Weapons of the Crusades
The Weapons of the Crusades
Guy Steuart
4/20/13
War in Society
Dr. Jobin
The Crusades were extremely violent times. With constant pressure to take back the holy city, armies were constantly fighting and killing. They were also always trying to find better and more efficient ways to fight and kill. Old weapons were engineered to be more destructive, new weapons were invented to destroy the ever-advancing technology in fortification. The three main categories of weaponry that were most important to the crusades were foot soldiers, knights, and siege weapons.
One of the many siege weapons used during the crusades was the Trebuchet. It was extremely important to sieges and resembles the catapult, however the trebuchet was more complicated, intercut and damaging than its close relative. The trebuchet used a sling attached on one end to a wooden beam with a heavy weight at the other end of the beam. The beam was fixed at the top of two vertical supported arms to balance the horizontal, elevated beam. The trebuchet was loaded using a crank and pulley system to lower the sling side of the beam and raise the heavy weight side. Then the rope holding down the sling side was loosed which, in turn, would drop the weight causing the sling attached to the arm to quickly raise up releasing the projectile. The trebuchet had a very versatile arsenal, it was capable of firing boulders, sharp wooden poles and darts, fire, burning tar, burning sand, dung, dead and sometimes mutilated bodies or even disease ridden bodies, body parts, and dead animals, all of which caused utter chaos inside the castle walls. The force of the Trebuchet was capable of reducing castles, fortresses and cities to rubble with its immense firing power and its ability to launch up to 2000 missiles a day. The trebuchet was an extremely important and vital piece of any siege, capable of destroying even the most fortified cities, however its one downfall was its immobility. Trebuchets were built on-site
Guy Steuart
4/20/13
War in Society
Dr. Jobin
The Crusades were extremely violent times. With constant pressure to take back the holy city, armies were constantly fighting and killing. They were also always trying to find better and more efficient ways to fight and kill. Old weapons were engineered to be more destructive, new weapons were invented to destroy the ever-advancing technology in fortification. The three main categories of weaponry that were most important to the crusades were foot soldiers, knights, and siege weapons.
One of the many siege weapons used during the crusades was the Trebuchet. It was extremely important to sieges and resembles the catapult, however the trebuchet was more complicated, intercut and damaging than its close relative. The trebuchet used a sling attached on one end to a wooden beam with a heavy weight at the other end of the beam. The beam was fixed at the top of two vertical supported arms to balance the horizontal, elevated beam. The trebuchet was loaded using a crank and pulley system to lower the sling side of the beam and raise the heavy weight side. Then the rope holding down the sling side was loosed which, in turn, would drop the weight causing the sling attached to the arm to quickly raise up releasing the projectile. The trebuchet had a very versatile arsenal, it was capable of firing boulders, sharp wooden poles and darts, fire, burning tar, burning sand, dung, dead and sometimes mutilated bodies or even disease ridden bodies, body parts, and dead animals, all of which caused utter chaos inside the castle walls. The force of the Trebuchet was capable of reducing castles, fortresses and cities to rubble with its immense firing power and its ability to launch up to 2000 missiles a day. The trebuchet was an extremely important and vital piece of any siege, capable of destroying even the most fortified cities, however its one downfall was its immobility. Trebuchets were built on-site
References: Middle-ages.org.uk (2000) Trebuchet. [online] Available at: http://www.middle-ages.org.uk/trebuchet.htm [Accessed: 21 Apr 2013]. Murray, A. V., Huijbers, A., & Wawrzyniak, E. (2009). The clash of cultures on the medieval Baltic frontier. Farnham, England, Ashgate.