resources, the army itself had to continue to supply themselves with such resources and the soldiers were to be paid for their vigilant act. Although it was costly and lengthy, blockade did work. Richard the Lionhearted's stronghold, the Chateau-Gaillard, which was built in only a year along the Seine River, was sacked on March 6, 1204 by blockade. The Chateau, like many great citadels, was regarded as invicible, for "the art of siegecraft had not kept pace with that of fortification" (Nofi 1). The man responsible for this zenith in French and English history was King Philip Augustus II. He set up "something more than a passive blockade, for he erected siege works and successfully stormed the outer walls" (Nofi 2). By the time the French made their final storming of the fortress, the defending army was not even two hundred men. Due to the changing of possession of the Chateau-Gaillard, Normandy's capital, Rouen, and eventually all of Normandy returned to French rule. In addition, King Philip attained control of traffic along the Seine. The third, and presumably most venturesome of all castle assaults was the storm. In storming a castle, the aggressive army approached the castle with a battering ram and literally hammered away at the stone aegis of the castle. Then, troops would traverse the newly created rubble and enter the castle. Another option was to take a cumbersome siege tower, known as a belfry, to the castle walls and climb over the walls into the castle. In storming a castle, an army could not steathily approach the stronghold. The belfry could not be hidden, for it were multiple stories high. Once military tactics were of no use in the invasion of a castle, the attack became simply a ruthless and barbarous man-to-man fight with weapons. Strategy was no longer applied. Men of the armies fought with double-edged swords, battle-axes, lances, slings, and weapons of archery. The weapons of archery were the short and long bows, an...
