A Trebuchet from The Romance of Alexander (circa 1330).
Historic Trebuchet Illustrations
Part 3

This is one of a series of pages of Medieval and Renaissance illustrations of trebuchets. To avoid problems with historical interpretation (& copyright!) as much as possible, I have chosen to use pictures which seem to be plausibly contemporary with the devices being illustrated. I have also tried to avoid what seem to be obvious fantasy pieces. .



No. 9 - Siege of Jerusalem

This scene, an illustration depicting the siege of Jerusalem, is from William of Tyre's 14th Century "History" (Bibliotheque Nationale de France)
It shows two trebuchets in use next to a wheeled siege tower. The trebs are fairly basically drawn, but show the main features - a box of rocks, a sling containing the projectile, bracing timbers on the uprights and a timber base.
This base has what looks like wheels - a rarity in illustrations. If so, did they stop the machine lurching backwards and forwards when the weight began to swing? Would it matter if the machine did trundle about- it might reduce stresses in the frame or give the weight a more vertical fall. (Perhaps a soldier who didn't get his toes out of the way quickly enough might see some problems with this..)

There is, of course, an alternative use for wheels on trebuchets.
Many illustrations on these pages imply that trebuchets in their operating positions were subject to enemy arrow fire and siege engine counter-battery. If an assembled machine could be hauled into position (perhaps with its bucket unloaded) it would not have to be built under fire. Wheels would be one way of doing this - although giving the machine a sledge-like base and dragging it also seems plausible. Once in place the trebuchet need not have been left free-moving .. it might also have been anchored or chocked.
As a final word, it seems hard to imagine how or where you would fit wheels to something like Villard de Honnecourt's base. Those side-bracing transverse timbers present quite a challenge.


 
No. 10 - "Mongol" Trebuchet

Here is another siege scene, this one an image from a more eastern source - a 13th Century "Mongol" trebuchet from Raschid al Din's "World History", painted c.1306
Compare this machine to the trebuchet shown in illustration No.8...
The weight bucket with the flared base, the metal re-enforcements on the bottom of the bucket (here ornate as well as functional), the extensive bracing and the long sling are all common features.
The beam can be seen tucked in very tightly, maximising the height that the power weight will fall.

There is a winch at the rear of the machine, and the engineer is wielding a mallet, presumably to trigger the trebuchet.

Note that here too the artillery is within bowshot of the defenders.

 
No. 11 - "Saray album"


This oriental trebuchet, taken from the 13-14th Century Saray album, is another much-braced machine.

Here it can be seen in the rest position, the throwing arm of its beam pointing straight up, indicating that the other beam end is much heavier. Although the base supports obscure the other end of the beam, it is very likely that this is a either a purely or partly weight-powered (rather than purely "traction") trebuchet. As no pulling ropes are to be seen connected to this short arm, we can hazrd that this is, in fact, completely weight powered.

The drawing is unusual in showing a weight/arm assembly that fans out very widely - it's visible on both sides of the frame's timbers - and which appears to be rigidly attached to the beam.
Though some modern reconstructions (especially the big ones) use this system of a solid weighted beam, not many historic pictures do.
Some French historians prefer to call trebuchets with rigidly-attached weights "mangonels". This might be one, Illustration No.7 another..
Other features to note in this image are:

  1. The "laminated" and whipped beam.
  2. The loop on the end of the loose sling cord is clearly shown
 
No. 12 - Hasan al-Rammah

Another Middle Eastern trebuchet illustration, this one a late 13th Century example by Hasan al-Rammah (c.1285)

This simple drawing of a Middle Eastern machine shows the same shape of counterweight as the machine shown in Illustration No.11.

Note that this machine's counterweight is not rigidly attached to the end of the beam, but is instead hanging from it like most of the other trebuchets on this page.

It is interesting to ponder why the builder has gone to the trouble of giving the weight a curved shape. The curve of the base is roughly a circle centred on the suspension point of the weight on the beam. Certainly this would allow the base's frame to be made lower, since no clearance would need to be given for the corners of the weight, but this seems hardly likely (or worth the effort). Any ideas?

 
 
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This page was last edited Jan 2000