How were castles defended in Medieval Times?

Answer 1

castles were attacked with fire (when they were wood) they were also attacked by trunks of trees with had the branches and leaves taken off. They would also have arrows set a light that they would fire at the castle and would have dead body parts off the enemies body shot at the castle too.
The manner of attack is as many and varied as there are castles. Most attacks on castles were specific to the particular castle and surrounding land. However, generally speaking, most attacks began with the laying of siege. That is, attacking forces surrounded the castle as completely as possible, keeping those inside where they were. The purpose of this was attrition. Those inside the castle could keep only so much food, and so many armaments, and without an adequate clean water supply, a defended position would not be able to last more than a week or so. When attackers determined that defenders had been softened a bit by the siege, they might attack with catapults, trebuchet, and ballista, essentially ancient artillery. Some of these artillery pieces could launch projectiles of a hundred pounds or more, and repeated pounding by projectiles often breached walls and other defenses. On occasion other projectiles were launched into cities, for psychological as well as tactical purposes. Still other cities were poisoned.

In 256 AD, Persian troops attacking the Roman fort Dura-Europos in modern day Syria dug under the walls. When Roman troops discovered the attempt to breach the perimeter, they began digging in the opposite direction, only to spring the Persian trap. The troops of Shapur I of Persia engaged in the first known chemical weapons attack by burning sulfur and bitumen and pumping the fumes by bellows into the tunnel. When Roman soldiers dug through into the Persian tunnel, they were overcome by the fumes and died, allowing the besieging army to take the fort. Mongol, Turk, and even Tsarist Russian armies launched plague ridden corpses into cities they laid to siege. The result was often a new wave of the disease that typically spread well beyond the city being attacked.

As a rule, walled positions such as castles were rarely attacked directly. Doing so typically proved to be a strategic mistake. One of the best examples of this type of error is the 2nd Battle of Fort Wagner. Fought in South Carolina 18 July 1863 during the American Civil War, by the end of the battle, nearly every Union commander had died along with more than 1,500 troops, while the defending Confederates lost only 174.
Their supplies were cut off in a few-month long siege. Diggers tunneled under the wall. People broke through the wall. Dead bodies were flung into the castle to cause disease. Least often (almost never) ladders were used to climb over the wall. Timber castles were burned down.
you could use a battering ram to knock down the door. You could use a Siege tower to fire arrows or jump onto the castle , lastly you could dig underneath the castle and let the castle fall down.
They would often isolate the castle, then attempt to starve them out with a long siege. They could also use weapons such as trebuchets or catapults, or crossbows and longbows. They could try to mine the castle, which means they would dig under it to try and knock down the walls.
their are lots of way attacking castle like

HGF
The most common method of attacking any castle was the siege - a war of attrition, the attackers would seek to cut off the fortification from the outside world, hoping that starvation and disease would force the defenders into a surrender without a shot needing to be fired. Indeed, for some of the most highly evolved castles their defenses were so strong that this might have been the only type of attack that had a significant chance of victory.

Numerous weapons of war were constructed to combat the fortifications of castles, however. Simple catapults were often used to hurl boulders at the walls with the intention of knocking them down by brute force, and more evolved catapults such as trebuchets continued this tradition.

Assaulting a castle at close-range was often extremely dangerous, but when attempted it was common for battering rams to be used, either to force open the doors where possible, or even try to weaken the structure of the walls. Ladders were risky ways of trying to climb over the top of the castle walls to assault the defenders directly. Eventually such devices as siege towers came into play - simply, these were large wooden towers, often covered with leather to protect against arrows, which were moved into position next to the walls of the castle so that attackers could climb up the ladders inside in safety.

More complicated methods of attack included sapping, whereby a tunnel would be dug directly under the walls of the tower so as to cause them to become unstable and collapse. Moats deterred many of these methods of attack, and it was a risky endeavour indeed to try and fill them in.

Ultimately, the cannon became the ultimate weapon to use against castles. The age of gunpowder effectively killed the castle.
they probobly used catapults and many bowmen! I guess it also depends on where the castle is, eg: on a hill or in the middle of a lake.

Answer 2

They might have attacked by:

• fire
• digging under the castle corner walls to make them fall down
• ram used to break down walls and doors
• attackers reach the castle walls and fire arrows over them
• siege towers - mobile platforms pushed up to walls by attackers
• last but no least: cannon fire

Answer 3

Sieges were popular... an army surrounded a castle and let no-one in or out - and stopped food and other supplies from entering.

Mining was a common way used to bring down the walls. The enemy would dig tunnels to beneath the foundations of the walls and then light fires which would cause the walls to collapse.

Hurling rocks and other missiles against, or over, the walls was also a common tactic. Flinging the dead and decaying bodies of cattle and other animals introduced diseases into the occupants of the castle.

Answer 4

there were guards.

there were plenty of soldiers

Answer 5

by gunpowder or canons

Answer 6

to gain control of other kingdoms.