Garrisons as the weak point

Men posing as carpenters captured one castle after local warning and garrison alertness both failed. Even an ideal fortress with height, layered defenses, a town, cliff access, and its own dock could fall if its soldiers stopped paying attention. Fortified places usually fail through human weakness more readily than through a design so poor that it is inherently indefensible. Master James's record in difficult Welsh and Scottish conditions suggests that his designs helped limit those weaknesses. Sea access mattered psychologically as well as logistically because it offered food, ammunition, reinforcements, or escape. Like a ship in a storm, the castle remained a safer refuge than flight if the garrison could hold it.