The High Middle Ages - Life In A Castle

[The 3 types of castles and the parts of a castle]
3/6 Medieval Life – Feast
I might want to be invited to a big feast at the Great Hall. They would have bunnies to eat, peacocks to eat, and a lot of other things. A lot of different animals. The only thing I would want to eat there would probably be the fruit.
Some of them they would sew two animals together like a pig head and a rooster back. [It was called a cockatrice] They were funny looking. I would not want to have one of those.
They used spoons, knives and their fingers. They used, as plates, bread. [trenchers]
They would make castles and ships and all sorts of sculptures to eat with yummier stuff inside. [subtleties]

[Marzipan subtleties (decorations). 3 peacocks and a queen wearing a cape]

3/9 Becoming a Knight
Page
A page is a little bit of a hard working day. You have to do a lot of things. You have to attend the king and stuff like hunting. He learns how to ride a horse. He serves the man and lady. He is called a page from the age of 7 to 14.

Squire
A squire trains to be a knight. When the knight goes into battle he carries the weapons and an extra horse. He gets to fight sometimes.

Becoming a knight
He takes a bath. He is dressed in clothes with red, white and black – the red stands for blood, the white stands for pure mind, and the black stands for death. He stays up all night and he cannot sit or lay down – he can stand or be on his knees.
The next day a giant feast comes. Someone gives him a blow on the shoulder.

3/11 Heraldry – Design a Coat of Arms
My coat of arms has four fields. My charges were a Lego brick which stands for build and a picture of Tortwig which stands for fight. I made 2 ordinaries. One was gold which means healthy and red means... I don't know what it means yet. I think it will mean fun.


3/13 Castle Under Siege
[Design a castle to withstand a 3 month siege]
Moat, drawbridge and portcullis. 2 drawbridges for extra protection.
3 curtain walls. 2 doors.

Food for a year. Cooler. Armory. Stables to keep some horses. Armor for the armory – shields, swords, masks and all that stuff. A kitchen. A great hall. Some pages and a nice house for them. Some catapults for defense inside. At least 4 big towers. A gatehouse with towers. Fancy bedrooms. A year's full of hay. I'll need a garden and cows for milk, hens for eggs. I need some garden tools and a blacksmith, just in case. And I need a toilet. I'll need a well.
I need a chapel. I need a practice field and a little house for school. I'll have a hawk house and some hawk trainer and about 60 hawks.

What kind of people: squires, pages, knights, king and queen, someone for the stables, I'll need a farmer, I'll need a doctor, I'll need a priest, I'll need a cook – maybe 10, the blacksmith.