Ha... thank you, I had absolutely no idea what the word he was trying to say was. I know those as machicoulis (with a hat on the first a), but I am not sure what the English term for those would actually be, surely a derivation of sorts... Ok, I had to Google translate it... the english term is: machicolation....
I really hope that in some country, in some classroom somewhere a teacher is going "Ok class, for today we are going to watch this Shadiversity video on how castles were made", and those students would learn a lot, you put information in a really nice and, even when including complex terms, easy way to understand. I love it!
I actually had a highschool history teacher whose teaching method was 99% getting us to watch a documentary and then right about it. Shads vids would have been great if we ever covered the middle ages
I had a history teacher who would tell the most amazing stories and sometimes showed movies and tell what was really happening in the time period and what the movie did right and wrong. I think thats what spiked my interest in history.
I was meaning future *future* archaeologists. Like, thousands of years from now. They would be like "Why is this castle centuries older than the other ones we found? dafuq were they doing back then?"
and when future archeoligists find neuschwanstein, they'll wonder why some castle builders already knew about steel beams, modern concrete and telephone wires. :)
As a carpenter I was taught that that holes were called “putlog” holes (not potlug) where you put a log in. The term is still used today in scaffolding for the short cross members that used to go into the adjacent wall.
He's never even been in one ,, likely.... i've been asked to build one, in mexico by a rich jew. this shad could not even answer me directly. ??? does he look like a tradesman, -or a chubby fool ?????
One of my friends worked several weeks at Guédelon and it's really an awesome project. Not only because of the castle itself but also because they basically produce everything they need to actually live and work on the building site, so they discovered a lot of things about smithing, stonecutting or how the 13th guys built watermills. Anyway, nice video as usual Shad, I hope your castle fever never stops ! :^D
While stone does have generally low thermal insulation value it does have high thermal mass value. And this is what lots of people get confused on hence the earlier misinformation. Can 'sink' a lot of heat in the day before raising in temperature then at night it will conduct that heat out providing for a more stable overall temperature.
It works that way in climates that have large day/night differences in temperature, like the desert or most arid regions. Areas that have hot days, and barely any temperature drop at night, like the tropics, your walls will just heat up to the air temp and you'll be living in a giant stone oven on a permanent low heat. You'll need a crap ton of ventilation openings in the walls and you'll want to shade the walls as much as possible or it'll be an extremely uncomfortable place to live. Consistantly cool areas without a lot of sunlight (like cloudy, rainy england/scotland) have the opposite problem. Walls will be ice cold all winter and you'll need to provide a lot of heating... a fireplace in every room (both to heat the space and the wall) is how that problem was often dealt with.
Soviet who Cuts, Sometimes, but more often adobe or rammed earth which has similar high mass and thermal properties for construction purposes so it'll work in pretty much the same way.
There are also some very interesting and inventive constructive practices with stone. By having the stone jut out on one side or the other depending on where you want the 'stored' thermal energy to go you increase the surface area and thus the conduction. If it is toward the interior the stone will radiate more 'heat' at a night inside then outside due to the larger area. And during the heat of the day while the stone is still taking in thermal energy the interior will be cooler. This ease of conduction though does promote condensation in humid cool climates easily however, thus requiring wood insulation. Our ancestors where honestly I feel on average more intelligent then modern humans. They had less technology but per person where far better critical thinkers imho.
Shad Fact: Pistol Shrimps can snap their claw in the water so quickly that it causes a cavitation bubble in the water. Shad is able to swing his sword so quickly he creates a cavitation bubble in spacetime causing the target to disappear from existence.
You sir are the greatest narrator I have ever encountered on RUclips. Perfect balance of information and fun. History teacher would have been your destined profession. Keep up the fantastic work! All the best from Germany.
RUclips isn't the future. That might have been true in 2007, but in 2018 corporate profiteers have been doing their best to run RUclips into the ground, attempting to squeeze out whatever capital they can before the whole rotten edifice collapses. Who the hell is paying for RUclips Red when there's so much free content? Not enough people. The future is a mass exodus of independent content creators, and the subsequent creation of a new platform- free of corporate influence and all made possible by funding from Patreon and other direct support from fans.
Damn, now I want a series of videos expanding on all of these topics ;P Something I always REALLY appreciated about your channel is how in-depth you go with everything.
I used to have an interest in Medievalism since I was a kid, but I didn't have a good source to get information and now I can honestly say that I've found the best of information and that is Shadiversity. Thank you very much Shad. 🙏
Thought I was a medieval history buff but you've definitely out-nerded me Shad! Love your videos and this was no exception. This stuff fascinates me I don't know why.
I live in Waterford, Ireland. our town was founded by Vikings. It's so cool seeing castles around the county. I've been to a few of them and they're amazing.
They thought I was daft to build a castle in a swamp, but I did it just the same, just to show em. That one sank into the swamp. So I built a second one, that also sank into the swamp. I built a third one. That one caught fire fell over and sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!
There's also been a documentary that was filmed at Guedelon called "Secrets of the Castle" it follows 3 historians during their 6 month stint in assisting in the construction of Guedelon. It's really good and they go a little bit more in depth with the archeological experiment of Gedelon Castle, including the clothing, the diet, social structure, and the basic military defences of the 13th century (which is the time period they're focussing on for the experiment)
I liked the part where the hosts were painting the walls and two of the workers were speaking amongst themselves in French. Paraphrasing because I saw it a while back. "Are we just going to leave it like that?" "We'll fix it later."
Actually that's pretty damn close to what they said. I bought a dvd copy of the documentary a little while ago and I rewatched it recently and it's more or less exactly what they said.
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Yes! I love that documentary because it's so well produced in that way, with lots of cheeky nods to British and France perspectives haha.
From my understanding, I think stone and brick holds heat for a good while, like 8 hours or so, so it doesn't resist absorbing it, but it takes a while to emit. What this results in in places my house is an odd situation in summer where It can be hot outside but pretty cool during the day at the beginning of a heatwave, but when night falls, the house gets really hot and it's really annoying sweating while you're trying to sleep.
Sounds like my home here in Sweden. In the winter it's great, but this year we are having a very hot summer and sleeping is almost impossible without a fan pointed straight at my feet.
Any high mass building like stone, cob/adobe, rammed earth, thick brickwalls ect will have a temperature levelling effect. If you have a very hot day it will stay cool inside the building... and as the walls emit the absorbed heat over night (assuming the nightime temp is much cooler than the daytime temp) will help to keep the inside warmer than the cold night. The problem is when you have extended periods of either very high or very low temps. A few hot days with hot nights in a row and high mass buildings can become uncomfortably warm, like living inside a pizza oven on a permanent low heat. Consistantly cold weather is the opposite, it's like living inside a stone freezer. Arid and desert climates are ideal for high mass building as they have scorching hot days and cool to freezing nights... the temp inside will stay mostly at a comfortable level due to the walls absorbing heat during daytime and radiating heat out at night. I suspect castle walls in cooler climates, like england, would be at the 'stone freezer' end of the scale for much of the year if nobody was living in them/that wing/building ect and keeping several fireplaces lit. Assuming the fireplaces were lit every day the walls would act in some ways like a giant masonry heater, absorbing heat both from the fire and the hot gasses passing up through the chimneys which often ran several levels up through walls. If you kept the fires lit every day I think the walls had the potential, especially if it was an internal wall, to become toasty warm and act as giant radiators keeping the entire building at a nice and comfortable temperature during cold winters.
Right! There's thermic resistance (insulation power) and also phasing i.e. the time for the heat to pass the wall. If it's several hours, (depending the thickness and the material) : you get the heat during the night!
certainly NOT 8 hours, a couple hours after the sun is down at most... I have lived in a small house made of stones, built by my grand father out of the stones off the ruins of an ancient watermill, with walls that were about a metre thick. It was never warm inside unless we had the fire place going, and even then, it took a long time before it was warm, and after letting the fire die overnight, the 6am wake up was very cold, the stone certainly did not radiate any residual heat from the evening fire... Also, the heat of the sun may have warmed the external stones somewhat during the day, but it never reached inside, it may have served as a buffer for a couple of hours, though, I don't really know.
I really like this series. I really like your castle videos in general. Not so much the video game representation reviews. They are good, but I really prefer your real castle videos. Please make more like this that go into the details of construction and what not. It is fascinating!
It's always rough in this corner of RUclips. Half the viewers want more fantasy and the other half wants more history. Skall's channel was pretty much murdered by that viewer split
I never knew there was a channel that focusses on history and medieval times like you do, i love the medieval times so much! So much that i'm moving to another country next month, and we'll be living in a village were people build houses by them selves with self made bricks from the sands of the desert. One thing i would want to know and i think you might know the answer: How do i give my bricks a desert/sandy texture whenever i make them? I haven't seen any video of them completing the full process, but many times i see people making bricks that turn red or grey, Thank you already, And i wish you all the best! You and Lindybeige teach me so much.
If you are interested in this video, you may also like to see how Japanese castles were made. Nagoya -Jo is actually in the process of rebuilding the palace portion and if you go to the museum you can see all about it. At least they were still building a few years ago and given the size of the project, I assume they are still building. There is amazing woodworking skill there and the walls have very fitted stone, if I remember correctly. Really cool stuff.
Dun-dun da-dun da-dun! We're Knights of the Round Table! We dance whene're we're able! We do routines and chorus scenes. With footwork impeccable. We dine well here in Camelot. We eat ham and jam and spam a lot! We're Knights of the Round Table! Our shows are formidable! But many times we're given rhymes That are quite unsingable. We're opera mad in Camelot. We sing from the diaphragm a lot! In war we're tough and able, Quite indefatigable! Between our guests we sequin vests and Impersonate Clark Gable. It's a busy life in Camelot. I HAVE TO PUSH THE PRAM A LOOOOOOOOOOT!
Guedelon is a very interesting project, in 2013 i was there for 2 weeks, assisting the stonemasons, there are quite a few things they found out in Guedelon through experimentation, that we probably would have never found out just through archaeological excavation and analysis. For example, they solved the mystery why the mortar on most castles is so strong and flexible over many centuries and they found that a high carbon content was responsible for the long lasting properties. This carbon comes from charcoal, which is evenly distributed throughout the limestone, while burning it in the kiln, this was most likely more a coincidental advantage during the construction of some monasteries in the early middle ages, but then became known and widespread knowledge(the other method is to just have the charcoal/wood below the limestone, in which case almost all carbon gets oxidized to CO or CO² avoiding a reaction with the calcium.
An excellent video, sir. Being a mediaeval historian, I have just returned from a castle holiday in northeast Wales, where I took in some of the handiwork of James of St George, as well as that of the masons of the Welsh princes, and I am well on the way to having visited most of the castles in Britain. I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that the rubble and lime infill between the ashlar stones also contributed towards giving the walls a certain amount of compressive leeway, which aided in their ability to withstand bombardment from various stone-slinging machines. On a slightly different, but related, point, I may be wrong, but I believe you stated that castles that have their infill showing have been subject to erosion, but erosion is not why this has happened: the ashlar stones have, in fact, been robbed in later times by people to build houses and other buildings, using the castles as quarries of ready-cut stones. I must protest at your pronunciation of the word “putlog.” You repeatedly reversed the vowels, calling them “pot lugs” which I believe has something to do with electric guitars(?) A minor quibble, but your work is always so good that it jarred somewhat each time you said it. Other than that, another very good video: Your work is much appreciated!
I spoke about this subject with my mother, and mentionned Guédelon castle. She told me she knows the owners & founders of the project very well, the world is a little place ^^ they own multiple medieval/rennaissance stuff which they restore themselves. That's so awesome
I feel a very solid urge to go there now... Maybe I actually will, I'll have to look into it, but either way, it's fantastic that people are undertaking such a project.
The 5-part documentary about the construction of Guédelon Castle, (with Ruth and Tom,) is the most in-depth and informative, (and extremely entertaining.) Although at aired back in 2016, and, obviously, the Castle construction is much closer to completion nowadays, it is still the most recent thorough information you can find about that particular Castle and it's construction on RUclips. I would highly recommend it. Especially for anyone watching this video! 👍🏰
You are correct about the foundations, those are very important. Unfortunatly, back then not everyone actually did foundations that well. In my city theres a gatehouse from the 15th century. They used logs for the foundation. It literally already started sinking as they were building it, at one point it sunk into the ground to to the point where the lowest arrow slits were 50 cm's underground. Plus, they didn't actually connect the foundations of both the towers, so they kinda slipped outwards, if that makes sense.
Well, back then only native americans lived over there, and those didn't build castles(or build anything from stone for that matter). I guess you could be heading south and check out some of the buildings the maya and the aztecs have build. They've build pretty impressive stuff too.
Welcome. If you want to fit right in, remember to randomly ask "But what about dragons?" in any video that has nothing to do with dragons. Shad loves it and isn't sick at all of it.
When I did my apprenticeship in carpentry the most complex thing, by far, that we ever had to learn was rafter (roof truss) systems, so Shad’s right when he says those timber roof structures are a feat of engineering. Funny the thing is, virtually no carpenter these days needs the knowledge of how to engineer complex roofs anymore, engineers do! It was the same when my dad took his carpentry apprenticeship 40 years ago. But we still learn it because it’s tradition, & it’s a good way to understand complex, practical geometry which can apply to many other projects.
I pitched my last roof in the late eighties. The "little red book" of tables, protractors. sliding bevels, roofing squares..... couldn't do it today without some homework. Now, all via cad files to truss makers, and voila! truck appears with ready made trusses. Mind you, not designed to last.... those gang nails rust out, and vulnerable in a fire, so collapse faster.
I think I once heard that apart from the obvious ease of build, another reason that castle walls where filled with loose stones, dirt and mortar, rather then being built from interlocking stones like the exterior walls, is that the resulting structure (i.e. two solid walls filled with a somewhat looser and more flexible core) absorbed and diffused impacts from siege weapons better. Also, I once learned when visiting a castle in the Netherlands (shown in your video in 3:10) that some of the wooden trusses where especially made from timber where the tree was shaped as it was growing in order to grow into a arched shaped naturally, thus allowing for both larger trusses and significantly stronger ones not needing as many joints, and with the wood grain growing in the proper direction.
This video did not let me down. I woke up at 3:23AM to take a dump, randomly thought how castles were made on the side of cliffs, clicked on this Video and loved it. 👏🏽 thanks dude 🤙🏽
Another great video! I don't know if you take requests but I was thinking it would be cool to see a video on Medieval medical techniques. You know, since you're always talking about how people killed each other back then.
A while back, I used to think Medieval castles and such were quite boring... Then you came along! Thank you for being on RUclips, and keep up the stellar work!
This has been an amazing find. Your channel has been amazing with the role playing system I am making. Not only have I made great strides in discovering new gear, and reconfiguring old gear, but being amazing giving me ideas.
This is a truly great video about a truly great topic! 👌👌 One can't underestimate the capabilities medieval people had in constructing castles. The timberwork especially fascinates me. Absolutely beautiful truss 😍 Random information: On a school trip as a kid i once visited a medieval style blacksmith and i even got a black iron nail like in this video! I was sooo happy 😂
As a building surveyor, i am impressed with your construction knowledge. You also bring history to life with your narrating. Good job sir! I am fascinated by the engineering of castles. Either they were geniuses or they had prior knowledge passed down from their ancestors...but then who taught their ancestors!?
One very important aspect of castle construction, which you didn’t really touch upon, is the fact that by far the majority of construction work was not done actually building a castle from the ground up, but was done expanding, strengthening or otherwise reconstructing an already existing castle. With some notable exceptions, most castles we see today are the result of multiple phases of construction, expansion and redesign over several centuries. Regardless of the time period, where construction began, these castles almost always started out as very simple, rather small structures, which could be erected and put to use quickly. The reason for this is obvious: Constructing a large, heavily fortified castle from scratch (as they are sort of doing with Guédelon - though they at least completed the main tower first) takes a really long time, often decades. During much of this period the structures would be more or less useless and nigh impossible to defend. Rather build something small, but useful, in a hurry and then expand from there. There is a tendency to view the evolution of a castle purely in terms of technological advancements, so when an initial wooden structure is replaced by a stone tower or a pallisade is replaced by a ring wall, this is seen as technological progression, as if people didn’t know how to build stone structures or walls before? In reality, most castles started out as smaller, often wooden structures, simply because there was need for them here and now, not 10 years down the line. This is very important to understand when looking into castle construction: That almost all of it took place on an already existing and working castle. This greatly affected both the construction work and design choices and put limits on the possibilities for construction, because the old castle had to remain functional at all times during construction. This is the main reason, why so many castles look sort of haphazardly put together, lacking any sort of symmetry, blending different building styles and being riddled with design compromises. They were never designed or constructed as a whole.
ancient archetectuer is g-dang impressive, had i the funding and fame to gain acess, itd be a dream to visit all the ol' castles, cathedrals, basilicas, temples, and such i dont get excited about pretty much anything, but had i that opportunity, id be as giddy as a, lets just say id make Alec Steele seem like a statue of a sloth
I went there three times, at the very beginning, and two times later, it's really interesting! The progress were amazing. They not only have the main caste, but also a "motte" (wooden watch tower more or less), animals at the farm and all the workshops with people coming from all around the world to practice there! Even the catering is somehow "typical" with not-so-modern things to eat, and definitly no fast food ;)
@4:00 - makes me thing of that speech in Monty Python's Quest For The Holy Grail where the king is talking to the prince and he says "I built the first castle in the swamp...it sank, so I built the second one on the top of the first one...and four castles later, that castle stayed standing."
With the time it took to build, imagine polite armies getting to one under construction: "Hello, er...we're here to besiege!" "Sorry, the castle isn't finished yet, come back later!" "Oh, bummer. That wont be fun. Any idea when?" "Maybe 7/8 years..." "🥺" "...but i heard Guislain de Grenouille had his castle finished a week ago, it's not far from here on that direction" "Thanks, mate you saved my weekend!"
Worked at Guedelon for a week in 2016. Fantastic people working there, great skill levels and totally free from modern tools and apparatus. Highly reccomend a visit.
@@KristiChan1 Was supposed to go back this year but Covid put a halt to that so next March I hope. Amazing experience, stays with you. I highly reccommend you visit.
My son wants me to build him a castle in our backyard. This video was very hands on and informative. I feel confident now to begin my own castle project.
The architectural design of some of these structures is nothing short of mind boggling, let alone the skill of the building artisans of every trade, including the quarrymen and tool makers.
It’s cool seeing the castle at 8:11 in a youtube video since I drive past it every day without a second thought, and now I get to understand more about how it was made
I can just imagine that if Shad was ever really besieged he'd scare the enemy off by constantly shouting "MATICULATIONS!!!" at them all through the day and night.
As one of the millions of people in the building trade I have always lamented the abject lack of attention paid to this subject. Thank you for addressing castle construction at last. Please do more.
Shad I'd like to thank you for putting out your content, it does interest me, and your videos have taught me a lot about swords, armor, and medevil building style.
Shad your videos are one of the great necessities in my life. I can't imagine how much more research I'd need to do or professionals I'd have to interview to write historical fiction and realistic fantasy were it not for you and your interests.
I visited the Guedelon Castle last year, it exceeded my expectations and was worth the mission getting there, i hired a car in Paris, next time it will be outside Paris as driving in traffic on the right hand side of the road was hectic, i had a friend to share the drive and help navigate, i would not have done it alone.
9:37
Shad: “They’re kinda the genesis or origin of-“
Me: (Lowers volume)
Shad: “machicolations.”
Me: (Pauses)
“Genesis of what?” (Rewinds)
Shad: “machicolations.”
Me: “of what?!” (Rewinds)
Shad: “machico-“
Me: “OF WOT??!?!!!” (Rewinds)
Shad: “mach-“
Me: “MACHICOLATIONNNNNZAH!”
That said, I’m glad my ears are still here. =P
Good stuff as always, shad.
MACHICOLATIONSSSSS UNITE
ROFL
10:36 there we go xD
same lol
Ha... thank you, I had absolutely no idea what the word he was trying to say was.
I know those as machicoulis (with a hat on the first a), but I am not sure what the English term for those would actually be, surely a derivation of sorts...
Ok, I had to Google translate it...
the english term is: machicolation....
I really hope that in some country, in some classroom somewhere a teacher is going "Ok class, for today we are going to watch this Shadiversity video on how castles were made", and those students would learn a lot, you put information in a really nice and, even when including complex terms, easy way to understand.
I love it!
I actually had a highschool history teacher whose teaching method was 99% getting us to watch a documentary and then right about it. Shads vids would have been great if we ever covered the middle ages
I had a history teacher who would tell the most amazing stories and sometimes showed movies and tell what was really happening in the time period and what the movie did right and wrong.
I think thats what spiked my interest in history.
Sadly. History is NOT even being taught anymore.
I’m actually doing homework for that now haha
Future archeologists are gonna have a hell of a trip when they date Gaudelon castle
DesertAvenger
They should leave a time capsule filled with modern technology and no way to specifically date it.
I was meaning future *future* archaeologists. Like, thousands of years from now.
They would be like "Why is this castle centuries older than the other ones we found? dafuq were they doing back then?"
"... centuries *younger* ..."
ftfy
Also, unfortunately the internet is too strong. Theres no way that information is getting lost.
Yeah, thanks for that. Not a native English speaker. And yes, probably wouldn't happen, but it's fun to think about it as a joke.
and when future archeoligists find neuschwanstein, they'll wonder why some castle builders already knew about steel beams, modern concrete and telephone wires. :)
As a carpenter I was taught that that holes were called “putlog” holes (not potlug) where you put a log in. The term is still used today in scaffolding for the short cross members that used to go into the adjacent wall.
Put log is better
Mini-Shad is awesome. I hope to see more of him in the future.
We are do you see him ? Hes no David Attenborough 🤣🤣
I have this nagging suspicion that you may know a bit about castle building.
lol
Understatement of the century.
Y'know, just a hunch...
Meh I don’t see it
a bit lol
He's never even been in one ,, likely....
i've been asked to build one, in mexico
by a rich jew.
this shad could not even answer me directly.
??? does he look like a tradesman,
-or a chubby fool ?????
*Easy!*
1) Create machicolations
2) Combine machicolations
3) Put archers by the machicolations
4) ...?
5) Profit
castles were just props for displaying machicolations.
It's also tactically sensible to put pommel throwers beside those archers in order to unleash hell upon the attackers
One of my friends worked several weeks at Guédelon and it's really an awesome project. Not only because of the castle itself but also because they basically produce everything they need to actually live and work on the building site, so they discovered a lot of things about smithing, stonecutting or how the 13th guys built watermills. Anyway, nice video as usual Shad, I hope your castle fever never stops ! :^D
While stone does have generally low thermal insulation value it does have high thermal mass value. And this is what lots of people get confused on hence the earlier misinformation. Can 'sink' a lot of heat in the day before raising in temperature then at night it will conduct that heat out providing for a more stable overall temperature.
It works that way in climates that have large day/night differences in temperature, like the desert or most arid regions. Areas that have hot days, and barely any temperature drop at night, like the tropics, your walls will just heat up to the air temp and you'll be living in a giant stone oven on a permanent low heat. You'll need a crap ton of ventilation openings in the walls and you'll want to shade the walls as much as possible or it'll be an extremely uncomfortable place to live. Consistantly cool areas without a lot of sunlight (like cloudy, rainy england/scotland) have the opposite problem. Walls will be ice cold all winter and you'll need to provide a lot of heating... a fireplace in every room (both to heat the space and the wall) is how that problem was often dealt with.
Soviet who Cuts, Sometimes, but more often adobe or rammed earth which has similar high mass and thermal properties for construction purposes so it'll work in pretty much the same way.
There are also some very interesting and inventive constructive practices with stone. By having the stone jut out on one side or the other depending on where you want the 'stored' thermal energy to go you increase the surface area and thus the conduction. If it is toward the interior the stone will radiate more 'heat' at a night inside then outside due to the larger area. And during the heat of the day while the stone is still taking in thermal energy the interior will be cooler.
This ease of conduction though does promote condensation in humid cool climates easily however, thus requiring wood insulation.
Our ancestors where honestly I feel on average more intelligent then modern humans. They had less technology but per person where far better critical thinkers imho.
Ahhh, an excellent explanation, thanks!! :)
Architect class covers this in the first two years. Then never bothers to return to these outdated techniques if not for academic purposes.
The first time I saw a real castle I was impressed. They are much more impressive in real life than in the movies. Just beautiful construction.
There’s hardly anything better to watch at 5:30 am than a Shad video about Castles :D
Jojo of Faraway 3:30am here.
Shad Fact: Pistol Shrimps can snap their claw in the water so quickly that it causes a cavitation bubble in the water. Shad is able to swing his sword so quickly he creates a cavitation bubble in spacetime causing the target to disappear from existence.
reminds me of a character I've created with a friend.
His swordswing is Bale Fire?
Don’t you know that Katanas do the same thing?
I used to exist like you but then I took a Shad to the knee.
Naturally, we can never know if he's never actually done this or if he does it all the time but nobody remembers.
You sir are the greatest narrator I have ever encountered on RUclips. Perfect balance of information and fun. History teacher would have been your destined profession. Keep up the fantastic work! All the best from Germany.
Gabriel Wunderlich If Australian schools are anything like British schools, the job would destroy him.
Shad would be the most AWESOME history teacher ever!
I said this before and I will continue saying this... Why this man doesn't have a TV show already!?
El Red Fox old media is dead. RUclips is the future. That said he could have a Netflix original.
Cherry Trader
Why not a VRV show? They have some short-form content in their Curiosity Stream.
Garret LeBuis how about instead - and hear me out - direct to VHS series.
RUclips isn't the future. That might have been true in 2007, but in 2018 corporate profiteers have been doing their best to run RUclips into the ground, attempting to squeeze out whatever capital they can before the whole rotten edifice collapses. Who the hell is paying for RUclips Red when there's so much free content? Not enough people. The future is a mass exodus of independent content creators, and the subsequent creation of a new platform- free of corporate influence and all made possible by funding from Patreon and other direct support from fans.
@@choronos I think you speak the true true. Tell Skallagrim. No sorry scratch that I think he already knows.
shad is one of the best youtubers on this site no doubt. keep making your brilliant content
Atreides what about youtubers on other sites? 😁
Damn, now I want a series of videos expanding on all of these topics ;P Something I always REALLY appreciated about your channel is how in-depth you go with everything.
I used to have an interest in Medievalism since I was a kid, but I didn't have a good source to get information and now I can honestly say that I've found the best
of information and that is Shadiversity. Thank you very much Shad. 🙏
This is one of those videos that you wish you could give more than just ONE thumbs up.
from a statistic point of view you can probably give TWO thumbs up.
There needs to be a super like, because castles are AWSOME! Great video, i cant wait to see more like this
Thought I was a medieval history buff but you've definitely out-nerded me Shad! Love your videos and this was no exception. This stuff fascinates me I don't know why.
I live in Waterford, Ireland. our town was founded by Vikings. It's so cool seeing castles around the county. I've been to a few of them and they're amazing.
This is the kind of content that goes good with an evening coffee.
They thought I was daft to build a castle in a swamp, but I did it just the same, just to show em. That one sank into the swamp. So I built a second one, that also sank into the swamp. I built a third one. That one caught fire fell over and sank into the swamp. But the fourth one stayed up!
There's also been a documentary that was filmed at Guedelon called "Secrets of the Castle" it follows 3 historians during their 6 month stint in assisting in the construction of Guedelon. It's really good and they go a little bit more in depth with the archeological experiment of Gedelon Castle, including the clothing, the diet, social structure, and the basic military defences of the 13th century (which is the time period they're focussing on for the experiment)
I liked the part where the hosts were painting the walls and two of the workers were speaking amongst themselves in French. Paraphrasing because I saw it a while back.
"Are we just going to leave it like that?"
"We'll fix it later."
Actually that's pretty damn close to what they said. I bought a dvd copy of the documentary a little while ago and I rewatched it recently and it's more or less exactly what they said.
I recently watched that documentary, Timeline I think it was called on RUclips. Fascinating and I wish I could do that for a few months!
ruclips.net/video/ydoRAbpWfCU/видео.html
Secrets of the Castle: Why Build A Castle? | Episode 1 | (Medieval Documentary) | Timeline
@@eldorados_lost_searcher Yes! I love that documentary because it's so well produced in that way, with lots of cheeky nods to British and France perspectives haha.
this helped soooooooo much I am writing an essay on medieval castles and this saved me
Guedelon is on my list of places to go. Also, tiny, shouty Shad is awesome.
but full-sized shouty Shad is more awesome :P
That's it?! It was too short! You were so interesting, it needed to be at least double the length!
From my understanding, I think stone and brick holds heat for a good while, like 8 hours or so, so it doesn't resist absorbing it, but it takes a while to emit. What this results in in places my house is an odd situation in summer where It can be hot outside but pretty cool during the day at the beginning of a heatwave, but when night falls, the house gets really hot and it's really annoying sweating while you're trying to sleep.
Sounds like my home here in Sweden. In the winter it's great, but this year we are having a very hot summer and sleeping is almost impossible without a fan pointed straight at my feet.
Any high mass building like stone, cob/adobe, rammed earth, thick brickwalls ect will have a temperature levelling effect. If you have a very hot day it will stay cool inside the building... and as the walls emit the absorbed heat over night (assuming the nightime temp is much cooler than the daytime temp) will help to keep the inside warmer than the cold night. The problem is when you have extended periods of either very high or very low temps. A few hot days with hot nights in a row and high mass buildings can become uncomfortably warm, like living inside a pizza oven on a permanent low heat. Consistantly cold weather is the opposite, it's like living inside a stone freezer. Arid and desert climates are ideal for high mass building as they have scorching hot days and cool to freezing nights... the temp inside will stay mostly at a comfortable level due to the walls absorbing heat during daytime and radiating heat out at night.
I suspect castle walls in cooler climates, like england, would be at the 'stone freezer' end of the scale for much of the year if nobody was living in them/that wing/building ect and keeping several fireplaces lit. Assuming the fireplaces were lit every day the walls would act in some ways like a giant masonry heater, absorbing heat both from the fire and the hot gasses passing up through the chimneys which often ran several levels up through walls. If you kept the fires lit every day I think the walls had the potential, especially if it was an internal wall, to become toasty warm and act as giant radiators keeping the entire building at a nice and comfortable temperature during cold winters.
Right! There's thermic resistance (insulation power) and also phasing i.e. the time for the heat to pass the wall. If it's several hours, (depending the thickness and the material) : you get the heat during the night!
certainly NOT 8 hours, a couple hours after the sun is down at most...
I have lived in a small house made of stones, built by my grand father out of the stones off the ruins of an ancient watermill, with walls that were about a metre thick.
It was never warm inside unless we had the fire place going, and even then, it took a long time before it was warm, and after letting the fire die overnight, the 6am wake up was very cold, the stone certainly did not radiate any residual heat from the evening fire...
Also, the heat of the sun may have warmed the external stones somewhat during the day, but it never reached inside, it may have served as a buffer for a couple of hours, though, I don't really know.
Guedelon is the only project that's more useful during construction than after completion!
I really like this series. I really like your castle videos in general. Not so much the video game representation reviews. They are good, but I really prefer your real castle videos. Please make more like this that go into the details of construction and what not. It is fascinating!
Also, slate roof tiles would be so fucking awesome! Good bye copper roofs, and their fancy longevity. Slate blows them out of the ball park!
I prefer the video game reviews and I really hope he does the castle in Breath of The Wild
I love all his castle video's. It's quite difficult to find info about castle's and Shad gives so much of it in all these video's.
It's always rough in this corner of RUclips. Half the viewers want more fantasy and the other half wants more history. Skall's channel was pretty much murdered by that viewer split
Best variation of the machicolations meme right there.
OMG the little Shad screaming machicolations XD I'm dying here!
So excited for the wooden castles video!
I never knew there was a channel that focusses on history and medieval times like you do, i love the medieval times so much! So much that i'm moving to another country next month, and we'll be living in a village were people build houses by them selves with self made bricks from the sands of the desert. One thing i would want to know and i think you might know the answer: How do i give my bricks a desert/sandy texture whenever i make them? I haven't seen any video of them completing the full process, but many times i see people making bricks that turn red or grey,
Thank you already,
And i wish you all the best!
You and Lindybeige teach me so much.
Ever since I was young I loved drawing castles and medieval towns and always felt like it was a place I belonged .
That was my favorite "maticulations" yet. I love this channel.
Yeah, I totally agree with that!
The engineering genius of building one of these things a thousand years ago astounds me
If you are interested in this video, you may also like to see how Japanese castles were made. Nagoya -Jo is actually in the process of rebuilding the palace portion and if you go to the museum you can see all about it. At least they were still building a few years ago and given the size of the project, I assume they are still building. There is amazing woodworking skill there and the walls have very fitted stone, if I remember correctly. Really cool stuff.
I had always wondered what those square holes in castle walls were for!
"Its camelot!"
"Its only a model..."
"Shhhhhh"
"On second thought let's not go to Camelot. 'tis a silly place."
Dun-dun da-dun da-dun!
We're Knights of the Round Table!
We dance whene're we're able!
We do routines and chorus scenes.
With footwork impeccable.
We dine well here in Camelot.
We eat ham and jam and spam a lot!
We're Knights of the Round Table!
Our shows are formidable!
But many times we're given rhymes
That are quite unsingable.
We're opera mad in Camelot.
We sing from the diaphragm a lot!
In war we're tough and able,
Quite indefatigable!
Between our guests we sequin vests and
Impersonate Clark Gable.
It's a busy life in Camelot.
I HAVE TO PUSH THE PRAM A LOOOOOOOOOOT!
Old women!
Man!
And I'm not old I'm 37
I told them we've already got one. Pfffffpfff.
No this is Patrick Cameltoe !!!!! It’s on a model
Guedelon is a very interesting project, in 2013 i was there for 2 weeks, assisting the
stonemasons, there are quite a few things they found out in Guedelon through experimentation, that we probably would have never found out just through archaeological excavation and analysis.
For example, they solved the mystery why the mortar on most castles is so strong and flexible over many centuries and they found that a high carbon content was responsible for the long lasting properties. This carbon comes from charcoal, which is evenly distributed throughout the limestone, while burning it in the kiln, this was most likely more a coincidental advantage during the construction of some monasteries in the early middle ages, but then became known and widespread knowledge(the other method is to just have the charcoal/wood below the limestone, in which case almost all carbon gets oxidized to CO or CO² avoiding a reaction with the calcium.
Man, i love these in depth videos about Castles!
Shad: You know what I'm talking about, people!
Me: Wha? *thinks*
Shad: MICHICOLATION!!
I laughed in that part.
mini shad needs to show up again
The castle used for the thumbnail is being built in France 🇫🇷 and nothing can make me more proud ! Keep up the good work Shad :)
While my ears appreciate the way you said it, I do kinda miss the old deafening way xD
Excellent video, answered exactly the questions I had.
I really enjoy your deep level of detail in your videos. Keep it up. Love that stuff.
An excellent video, sir. Being a mediaeval historian, I have just returned from a castle holiday in northeast Wales, where I took in some of the handiwork of James of St George, as well as that of the masons of the Welsh princes, and I am well on the way to having visited most of the castles in Britain.
I read somewhere (can’t remember where) that the rubble and lime infill between the ashlar stones also contributed towards giving the walls a certain amount of compressive leeway, which aided in their ability to withstand bombardment from various stone-slinging machines. On a slightly different, but related, point, I may be wrong, but I believe you stated that castles that have their infill showing have been subject to erosion, but erosion is not why this has happened: the ashlar stones have, in fact, been robbed in later times by people to build houses and other buildings, using the castles as quarries of ready-cut stones.
I must protest at your pronunciation of the word “putlog.” You repeatedly reversed the vowels, calling them “pot lugs” which I believe has something to do with electric guitars(?) A minor quibble, but your work is always so good that it jarred somewhat each time you said it. Other than that, another very good video: Your work is much appreciated!
Nothing like some good *T H I C C* castle walls.
I spoke about this subject with my mother, and mentionned Guédelon castle. She told me she knows the owners & founders of the project very well, the world is a little place ^^ they own multiple medieval/rennaissance stuff which they restore themselves. That's so awesome
Last week the bbc had a series about guedelon. I really have gotten respect for the workmen who built the castles.
I feel a very solid urge to go there now... Maybe I actually will, I'll have to look into it, but either way, it's fantastic that people are undertaking such a project.
The 5-part documentary about the construction of Guédelon Castle, (with Ruth and Tom,) is the most in-depth and informative, (and extremely entertaining.)
Although at aired back in 2016, and, obviously, the Castle construction is much closer to completion nowadays, it is still the most recent thorough information you can find about that particular Castle and it's construction on RUclips.
I would highly recommend it.
Especially for anyone watching this video! 👍🏰
*"I'm fortifying this position."*
Matteus Silvestre Yes it is i Rogal Dorn
YES
That guy NO
Paintballwizard YYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSS
The best offense is a good defense!
BIG like on the chipmunk yell. I was ready to rip my earphones out when you hinted to your running gag, but laughed out loud instead. Well played
You are correct about the foundations, those are very important. Unfortunatly, back then not everyone actually did foundations that well. In my city theres a gatehouse from the 15th century. They used logs for the foundation. It literally already started sinking as they were building it, at one point it sunk into the ground to to the point where the lowest arrow slits were 50 cm's underground.
Plus, they didn't actually connect the foundations of both the towers, so they kinda slipped outwards, if that makes sense.
jort93z I wish we had stuff that old other than trees in the Pacific Northwest.
Well, back then only native americans lived over there, and those didn't build castles(or build anything from stone for that matter).
I guess you could be heading south and check out some of the buildings the maya and the aztecs have build. They've build pretty impressive stuff too.
Oof
Actually north american natives built some pretty interesting stuff from stone - google Pueblo in Mesa Verde.
New subscriber here. Found your channel through a random recommended video. Super interesting and very informative stuff. Keep it up man.
Welcome. If you want to fit right in, remember to randomly ask "But what about dragons?" in any video that has nothing to do with dragons. Shad loves it and isn't sick at all of it.
Also, remember the cardinal rule here: Because swords are awesome!
I'd never heard of this project. Just glorious. Thanks, Shad
Nice shout-out to Lindybeige!
Lloyd is awesome.
When I did my apprenticeship in carpentry the most complex thing, by far, that we ever had to learn was rafter (roof truss) systems, so Shad’s right when he says those timber roof structures are a feat of engineering.
Funny the thing is, virtually no carpenter these days needs the knowledge of how to engineer complex roofs anymore, engineers do! It was the same when my dad took his carpentry apprenticeship 40 years ago. But we still learn it because it’s tradition, & it’s a good way to understand complex, practical geometry which can apply to many other projects.
I pitched my last roof in the late eighties. The "little red book" of tables, protractors. sliding bevels, roofing squares..... couldn't do it today without some homework. Now, all via cad files to truss makers, and voila! truck appears with ready made trusses. Mind you, not designed to last.... those gang nails rust out, and vulnerable in a fire, so collapse faster.
25emann indeed. They say that building a bridge that stands is easy. It takes an engineer to build a bridge that Barely stands!
I didnt expect this 10:29 XD you made my day buddy
Since my childhood I am following the construction of Guedelon Castle....nice to see it still being build.
10:30 This is one of the many reasons I love this channel
thomnas ilikeswordfighting what did shad say?
@@cassandrakhan1419 He said:
MACHICULATIOONNNNNSSSSSSSSSAAHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!
I think I once heard that apart from the obvious ease of build, another reason that castle walls where filled with loose stones, dirt and mortar, rather then being built from interlocking stones like the exterior walls, is that the resulting structure (i.e. two solid walls filled with a somewhat looser and more flexible core) absorbed and diffused impacts from siege weapons better.
Also, I once learned when visiting a castle in the Netherlands (shown in your video in 3:10) that some of the wooden trusses where especially made from timber where the tree was shaped as it was growing in order to grow into a arched shaped naturally, thus allowing for both larger trusses and significantly stronger ones not needing as many joints, and with the wood grain growing in the proper direction.
Very helpful, thank you
Bruh
Why does this drip with condescension
This video did not let me down.
I woke up at 3:23AM to take a dump, randomly thought how castles were made on the side of cliffs, clicked on this Video and loved it. 👏🏽 thanks dude 🤙🏽
Another great video! I don't know if you take requests but I was thinking it would be cool to see a video on Medieval medical techniques. You know, since you're always talking about how people killed each other back then.
A while back, I used to think Medieval castles and such were quite boring... Then you came along! Thank you for being on RUclips, and keep up the stellar work!
Very interesting CASTLE video Shad, but it still begs the question...
WHAT. ABOUT. DRAGOOOOOONS!?!?!?
Ethan Stevenson you call?
@@draco107
Whoa! Cool your jets there habenero breath! He was definitely calling for a cavalry charge! You go back to sleep....
This has been an amazing find. Your channel has been amazing with the role playing system I am making. Not only have I made great strides in discovering new gear, and reconfiguring old gear, but being amazing giving me ideas.
This is a truly great video about a truly great topic! 👌👌
One can't underestimate the capabilities medieval people had in constructing castles. The timberwork especially fascinates me. Absolutely beautiful truss 😍
Random information: On a school trip as a kid i once visited a medieval style blacksmith and i even got a black iron nail like in this video! I was sooo happy 😂
I live in a farm house made like this, 3ft wide walls, massive beams, big stone slabs on each door way and the rest
I liked the part about the flooring. I always wondered how floors were held up, given that the walls were made of stone.
As a building surveyor, i am impressed with your construction knowledge. You also bring history to life with your narrating. Good job sir!
I am fascinated by the engineering of castles. Either they were geniuses or they had prior knowledge passed down from their ancestors...but then who taught their ancestors!?
Damn, this one has to be one of your best. Extremely fascinating.
One very important aspect of castle construction, which you didn’t really touch upon, is the fact that by far the majority of construction work was not done actually building a castle from the ground up, but was done expanding, strengthening or otherwise reconstructing an already existing castle. With some notable exceptions, most castles we see today are the result of multiple phases of construction, expansion and redesign over several centuries. Regardless of the time period, where construction began, these castles almost always started out as very simple, rather small structures, which could be erected and put to use quickly. The reason for this is obvious: Constructing a large, heavily fortified castle from scratch (as they are sort of doing with Guédelon - though they at least completed the main tower first) takes a really long time, often decades. During much of this period the structures would be more or less useless and nigh impossible to defend. Rather build something small, but useful, in a hurry and then expand from there. There is a tendency to view the evolution of a castle purely in terms of technological advancements, so when an initial wooden structure is replaced by a stone tower or a pallisade is replaced by a ring wall, this is seen as technological progression, as if people didn’t know how to build stone structures or walls before? In reality, most castles started out as smaller, often wooden structures, simply because there was need for them here and now, not 10 years down the line. This is very important to understand when looking into castle construction: That almost all of it took place on an already existing and working castle. This greatly affected both the construction work and design choices and put limits on the possibilities for construction, because the old castle had to remain functional at all times during construction. This is the main reason, why so many castles look sort of haphazardly put together, lacking any sort of symmetry, blending different building styles and being riddled with design compromises. They were never designed or constructed as a whole.
ancient archetectuer is g-dang impressive, had i the funding and fame to gain acess, itd be a dream to visit all the ol' castles, cathedrals, basilicas, temples, and such
i dont get excited about pretty much anything, but had i that opportunity, id be as giddy as a,
lets just say id make Alec Steele seem like a statue of a sloth
I went there three times, at the very beginning, and two times later, it's really interesting! The progress were amazing.
They not only have the main caste, but also a "motte" (wooden watch tower more or less), animals at the farm and all the workshops with people coming from all around the world to practice there!
Even the catering is somehow "typical" with not-so-modern things to eat, and definitly no fast food ;)
Great video!
Easy to understand with good examples.
I came to learn a little bit about how castles were built, you sir gave me an entire playlist, you're awesome
Very interesting content. Thanks for the effort.
@4:00 - makes me thing of that speech in Monty Python's Quest For The Holy Grail where the king is talking to the prince and he says "I built the first castle in the swamp...it sank, so I built the second one on the top of the first one...and four castles later, that castle stayed standing."
Okay, mirco-Shad needs to be on a shirt.
Like sticking out of a little pocket?
NekoVeil Yes. Hell yes.
Like sticking out of a pocket with machicolations drawn on it?
With the time it took to build, imagine polite armies getting to one under construction:
"Hello, er...we're here to besiege!"
"Sorry, the castle isn't finished yet, come back later!"
"Oh, bummer. That wont be fun. Any idea when?"
"Maybe 7/8 years..."
"🥺"
"...but i heard Guislain de Grenouille had his castle finished a week ago, it's not far from here on that direction"
"Thanks, mate you saved my weekend!"
GOD I HAVE WAITED FOR THIS VID SOO LOONG
LOL! I love the miniature squeaky Shad yelling "MACHICOLATIONS, AH!'
Another great architecture video!!
Worked at Guedelon for a week in 2016. Fantastic people working there, great skill levels and totally free from modern tools and apparatus. Highly reccomend a visit.
I bet that was quite the experience! Have you visited since then?
@@KristiChan1 Was supposed to go back this year but Covid put a halt to that so next March I hope. Amazing experience, stays with you. I highly reccommend you visit.
Hey shad thank you very very much for all of these videos they are very informative :)
My son wants me to build him a castle in our backyard. This video was very hands on and informative. I feel confident now to begin my own castle project.
Really good one, Shad
The architectural design of some of these structures is nothing short of mind boggling, let alone the skill of the building artisans of every trade, including the quarrymen and tool makers.
Been waiting for this for a while.
It’s cool seeing the castle at 8:11 in a youtube video since I drive past it every day without a second thought, and now I get to understand more about how it was made
I can just imagine that if Shad was ever really besieged he'd scare the enemy off by constantly shouting "MATICULATIONS!!!" at them all through the day and night.
As one of the millions of people in the building trade I have always lamented the abject lack of attention paid to this subject. Thank you for addressing castle construction at last. Please do more.
Castles are cool, and very interesting.
Shad I'd like to thank you for putting out your content, it does interest me, and your videos have taught me a lot about swords, armor, and medevil building style.
Shad your videos are one of the great necessities in my life. I can't imagine how much more research I'd need to do or professionals I'd have to interview to write historical fiction and realistic fantasy were it not for you and your interests.
This was awesome!
Cheers mate
I visited the Guedelon Castle last year, it exceeded my expectations and was worth the mission getting there, i hired a car in Paris, next time it will be outside Paris as driving in traffic on the right hand side of the road was hectic, i had a friend to share the drive and help navigate, i would not have done it alone.