00:00Trebuchets are officially the coolest thing in medieval history.
00:05After all, who wouldn't enjoy lobbing something the size of a piano at, well, anything?
00:11But how did one get to join the crew of one of these magnificent machines?
00:15Well, the short answer is, we just don't know.
00:18Unfortunately, most medieval sources are too busy praising the infinite bravery of kings and generals
00:24to describe how the actual armies functioned.
00:27But on a rare occasion, we do find a brief mention of some master engineer or craftsman,
00:33but even then, it's not like we get a rundown of their life story or qualifications.
00:38Okay then lad, do you have a university degree in trebuchet making?
00:44Or did you just learn watching YouTube videos?
00:47So, in short, the best we can do is to make an educated guess.
00:51Now, the trebuchet's first recorded use was in China during the 4th century BC.
00:58It took about a thousand years for it to get to Europe.
01:01They just didn't have the logistics back in those days.
01:04But on its way there, it became the go-to siege weapon for the Persians, Arabs and the Byzantines.
01:11Then, for nearly a thousand years, the trebuchet would dominate the battlefields of Europe.
01:17Now, while the design of trebuchets would vary wildly over the centuries, they generally fell into one of two categories.
01:23The earlier traction trebuchets worked by muscle power alone.
01:27They required large crews, sometimes hundreds of men, all pulling ropes simultaneously to launch the missile into the air.
01:36Uh, Houston, we have liftoff, over.
01:38The much more famous counterweight trebuchet came quite a bit later, during the 12th century.
01:44And it used gravity and weights instead.
01:47It had greater power and needed a smaller crew.
01:50So, it became a must-have in the arsenal of any self-respecting monarch.
01:54I'll have the trebuchet 1000, thank you.
01:56But this begs the question, how would one go about joining a trebuchet crew?
02:02Well, operating a trebuchet was really two separate jobs.
02:06You had the unskilled labour for the heavy lifting.
02:09Lift the weight harder!
02:10And the skilled craftsmen for pretty much everything else.
02:14The unskilled labour was mostly drawn from the army.
02:17But it was also possible to volunteer.
02:20And, to be fair, trebuchet labour wasn't that bad of a deal.
02:23It was certainly an improvement to digging latrines or trying to scale a stone wall whilst having boiling oil poured
02:30all over you.
02:31Of course, becoming one of the craftsmen who designed, built, maintained, aimed and fired the trebuchet was quite a bit
02:38more difficult.
02:39It took a lot more time.
02:41About a lifetime's worth more, actually.
02:43You see, in order to learn and practice any reasonably useful craft during the Middle Ages, you had to join
02:50that crafts guild.
02:51And, to do that, you usually had to start young.
02:55It was like finding the right school.
02:56Well-off parents would persuade master craftsmen to take on their talented children as apprentices.
03:02These apprentices were essentially adopted by the master, living as his children while he taught them the skills of the
03:09trade.
03:09Think of it like a boarding school with no holidays and the occasional risk of violent death.
03:15Nothing to see here, parents. Everything's all right, yes. Good. Right. Oh dear.
03:19The next step was becoming a journeyman, free to travel the country, working for different master craftsmen across various projects,
03:28including the odd trebuchet.
03:30Before actually designing a trebuchet, the journeyman had to become a master.
03:35And, to do that, he needed to produce a master work.
03:39If it was decent enough, and he had the money, the journeyman would create his own workshop and officially style
03:46himself a master craftsman.
03:48From carpentry to stone masonry to trebuchet designing, that's how it worked, more or less.
03:54Then, when an eager lord was in need of a trebuchet, he'd engage the master craftsmen through their guild to
04:00get the ball rolling, or rather, to throw it in the air.
04:03So, in short, it could take you ten to twenty years to get on a trebuchet team, assuming you had
04:09been apprenticed to one of the right trades in the first place.
04:13As you can imagine, the few master craftsmen who knew how to get the job done were very sought after.
04:19They effectively worked as highly skilled mercenaries, travelling across Europe, selling their skills to the highest bidder.
04:26Hello Gov, Trebuchet Trevor, how's it going?
04:28And, if they ever found themselves on the losing side of a war, they could always offer their services to
04:33the other side, maybe?
04:36Ah, yes, it truly was a great gig. I mean, while it lasted.
04:40Which it did, until the early 1500s, when gunpowder firmly established itself on the battlefield, violently.
04:48And that, my friends, is how you too could become a trebuchet operator, if you somehow found yourself in medieval
04:57Europe.
04:58Hm. So, my dear trebuchet admirers, thank you for watching.
05:03Please lob a few likes my way, see what I did there?
05:06And perhaps even consider supporting me on Patreon.
05:09We finally have a budget for music, and maybe we'll have enough for a trebuchet one day too.
05:15Who knows, Hobbit?
05:17In any case, we'll talk again soon, in another two weeks, for the next exciting episode of SideQuest.
05:26Oh, my elbow just clicked.
05:28Um, yes, good.
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