Medieval Siege Weapons

Medieval Siege Weapons

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.

KNIGHT At 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.

CATAPULTS The 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.