Trebuchet

Abstract: A partit de textes anciens, on a tente de reconstruire des catapultes qui constituaient l'artillerie romaine dans l'antiquite, egalement utilisees au Moyen Age

Abstract: Civilization under siege, 450-750 the second onslaught, 750-950 the beginnings of castle warfare, 950-1050 kings, counts and castellans, 1050-1200 the early crusades, 1050-1200 an age of great kings, 1200-1350 trouble in the West, 1350-1500 trouble in the East, 1200-1565 medieval siege weapons the conventions and laws of siege warfare.

Abstract: This study examines the development of artillery used in and around the Latin East during the period of the crusades. It begins with an examination of the broader historiography of medieval artillery, an overview of the spread of swing-beam siege engines (trebuchets) across Europe and the Levant in the Early Middle Ages, and the mechanical physics that govern such machines. From these foundations, the development and significance of the engines are investigated. Incorporating as much textual and archaeological evidence as possible, the use of artillery by Frankish and Muslim forces is examined on a case-by-case basis. With an appreciation of the power of these machines, the influence of artillery on the design of twelfth- and thirteenth-century-fortifications is analysed. Both Frankish and Muslim forces were familiar with the traction trebuchet by the end of the eleventh century. While these engines remained relatively light throughout the period of the crusades, the counterweight trebuchet appears to have been introduced by the end of the twelfth century. Initially rather primitive and little stronger than the traction variety, these engines developed fairly quickly. The appearance of new vocabulary for identifying these engines in the early thirteenth century indicates their increasing strength and physical evidence from the middle of the century confirms that they had become much more powerful by the start of the Mamluk period. Although counterweight trebuchets appear to have grown steadily throughout the thirteenth century, these had a relatively limited impact on the design of most fortifications. Trebuchets, large and small, were an important part of Frankish and Muslim siege arsenals in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, but even the largest were not effective breaching engines by the time the Franks were pushed out of the Holy Land.

Abstract: "The Traction Trebuchet: A Triumph of Four Civilizations." This study of the traction trebuchet offers new perspectives on the development and employment of the piece of ordnance that dominated warfare far longer than any other form of artillery. The inquiry is both interdisciplinary and intercultural, combining an historical investigation with an engineering analysis of manually-powered artillery used for a millennium across Eurasia and North Africa. It reviews the accomplishments of China, Islam, Byzantium, and the Latin West to the development of the traction trebuchet and describes how Islamic, Byzantine, and European trebuchets were able to surpass their Chinese counterparts, despite the fact that China was the first to devise this class of artillery. Contrary to prevailing opinion, the traction trebuchet reached an advanced stage of development, comparable to the performance of the stone-projectors of the gravity-powered age of artillery; and it remained in use long after the invention of counterwei...