The only known trebuchet casualty in history(arstechnica.com)
51 pointsby Tomte4 hours ago4 comments
  • NeoBytean hour ago
    "Only known trebuchet casualty" - also known as "the guy who had the worst luck in 14th century Scotland." Imagine surviving the siege, then taking a 90kg rock to the back at 300km/h. At least it was quick
    • happyopossum7 minutes ago
      > surviving the siege

      It's pretty clear he didn't pull that off...

  • jcalxan hour ago
    Not the only known trebuchet casualty in history, unfortunately: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/oct/31/highereduc...
  • simonebrunozzi2 hours ago
    So, is this because Trebuchet are not particularly lethal, or because they were not used much?
    • clort2 hours ago
      Trebuchet were used primarily to hammer the walls of the castle to break them down. Not really possible to aim at a person; the soldiers clambering over the broken walls will do that.
    • gyomu2 hours ago
      People didn't really bother recording cause of death for every casualty on medieval battlefields
    • mapt2 hours ago
      This is the only man known to have died in a medieval siege of a medium-sized boulder falling on him.

      Trebuchets were used for a variety of purposes in siege warfare, from (uniquely) breaching walls with large boulders to (less uniquely) setting things on fire to (probably) suppressing massed formations of archers with smaller shot. But smaller shot would not leave a characteristic trebuchet injury, it would leave a generic blunt-force trauma injury.

      • mr_toadan hour ago
        In some cases they’d hurl dead cattle, people’s heads, and flaming projectiles over the walls to damage morale and potentially damage infrastructure.
    • agos2 hours ago
      the key word is "known"
      • mr_toadan hour ago
        More like ‘named’. There are accounts of trebuchets causing hundreds of deaths, but individual casualties in medieval battles are rarely identified.
    • sco12 hours ago
      They typically weren't trying to hit people with them.
    • chermian hour ago
      Clearly you guys have never played medieval ii total war!
    • dullcrisp2 hours ago
      Trebuchets crushed their victims so hard that they were erased from history.