Trebuchets at Château de Castelnaud

Counterweight trebuchet constructed on the design of the "Warwolf"

Medieval traction trebuchet next to a staff slinger

A trebuchet^{[nb 1]} (French trébuchet) is a siege engine that was employed in the Middle Ages. It is sometimes called a "counterweight trebuchet" or "counterpoise trebuchet" in order to distinguish it from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet", the original version with pulling men instead of a counterweight. The counterweight trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the twelfth century. It could fling projectiles of up to three hundred and fifty pounds (140 kg) at high speeds into enemy fortifications.

The trebuchet did not become obsolete until the 15th century, well after the introduction of gunpowder, which appeared in Europe in second half of 13th century.

Basic design[link]

This section requires expansion.

A trebuchet is a type of catapult that works by using the energy of a raised counterweight to throw the projectile. Initially, the sling, which has a pouch containing the projectile, is placed in a trough below the axle, which supports the beam. Upon releasing the trigger, the sling and the beam swing around toward the vertical position, where one end of the sling releases, opening the pouch and propelling the projectile towards the target. The stored energy of the counterweight is transferred efficiently to the projectile.^[3]

Modern-day enthusiasts have varied the original design, especially to control the path of the counterweight for increased efficiency.^[4]

The three chief distinguishing characteristics of a trebuchet are:

• The machine is powered exclusively by gravity; most often directly by means of a counterweight, though sometimes indirectly (such as in a traction trebuchet).

• Such force rotates a throwing arm - usually four to six times the length of the counterweight arm - to multiply the speed of the arm and, eventually, the projectile.

• The machine utilizes a sling affixed to the end of the throwing arm, acting as a secondary fulcrum, to further multiply the speed of the projectile.

Trebuchets versus torsion[link]

The trebuchet is often confused with the earlier torsion siege engines. The main difference is that a torsion siege engine (examples of which include the onager and ballista) uses a twisted rope or twine to provide power, whereas a trebuchet uses a counterweight, usually much closer to the fulcrum than the payload for mechanical advantage, though this is not necessary. A trebuchet also has a sling holding the projectile (although the Roman onager often had a sling as well), and a means for releasing it at the right moment for maximum range. Further, the stroke finishes without the long arm slamming into a pad as with a torsion catapult producing the "kick" that prompted the name "onager". With a trebuchet, the action of the sling captures much of the forwards speed of the arm just before release of the payload as can be seen in the strobe image.

History[link]

Traction trebuchet[link]

11th century chronicle depicting a Byzantine siege.

The trebuchet derives from the ancient sling. A variation of the sling, called staff sling (Latin: fustibalus), contained a short piece of wood to extend the arm and provide greater leverage. This evolved into the traction trebuchet in which a number of people pull on ropes attached to the short arm of a lever that has a sling on the long arm. This type of trebuchet is smaller and has a shorter range, but is a more portable machine and has a shorter cycle time than larger, counterweight-powered types. The smallest traction trebuchets could be powered by the weight and pulling strength of one person using a single rope, but most were designed and sized for between 15 and 45 men, generally two per rope. These teams would sometimes be local citizens helping in the siege or in the defense of their town. Traction trebuchets had a range of 100 to 200 feet (30 to 61 m) when casting weights up to 250 pounds (110 kg). It is believed that the first traction trebuchets were used by the Mohists in China as early as in the 5th century BC descriptions of which can be found in the Mojing (compiled in the 4th century BC). The Chinese named the later counterweight trebuchet Huihui Pao (Muslim Weapons, "huihui" means Muslim) or Xiangyang Pao (襄陽砲), where Pao means bombard.

The traction trebuchet next appeared in Byzantium. The Strategikon of Emperor Maurice, composed in the late 6th century, calls for "ballistae revolving in both directions," (Βαλλίστρας έκατηρωθεν στρεφόμενας), probably traction trebuchets (Dennis 1998, p. 99). The Miracles of St. Demetrius, composed by John I, archbishop of Thessalonike, clearly describe traction trebuchets in the Avaro-Slav artillery: "Hanging from the back sides of these pieces of timber were slings and from the front strong ropes, by which, pulling down and releasing the sling, they propel the stones up high and with a loud noise." (John I 597 1:154, ed. Lemerle 1979)

They were also used with great effect by the Islamic armies during the Muslim conquests. A surviving Arab technical treatise on these machines is Kitab Aniq fi al-Manajaniq ( كتاب أنيق في المنجنيق, An Elegant Book on Trebuchets), written in 1462 by Yusuf ibn Urunbugha al-Zaradkash. It provides detailed construction and operating information.

There is some doubt as to the exact period in which traction trebuchets, or knowledge of them, reached Scandinavia. The Vikings may have known of them at a very early stage, as the monk Abbo de St. Germain reports on the siege of Paris in his epic De bello Parisiaco dated about 890 that engines of war were used. Another source mentions that Nordic people or "the Norsemen" used engines of war at the siege of Angers as early as 873.^{[citation needed]}

Hand-trebuchet[link]

The hand-trebuchet (Greek: cheiromangana) was a staff sling mounted on a pole using a lever mechanism to propel projectiles. Basically a portable trebuchet which could be operated by a single man, it was used by emperor Nikephoros II Phokas around 965 to disrupt enemy formations in the open field. It was also mentioned in the Taktika of general Nikephoros Ouranos (ca. 1000), and listed in De obsidione toleranda (author anonymous) as a form of artillery.^[5]

Counterweight trebuchet[link]

Counterweight trebuchet at Château des Baux, France

Counterweight trebuchet by the German engineer Konrad Kyeser (ca. 1405)

19th century French three-quarter drawing of a medieval counterweight trebuchet

Side view of counterweight trebuchet

The earliest written record of the counterweight trebuchet, much more powerful than the traction version, appears in the work of the 12th century Byzantine historian Niketas Choniates. Niketas describes a trebuchet used by Andronikos I Komnenos, future Byzantine emperor, at the siege of Zevgminon in 1165 which was equipped with a windlass, an apparatus which was required neither for traction nor hybrid trebuchets to launch missiles.^[6] Chevedden dates the invention of the new artillery type back to the Siege of Nicaea in 1097 when the Byzantine emperor Alexios I Komnenos, an ally of the besieging crusaders, was reported to have invented new pieces of heavy artillery which deviated from the conventional design and made a deep impression on everyone.^[7]

The dramatic increase in military performance is for the first time reflected in historical records on the occasion of the second siege of Tyre in 1124, when the crusaders reportedly made use of "great trebuchets".^[8] By the 1120–30s, the counterweight trebuchet had diffused not only to the crusaders states, but probably also westwards to the Normans of Sicily and eastwards to the Great Seljuqs. The military use of the new gravity-powered artillery culminated in the 12th century during the Siege of Acre (1189–91) which saw the kings Richard I of England and Philip II of France wrestle for control of the city with Saladin's forces.^[9]

The only pictorial evidence of a counterweight trebuchet in the 12th century comes from an Islamic scholar, Mardi bin Ali al-Tarsusi, who wrote a military manual for Saladin circa 1187.^[9][10] He describes a hybrid trebuchet that he said had the same hurling power as a traction machine pulled by fifty men due to "the constant force [of gravity], whereas men differ in their pulling force." (Showing his mechanical proficiency, Tarsusi designed his trebuchet so that as it swung it cocked a supplementary crossbow, probably to protect the engineers from attack.)^[11] He allegedly wrote "Trebuchets are machines invented by unbelieving devils." (Al-Tarsusi, Bodleian MS 264). This suggests that by the time of Saladin, Muslims were acquainted with counterweight engines, but did not believe that they had invented these machines.

During the Crusades, Philip II of France named two of the trebuchets he used in the Siege of Acre in 1191 "God's Stone-Thrower" and "Bad Neighbor."^[12] During a siege of Stirling Castle in 1304, Edward Longshanks ordered his engineers to make a giant trebuchet for the English army, named "Warwolf". Range and size of the weapons varied. In 1421 the future Charles VII of France commissioned a trebuchet (coyllar) that could shoot a stone of 800 kg, while in 1188 at Ashyun, rocks up to 1,500 kg were used. Average weight of the projectiles was probably around 50–100 kg, with a range of ca. 300 meters. The cycle rate could be noteworthy: at the siege of Lisbon (1147), two engines were capable of launching a stone every 15 seconds. Also human corpses could be used in special occasion: in 1422 Prince Korybut, for example, in the siege of Karlštejn Castle shot men and manure within the enemy walls, apparently managing to spread infection among the defenders. The largest trebuchets needed exceptional quantities of timber: at the Siege of Damietta, in 1249, Louis IX of France was able to build a stockade for the whole Crusade camp with the wood from 24 captured Egyptian trebuchets.

Counterweight trebuchets do not appear with certainty in Chinese historical records until about 1268, when the Mongols laid siege to Fancheng and Xiangyang. At the Siege of Fancheng and Xiangyang, the Mongol army, unable to capture the cities despite besieging the Song defenders for years, brought in two Persian engineers who built hinged counterweight trebuchets and soon reduced the cities to rubble, forcing the surrender of the garrison. These engines were called by the Chinese historians the Huihui Pao (回回砲)("huihui" means Muslim) or Xiangyang Pao (襄陽砲), because they were first encountered in that battle. Recent research by Paul E. Chevedden indicates that the hui-hui pao was actually a European design, a double-counterweight engine that had been introduced to the Levant by Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II (1210–1250) only shortly before.^[13] The Muslim historian Rashid-al-Din Hamadani (1247?–1318) refers in his universal history to the Mongol trebuchets used at the Song cities as "Frankish" or "European trebuchets" ("manjaniq ifranji" or "manjaniq firanji"):

Before that there had not been any large Frankish catapult in Cathay [i.e. China], but Talib, a catapult-maker from this land, had gone to Baalbek and Damascus, and his sons Abubakr, Ibrahim, and Muhammad, and his employees made seven large catapults and set out to conquer the city [Sayan Fu or Hsiang-yang fu = modern Xiangfan].^[14]

With the introduction of gunpowder, the trebuchet lost its place as the siege engine of choice to the cannon. Trebuchets were used both at the siege of Burgos (1475–1476) and siege of Rhodes (1480). One of the last recorded military uses was by Hernán Cortés, at the 1521 siege of the Aztec capital Tenochtitlán. Accounts of the attack note that its use was motivated by the limited supply of gunpowder. The attempt was reportedly unsuccessful: the first projectile landed on the trebuchet itself, destroying it.^[15]

In 1779, British forces defending Gibraltar, finding that their cannons were unable to fire far enough for some purposes, constructed a trebuchet. It is unknown how successful this was: the Spanish attackers were eventually defeated, but this was largely due to a sortie.^{[citation needed]}

Modern recreational use[link]

Trebuchets are very popular in modern times in a number of contexts. In particular, traditional models are constructed by historical re-enactment and living history enthusiasts, and others use the trebuchet as an engineering challenge,^[16][17] or for recreational purposes.

The largest currently-functioning trebuchet in the world is the 22-tonne machine at Warwick Castle, England. Based on historical designs, it stands 18 meters tall (59 ft) and throws missiles typically 80 lbs up to 300 metres.

Trebuchet in Denmark

Trebuchets are used to throw pumpkins at the annual pumpkin chunking contest held in Sussex County, Delaware, USA. The record-holder in that contest for trebuchets is the Yankee Siege, which at the 2009 Championship tossed a pumpkin 2,034 feet (620 m). The 51-foot-tall (16 m), 55,000-pound (25,000 kg) trebuchet flings 8–10-pound (3.6–4.5 kg) pumpkins.^[18]

Modern engineering thought and materials have come up with several non-traditional designs, in particular, several with "floating arms" to increase efficiency. A floating-arm trebuchet is an efficient modern variant. Rather than having an axle fixed to the frame, it is mounted on wheels that roll on a track parallel to the ground, and the counterweight is constrained to fall in a direct path downwards upon the release. This increases the proportion of energy transferred to the projectile.^[4]

Even more radical designs the ancients would not even recognize as trebuchets. For example, "Merlin"^[19] uses no counterweight whatsoever - the weight of the machine itself is what powers this trebuchet.

See also[link]

• Medieval warfare
• Onager (siege weapon)
• Siege engine

Notes[link]

1. ^ Pronounced /ˈtrɛbəʃɛt/ TREB-ə-shet or /ˌtrɛbjʊˈʃɛt/ TREB-ew-SHET; ^[1] also spelled trebucket /ˈtriːbʌkɨt/ TREE-bucket or /ˌtrɛbjʊˈkɛt/ TREB-ew-KET^[2]

Bibliography[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Trebuchet

Look up trebuchet in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• Trebuchet Build Plans
• Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (building of and history of trebuchets), from the NOVA website
• Warwick trebuchet
• Video Demonstration of the Medieval Siege Society's trebuchet
• Caerphilly Castle trebuchet shooting
• Trebuchet animation
• Trebuchet de l'AMQ a St-Marcellin on YouTube
• Slow motion mini trebuchet on YouTube
• Floating arm trebuchet on YouTube
• Traction Trebuchet hurling a football on YouTube

v t e Medieval mechanical artillery and hand-held missile weapons Crew-served artillery Catapult Mangonel Trebuchet Hand-held weapons Arbalest Crossbow Skåne Lockbow

Daniel Robert Snow (born 3 December 1978) is an English television presenter. He has presented and appeared in many popular history-related programmes for the BBC and is the "History Hunter" for The One Show.^[1]

Early life and background[link]

Dan Snow is the youngest son of Peter Snow, BBC television journalist, and Ann MacMillan, Managing Editor of CBC London Bureau. Dan therefore has joint British/Canadian citizenship. Through his mother, he is the nephew of Canadian historian Margaret MacMillan, and a great-great-grandson of British Prime Minister David Lloyd George.^[2] One of his father's cousins is the Channel 4 news reporter Jon Snow.

Education[link]

Snow was educated at Barnes Primary School and St Paul's School, an independent school in Barnes in south London, where he was Captain of the School, followed by Balliol College at Oxford.^[3] He rowed three times in the University Boat Race, winning in 2000 and losing a controversial race, when president, in 2001. He received a double first-class honours degree in Modern History.

Life and career[link]

In 2003, Snow and his father made a programme on El Alamein to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the battles and followed this up with an eight-part series on BBC2 in 2004 called Battlefield Britain. This won a BAFTA award for special effects. The same year Snow won a Sony award as one of the presenters on LBC Boat Race coverage.

He has made numerous history programmes for the BBC. He also presents on many of the state occasions such as the 200th anniversary celebration of the Battle of Trafalgar, Beating Retreat 2006, the 60th anniversary of the end of World War Two, the 90th anniversary of the Armistice in November 2008, Trooping the Colour and the City Salute. Dan Snow also presented BBC 2's 20th Century Battlefields. This covers battles all around the world and is presented in similar fashion to the first Battlefield Britain which was broadcast in various markets in 2006 and is available on DVD. The second series can also be viewed on the Military Channel. In June 2008, Dan Snow was in a three-part series which was called 'Britain's Lost World' on BBC 1. Along with Kate Humble and Steve Backshall, he stayed on the island of St Kilda, Scotland, to find out more about its history and wildlife. In the TV programme My Family at War he was critical of Thomas D'Oyly Snow, his great-grandfather, who commanded VII Corps on the first day on the Somme.

On Sunday 18 April 2010 Snow and a few friends took three rigid-hulled inflatable boats from Dover to Calais to help 25 people return to the UK after they were stranded in France by the air travel disruption after the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption in Iceland. When they arrived at Calais they were told by the French authorities that they could not return to collect any more people.^[4]

In November 2011 Snow teamed up with the Irish army to fire a M1919 Browning machine gun which he had excavated from a Spitfire which crashed in Donegal while being flown by Bud Wolfe. Despite being in a peat bog for 70 years the machine gun fired without a hitch.^[5]

Personal life[link]

On 27 November 2010, Snow married Lady Edwina Grosvenor, the second daughter of the 6th Duke of Westminster.^[6] They have one daughter, Zia (b. 2011).

Broadcast works[link]

Television

• 2003: El Alamein, with Peter Snow, for the 60th anniversary of the battle
• 2004: Battlefield Britain, with Peter Snow, on eight of the most famous battles in British history
• 2006: Trafalgar 200 BBC2, for the anniversary of the Battle of Trafalgar
• 2006: Shipwreck: Ark Royal, on the discovery of HMS Ark Royal sunk in 1941
• 2006: Edwardian Winners and Losers, BBC4, on Edwardian society and politics
• 2006–08 20th Century Battlefields, BBC2, on various battles through the 20th century
• 2007: In Living Memory, BBC1, a documentary about the new British Armed Forces Memorial
• 2007 China's Terracotta Army, BBC2, on the Terracotta Army
• 2008: What Britain Earns, BBC2, a national survey of people's incomes
• 2008: Britain's Lost World, BBC1, on the history and wildlife of St Kilda
• 2008: Hadrian, BBC2, on the life and legacy of Roman Emperor Hadrian
• 2008: 50 Things You Need To Know About British History, The History Channel
• 2008: My Family at War, BBC1
• 2009: Grouchy Young Men, Comedy Central
• 2009: How the Celts Saved Britain, BBC4
• 2009: Montezuma, BBC2
• 2010: Battle for North America: The Battle of Quebec, BBC2
• 2010: The Empire of the Seas, BBC2
• 2010: Little Ships, BBC2. Achieved the highest Appreciation Index for any programme on any channel in the month of June 2010.
• 2010: Norman Walks, BBC4; BBC2
• 2011: Filthy Cities, BBC2
• 2011: National Treasures Live, BBC1
• 2012: Dig WW2 with Dan Snow, BBC1 Northern Ireland, on historical sites and excavations of various sites in Ireland

Radio

• Art in the Trenches, Radio 4
• At War with Wellington, Radio 4
• Prince of Wales, Radio 4, a look at the history of the office of Prince of Wales and the current occupant

Books[link]

• 2004: Battlefield Britain. London: BBC Books ISBN 0-563-48789-5, co-author with Peter Snow
• 2007: The World's Greatest Twentieth-century Battlefields. London: BBC Books ISBN 0-563-52295-X, co-author with Peter Snow
• 2009: Death or Victory: the Battle of Quebec and the birth of Empire. London: Harper Press ISBN 0-00-728620-1

Awards[link]

This biographical section of an article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding reliable sources. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately, especially if potentially libelous or harmful. (November 2010)

• BAFTA (Visual Effects) for 'Battlefield Britain'
• Sony Award (Best Live Coverage) for Boat Race Day
• BAFTA Cymru (Best Presenter) for 'Hadrian'
• Maritime Media Award for best television, film or radio for 'Empire of the Seas'
• 2011 History Makers Award (Most Innovative Production) for 'Battle for North America' a 1 hour special on Snow's book 'Death or Victory.' Produced by Snow's production company Ballista

References[link]

External links[link]

• Video guides
• Relative Values
• Q&A in the Guardian
• Agent
• English Heritage Films
• Daily Telegraph interview about his rowing
• Video podcasts to accompany his latest series
• Dan Snow at the Internet Movie Database