- 5 months ago
"Have you ever wondered how a giant, mechanical beast could change the face of warfare? Join me as we explore the Warwolf, a medieval siege engine that left an undeniable legacy on battlefield tactics."
The destructive power of the Warwolf, a massive trebuchet, is explored. Its impact on siege warfare and the evolution of military tactics in medieval Europe are examined through historical accounts and modern-day reconstructions.
The destructive power of the Warwolf, a massive trebuchet, is explored. Its impact on siege warfare and the evolution of military tactics in medieval Europe are examined through historical accounts and modern-day reconstructions.
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00:00Knights in shining armor, charging each other in great pitched battles.
00:07That is the popular view of warfare in the Middle Ages.
00:11In reality, most medieval conflict involved the attacking of castles.
00:17And mounted knights were not much use against stone walls.
00:23A siege against a castle could take weeks, even months.
00:29The attacking army pitted against a well-defended garrison within.
00:35By the end of the 13th century, the science of defensive architecture had reached a peak.
00:42Stone walls were built thicker and taller than ever before.
00:47And archers could easily pick off advancing attackers.
00:52To further frustrate attempts at breaching the walls,
00:56castles were situated on rocky crags or surrounded by water.
01:02But every advance in castle defense drove attackers to devise better siege weapons.
01:09During the Middle Ages, castles kept improving.
01:12They kept improving as weapons of attack got better.
01:15And tactics was this eternal balance between attack and defense.
01:21Heave!
01:23Two hundred years before cannon appeared in Europe,
01:26chroniclers make reference to what appears to be the ultimate 13th century siege weapon.
01:32An ingenious new form of heavy artillery that flung huge stone balls,
01:39with such destructive power that castle walls were reduced to rubble.
01:44But no ancient weapon of this type has survived.
01:49Were such claims gross exaggerations?
01:53Or did such a weapon really exist?
01:56To answer these questions, NOVA brings together a team of experts in medieval warfare
02:06who believe they know the secret.
02:11It's chaos.
02:12It's Wednesday, I think.
02:14I don't have a clue whether or not we'll finish.
02:17The task?
02:19To build siege machines capable of destroying a castle wall at a range of about 200 yards.
02:26I think that the thing will smash it up nicely, yeah.
02:30With just two weeks to meet the challenge, a siege mentality quickly sets in.
02:35No modern builders have ever managed to do this before.
02:41And the whole thing could twist and kick quite alarmingly.
02:44One more!
02:45One more!
02:46This interplay between defenders and siegers, it's still up in the air.
02:51We could still take it, then again we could fail.
02:53It's sort of in the lap of the gods.
03:03In the year 1304, Edward Longshanks, more formally known as King Edward I of England,
03:10mounted the greatest siege of his reign against the Scots and their castle at Stirling.
03:15The attack dragged on.
03:18Impatient for victory, Edward ordered 50 carpenters to immediately begin building a monstrous new weapon.
03:28So powerful, it would breach the strong walls of Stirling Castle.
03:37Details about the weapon design are tantalizingly vague, except that it was nicknamed War Wolf.
03:43And its appearance outside the walls terrified the garrison.
03:48Was it the atomic bomb of the Middle Ages?
03:52With one blow, War Wolf leveled a section of wall, successfully concluding the siege of Stirling Castle.
04:04What kind of a weapon was War Wolf?
04:14What are we doing? You want to go up there now?
04:17Do you think you'd better take a pair of pliers up in case the...
04:20Hugh Kennedy is a Shropshire landowner and medieval armored expert.
04:24Ten years ago, he became intrigued by a picture of a machine drawn by Leonardo da Vinci.
04:30It appeared to be a device for throwing dead horses, called a trebuchet.
04:36Inspired by the power of a machine that could hurl such heavy missiles, Hugh decided to try building one himself.
04:44A quest which eventually led to this piano-flinging contraption.
04:49A mechanized catapult made from a laminated beam, scrap metal, telephone poles, and steel cable.
05:04In essence, a trebuchet is a giant seesaw with a very heavy weight at one end
05:11and a much lighter missile attached to the other.
05:16As the heavier weight drops, the lighter projectile is whipped by its sling towards the enemy.
05:26Hugh is convinced that War Wolf, Edward's great wall-busting siege engine, must have been a trebuchet.
05:33If you chuck a thing that heavy at a stone wall, it'll shatter it.
05:37Stone missiles are a lot more effective than grand pianos.
05:40To test out Hugh's confidence in the destructive capability of a medieval trebuchet,
05:47Nova is preparing some hard sandstone balls weighing 250 pounds.
05:53And a wall.
05:55It's made of sandstone and lime mortar.
05:58In construction and design, it is based on the upper section of a typical castle wall of the 13th century.
06:08Hugh wants to build a trebuchet capable of knocking it down.
06:13But at a range of 200 yards, it will require precision as well as brute force.
06:20Yeah.
06:21It's much more aerodynamic.
06:22Michael Prestwich, a medieval historian, will ensure that Hugh's next trebuchet
06:27will be based on an authentic 13th century design.
06:31And I suppose it's when it's got to the top of its trajectory and it starts coming down again.
06:35Yeah.
06:36And it really looks quite frightening.
06:37Yeah.
06:38And I'm glad I wasn't standing underneath it.
06:39It'd bust up a building all right, wouldn't it?
06:43It's the first time I've seen a full-scale trebuchet in operation.
06:46To see the high trajectory of it and the way the missile and the sheer speed with which it falls,
06:53it's a fantastic sight.
06:56Trebuchets began in the Far East, in China, but what they were there were hand-pulled machines,
07:08worked by quite large teams of men.
07:10Prepare to loose.
07:11Loose.
07:13In many ways quite limited in what they could do.
07:19The big advance came when Arab engineers got hold of these devices
07:23and put a big counterweight on so that instead of teams of men pulling it,
07:28the beam was pulled down by a great counterweight.
07:31They were far more potent and far more effective.
07:35These machines were picked up by Western engineers
07:38and by the middle of the 13th century,
07:41it's very clear that French-English engineers were capable of building really quite large machines.
07:47Some of the best military engineers were employed by Edward the First,
07:52a master of military tactics.
07:58He was one of the most vicious and single-minded rulers of his time.
08:03Soon after descending the throne in 1274,
08:06Edward decided to squash Welsh independence and bring Wales under his personal rule.
08:12He was a bully, frankly, and I think many people would think of him as a really nasty piece of work.
08:19He was utterly determined. Nothing was going to get in his way.
08:25Edward's strategy was to ring the mountain stronghold of the Welsh Prince
08:29with a chain of powerful castles.
08:33Richard Holmes is an historian of military tactics.
08:36He built eight new big castles, which were really state-of-the-art.
08:42They were immensely strong, well thought out.
08:45And most of them could be supplied by water,
08:47so they're very difficult for the Welsh to besiege.
08:50Edward believed that you control the countryside by castles like this.
08:57They're like nails holding the landscape down,
09:00and their garrisons could issue out, attack enemies in the area.
09:06And until the castle was taken, nobody could really dominate that landscape.
09:15They were extraordinarily expensive to build
09:18and were a very severe drain on the royal exchequer.
09:22In the short term, though, they worked.
09:25Edward and other English lords designed their Welsh strongholds with the trebuchet in mind.
09:34For example, Kerfilly Castle was surrounded by man-made lakes,
09:39which kept the besieging army and their siege weapons at a distance.
09:43Castles were what modern tacticians would call force multipliers.
09:47They enabled a relatively small garrison to operate to the absolute maximum of effectiveness.
09:51And a castle like this is carefully organised to maximise defensive firepower.
10:00There are loopholes in the walls and the towers for archers to shoot through.
10:05And here the walls are cunningly organised,
10:08so the second set of walls is higher than the first.
10:12And therefore an attacker facing this face of the castle
10:15not only gets the defensive fire of the first wall,
10:18but he's got archers shooting at him from the higher walls behind it.
10:23It's a real nightmare.
10:27At the end of the 13th century,
10:30what was the effective range of an archer?
10:33And what was the effective range of a trebuchet?
10:37The historical reports differ.
10:39Hugh, how close are you going to have to bring your trebuchet to the walls to do serious damage, do you think?
10:44Probably 200 yards we will need to be within that to smash it up.
10:49At 200 yards, is Hugh's trebuchet out of range of archers defending the castle?
10:55To find out, a dummy representing the trebuchet's chief operator is placed at that distance.
11:00I'm sure an arrow would land amongst us if we're at that range,
11:05that you can easily shoot 200 yards with that massive bow of yours, can't you?
11:09Yeah, well, 300 yards.
11:11Yes.
11:17Well, for 200 yards, I think it would be putting you a bit worried, wouldn't it?
11:21Yes, it would.
11:22I'm the first to accept that from this sort of range,
11:26the trebuchet would be doing serious damage to the castle walls.
11:29But I think this does suggest that it's no easy business,
11:33and a garrison that knows its business can probably keep a trebuchet at the very limit of its range.
11:39And the fact that we had some going over the top, I think, is mighty hopeful from the archer's point of view.
11:44I wonder what happens if you slap one into him from here.
11:48Good, come on then.
11:49Here we go.
11:53Yes, all right, he swallowed it, hasn't he?
11:56Gone right through, right through the dummy, kept only in by the fletchings.
12:00Bit of a belly egg, I reckon.
12:06Edward's castle-building campaign in Wales had taught him how to design well-defended fortresses.
12:14Turning his attention to conquering Scotland,
12:16did Edward also have the ability to successfully attack them?
12:21As the king marched northwards to take the castles that guarded Scotland,
12:27he brought with him some of the biggest siege engines, or trebuchets, ever built.
12:33The Siege of Calaver Rock, conducted by Edward I in 1300.
12:38We've got, remarkably, a really good account of this, a contemporary poem.
12:43It describes the way in which the knights rode up to the castle,
12:47all in their great armour, trying to perform great deeds of valour.
12:50In fact, they were driven back by the garrison, hurling stones and such like at them.
12:57And it wasn't the knights, it wasn't these people with the great acts of bravery.
13:01It was the engineers, men of really quite low social status in comparison,
13:06with the great siege engines.
13:07It was they who compelled the garrison to surrender.
13:11The poem describes the way in which the great boulders came down from the sky into the courtyard,
13:16crashing down, causing all sorts of damage, mayhem inside.
13:21The minute the casualties started, the garrison simply surrendered.
13:25So it wasn't the knights, it wasn't a great act of chivalry to capture this castle.
13:31It was the work of the experts, the engineers.
13:35It's difficult to tell, I mean, that one's obviously got a...
13:38Joining Hugh Kennedy in his quest to build a trebuchet,
13:41is mechanical engineer Wayne Neal, a professor from Virginia Military Institute.
13:47Which is the golden section.
13:49This one actually is one to two and this is one to three.
13:52Wayne will design the trebuchet.
13:53He is basing it on a picture he found in a 13th century Spanish manuscript.
13:59The illustration gives no idea of the true scale of the trebuchet,
14:04because the artist has made the machine smaller than the soldiers standing next to it.
14:09If the drawing isn't practical from all points of view,
14:12you begin to wonder about all the other points of view.
14:14It may be that the things they have got in the right proportion, they did by accident.
14:18Even an artist like Leonardo will draw a plan for something that's totally impractical.
14:23Because it indicates how it could be made.
14:25That's all. It indicates how it could be made.
14:27With the manuscript as a starting point,
14:31Wayne uses a combination of engineering theory and trial and error to come up with a working model.
14:36The prototype looks promising to Marcus Brandt, a carpenter who will help Wayne build the trebuchet.
14:50But there's a problem.
14:52The model rocks dangerously.
14:55This would be a serious flaw in a full-size trebuchet with several tons in motion.
15:01The machine basically tends to want to tip forward.
15:04As that weight comes down, it wants to drop straight down.
15:07So it tends to pull the machine forward, making it in this case tipped.
15:12To resolve the problem, Wayne reexamines the medieval illustrations of this type of trebuchet.
15:19He's struck by the fact that many have wheels.
15:23So he decides to build a new model.
15:26Not only do wheels eliminate the tendency for it to tip over,
15:31the movement also boosts the trebuchet's performance.
15:35Shoot away, come on.
15:37Hugh doubts that wheels will make a trebuchet throw farther,
15:42so he insists on a demonstration.
15:44For the first throw, Hugh holds down the model.
15:48The projectile travels 20 feet.
15:51Now let's try it with letting it loose.
15:53Letting it loose.
15:55Yeah, well it's certainly better, isn't it?
15:58When the trebuchet is allowed to roll, the missile goes an extra 10 feet.
16:04Why?
16:07The falling counterweight drives the trebuchet forward.
16:12Like a pitcher stepping forward, this adds momentum to the throw.
16:19The forward motion also permits the counterweight to drop further in a straighter line.
16:26The closer the counterweight follows this optimal path,
16:29the more energy it captures for throwing.
16:31What I find odd is the idea about it moving and having to move in order to give more energy to the missile,
16:41I would have thought was on the face of it nonsense.
16:45Obviously if Wayne's tried it, it goes further than you can't be argued with.
16:48Now that Wayne has confidence in his model, the project moves to Loch Ness in the Scottish Highlands for the full scale test.
16:59The trials will take place in the shadow of Castle Urquhart, which may have been besieged with similar weapons during Edward I Scottish campaigns 700 years ago.
17:11Wayne and Hugh arrive at Castle Urquhart to inspect the timber that is delivered by barge.
17:23As in the Middle Ages, heavy duty English oak is the choice for building the carriage and trestles.
17:32But the throwing arm will be made from a more lightweight wood, Douglas fir.
17:43Wayne calculates that a tree trunk of at least two feet in diameter is needed to withstand the stresses of hurling 250 pound balls.
17:53How about this one right?
17:58It's the right size, yeah. That would be the right diameter.
18:02It would be a shame to cut that down, wouldn't it?
18:03Yes!
18:05Let's get the chainsaw and whack it down.
18:06We would have to go.
18:16Cut!
18:18Get out of it!
18:23Haul away!
18:24Haul away!
18:26After it is floated across Loch Ness, the log is quickly hauled ashore.
18:31You're okay.
18:35Work immediately begins on hewing it into an eight-sided throwing arm.
18:45The next job is to assemble the base.
18:47Forty carpenters, mainly from the United States but also from Britain and Germany, have volunteered to spend their vacation here.
18:57They're all timber framers who specialize in traditional construction techniques.
19:04Without nails, they connect large pieces of wood using mortise and tenon joints.
19:09Drop it.
19:10Drop it.
19:11Drop it.
19:12Beautiful.
19:13Beautiful.
19:14Beautiful.
19:15Two.
19:16Three.
19:18Okay.
19:20One, two, three.
19:22While the timber framers immerse themselves in medieval methods, Wayne employs the tools of a modern engineer to check and recheck his design.
19:30In particular, he's hoping that the wheels will give him the same boost in performance as they did on the model.
19:39Spin it on.
19:40Spin it on.
19:41Spin it on.
19:42Up at the target wall, work is almost complete.
19:43The wooden structures on top are called hoardings.
20:04Up at the target wall, work is almost complete.
20:09The wooden structures on top are called hoardings.
20:13They provided additional protection for defenders during a siege.
20:18Attackers would build similar barriers to protect the trebuchet team from arrow fire.
20:24Well, this is the target wall that we've got for the trebuchets,
20:28a modern reproduction of a castle wall.
20:31It's a pretty good reproduction, I think.
20:34It's got all the details of the crenellations.
20:37And what's important about it is the width.
20:41It's a good five foot thick.
20:44The way that it's formed is that there's an outer skin on either side,
20:49and within that, a fill of rubble and mortar.
20:53And that provides a very solid core.
20:56This is exactly how they did it in the Middle Ages.
20:59And I'm very glad that I'm not standing here while the trebuchets are actually shooting.
21:06The target wall is modeled on the outer walls of Harlech and Kerfili,
21:12two of the best defended castles in Wales.
21:17Faced with the daunting task of taking a castle like Kerfili,
21:21what siege tactics would an attacker adopt?
21:24A castle like Kerfili, like this one, presented an attacker with a knotty problem,
21:29because it's got layers of defenses with sandwiches of water between them.
21:33A bit like the layers of an onion.
21:35So an attacker arriving here would encounter the moat, a water defense,
21:40so that he couldn't mine underneath it without his trenches being flooded.
21:44His best bet, if he possibly can, is to take the place by surprise or by guile,
21:50to trick his way in, to get him before the gaisons ready for him.
21:53If he can't do that, he's then got to mount a formal siege.
21:57And ultimately, he'll starve it out.
22:05Gates had once been a castle's weakest point.
22:08But by this stage in history, they've become its strongest.
22:11They're defended by gate houses, these are very powerful towers,
22:15with arrow slits in them, so that anyone attacking the gate
22:18is subjected to close-range fire.
22:20And there's a portcullis, which drops down just behind the attackers.
22:24And even if an attacker does manage to take the gate house,
22:28then he's got another moat, two more gate houses,
22:31and he's got to do the whole rotten business all over again.
22:40Meanwhile, rotten weather has besieged Castle Urquhart,
22:43and after the week of daily downpours,
22:45the trestles that support the throwing arm are ready to be raised.
22:50At the top of the trestle, the throwing arm rotates on an axle
23:06that has to be both strong and exact.
23:09And the counterweight, so it has to be fairly precise.
23:13Marcus Brandt has taken on the job.
23:15Well, we've got to address the issues of axles.
23:18We've got two sets of axles with this fixed arm, fixed counterweight machine.
23:23We've got the axles down here to carry the wheels,
23:25and we've got this more precise axle up here,
23:28which carries this eight tons of weight and arm.
23:32And it has to be fairly precise.
23:35We've set up a great wheel lathe, which is a precursor to modern lathes.
23:39It's just a great big flywheel that's powered by muscle,
23:42and it turns this 10 by 10 down to an 8 by 8.
23:47Marcus restores old buildings in Pennsylvania
23:50and has enthusiastically embraced the idea of using medieval technology.
23:55It's a very medieval feel to the whole project.
23:59We've got all the trades going at once.
24:02We have the stonemasons busy.
24:04We've got all the carpenters and the axes flying and the chips
24:07and the smoke and the mud.
24:09Boy, if it weren't for the jets flying overhead occasionally,
24:12you'd think you're in the 12th century.
24:18Villagers were often established next to the castle of a nobleman or the king.
24:23English society was very hierarchical,
24:27with the king and his nobles at the top,
24:29and then the rest of society cascading down from that.
24:32Now, the castle wasn't just important militarily.
24:36They were an economic power as well.
24:38There were communities built up round the castle to supply it.
24:43And the castle provided protection as well.
24:46At their best, these noblemen were protectors.
24:51At their worst, they were often something rather like mafiosi,
24:56leeching off the local countryside.
24:59So living under the shadow of a place like this
25:02had advantages but disadvantages too.
25:06How you doing, Phil? You don't have too much there?
25:09In order to position the heavy throwing arm,
25:12the timber framers place an A-frame above the trestles to support the pulley system,
25:18a standard medieval device.
25:24A block and tackle dramatically reduces the number of people required to pull on the ropes.
25:30Now, a block and tackle is a fairly simple device.
25:36It magnifies your pull.
25:38If I were to lift my own body weight with a single rope,
25:40I would have to pull down 200 pounds to lift my 200 pounds of body weight up.
25:44With this, I'm hooked up to this double-sheet pulley,
25:48and I've got four lines which share the load equally.
25:51So 200 pounds here is only 50 pounds on each one of these ropes.
25:55So to lift my 200 pounds up, I only have to pull 50 pounds here.
26:01Now mind you, I have to pull four times as much rope, but it really works.
26:06The next phase of construction is the most dangerous.
26:16Without the help of a modern crane,
26:18the timber framers must trust the strength of two slender poles
26:22and the rigging of their ropes in order to raise the one-ton throwing arm.
26:29One accident, one slip, one failure hidden in the heart of this timber,
26:35and we're out of business. Simple as that.
26:38Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead.
26:40Take your couple of them off.
26:42Watch this clear.
26:45If you've got something, you want to go ahead and get your top of there.
26:53Looking real good right now.
26:55Going right on in there like we planned.
26:58We are there.
27:00We are in place.
27:03With the throwing arm in position,
27:08Wayne needs to attach weights that will power the machine.
27:13He chooses lead because he believes lead was used for the counterweight of War Wolf.
27:21The mysterious and terrifying siege engine that clinched the assault on Stirling Castle.
27:27There is good historical evidence for this.
27:30In a letter Edward wrote just before the siege, he demanded that lead be removed from all the churches.
27:37One of the things that they needed for the siege of Stirling was heavy weights for the counterweights on the engines.
27:44And they sent orders out to strip all of the church roofs in the entire surrounding area.
27:49So all of this lead, lead sheets, would have been brought to the siege and then melted down in order to form the counterweights.
27:59Watch out. Watch out. Here we go. Here we go. Here we go.
28:03Wayne's calculations tell him that in order for his machine to throw a 250 pound ball, he'll need about six and a half tons of lead counterweight.
28:16It takes a week to melt down the scrap and form it into a collar that can be bolted onto the arm.
28:25Wayne's come up with a really neat solution for a lead counterweight made of various pieces bolted together.
28:34But it is expensive. Lead is difficult to get hold of. It's complex to make this.
28:39There is a much easier solution, which is to use a large box as a counterweight.
28:46Something like this, which you could fill with earth, with stones, with anything you'd got.
28:51Fill it up. You could put as much or as little in as you wanted.
28:55That would affect the range of the machine.
28:58And you'd simply then have to put this box on the machine, swivelling, roughly like that.
29:06A survey of medieval illustrations suggest that swinging counterweights were the more popular design.
29:16A man who has been working with them longer than anyone else is traditional French carpenter, Renault Buffett.
29:24Renault is convinced that Edward's great siege engine, War Wolf, had a swinging counterweight box.
29:30The simple design of the box makes it not only cheaper, but easier to build than one with a lead counterweight.
29:39Here we go.
29:43And Renault has found graphic accounts of the destructive power of some really big siege machines.
29:49I found a account medieval. An account? Yes, a medieval account.
29:54And they pay 300, 300 bullets in three days.
29:59Then they shoot 300 bullets on the same place, on the same wall.
30:03After three days, the wall was destroyed.
30:06So you think the real purpose of something like this is simply to attack a castle from a distance and bring the wall down?
30:14Yes.
30:16Five hundred years before Newton's apple, medieval engineers had figured that trebuchets with a swinging counterweight are the most efficient at using the force of gravity.
30:27Like adding wheels to a fixed counterweight trebuchet, the hinge allows the swinging counterweight to descend further in a straighter line, capturing more energy for the throw.
30:44Fifteen years ago, Renault came across the notebook of the 13th century French architect Villard de Honecourt.
30:57In it, he found the plan for the base of a trebuchet and a description of the swinging counterweight box.
31:04Unfortunately, the page showing the rest of the trebuchet was missing.
31:08But with his knowledge of medieval carpentry and his experience of building over 30 small trebuchets,
31:16Renault realized that if the design were ever built, it would be monstrous.
31:21The height of a five-story building.
31:24Ever since this discovery, Renault has wanted to construct the full-size trebuchet.
31:31Finally, he will get the chance at Castle Urquhart in Scotland.
31:38At the start of a medieval siege, a trebuchet engineer would typically seek out as big a throwing arm as possible.
31:49Renault inspects a good-sized oak log that he hopes will be suitable.
31:57Using the same geometric principles employed by the medieval engineers who built castles, cathedrals and siege machines,
32:05Renault starts designing his trebuchet.
32:08The key decision is where on the throwing arm to position the main pivot point of fulcrum.
32:14Medieval engineers worked this out by observation.
32:19In this largely illiterate society, carpenters used animal figures like these as an aid to remember geometric formulas.
32:29Now that Renault knows where to put the main axle,
32:39he can design the trestle, base and capstans to raise the counterweight box.
32:45Because they are all sized in proportion to the throwing arm.
32:57But just as he begins building the trebuchet, Renault is called back to France.
33:03In his absence, work progresses on the base.
33:06Work also begins on drilling out the main axle hole in the throwing arm.
33:16Unfortunately, there is some confusion about the size of the opening.
33:21And a nasty surprise awaits Renault's return.
33:26Hi, good morning.
33:28Renault's been away for a couple of days.
33:31And while he was away, we cut the axle hole.
33:34It's quite apparent that a lot of meat has gone from the timber.
33:38And we're left with quite thin sections on either side.
33:40I think the beam, the throwing arm, can break here, in this part.
33:49Renault's concern is that we've gone too much to this extreme,
33:53where we've taken out too much wood of the throwing arm and made the axle too strong.
33:58His concern, of course, is in our first throw that it's going to do something like that.
34:06Renault is left with no alternative,
34:07but to hope that a couple of planks will be strong enough to splint the weakened throwing arm.
34:20Finally, work starts on raising the grape trestles.
34:26With each passing day, the situation at Castle Urquhart more and more resembles a siege of old.
34:32OK, people on the pool, boys. Can you tie the rest on and off?
34:36With two trebuchets to finish,
34:38there is a nagging feeling that Renault's machine may not get done
34:42before the timber framers must return home.
34:51Over at Wayne's trebuchet, work on attaching the lead weights is finally finished.
34:56All that remains is to cock the arm.
35:01Even with the help of pulleys, this requires 40 people.
35:08With a 13,000 pound counterweight, it's a much bigger job than anyone imagined.
35:17And it will have to be repeated for each fling.
35:22OK.
35:24Let's get in here.
35:26The trigger mechanism is not strong enough and buckles alarmingly as it takes the full weight of the throwing arm.
35:34It's bending as we're releasing the arm and we're wondering whether it can hold the weight right now.
35:38To avoid an accidental firing, they reinforce it with a length of chain.
35:49We've got lots of engineers on this and maybe they've got it right, but I think it's quite difficult to get it right.
35:55It's chaos. The sun is going down.
35:58I don't have a clue whether or not we'll finish even one of these machines on time.
36:07Well, we're under the gun now.
36:10It's kind of touching dough whether we're going to get this thing put together and actually flinging both machines,
36:15but if I know this crew, come hell or high water, we're going to make this thing fling.
36:19There goes your light.
36:21The next morning, a 250-pound sandstone ball is quickly positioned in the sling for the first throw.
36:32I'd rather have it below the sling.
36:34It's got about a 50% chance of going in the right direction.
36:37It could go in the lake by mistake because these adjustments are not well known to us.
36:45You ready? This is it.
36:46One, two, three, fire the hole!
36:57Even with 12 timber framers pulling, the firing pin won't bunch.
37:03It's quite normal that. I mean, triggers are very stiff. We found that at home.
37:08It takes a lot of effort, which is as well in some ways.
37:12Yeah!
37:18Despite Hugh's predictions that a trebuchet on wheels would shake itself to pieces, the reverse is true.
37:25Wheels dampen the recoil.
37:28Everything appears to be working as Wayne predicted, except the range.
37:33The ball only traveled about 170 yards, falling short of the wall.
37:41What are we? 30 yards short and about 5 feet low.
37:45I thought it was flat, which means we've got to...
37:48I think shorten the sling so it releases sooner and goes higher, which should get us to the wall.
37:52Just like his medieval counterpart, Wayne uses a process of trial and error to alter the trebuchet's range by adjusting the length of the sling.
38:06With the first throw, a long sling resulted in a late release and a low trajectory.
38:17By shortening the sling, Wayne believes the ball will be released earlier, resulting in a higher path.
38:23Wayne's adjustments have the desired effect.
38:39The second throw has perfect range, just missing the target to the right by 2 feet.
38:44I think we took the king's ear off.
38:52Good job, Wayne.
38:55And so it needs a slight adjustment, and then we're going to be a direct hit.
38:59Well, tomorrow is another day.
39:05What will be the last day for Wayne and his team dawns, with the wall still intact, but clearly under threat.
39:15Meanwhile, Renault's trebuchet is still not finished.
39:20This morning, they rushed to complete the counterweight box that is hinged to the throwing arm.
39:27We've got the one treb built. The other one is about 99% of the way there.
39:32We flung two stones last night with Wayne's treb, but we really don't want to let Renault down.
39:37And we don't want to let ourselves down. We really want to see this thing fly before we go.
39:40Still, with time so short, it's unclear that Renault will get a chance to fire his trebuchet at all.
39:50Well, it's somewhat kind of fun.
39:53We're off the ground here.
39:54After last night's narrow miss, Wayne's trebuchet is repositioned to be more in line with the target.
40:01All we're doing is shifting it slightly to the left. We're throwing to the right a little far.
40:06So we've shifted about one inch, so that hopefully we'll be dead on center.
40:12With the same 250-pound ball as yesterday, and the sling at the same length,
40:18Wayne believes he is now dead on to hit the wall with his third attempt.
40:22The third shot is identical to the second in distance.
40:36At a range of 200 yards, adjusting the wheels one inch to the left,
40:40place the missile bang on top of the hoarding.
40:48We've gotten wood. I don't know if we've contacted any stone yet,
40:51but we've knocked the hoarding pretty well.
40:54We've made it a little high. We've come down a little bit.
40:58That must be the old hole there, mustn't it?
41:01That's the hole.
41:02A little bit on this side, isn't it?
41:03A little bit.
41:06You mean standing out of that hoarding you've had a jolt?
41:09With the trebuchet lined up on the target,
41:12Wayne only has to shorten the range by a hair to hit the stone battlements below.
41:18So this time what we've done is lengthen the sling about six inches.
41:22So we're hoping to fire a little bit flatter and get the top of the wall.
41:28Quite difficult, I think, probably, isn't it, on those small adjustments?
41:30Yes, small adjustments are difficult to do.
41:33We could perhaps not get so lucky this time, but it's been very good so far, hasn't it?
41:40Worried that this may be the last attempt,
41:43Wayne makes a sudden change of plan.
41:47He replaces the 250-pound ball that he's been using with a jumbo 300-pounder.
42:00Wayne figures that the heavier ball, clocked at a speed of 127 miles an hour, should breach the wall.
42:08But he's wrong.
42:09We're going back to the 250 balls to the 300 and see if we can get a little more height.
42:20They've only got time for one more shot, the American team, and, well, they've been very near, but they might miss it again.
42:27And if they don't get it, do you think you can get it with yours?
42:31Maybe we are more lucky and we can destroy this wall.
42:35Yeah.
42:36Well, we'll see.
42:37It's the French against Americans, so...
42:40No, it's not, no, no, no.
42:41It's not against.
42:43That's your way.
42:44Putting on their kilts for good luck, Wayne's team rushes to get in one final shot.
43:05We did it.
43:20Come take a look at the rocks over here.
43:25It just pulverized the stone on the inside.
43:29It confirms what we came here to prove, doesn't it?
43:31That we've had a lovely hit smack in the middle.
43:34And it smashed it.
43:35And it busted it right through to the back.
43:37So it's quite obvious that if you've got one of these trebuchets,
43:40and you've got a castle like this, and you've got plenty of time to shoot it,
43:44you're going to knock it into a powder.
43:46We can reduce this to rubble.
43:49Intoxicated with success, the timber framers bid adieu to the highlands.
43:58But the next morning, Renault is heartened to find that he's not been completely abandoned.
44:09You know, if you put your safety chain on...
44:11Ed Levin and a handful of the Americans have decided to stay on in Scotland to help finish the job.
44:17I'm sure it's good enough.
44:19No, it's linked into the second...
44:21The biggest concern is whether the throwing arm has been fatally weakened
44:25at the point where the main axle passes through it.
44:31To avoid stressing the arm, Renault decides to only partially load his counterweight,
44:37using four tons of sand in the 12-ton capacity box.
44:42But there are risks to this approach.
44:48We're all suitably cautious in having the 250-pound sandstone ball end up in the castle wall,
44:53rather than in the loch, or drop down on the machine,
44:56or any of the other places it has historically been known to go.
45:00Come on, come on, come on.
45:02Nobody knows quite what they're doing, so that's what makes it fun.
45:06Good cheese.
45:08A moment of birth.
45:10And terror.
45:12Yeah, well, birth is usually accompanied by terror.
45:13Now we are ready for shoot.
45:18It's getting me nervous.
45:21Three, two, one, fire it all!
45:31The heavy ball and relatively light counterweight result in the missile landing dangerously close to the trebuchet.
45:39Well, yeah, I mean, we knew that there wasn't enough weight in, really, didn't we?
45:43It was just an experiment.
45:47The counterweight is not so heavy.
45:50We must put two bags more, two tons.
45:53Of sand?
45:54Yes, of sand, yes.
45:56Two more tons of sand are added.
45:59I don't think there's enough weight for it to go really well yet.
46:03This machine was a lot of weight.
46:05And 12 tons, probably, to make it go properly.
46:09Renault thinks if we keep putting little bits in, he might just get there without busting the axle.
46:15Which is natural, of course, because it's his machine.
46:17Fair enough.
46:19We are going to get a good shot.
46:21I'm sure, sure, sure.
46:22Renault's optimism is justified.
46:31The missile falls just a few yards short of the wall and a bit to the right.
46:35The team decides to give it one more day.
46:50But the next morning starts with snow, followed by a heavy downpour.
46:57Basically, we're at the last day.
46:59Between the rain and the mud, we've got a rigorous nightmare.
47:01It's really taking its toll on the ropes.
47:05The mud grinds in and it starts tearing up the fibers.
47:09The water helps make the ropes stretch.
47:12If you look around the place, there's ropes in the mud and no rigger likes seeing that.
47:16So, we're doing the best we can to keep our ropes clean, but it's an uphill battle.
47:24Last night's final shot was short of the wall because it was thrown too high.
47:29Renault believes the sling is slipping off its prong too soon.
47:34So, to delay release and lower the trajectory, the prong is bent forward.
47:39We've got the right amount of loft, we've got the right amount of range.
47:41We're just missing the target off to the side.
47:42For days, Renault has suspected that his trebuchet is pointing just to the right of the wall.
47:46But the loaded machine is too heavy to shift.
47:47And he faces the possibility that he may have to go home having achieved only a near miss.
47:51At the last minute, Marcus offers a solution.
47:54If we had our preferences, we'd be able to move the machine over a little bit more and more.
47:57We've got the right amount of range.
47:58We're just missing the target off to the side.
47:59For days, Renault has suspected that his trebuchet is pointing just to the right of the wall.
48:06But the loaded machine is too heavy to shift.
48:09And he faces the possibility that he may have to go home having achieved only a near miss.
48:15At the last minute, Marcus offers a solution.
48:20If we had our preferences, we'd be able to move the machine over a little bit.
48:24But we're afraid of shattering the machine, particularly with all the weight in the basket.
48:27So we're going to move the channel of the ball a little bit to the side so we can change our angle of attack.
48:34The range is good, but we just want to shift it over to the left a bit.
48:38By shifting the channel that holds the ball slightly to the left, they hope to redirect the missile.
48:44It works.
48:45Almost.
48:46Another three feet and Renault would have had a direct hit.
49:03Unless shifting the channel was just a fluke, one more nudge to the left should bring the trebuchet right on target.
49:11It looks good.
49:12It looks good.
49:13It looks good.
49:14It looks good.
49:15Come on.
49:16Oh, that looks good.
49:17Perfect.
49:18That's right.
49:19Yeah!
49:20Yeah!
49:21Yeah!
49:22Yeah!
49:23Yeah!
49:24Yeah!
49:25Yeah!
49:26Yeah!
49:27At this time, Renault her arm, quickly,ãã, to cal patrim- pouvoir.
49:28activ, to hug the shoulder all the time away.
49:29After two throws, which are slightly high up the wall itself, Renault orders a minute adjustment
49:34of the prong in order to lower their trajectory.
49:40With frayed ropes and a storm threatening to close down the siege, everything now hangs on
49:45Anno's ability to quickly get on target.
49:59And he does.
50:02A bullseye in the battlements.
50:15This whole wall, if you run your eye down here, it's bellied out.
50:21Just cracks all through it.
50:23Anybody standing back here would have been mincemeat.
50:30In a real siege, it would only be a matter of time
50:34before the wall is reduced to smithereens.
50:40In terms of the kind of dialogue that existed between attack and defence,
50:44it is very clear now to me that the appearance of the trebuchet
50:48on the scene shifted that balance radically in favour of attack.
50:56I've gained tremendous respect for the medieval engineers.
50:59They were able to build a frightfully powerful and highly accurate
51:03and easily adjustable machine.
51:07If you're under siege, you've got to try to knock these things out
51:09before they're actually built.
51:11Because once they're built, you're sunk.
51:14And the trebuchet is this big machine who can block the wall.
51:23And also, the trebuchet must be the wolf wall.
51:31Wolf wall?
51:32Wolf wall?
51:33Wolf wolf.
51:34Wolf wolf.
51:35Wolf wolf.
51:36It's so difficult.
51:37We must change this name.
51:38Wolf wolf.
51:40Wolf wolf.
51:45It is clear from the experiment that both types of trebuchets work.
51:54Because it could so easily be increased in weight,
51:57the swinging box design was the improvement that tipped the balance in favour of attack.
52:05So the great wall-busting siege engine Edward employed at Stirling Castle
52:09was almost certainly a trebuchet with a giant swinging counterweight.
52:14A weapon that dominated siege warfare for 200 years.
52:27It was not until the late 15th century, the end of the Middle Ages,
52:31that the superiority of cannon clearly emerged.
52:35And the trebuchet vanished into the mists of time.
52:40that the end of the war was nothing,
52:41and the rewords got the rewords built into the last portableêmement world.
52:45So, from the youtuber,
52:46this is a lot I always had.
52:47I'm sorry.
52:48I'm sorry.
52:49I'm not.
52:51I'm sorry.
52:52I, I'm sorry.
52:54I'm sorry.
52:56I'm sorry.
52:57I'm sorry.
52:59I'm sorry.
53:00I'm sorry.
53:01I'm sorry.
53:02I'm sorry.
53:03I'm sorry.
53:04I'm sorry.
53:05I'm sorry.
53:06I'm sorry.
53:07We have a great job.
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