Medieval Siege Weapons Essay, Research Paper
This is a brief paragraph or two on each of the major siege weapons. For the not just the besiegers but also the defenders. Please note most of these weapons were not used alone and often had many different versions of the same weapon.KNIGHTAt age seven a son of a noble family was sent to a nobleman or lord, often who was a relative. Here he was a page and taught how to ride a horse, and his manners. At the age of fourteen he was apprenticed to a knight. As the squire to the knight he would take care of his horse, help him put the knights armor on and keep it clean. In turn he was taught how to use a bow, carve meat, and other knightly skills. The squire would have to go into battle with the knight to help him when he was wounded or unhorsed. If the squire was successful he would be knighted at the age of 21. When there wasn’t a war going on knight would have to practice, practice, and practice some more. They would wrestle, fight with blunt swords, do acrobatics, and also do sports like javelin and putting which is throwing a heavy stone as far as you can. Experienced knights would participate in tournaments held by the king. The winner would usually just get bragging rights and sometimes a sum of money. The most common event was jousting. Jousting is a sport where to fully armored knights ride at each other on horses while aiming a long wooden lance at the each other. With speeds reaching 60 miles per hour sometimes there could be fatal accidents. If the person was knocked off the other was victorious.CATAPULTSThe catapult, was invented by the Romans, and plays a large role in the siege of any castle. Besiegers could fire 100-200 pound stones up to 1,000 feet. The catapult was used to destroy buildings and walls inside and outside of the castle walls, it could also destroy an enemies moral by throwing severed heads of comrades, they could spread disease by throwing shit and dead animals in, and they could destroy wooden building by throwing bundles of fire in. Earlier models just used a large weight on one end of a pivoting arm. The arm was pulled back the missile was placed and then let go. The weight went down the arm went up and good-bye missile. Another later model gained its power from a tightly wound skein of rope, hair, and skin. the skeins were twisted incredibly tight and then had a wooden arm up to sixty feet long placed in between them. The arm was pulled back using pulleys and rope the missile was placed in the wood cup and then the arm was released. The arm sprang to a 90 degree angle where it was stopped by a large padded piece of wood. The arm was then brought back down again and fired again.CROSSBOWThe crossbow is an incredibly powerful weapon in the arsenal of any army. A well aimed shot could kill a person even if they were wearing armor! It did however take a long time to reload this made it and ideal weapon for defenders of a castle. While reloading defenders could hide behind battlements where they wouldn’t get shot. Sometimes a crossbowmen would have an assistant to reload while they were aiming another crossbow. Besiegers after a while built small movable shields where bowmen could reload.The crossbow gained its power from a tight cord was pulled back over a small bump, the bolt was then placed in a little crevice and when the trigger was pulled the bolt would go flying. The bolt was a small foot long arrow with a four sided iron tip.When reloading the crossbow you would have to put your foot in the stirrup and pull back the cord some crossbows were too taught so a windlass and pulley were needed.BALLISTAThe ballista was like a much larger version of the crossbow used by besiegers. The ballista used by the ancient Greeks was and anti-personnel weapon. It was placed outside the city doors to discourage sorties, when defenders rush out for a counterattack.SIEGE TOWERSSometimes if other methods had failed an attacker would have to build large siege towers. Siege towers were wooden structures on wheels that were just taller than the castle wall itself. The tower had a large drawbridge type thing that lowered at wall level. When the drawbridge was lowered attackers rushed in. The tower had arrow slits so attacking archers could pick off defenders. The tower ran the risk of being burned from fire arrows so besiegers placed animal hides on the side to deflect arrows. If a castle had a ditch surrounding it the ditch had to be blocked with wood and dirt then rolled up next to the wall. Sometimes if a castle had a body of water surrounding it siege towers had to be placed on boats then ferried across. If siege towers were not available scaling ladders had to be used scaling ladders however could be throne off and rocks and boiling water could be tossed at men on them.RAMA ram was used to actually break down a wall or door. A ram was usually one or more trees that had a metal tip on the end was either held by people or swung on chains while inside a small penthouse. The ram could break down the wall and when it did besiegers stormed in. This was dangerous work for the people since stones and arrows were flying down onto them. They then built wooden penthouses to deflect those and keep them safe. Defenders would toss mattresses to cushion the blows.MACHICOLATIONSMachicolations were pieces of the castle that jutted out from the top of walls that aloud defenders to throw rocks, boiling water, and other offensive substances down on the people below. Versions of machicolations have been incorporated into castles all over Europe. One in most usually found in the gate house are “murder holes” they are little holes in the ceiling where defenders throw all sorts of things down on attackers.TUNNELINGTunneling was one of the techniques used by besiegers only if they planned for a long and hard battle. They didn’t use it very much because of expense. When they would do it they dug under one of the towers and set up shoring. When they had dug far enough under they put twigs and flammable substances then burn it all. If it worked properly the tunnel would cave in and the tower would crumble to pieces. Defenders to counter act this would either put out large puddles of water so that any tunneling would create ripples then they could counter dig and have an underground fight, or they could just have a moat which would make digging hard and dangerous.