keep some place warm.
There are multiple reasons to have them. Do not assume they were as expensive back then, they would be made when people had nothing important to do.
I really like the "this is the actual historical authentic way things were" videos. Keep it up, my Friend!
2:15 "The person at the lower level has the advantage in combat..." As if millions of Star Wars fans suddenly cried out in terror and were suddenly silenced.
The spiral staircase is one of the few rare circumstances where being higher up is not the most advantageous position. In almost every other circumstance, yes, having the high ground is preferrential, as it is generally easier to attack or advance from a higher position.
Here is an excerpt from The Art Of War, by Sun Tzu (written around 500BC)
-With regard to precipitous heights, if you are beforehand with your adversary, you should occupy the raised and sunny spots, and there you should wait for him to come up.
-If the enemy has occupied them before you, do not follow him, but retreat and try to entice him away.
-If you are situated at a great distance from the enemy, and the strength of the two armies is equal, it is not easy to provoke a battle, and fighting will be to your disadvantage.
@@superme63 Generally high gound is most useful for armies, because when you're higher up you have better visibility, your archers have longer range than enemy archers, the enemy has to come uphill which makes them tired, and any push or charge is way stronger when performed downhill compared to having to do it uphill. One on One fighting the advantages aren't that great
@@Doomin-c2m the solo advantages aren't as pronounced, no, but they still just as applicable.
because the lower only has access to your mostly none vital areas and not your mostly vital areas and the higher has access to your mostly vital areas and not your mostly none vital areas the lower has the advantage....makes sense
@@DoverBlood86 If I'm standing on some stairs below you, I have full access to your crotch from below (where there is no armor), while you have full access to all my armor, which was designed to protect from the front, back, sides, and blows from above... but yeah, you do you.
Wall tapestries have another advantage - sound insulation, to cut down on echoes or sound carrying a distance within the castle..
Ah, now that definitely makes sense for bedrooms... 😂
Who would want to fight on a staircase? Go to the nexxt floor and throw rocks down virtually impossible to avoid!
Spiral staircases accend clockwise so right handed people can carry a load in their right hand and climb the outer gentle gradient. Most that decend into basements usually turn tthe other way.
They also work as insulation (I didn't hear him talking about it, if he did, I'm sorry). Stone is great at holding its temperature, which means a cold stone will be cold for a very long time and is very hard to heat up. Not only is cloth a warmer material than stone, but it also creates a layer of air between the cloth and the stone. If that sounds familiar to you: It's the same principle how thermos bottles work (just much more efficient). So when you heat up your room, much more energy is kept within the room and isn't wasted heating up the cold stone walls.
@@Far1988 While that does work in the modern world. You would not heat these rooms at all. Because if they heated them they would have fireplaces in which many rooms did not. Only rooms that had fireplaces would be heated. The wall carpets act as a sound damping device along with making things pretty. Remember it requires a lot of labor to cut and split firewood and someone would have to be doing this everyday all year round to stock enough firewood for each castle. This would require places to stack and dry firewood. You can find a large number of styles in how they stacked firewood. Not only for heat, for cooking as well. Those who could afford it would get coal if there were mines nearby. Coal would have been popular from the 1300s on up. A lot of coal would have been used. Mines were likely all over the place.
@@kameljoe21 It's not only fireplace that is a source of heat - the walls of smokestack are too
A lot of credit to Shad on the respect he shows these places. The amout of restraint to not touch everthing is almost superhuman.
I'm glad I wasn't the only one to notice! I'm such a tactile person, I don't think I'd have the same restraint, especially in that dressed stone room 😍
Are you by any chance an American? Asking for a friend
Yeah he acts so respectfully at all these castles
At least in front of the cameras...
In a lot of these places you are not allowed to touch things.
I made my wife's dreams come true, and we were married in a castle.
But you sure wouldn't have known it from the look on her face as we were bouncing around during the ceremony.
i hope she didn't wear high heels as to not damage the architecture
My cousin did that too. We only needed three ambulances after everyone had climed up and down the staircases.
Bouncy castle. I see what you did there. 😂
CASTLE CONTENT!
CASTLE CONTENT!!
😮 *THIS* is *WHY* people subscribe
YEAH? BUT WHAT ABOUT DRAGONS!?
Yaaaaaaay!
MACHICOLATIONS!
Hi a experimental historian here from the netherlands... An theorie on why most stairs are clockwiese, is that most people are right handed. When you carry heavy things up, like a bucket of water, when you have a clockwise stair, you can use your strongest arm to carry and your left to hold balance... So the preferance for building a clock or counter clock wise seems to be dictated by war/fighting on the stairs but on a pratical daily life bases.
OMG THEY HAVE THE HOOKS!!! The joy over tapestry hooks was awesome.
23:00 that reaction is exactly why I love your channel. The sheer joy that only a fellow history nerd could appreciate.
"If we make the floors and stairs uneven, that will give us the advantage!" 😊
"Ow crap! They had uneven floors and stairs in their castles too?" 😳
And like, as stated, if they are that deep into the keep, all the major defensive measures have failed and it's just a steady stream left.
How many times would you have to go up and down ALL the stairs and across all the floors to know them by "instinct" so that when you're running around with adrenaline going that you wouldn't trip? I went to one where the stairs lead to bedrooms, the noble family would not like troops of soldiers going up and down the stairs twenty times a day.
Look up "witch's stairs" purposely built uneven, because witches can't walk up uneven stairs. Lmao.
@@jonh8790 my birth town has a 1300-ish built "sorcerer's tower" (was used as a prison from the 1500s to 1800s which seems impossible in our era 300 years !) I would be curious to know it has uneven stairs lol but I doubt it as the name and prison use came much later it was a lookout tower initially oh well
@@SerunaXI Lol. That and having a castle that allows you to be mobile inside the castle lets you adapt to changing conditions of a siege BEFORE the enemy gets inside, making them less likely to get inside in the first place.
Wait, you're telling me that your usual video set isn't a real castle?
@@Undomaranel Pretty sure that was a joke.
I'm shocked!
@@WorldArchivist Fine. Deleted so you can downvote this comment to oblivion then, because I'm clearly a humorless idiot and deserve to be yelled at for stupidity.
I was disappointed to find out that it was just a facade and there was no shed back there!
It could have been Shadshed Castle. Just think about it.
Yet…
Wow. Cannot tell tou how many photos I have looked at and never noticed the wall tapestry hanging hooks. Great details, many thanks, Shad.
These are the Shadiversity videos that we love the most. We actually use these in our Home School curriculum. Thank you Shad.
It is interesting how we feel that rough stone and unpainted furniture is "authentic". If we were to see a TV show or movie with authentic furniture that is painted, it would look wrong.
It is bigger than just medieval timeframes.
All of the bold white marble statues that we think of from Greek antiquity were painted with bold colors in a way that we would consider "garish" or "tacky" by todays standards. If a time period movie showed the statues painted... people would complain.
And the Egyptian pyramids were covered with a fine layer of white limestone... they would be blazingly white, not the sandstone color we associate with them.
As a Greek myself I was about to write this out too!
nah ...the more i learn about the truth
the more disillusioned i am by hollywood's illiteracy on basically everything, to the point i just assume its all alternate reality
The one with the marble statues was something I was impressed by when I played Assassins Creed Odyssey. Think of the game what you want, but some of the armour in that game and the depiction of ancient greek was fairly well done. They may have gone overboard with the size of the god statues in the game, though.
The thing with the marble statues I'm not sure how much we know about. I read somewhere that there's barely any surviving paint, so we can only make up the most general idea of what the finished statue would look like. Those "recreations" you see with the very basic, flat, uniform colors may be wildly inaccurate. It would make sense that they put as much care into the paint as they did into the carving. But since we can't really know, we have no idea about the specific style (This is me half-remembering something I read that made sense, some of it may be bs, someone else will have more specific knowledge)
@@maxkore278 About the only thing that golden age Hollywood got right was colour on the costumes in the old Technicolor films. Medieval people _loved_ their vivid colours and bold patterns. John the Bowyer would look at Errol Flynn's _Robin Hood_ costume and think 'nice'.
On the uneven steps item. The college I went to had a very old General Ed building. There were two staircases, one was a service staircase sort of in the back and the other was the main staircase. The main staircase had marble treads. So many students had gone up and down the staircase over the 100+ years that the treads from first to second floor had prominent dips in them. While second to third weren't as noticeable and third to fourth were basically non-existent.
Things get worn out when they get used. Even if the stairs were perfect when they were put in 700 years ago, they have had 700 years of deferred maintenance too.
Imagine how sandstone looks like. Even after just 200 years there are several finger deep areas from all the feet.
Even steel steps would have some sort of deformation after hundreds of years of being stepped on.
Yes. Dips from wear is one thing. What uneven steps are talked about here is that the hole slap of steps go from say 10.1cm high, 10.7cm high. 09.8cm high.
And possibly and very likely is that at one end of a 2m wide staircase to be 10cm exactly, but on the other end 10.2cm, or heck 10.5cm!
Okay. 10cm high steps are probably a bad example. What is the length of a rope? A staircase usually is what? 15cm? 17cm? Like believe me. If a staircase at a school or library whatever is randomly off by even a single cm in the middle of the staircase? And it is not worn but built badly? In modern times? Modern materials? Swears and curses.
Some of the most cruel things you can do in construction is making a staircase with one step or a couple off by 1cm or more. We are simply not expecting things like that today.
it's not just steps. It was customary to touch the bottom part of some pillars in front of Saint Peters Basilica's entrance as you entered and over the many houndreds of years those were totally abrased too, it's now I think even not allowed to touch them anymore.
I can easily see the same thing happen to walls in stairways and hallways that are common places to put your hand on for stability in walking.
@@TheDiner50 Yep. Main hospital in my city is exactly that. Like EVERY stair is a trip hazard, way too high, and every few steps are different, i though i would trip and die first week (they were also much longer then most other staircases by some damn reason).
Love this video! It’s really cool to see the reality of medieval castles, and I hope Shad does more stuff in the field like this in the future
13:10 you’re telling me that servants had a better retirement plan than almost every human being today. Imma go cry a bit
Chisels and Hammers Donkey Construction Company.. All having the same architecture…
social security and 401K. If you work for it you get it.
yeah we view people back in the day as cynical and uncaring, and sure standards were different.
But it was also much more free and simple, like you just not gonna remain in power if the people that serve you hate you.
Then you just end up dead.
And fairnness was supoer important in a time when all you had was you trust in others to get shit done.
Now day we can have reports and checkups, but back then, lies were so easy, so the punishment for doing them was high to make sure people stayed in line.
Else everything could fall apart fast.
You worked until you couldn't.
22:59
Shad, I haven't had as much of a chance to watch your videos lately, the downside of growing old. But your nerding out over the hooks for the tapestry was heartwarming, and part of what made me subscribe to you way back then.
Shad nerds about the polished, fitted sandstone masonry in this Mediaeval room.
Shad nerds about the tapestry hooks that held up curtains that HID the polished, fitted sandstone walls in this Mediaeval room.
YAY, another castle video! Love these, castles and medieval stuff is why I subscribed to Shadiversity!
I've actually used a lot of your advice in making my own castles, it has helped a lot! I haven't built one in Enshrouded yet, but I'm rather proud of the one I'm building in Valheim.
I am a farm/ranch boy and we always had a large pot on the cast-iron wood stove. That pot was always filled with chili and anyone who was hungry would come in, scoop out a cup and walk off. As the chili level dropped, mother would refill it and, at times, we ate chili 3x a day.
When my father was born, his older brothers got so tired of chili at every meal, they stole the pot and buried it in the desert outside Red Rock.
I love your genuine delight at seeing the wall tapestry hooks!
I knew that castles had them (you can thank Redwall and other books I read for that), but actually seeing them recreated...beautiful! Also, I wish more homes had window alcoves and book nooks these days.
Is it weird that I want to rub my hand against the smooth-looking stone?
That's so interesting about the furniture being painted! By modern aesthetics, colorful furniture like that looks like something made for children, but it totally makes sense when you think about the expense required to obtain those pigments. People always place more value on things which are difficult to get--and as what is difficult to get changes over the years, so do our tastes.
Shad, This video was incredibly interesting. Thanks for taking us with you on your noble quest!
At 20:32
Undressed stone walls....
If the stones are rough, undressed, it gives more area for the plaster to grab a hold of. Plaster would probably fall off a dress stone wall rather quickly....
Yes, there has to be some "tooth" for it to grab onto.
Shad, this is one of the best videos I've seen on this channel. The editing is tight, no repetition, no ranting, just a knowledgeable guy explaining some cool stuff. Best of all, you look genuinely excited and happy and that's so great to see. Extremely well done, sir. Can't wait to see the rest.
I imagine a medieval construction company explaining away why they botched the job on the stairs and flooring:
"You see, Mylord, the uneven ground and unequal stairs are intentional: In case of an attack..."
I’m writing a fantasy novel and binging all of Shads videos to help me make things more realistic. ❤️
Mood
If you want examples of all sorts of armor, weapons, decorations, statues, paintings, mundane items and what not you can check out:
SKD-Daphne and their online collection.
Its the online database for basicly the complete Saxony (germany) historic treasure. You might need to use a translater since most of it is in german. But its great and filled with a ton of details (up to the exact materials and measurements of clothing).
I’m doing the same!😁
Same.
Same
You missed a very salient point when talking about “garish” walls and furniture in a castle. It appears that in all the rooms you were in had electrical lights. So, yes, authentically painted, decorated furniture (etc) were all bright. Take those same rooms and illuminate them strictly with fire: candles, torches and the occasional oil lamp. Suddenly, the “garish” walls and furniture are muted in color, yet stand out. Polished furniture would blend into the gloom except for the immediate area of illumination.
Good myth busting video.
Cheers!
Good point
@@TonyM540 Thank you. I’m a medieval historian and have toured several castles, and the Tower of London. Having fought in full plate for years, I try to envision what life was truly like for our ancestors. They were quite a hardy bunch!
Cheers
Also, that room Shad was standing in and presenting is painted and decorated in 19th century historicist style.
@@florian8599 Could have been remodeled during the Victorian Gothic Revival.
True. It reminds me of what many say about GBA games about how they are "oversatuarated" when you view them on a modern LED screen. However if you view them on the original with the double filter with no backlight you can see why they did it that way. The GBA had 8 bit color just like the SNES and there were tons of ports. They could have made the colors identical but doing that would have made them appear far too muted.
Anybody else notice that YT is actually giving us recommendations to Shads vids? After his complaint video I have gotten more recommendations in the last 11 days than in the last 5 months.
There must be viewership/ subscriber tiers then. I got notifications but didn't watch if I wasn't interested.
I have notifications turned ON and haven't gotten a notification in months
I noticed that as well, I watched the video when it came out, because I checked his page, as it's the only way I could actually see his content, and then boom, recommended feed was practically half shad, older stuff included
@@therabidbanshee824 I do get them. that said, I'm an Australian from the same general area. so I imagine regional recommendations are a thing.
Who needs recommendations. Subscribe and scroll down your list of subscribed channels. I only miss a video if i choose not to watch it.
I live a few miles away from Castell Coch so it has always been a favourite and a first port of call where we take visitors. It was great to see Tretower Court and castle too as I first visited there as a student an 1982 and loved it ever since.I have usually visited at least once a year ever since. I haven't been now since lockdown so thanks for reminding me I must go there soon this year. Loved your video, thank you. PS, the tapestries or wall coverings would also have helped to make the rooms warmer, maybe not by much but they needed all the help they could get.
About the tapestries, i'd like to add that it wasn't only for decoration or, as many people said in the comments for noise levels, but for warmth too! The thick fabric protected from touching the freezing stones (especially in winter) and trapped a layer of air that kept the room's temperature somewhat level. It also help that normally a lot of people lived under the same roof and would warm up the air just by mooving and breathing. They still needed to layer their clothing and light up fires, but I bet it could be quite cosy in the bedrooms and such.
I really appreciate this video and the rest of your content I've watched.. Huzzah!
Stirling castle in Scotland has made a great effort of restoring and recreating lots of original wall decoration, tapestry painting and furnishings. It's definitely worth a tour whenever you get the chance. They even have some actors there doing things that the people would do who lived there and who you can ask and who will tell you what you want to know... They keep doing a fantastic job there!
Fascinating. As a writer myself, I appreciate this insight. We've all assumed things true or untrue because of common movie depictions.
Its why almost all the best fantasy writers are British or in the case of the few good foreigners such as Bernard Cornwell they are anglophiles who spent years visiting the UK and learned everything they could about British history before writing their books.
This makes zero sense. It assumes fantasy and British are synonymous. XD Nearly every culture around the world made castles but the vicious Brit empire wrote history to their liking for a long time. I'd argue most fantasy sucks because it's myopic and obsessed with one set of ideas that are focused on Europe as the end all, be all, or medieval life.
The other flaw with Misconception #2 is that most soldiers train to fight in fields, and fields aren't flat, so why would an uneven floor be a greater hindrance than a hillock with knee-high grass and hidden holes in it?
They would have put sand down on the floor to not only make the ground even but to deaden the noise. I wish more research would have been done.
@@zzzbetty2915 Además, cualquiera que intente caminar llevando una reproducción del calzado medieval, de clase media o alta, agradecerá muchísimo una buena capa de tierra e higiénica paja; más por los resbalones que por nivelación o ruido. Las suelas de cuero duro, incluso las que se desgastan intencionalmente, patinan endiabladamente sobre la piedra lisa (y si llevas armas... ).
Soldiers were rarely trained back in the day is what a lot of people are missing. Take an army coming from London to Stirling, that's hundreds of miles they need to walk with their stuff and a lot of the time the troops weren't like modern armies, where strict training regimes exist, most of a soldiers life was walking.
@@TheJpf79 That is not correct.
A standing army was a group of soldiers who spent their time training when they weren't marching to, involved in, or marching back from a war. They had to train on a frequent basis to maintain the body conditioning needed to use the weapons of the era. As such, they did quite a bit of training, some of it while on the road as well.
Conscripts on the other hand were farmers and other common laborer types who were pressed into service to augment the army to have the numbers needed to hopefully win the war. They are the ones you're thinking of that typically had little to no training. However, they also regularly worked in places with uneven footing, so uneven floors wouldn't be much of a hindrance to them when invading a castle.
@@Razmoudah Hello from 15 minutes away from Stirling Castle Scotland, how many "standing armies" do you think were around during the times when men were storming castle walls with ladders? Do you think King Richard trained his crusaders for years and years before the went on crusade? Do not tell people that things aren't true because you have invented something in your own imagination, Kings may have had men at arms but they did not have "standing armies" Depending on the day they may have had fuedal levies which were bodies of men brought by lords, these were NOT TRAINED "standing armies" Stop talking schiedt lad.
A few things I knew, most I didn't, ad others I would never have thought to ask the question. Thanks for the video. Very enjoyable to watch.
This should be required viewing for anybody writing fantasy. Wish it had been around when I started writing.
Thanks for talking about the staircase. That has always seemed such a strange tactic people would claim. If I lived in a castle uneven stairs would probably destroy me long before the enemy showed up so they seemed like an unlikely design choice for a defender to want.
I really enjoyed seeing this. I know this is not something that is possible all the time because of the cost of travel, it really was great to take these tours with you!
I got to visit a few in Ireland back in 2001. Namely Blarney and Bunratty. The tour guides there did explain to us what they referred to as _"stumble stairs"_ which they attributed to the reason you mention, along with the height of the doorways at the exits of the stairwell. (Made to compel besieging forces to bend or duck when passing through the doorways, putting them at a disadvantage defensively.) Whether that's all accurate or not I suppose we'll never know for certain.
Thank you for the straight-up, clear, understandable, and, well, friendly accent. No arrogance, not one bit. Just. . . wow! Much appreciated.
Caerphilly castle is literally on my doorstep. Locals used to get in for essentially free (£2 a year). I spent many a summer just hanging around inside it! There's nothing like running around, hacking at you friends with swords (even wooden ones) in a real castle. So glad you enjoyed it! 🙂
you guys are so lucky. I live in Canada and we have nothing like that at all. Never seen a castle or any ruin except for some Mayan ruins in Mexico.
So... easier defending from upstairs , or attacking upwards?
@@temptempy1360 I mean, on a spiral staircase definitely easier stabbing the person above you. But careful they don't push you down! 😂
@@bvyup2112 I would LOVE to see Mayan ruins! 😀 We're especially lucky in Caerphilly as there's so much of our castle intact (or restored). Plus we have The Leaning Tower!
@@maxpower1029 That thing is more like a diving board with that lean. Must be careful not to give the local council ideas though.
Castle misconception #13: Not all castles come equipped with a Shad. There is only one Shad and he is located in Australia. However a Shad exchange programme could be set up so castles can temporarily have a Shad on site.
*site
What is Shad? Only some fish shows up in search result.
@@Adiounys You will find your answer in the first 2 seconde of the video.
Actually there's another Shad , but we do not talk about the other Shad.
I'm surprised he's Australian after listening to his accent. I couldn't tell if he was English, Australian or American lol
Oh this was great. Seeing the castles and seeing the examples virtually first hand is amazing.
Honestly my fav form of Shadiversity content. I like the conceptual fun things, but and seeing him go in depth on more historical elements is where I started with his channel. Hope you can keep it up despite the tough times.
Loved this video a lot! Some of my favorite videos were just shad sitting and talking about a topic like history or castles and this is like that with bonus features.
Your enthusiasm is palpable.
Thanks, again, for such in-depth visuals and commentary!
It warms my heart that someone with such a deep appreciation for castles got to visit my country. You do awesome work, Shad.
The UK tour content has been awesome glad you got to do this trip your passion really comes through here
I’m so pleased that you got some real ‘back room’ parts of the castles and they allowed your filming and encouraged your passion. Really enjoyed your unpicking of medieval fallacies.
The wall carpets have great acoustic absorbing property as well. Great for banquets.
Love seeing Shad geek out on just the smallest detail of metal hooks in walls.
That detail's big due to where it is, though!
i was reading this and not 1 sec later he starts geek out about the metal hooks lol
Well again pigments and metal were very valuable at the time, so metal hooks on the wall is something that they would not put on for any minor reason. After all you need to get the ore, smelt and purify it to be worked on, witch takes massive amount of work. Then the blacksmith needs to heat and mold it into shape required, while knowing how to prevent it from separating as the wrought iron was not that pure. They developed methods to somewhat industrialize the process to make far better quality proper steel, but even wrought iron was never really cheap.
Those hooks are fantastic, it's amazing that they look just like the hooks in the paintings.
Been watching your content for years, being born and bred in Wales Castles are pretty much a normal part of our everyday life. Amazing to see you visit places I’ve been to many many times, awesome to see someone enthusiastically appreciating what so many around here take for granted. Thanks man x
You were bread in Wales? Then you were raised properly at yeast.
@@Matt_Alaric English being my second language always humbles me ☺️
This is by far my favourite type of content on your channel and i am so glad i'm seeing this. History about castles is sooo fun. Was gonna ask Shad how passionate are you about History in and of itself as in regarding purely Going to a sight like a castle and just talking abt it's history and so on so forth or talking about specific event like a famous battle or so on so forth, versus the culture how people lived how people acted and so on so forth. Love seeing this content and i am so happy that i am finally getting these recommendations back up. Hopefully Shadiversity lives on for years to come!
Dude- I got so excited that the "wall hooks" and wall-carpets are so similar to my many quilts held by thumb-tacks.
What a treat! Great video, thank you for high quality content, hope you'll receive on what you delivered!
"I win I have the high ground!"
Nope!
I always felt that line was a bluff. It tricked Anakin into trying to take the high ground, which left him open and caused him to lose the fight.
I would think if you have a pole arm you may have the upper hand tho. Just a little push and you topple the whole army.
I win, I have uneven floor and stairs!
@@Colt1775 That reminds me of the book "The Lion of the North, a tale of the times of Gustavous Adolphus." At one point, the MC and a few Scottish soldiers are surrounded in a church tower by a bunch of angry peasants. The MC had the idea of placing the door on the stairs with 2 pikemen at the top.
Not for the Scots at Flodden.
Those stones were so massive and so well fitted that only aliens could have built them.
That's because we still believe that people back then were stupid. but they weren't that at all
@@Lysandra-8 We also can't grasp time. People these days can barely fathom churches taking 10+ years to be built.
@RobertDoornbosF1 Let alone spending a few hours farming in a game instead of buying it from cash 😂 everything needa to be ready immediately.
Maybe we are becoming more stupid 😮
Oh right, aliens! I was thinking Zues and Odin built them!!! (Yes, I know Zues & Odin are basically the same god in different societies)
I'm here for this! Prefer these to the usual videos.
One common misconception that you missed and made in the video is the idea that the large iron pots were stew/porridge pots directly as their primary purpose. they were more often filled with water, and containers and pouches and sealable pots submerged into them to cook multiple items at once for the length of time each item needs to be cooked for. even dense breads. where in the pot they were could also control the temp as they'd be packed fairly full. it was rare that they would be used directly as cooking pots/vessels themselves despite how movies portray them.
Last year I visited estonia and was amazed by Kuresaares castle and so after I returned home I whent and visited Bauskas castle near my home. Castles do indeed rule more when you can touch them.
LOVED the geeking out about the original wall hangers :D
Wouldn't any original iron fittings have rusted away over the centuries? Nails may have been driven in by a Victorian (or later) user/owner to support wall hangings for a special event. Many of our ancient buildings were updated over the centuries, and have been "restored" to an earlier state in recent times by ripping out the improvements.
Awesome video. I love the medieval misconceptions stuff. Hope this video does well.
I think the idea of "it's bumpy and uneven on purpose" doesn't work for a few reasons. While Castles are known for their defense, battles were rare compared to the happenings of daily life. Castles had friendly and neutral guests far often than they have invaders. It should also be considered that people who grew up in a time where flat floors were rare were probably more trip averse than people of today. So a slightly uneven ground or steps wouldn't be nearly the inconvenience to an invader than it would be to a time traveler like us who are expecting very flat floors and even staircases.
Also, just how did the invaders get there? Probably marching many many kilometres on even more uneven ground... And your average training field very likely also was bumpy... So actually perfectly flat and smoot surface might be better advantage...
YES! People lived their entire lives on uneven surfaces. Something as simple as going to the latrine at night would have you trudging almost blind over planks that would sink in rain, warp in heat, and had to be replaced every couple of years at most. People were just used to walking on uneven surfaces, so a puny staircase with some steps slightly higher than others wasn't an obstacle at all.
I think they has bed pots for that reason.
@@B3RyL you'd use your chamber pot or take a light with you if you really wanted to use the outhouse at night.
Loved the video! I grew up in North Wales in a village called Dolwyddelan, which has its own castle. Great to see all of the castles I grew up around and kind of took for granted, but you taught me far more than I ever knew about them, really cool!
Nice to see this video is being seen more than some other recent ones i am glad to see the channel has recovered slightly
Finally some castle content! That's why I subbed years ago :)
I love how Shad freaks out about the hooks in the wall and the guide is just standing there, staring at him, not knowing what is happening 😅
Absolutely brilliant work, sir. You've done your research and presented a great run-down with clear in-person examples. I can't express how much I love this video.
As much as I enjoy the Medieval Mythbuster style videos here on Shadiversity, this is the kind of content I enjoy the most.
Watching a fellow medieval enthusiast talking about the subject he adores addressing misconceptions about the medieval period in a comprehensive and respectful manner
As said by many others, this is your best content. More of this, even when you aren't able to visit the UK all the time, I love even the Shad in a chair discussing castles stuff. That informal university-like feel is an excellent win for your channel and must be among the cheapest content to produce. Consider more of it.
SHAD!!!! Please don’t give up! You’re always so fun to watch. Please don’t let the harassment of you by the algorithm ruin your passion to share your love for history with us!
Incredible. Thank you for being awesome Shad.
I will always appreciate your high quality castle content.
Especially the art-depiction/real-life comparison.
fantastic distillation of the longer videos, thanks for putting this together
Longer video?
Regarding painted furniture and walls, they may seem garish but remember we are looking at them with electric lightings and not as how the rooms would had been lit with natural sunlight, candles, or oil lamps. Colors look very different under different light sources.
One thing I've noticed in the past and in this video is that many people tend to analyse castles only by their defensive capabilities. In reality, a lot of space was devoted to daily life.
So happy to learn there are plenty more castle videos to come.
Love your content Shad! Logic dictates that just because some castles have certain characteristics doesn’t mean that they all do, even if they were all built by the same guy at the same time which of course is not the case. As much as I love history the level of deduction that goes into it varies greatly depending on sources and exactly how much was recorded and how much is being guessed based on physical evidence.
Thanks for the informative video, Shad! Hope you guys had fun at the castles you visited.
Great video shad !
20:40 I love that you talk about the wall carpets. I always read about wall carpets in Robert Louise Stevenson and other historical pieces, but I couldn't quite envision where/how they hung, how continuous they were.
I worked as a security Guard at a castle for some time.
There were a lot of paintings in the castle, like so so so many paintings. And when you look at them, you notice something.
They were all dark in color. The reason was very simple. (btw when I say castle, it was more like a big home, it was a very late almost too late medi eval castle)
The reason was that black color was expensive. The most expensive color you can have at the time.
And that is the reason the paintings where so dark, it was to show "hey, I can afford black paintings, a lot of them too, look in awe about my wealth".
So I totally get it when Shad says that people of the past wanted to show of what they had. They absolutely did.
The most expensive color was Tyrian purple. Red, black, and blue were among the expensive colors.
@TerminusTartaros
I don’t really believe that. I would think it was easy to make black paint; you just need charcoal. It is true though that black fabric was difficult and expensive to make.
Some reasons medieval paintings are dark: (list stolen from Andrew Meyers on Quora)
- There was an informal recipe for the use of colors that was passed down. There was a dictate that shadows should be brown etc.
- There was a scarcity of different pigments, not yet developed, and many were fugitive with time.
- Oil and varnishes darken with time
- Dirt and soot accumulates on painting surfaces. They need cleaning.
- Oil paints become somewhat transparent with time. This allows the darker underpainting to come through.
Rembrandt’s The Night Watch is called that because it was long thought to depict a night scene, but it was just the thick layer of darkened varnish that made it so dark. It’s a day scene!
@@Brinta3 Ok interesting. Welp. What I said was what they told me at the castle. So I blame an inaccuracy on them.
@@Brinta3 Lamp black or soot black I think was the preferred paint source. It came ready powdered and was purer than charcoal. You got it from the chimney.
how old were these paintings? had any been restored in the last 20-40 years?
look at some of the before & after pics of old restored paintings, and you can see the brilliant effect of removing hundreds of years of dust, smoke and grime.
smoke from pre-electric lighting & heating was probably the biggest factor, I'm guessing.
YEA! Shadiversity notifications!
Thanks for the video, Shad!
Yeah first time in months lol
@@SleepyLibrary-px3ly same here other than the maybe shutting down video that was heartbreaking
@@HyenaDragon I hope he gets his views back, wish I could support him somehow, tough times tho.
@@SleepyLibrary-px3ly same here, giving what I can. It's not much but I hope it helps.
Fascinating. Absolutely fascinating.
Usually I play video games while listening. I have been glued to the screen. Wow.
I bet they used wall carpets also to reduce the echos. You can really tell the difference at this part. 22:25
I have never seen this Australian before I’ve learned more within the first 10 minutes than I have learned from other presenters. He offers his own interpretation, backed up with examples and his experience. Well done.🇬🇧🏴🇬🇸
You must have had a fun time trying to get that sword past customs...
Looks to not be sharpened. If the blade isn't sharpened, most customs treat it as just a giant block of steel. A blunt sword is no more dangerous than any other chunk of metal.
@@ShaggyRogers1 I'm fairly certain that's one of his LARP swords. Foam swords are basically seen as toys.
@@ShaggyRogers1
It's foam, made by Calimacil. They're very convincing, aren't they!
(Look up Calimacil, Geralt's steel sword.)
@@Ranstone It's hard to tell on camera, either way. However, you can see him just grab it by the blade, so it clearly doesn't have an edge even if it was steel.
Aussie border guard: "Anythin' ta declare that yer bringin inter Stralya?" (Yes, I used to watch a lot of that old Aussie Border Control documentary show)
Shad: "Sword!"
This was a great video, Shad. Thanks!
This is piece of art Shad. I learned a lot.
Castles were my favorite things as a wee kid, this channel is a goldmine for me finally learning about them since nobody taught anything for us in school.
Your passion really comes through in these on location video's, I hope you had a good time here in Europe.
Thank you for the focus on Cymru. I can't express how much I adore your content
More castles pleeaase. Love your work Shad
So, just a thought, maybe they made clockwise stair cases because people are usually right-handed, so if you were carrying a lamp while navigating stairs at night, and going down stairs, it would feel more natural to carry the lamp in your left hand, and use your right hand as a guide along the wall, ready to brace yourself should your footing slip.
I think this because I grew up with a clockwise staircase in my house, and trying to go down spiral stairs is very disconcerting. Being right handed, we also generally put our weight on our right foot when descending, and if you make the stairs clockwise, you have more footing at the right side going down, making descent that much safer and surer of footing.
I also found that running up clockwise stairs is easier for right-handed people, because you can grip the central column with your right hand to counteract the centripetal force you generate as you run up, and right-handed people generally have stronger grip in their right hand.
Just some insight from having lived in a home with spiral stairs for 20-some years.
Remember, castles were homes, and while defenses are something to consider, I think a lot of decisions are gonna be made around aspects of daily living more so than aspects of warfare - which may never even happen to your castle. Personally, I think fighting on stairs, spiral or not, is already gonna be very challenging. I just have my doubts that the direction of spiral had much to do with combat/defense, and more likely was due to what's better for daily life. I could be wrong, so whatever.
At a friend's house the stairs are not spiral, but they don't have a landing at the turning point between floors and instead go around. There's no handrail on the downwards-righthand wall, only in the centre. Those are the only stairs I ever fell down face first. So yes, having a handrail on the right when going down is essential.
Dude's claymore is so rad. I love how he attends all these medieval castles in full period clothing, and again, a frigging claymore at his hip
Including authentic period New Balance trainers.
@@chrisperyagh 😂
That claymore might not have been a great choice for indoor fighting. Perhaps something more on the scale of a cutlass would have been more handy.
I lived in Germany for nearly 8 years, and spent a lot of time touring castles and talking with historians. The fact is that strategy and tactics changed through the years. Just because one castle doesn't have a certain defensive measure, does not mean that the defensive measure wasn't used later or earlier. For example, in one castle there was an obvious change that was made to the arches leading into the castle. See, when the castle was first built, the arches were high enough so that someone on horse back could ride all the way into the inner parts of the castle. Later, they lowered the archway. Why? To help defend the castle, they wanted to to make it impossible for the enemy to ride their horses through the arches. Why? Because a mounted soldier had an advantage, and if they forced them off their horses, it would give the defenders the advantage. The defensive measure of building spiral staircases going one direction is true...but for a different time, a different strategy, and likely, a different geographic location.