Q 01/05

The word "castle" comes from the Latin castellum, a diminutive of castrum. What does castrum mean?

A) Stone tower

B) Royal hall

C) High hill

D) Fortified place

Answer · why

D) Fortified place

The same root gives French château, Spanish castillo and Italian castello.

Q 02/05

The word "castle" entered English shortly before which event?

A) The Norman Conquest of 1066

B) The Black Death

C) The Wars of the Roses

D) The signing of Magna Carta

Answer · why

A) The Norman Conquest of 1066

The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle uses 'castel' in 1051 for strongholds raised by Norman favourites of Edward the Confessor, fifteen years before the Norman C...

Q 03/05

In its simplest terms, what is the academic definition of a castle?

A) A royal military garrison

B) A stone tower on a hill

C) A walled market town

D) A private fortified residence

Answer · why

D) A private fortified residence

The private and residential part matters: a castle was a home first, which separates it from a fort or a fortified city.

Q 04/05

In castle terminology, what is a motte?

A) A wooden drawbridge

B) A fortified gatehouse

C) A water-filled ditch

D) An earthen mound with a flat top

Answer · why

D) An earthen mound with a flat top

A motte is an earthen mound with a flat top, usually artificially raised, that carried a timber or stone tower above the enclosure below.

Q 05/05

What is the ditch, wet or dry, that was dug around a castle's walls called?

A) A glacis

B) A moat

C) A berm

D) A rampart

Answer · why

B) A moat

A moat is the ditch around a castle, wet or dry; its main job was to stop attackers tunnelling under the walls, not to drown them.