PART IVTHE TREBUCHET

Thisengine was of much more recent invention than the catapult or the balista of the Greeks and Romans. It is said to have been introduced into siege operations by the French in the twelfth century. On the other hand, the catapult and the balista were in use several centuries before the Christian Era. Egidio Colonna gives a fairly accurate description of the trebuchet, and writes of it, about 1280, as though it were the most effective siege weapon of his time.

The projectile force of this weapon was obtained from the gravitation of a heavy weight, and not from twisted cordage as in the catapult and balista.

From about the middle of the twelfth century, the trebuchet in great measure superseded the catapult. This preference for the trebuchet was probably due to the fact that it was able to cast stones of about 300 lbs. in weight, or five or six times as heavy as those which the largest catapults could project.12

12The catapult had, besides, become an inferior engine to what it was some centuries before the trebuchet was introduced, the art of its construction having been neglected.

The stones thrown by the siege catapults of the time of Josephus would no doubt destroy towers and battlements, as the result of the constant and concentrated bombardment of many engines. One huge stone of from 200 to 300 lbs., as slung from a trebuchet, would, however, shake the strongest defensive masonry.

The trebuchet was essentially an engine for destroying the upper part of the walls of a fortress, so that it might be entered by means of scaling ladders or in other ways. The catapult, by reason of its longer range, was of more service in causing havoc to the people and dwellings inside the defences of a town.

From experiments with models of good size and from other sources, I find that the largest trebuchets—those with arms of about 50 ft. in length and counterpoises of about 20,000 lbs.—were capable of slinging a stone from 200 to 300 lbs. in weight to a distance of 300 yards, a range of 350 yards being, in my opinion, more than these engines were able to attain.13

13Egidio Colonna tells us that the trebuchet was sometimes made without a counterpoise, and that in such a case the arm of the engine was worked by a number of men pulling together instead of by a heavy weight. I cannot believe this, as however many men pulled at the arm of a trebuchet they could not apply nearly the force that would be conveyed by the gravitation of a heavy weight.

Fig. 18.—The Trebuchet.The arm is fully wound down and the tackle of the windlass is detached from it. The stone is in the sling and the engine is about to be discharged by pulling the slip-hook off the end of the arm. The slip-hook is similar to the one shown infig. 10, p. 18.N.B.—A Roman soldier is anachronistically shown in this picture. The trebuchet was invented after the time of the Romans.

Fig. 18.—The Trebuchet.

The arm is fully wound down and the tackle of the windlass is detached from it. The stone is in the sling and the engine is about to be discharged by pulling the slip-hook off the end of the arm. The slip-hook is similar to the one shown infig. 10, p. 18.

N.B.—A Roman soldier is anachronistically shown in this picture. The trebuchet was invented after the time of the Romans.

The trebuchet always had a sling in which to place its missile.

The sling doubled the power of the engine and caused it to throw its projectile twice as far as it would have been able to do without it.

It was the length of the arm, when suitably weighted with its counterpoise, which combined with its sling gave power to the trebuchet. Its arm, when released, swung round with a long easy sweep and with nothing approaching the velocity of the much shorter arm of the catapult.

The weight of a projectile cast by a trebuchet was governed by the weight of its counterpoise. Provided the engine was of sufficient strength and could be manipulated, there was scarcely any limit to its power. Numerous references are to be found in mediæval authors to the practice of throwing dead horses into a besieged town with a view to causing a pestilence therein, and there can be no doubt that trebuchets alone were employed for this purpose.

As a small horse weighs about 10 cwt., we can form some idea of the size of the rocks and balls of stone that trebuchets were capable of slinging.

When we consider that a trebuchet was able to throw a horse over the walls of a town, we can credit the statement of Stella,14who writes ‘that the Genoese armament sent against Cyprus in 1376 had among other great engines one which cast stones of 12 cwt.’

14Stella flourished at the end of the fourteenth century and beginning of fifteenth. He wroteThe Annals of Genoafrom 1298–1409. Muratori includes the writings of Stella in his great work,Rerum Italicarum Scriptores, 25 vols., 1723–38.

Villard de Honnecourt15describes a trebuchet that had a counterpoise of sand the frame of which was 12 ft. long, 8 ft. broad, and 12 ft. deep. That such machines were of vast size will readily be understood. For instance, twenty-four engines taken by Louis IX. at the evacuation of Damietta in 1249, afforded timber for stockading his entire camp.16A trebuchet used at the capture of Acre by the Infidels in 1291, formed a load for a hundred carts.17A great engine that cumbered the tower of St. Paul at Orleans and which was dismantled previous to the celebrated defence of the town against the English in 1428–9, furnished twenty-six cartloads of timber.18

15Villard de Honnecourt, an engineer of the thirteenth century. His album translated and edited by R. Willis, M.A., 1859.16Jean, Sire de Joinville. He went with St. Louis to Damietta. His memoirs, written in 1309, published by F. Michel, 1858.17Abulfeda, 1273–1331. Arab soldier and historian, wroteAnnals of the Moslems. Published by Hafnire, 1789–94. Abulfeda was himself in charge of one of the hundred carts.18From an old history of the siege (in manuscript) found in the town hall of Orleans and printed by Saturnin Holot, a bookseller of that city, 1576.

15Villard de Honnecourt, an engineer of the thirteenth century. His album translated and edited by R. Willis, M.A., 1859.

16Jean, Sire de Joinville. He went with St. Louis to Damietta. His memoirs, written in 1309, published by F. Michel, 1858.

17Abulfeda, 1273–1331. Arab soldier and historian, wroteAnnals of the Moslems. Published by Hafnire, 1789–94. Abulfeda was himself in charge of one of the hundred carts.

18From an old history of the siege (in manuscript) found in the town hall of Orleans and printed by Saturnin Holot, a bookseller of that city, 1576.

All kinds of articles besides horses, men, stones and bombs were at times thrown from trebuchets. Vassāf19records ‘that when the garrison of Delhirefused to open the gates to Ala’uddin Khilji in 1296, he loaded his engines with bags of gold and shot them into the fortress, a measure which put an end to the opposition.’

19Persian historian, wrote at end of thirteenth and beginning of fourteenth century. The preface to his history is dated 1288, and the history itself is carried down to 1312.

Figs. 18,20, pp. 28, 32, explain the construction and working of a trebuchet.

Fig. 19.—Casting a dead Horse into a besieged Town by means of a Trebuchet.From ‘Il Codice Atlantico,’ Leonardo da Vinci, 1445–1520.

Fig. 19.—Casting a dead Horse into a besieged Town by means of a Trebuchet.

From ‘Il Codice Atlantico,’ Leonardo da Vinci, 1445–1520.

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