Medieval Warfare

The Crossbow bolt has more effect against armour at close range, but it is much slower to reload and has less range. As a mass of weapons the longbow is much more effective. Thus one crossbow is probably the better weapon, but if you had say 100 of each then the longbow is better because they could fire more shots at greater range. Certainly that's what Crecy in 1346 would suggest. The most skilled of the English Longbowmen could fire 8-10 shots a minute: the most skilled of crossbowmen could manage only 1 round every minute: most required a minute and a half to fire each round.

Although both has their strengths, as pointed out above, the reason the Crossbow became popular over the logbow is mainly because the crossbow was so much easier to use: it took years and years to become proficient in the longbow (English people started their training as young boys) while the crossbow could be mastered quickly: it was a matter of point and shoot. It was the considerable experience/practice vs little experience/practice requirements that eventually saw a more widespread use of the crossbow.

People who lived in castles during the medieval times used them for attacking other castles and forcing them to surrender.

Garrison is derived from the Middle English word 'garret' or 'garite' meaning a watchtower.

One of the oldest references to the mobile siege tower in ancient China was ironically a written dialogue primarily discussing naval warfare.

hey whats up Ashley

The first catapults appeared in Greek times (400 BC-300 BC), early adopters being Dionysius of Syracuse and Onomarchus of Phocis. Alexander the Great introduced the idea of using them to provide cover on the battlefield in addition to using them during sieges. Catapults were more fully developed in Roman and Medieval times, with the trebuchet being introduced a relatively short time before the advent of gunpowder, which made the catapult obsolete. Cannons replaced catapults as the standard siege weapon in Europe in the 14th century. During medieval times, catapults and related siege machines were the first weapons used for biological warfare. The carcasses of diseased animals and those who had perished from the Black Death or other diseases were loaded up and then thrown over the castle's walls to infect those barricaded inside. There have even been recorded instances of beehives catapulted over castle walls. During the trench warfare of the First World War, smaller catapults were used to throw hand grenades across no man's land into enemy trenches before being replaced by mortars.

The largest siege tower ever erected was the Helepolis was an ancient siege engine invented by Polyidus of Thessaly and improved by Demetrius I of Macedon and Epimachus of Athens for the unsuccessful siege of Rhodes, based on an earlier, less massive design used against Salamis (305--304 BC).

The Helepolis was essentially a large tapered tower, with each side about 130 feet (41.1 m) high, and 65 feet (20.6 m) wide that was manually pushed into battle. It rested on eight wheels, each 15 feet (4.6 m) high and also had casters, to allow lateral movement as well as direct. The three exposed sides were rendered fireproof with iron plates, and stories divided the interior, connected by two broad flights of stairs, one for ascent and one for descent. The machine weighed 160 tons, and required 3,400 men working in relays to move it, 200 turning a large capstan driving the wheels via a belt, and the rest pushing from behind. The casters permitted lateral movement, so the entire apparatus could be steered towards the desired attack point, while always keeping the siege engines inside aimed at the walls, and the protective body of the machine directly between the city walls and the men pushing behind it.

The Helepolis bore a fearsome complement of heavy armaments, with two 180-pound (82 kg) catapults, and one 60-pounder (27 kg) (classified by the weight of the projectiles they threw) on the first floor, three 60-pounders (27 kg) on the second, and two 30-pounders (14 kg) on each of the next five floors. Apertures, shielded by mechanically adjustable shutters, lined with skins stuffed with wool and seaweed to render them fireproof, pierced the forward wall of the tower for firing the missile weapons. On each of the top two floors, soldiers could use two light dart throwers to easily clear the walls of defenders.

It is reckoned to have lasted two or three months.

See Related Link below ads.

The Black Plague started in with the Mongolian nomads and spread through the Gobi Desert and to China and killed about 1 million or billion people. From China it spread to Italy possibly through the silk roads and from there it pretty much spread through flagellants, travelers, more trade and poor sanitation.

A siege is when a castle, fort, walled town or city is surrounded and nothing is allowed to get in or out. A siege usually continues until the city (or otherwise) either surrenders due to lack of supplies, until the city falls to attack, until the besieging army gives up and goes away or until the besieging army is chased away or defeated by a relieving army.

'Liege' rhymes with siege.

A siege is when a castle, fort, walled town or city is surrounded and nothing is allowed to get in or out. A siege usually continues until the city (or otherwise) either surrenders due to lack of supplies, until the city falls to attack, until the besieging army gives up and goes away or until the besieging army is chased away or defeated by a relieving army.

'Liege' rhymes with siege.

more than 1000 ft

The sword comes from the ancient Chinese. The medieval swords come up from different ages like iron age, bronze age, middle ages, late middle ages and the modern era. In medieval swords so many swords are categorized so specifically we cannot say who invented these.

The gallows was a structure where people were hung.

The ancient Greeks used the first catapults to fend off the Romans back in the B.C.'s. The earliest recorded date for the mangonel (fixed bowl) catapult is about 750 B.C. Catapults were used well in the middle ages until replaced by cannons.

Actually, we don't have a lot to go on. At the end of the 19th century, the nobleman and amateur historian Ralph Payne Gallwey wrote a book about the crossbow, and in it he describes the "catapult", what modern historians call a mangonel or onager.

Yes. Eggs were very important as a protein source in the Middle Ages, as even poor people could afford them most of the time.

The average range is 220.

The catapult worked by using tension in ropes to pull back the projectile cradle, then release and fling the object. The catapult ropes were usually cranked until enough tension existed, then it was released an all that potential energy turned into mechanical kinetic energy, flinging the object.

It Was Created In Greek town Syracus Around 400BC

Mostly out of wood.

The oldest forms of a catapult are known are described about 2,000 years ago. These were based on principles used in the cross bow and therefore required some elastic material to store energy and a structural support to hold the mechanism. The essential elastic element was presumably a wood product just as the elastic element of a bow has been made of wood up until more modern constructions with spring metal and plastic materials.

They were made of timber. There were two sources of energy for the mangonel; cantilever spring and torsion spring. The torsion spring was more effective than the cantilever spring, as it provided more energy. The torsion spring was located in the axle, i.e. the bottom of the arm and crossbar, and was basically a bundle of twisted ropes. The arm was put in the middle. When the rope that held the arm down was released, the sides of the ropes were twisted, pulling the arm up at a great speed and launching the projectile. Projectiles launched from a mangonel could cover up about 1,300 ft of ground.

A cantilever spring was a plank of wood perched at the crossbar. A short rope was slung around the arm, and the ends knotted around the ends of the plank of wood. However, the restraining rope held down the rope, and the plank of wooden was fixed around the crossbar, and so when the restraining rope was released, the cantilever spring would snap back into place and the force of it would spread the second rope, rotating the arm and launching the projectile.

Mangonels were made by the Romans, and introduced to England in the year 1216, in a siege.