It was employed heavily throughout Europe for the following three centuries. The design spread out of Italy in the 1530s and 1540s. Star forts were employed by Michelangelo in the defensive earthworks of Florence, and refined in the sixteenth century by Baldassare Peruzzi and Vincenzo Scamozzi. The French army was equipped with new cannon and bombards that were easily able to destroy traditional fortifications built in the Middle Ages. īastion fortifications were further developed in the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries, primarily in response to the French invasion of the Italian peninsula. They were built of many materials, usually earth and brick, as brick does not shatter on impact from a cannonball as stone does. Further structures, such as ravelins, tenailles, hornworks or crownworks, and even detached forts could be added to create complex outer works to further protect the main wall from artillery, and sometimes provide additional defensive positions. The outer side of the ditch was usually provided with a glacis to deflect cannonballs aimed at the lower part of the main wall. To counteract the fact that lower walls were easier to climb, the ditch was widened so that attacking infantry were still exposed to fire from a higher elevation, including enfilading fire from the bastions. To counteract the cannonballs, defensive walls were made lower and thicker. In contrast, the bastion fortress was a very flat structure composed of many triangular bastions, specifically designed to cover each other, and a ditch. In addition, attackers that could get close to the wall were able to conduct undermining operations in relative safety, as the defenders could not shoot at them from nearby walls, until the development of Machicolation.
Passive ring-shaped ( Enceinte) fortifications of the Medieval era proved vulnerable to damage or destruction when attackers directed cannon fire on to perpendicular masonry wall. For the invading force, these fortifications proved quite difficult to overcome, and accordingly, fortresses occupied a key position in warfare. The enemies' hope was to either ram the gate or climb over the wall with ladders and overcome the defenders. From there, arrows were shot at the enemies. Their predecessors, medieval fortresses, were usually placed on high hills. Fortification plan of Coevorden, laid out in a radial pattern within polygonal fortifications and extensive outer earthworks as reconstructed in the early seventeenth century by Maurice, Prince of Orange
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