British Castles

by Charles Henry Ashdown

The coup de main method of attack has probably been the same in most ages, and undoubtedly was the chief means resorted to by primitive man. His missile weapons during the Stone, Bronze, and Early Iron Ages were of no use against earth ramparts crowned by thick palisading; sling, stones, arrows, and spears were only efficacious against the bodies of his enemies, and hand-to-hand combat was therefore a necessity. Hence we may imagine a concentration against a presumably weak point, a sudden rush, the plunge into the dry ditch and a rapid scramble up the scarp towards the palisades under a shower of arrows, stones, and other missiles; the mad escalade of the defences surmounting the earthwork and the fierce resistance of the defenders, followed by a successful entry or a disastrous repulse and retreat.

Precisely the same course was pursued in the medieval period when a rapid bridging of the moat by planks and beams would be attempted, scaling ladders would be reared, and, protected by their shields from the rain of missiles, the assailants, covered by their archers' fire of arrows and bolts upon the ramparts, would mount their ladders and attempt to effect a lodgment upon the walls. And, although weapons and conditions have changed, the assault to-day is made upon the self-same methods.

If, instead of the coup de main, a sustained siege is decided upon the knight will order his "gyns" to be brought up to the front, and large and heavy ones to be built upon the spot. From the time when Uzziah "made in Jerusalem engines, invented by cunning men, to be on the towers and upon the bulwarks, to shoot arrows and great stones withal," [1] down to the invention of cannon, the ingenuity of man has been exercised in devising machines for hurling missiles to a distance.

The Greeks, Romans, and other nations of antiquity brought them to perfection, and marvellous results were obtained in ancient sieges; the vivid account by Plutarch of the great engines used at the attack upon Syracuse, B.C. 214-212, reads almost like romance. Caesar frequently mentions this artillery, and especially the portable balistae for throwing arrows and casting stones; they were fitted with axles and wheels and manœuvred like batteries of cannon at the present day. Larger engines were constructed as required like those of the medieval period.

[1] 2 Chron. xxvi. 15.

TANTALLON CASTLE, HADDINGTONSHIRE.

The ancient engines were distinct from those of a later age in depending for their efficacy upon the forces of tension and torsion as compared with that of counterpoise in the middle ages. The art of preparing the sinews of animals so as to preserve their elastic powers was known to the ancients, and great bundles so treated were utilised in different ways in the various engines. Experiments on sinews, ropes of hair, and other materials at the present day have proved that loss of elasticity soon occurs, whereas we learn that such was not the fact in classical times with their special method of preparation. By fixing an endless skein in a suitable frame, stretching it tightly and then twisting the skein in the centre by means of a beam of wood, the necessary torsion was obtained; if a missile were placed upon the beam when drawn back and the beam released, the projectile would be hurled to a distance proportionate to the velocity of the arm and the weight of the missile.

The principle may readily be gleaned from the accompanying diagram which exemplifies the two vertical skeins used in a portable balista for throwing arrows; by being fixed in a suitable frame an action like that of the bow could be obtained. By using immense coils of twisted sinew the nations of antiquity, and especially the Greeks, threw stones weighing 50 lbs. or more to a distance of from 400 to 500 yards, and as a general rule with marvellous accuracy, while lighter missiles are stated to have been hurled to between 700 and 800 yards. These engines received the general name of "catapults," although the Greeks generally referred to them under the term "tormentum," in reference to the twisted sinews, thongs, and hair, of which the skeins were made. Broadly speaking, catapults shot darts, arrows, and the falarica,—a long iron-headed pole; balistas projected stones or similar missiles, though the names are often interchanged by the chroniclers. Some time after the fall of the Roman empire the secret of preparing the sinews was lost.