Editing Trebuchet (section)

====Function====
[[File:Siege of Antioch, France, Lyon, Municipal Library, Ms 828 f. 033.jpg|thumb|Counterweight trebuchet, c. 1280]]
[[File:Juda-makabejsky-utok-na-akru-alpska-bible.jpg|thumb|Counterweight trebuchet, 1430]]
While some historians have described the counterweight trebuchet as a type of medieval super weapon, other historians have urged caution in overemphasizing its destructive capability. On the side of the counterweight engine as a medieval military revolution, historians such as Sydney Toy, Paul Chevedden, and Hugh Kennedy consider its power to have caused significant changes in medieval warfare. This line of thought suggests that rams were abandoned due to the effectiveness of the counterweight trebuchet, which was capable of reducing "any fortress to rubble".{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=324}} Accordingly, traditional fortifications became obsolete and had to be improved with new architectural structures to support defensive counterweight trebuchets. In southern [[France]] during the [[Albigensian Crusade]], sieges were a last resort and negotiations for surrender were common. In these instances, trebuchets were used to threaten or bombard enemy fortifications and ensure victory.<ref name=":3">{{Cite journal |last=Marvin |first=Laurence W. |date=2001 |title=War in the South: A First Look at Siege Warfare in the Albigensian Crusade, 1209–1218 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/26013906 |journal=War in History |volume=8 |issue=4 |pages=373–395 |jstor=26013906 |issn=0968-3445}}</ref> On the side of caution, historians such as John France, Christopher Marshall, and Michael Fulton emphasize the still considerable difficulty of reducing fortifications with siege artillery. Examples of the failure of siege artillery include the lack of evidence that artillery ever threatened the defenses of [[Kerak Castle]] between 1170 and 1188.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=326}} Marshall maintains that "the methods of attack and defence remained largely the same through the thirteenth century as they had been during the twelfth."{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=327}} Reservations on the counterweight trebuchet's destructive capability were expressed by [[Viollet-le-Duc]], who "asserted that even counterweight-powered artillery could do little more than destroy crenellations, clear defenders from parapets and target the machines of the besieged."{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=328}}

In spite of the evidence regarding increasingly powerful counterweight trebuchets during the 13th century, "it remains an important consideration that not one of these appears to have effected a breach that directly led to the fall of a stronghold."{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=347}} In 1220, [[Al-Mu'azzam Isa]] laid siege to [[Château Pèlerin|Atlit]] with a ''trabuculus'', three ''petrariae'', and four ''mangonelli'' but could not penetrate past the outer wall, which was soft but thick.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=218}} As late as the [[Siege of Acre (1291)]], where the [[Mamluk Sultanate]] fielded 72 or 92 trebuchets, including 14 or 15 counterweight trebuchets and the remaining traction types, they were never able to fulfill a breaching role.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=299}} The Mamluks entered the city by sapping the northeast corner of the outer wall.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=298}} Though stone projectiles of substantial size (~{{convert|66|kg|lb}}) have been found at Acre, located near the site of the siege and likely used by the Mamluks, surviving walls of a 13th-century Montmusard tower are no more than one meter thick.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=297-300}} There is no indication that the thickness of fortress walls increased exponentially rather than a modest increase of {{convert|0.5–1|m|abbr=on}} between the 12th and 13th century.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=334-335}} The [[Templar of Tyre]] described the faster firing traction trebuchets as more dangerous to the defenders than the counterweight ones.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=293-295}} The Song dynasty described countermeasures against counterweight trebuchets that prevented them from damaging towers and houses: "an extraordinary method was invented of neutralising the effects of the enemy's trebuchets. Ropes of rice straw four inches thick and thirty-four feet long were joined together twenty at a time, draped on to the buildings from top to bottom, and covered with [wet] clay. Then neither the incendiary arrows, nor bombs [''huo pao''] from trebuchets, nor even stones of a hundred ''jun'' caused any damage to the towers and houses."{{sfn|Needham|1994|p=225}}

The counterweight trebuchet did not completely replace the traction trebuchet. Despite its greater range, counterweight trebuchets had to be constructed close to the site of the siege unlike traction trebuchets, which were smaller, lighter, cheaper, and easier to take apart and put back together again where necessary.{{sfn|Turnbull|2001|p=33}} The superiority of the counterweight trebuchet was not clear cut. Of this, the [[Hongwu Emperor]] stated in 1388: "The old type of trebuchet was really more convenient. If you have a hundred of those machines, then when you are ready to march, each wooden pole can be carried by only four men. Then when you reach your destination, you encircle the city, set them up, and start shooting!"{{sfn|Needham|1994|p=229}} The traction trebuchet continued to serve as an anti-personnel weapon. The Norwegian text of 1240, ''Speculum regale'', explicitly states this division of functions. Traction trebuchets were to be used for hitting people in undefended areas.{{sfn|Purton|2009|p=386}} At the Siege of Acre (1291), both traction and counterweight trebuchets were used. The traction trebuchets provided cover fire while the counterweight trebuchets destroyed the city's fortifications.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=295}} The counterweight-trebuchet could also be used for cover fire and as an anti-personnel weapon. [[James I of Aragon|King James I]] of Aragon employed this as a defensive tactic in many fortified structures and towns which proved effective.<ref name=":4" /> Trebuchets could cause mass casualties due to the destruction of structures. During an assault on Muntcada by King James I, a trebuchet was used to target a tower, destroying the structure and causing the consequential deaths of civilians and livestock.<ref name=":5" /> But typically the counterweight trebuchet was used against battlements such as parapets, other defensive structures, and the lower section of walls due to its greater accuracy and longer range, which was how it was employed by the [[Kingdom of Aragon]].<ref name=":4">{{Cite journal |last=Humphries |first=Paul Douglas |date=1985 |title="Of Arms and Men": Siege and Battle Tactics in the Catalan Grand Chronicles (1208-1387) |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1987537 |journal=Military Affairs |volume=49 |issue=4 |pages=173–178 |doi=10.2307/1987537 |jstor=1987537 |issn=0026-3931}}</ref>{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=404}}

{{blockquote|Rather than replace traction trebuchets, counterweight trebuchets supplemented them in a different role. Their slower shooting rate and greater mass made them more difficult to reposition, or even yaw, leaving few incentives to employ a small counterweight engine rather than a comparable traction type. Although less accurate, traction trebuchets might be expected to achieve the same result, albeit with more shots, in a similar amount of time. Accordingly, it was only profitable to employ counterweight trebuchets if they were capable of harnessing noticeably more energy, allowing them to throw significantly larger stones or similarly sized stones greater distances.{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=47}}|Michael S. Fulton}}

There is some evidence that the counterweight trebuchet could be transported. Armies employed a magister tormentorum ('master of trebuchets') for the reconstruction of trebuchets after they were deconstructed for transportation to their destination, whether on carts or by ship.<ref name=":5">{{Cite journal |last=Williams |first=Gareth |date=2013 |title=By hook or by crook: Siege warfare in the fourteenth century |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/48579015 |journal=Medieval Warfare |volume=3 |issue=1 |pages=13–17 |jstor=48579015 |issn=2211-5129}}</ref> They could also be equipped with their own wheels, as shown in two 17th- and 18th-century Chinese illustrations, which are also the only Chinese depictions of counterweight trebuchets on land. According to Liang Jieming, the "illustration shows&nbsp;... its throwing arm disassembled, its counterweight locked with supporting braces, and prepped for transport and not in battle deployment."{{sfn|Liang|2006}} However, according to Joseph Needham, the large tank in the middle was the counterweight, while the bulb at the end of the arm was for adjusting between fixed and swinging counterweights. Both Liang and Needham note that the illustrations are poorly drawn and confusing, leading to mislabeling.{{sfn|Needham|1986|p=223}}

The counterweight and traction trebuchets were phased out around the mid-15th century in favor of gunpowder weapons.{{sfn|Turnbull|2001|p=36}}{{sfn|Purton|2010|p=269}}
<gallery widths="170" heights="180" class="center">
File:CrusadersThrowingHeadsOfMuslimsOverRamparts.jpg|Counterweight trebuchets at the [[siege of Nicaea]] (1097), c. 1270{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=422}}
File:Siege de Nicée (1097).jpg|Counterweight trebuchet at the siege of Nicaea (1097), 1337{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=422}}
File:Mahmud ibn Sebuktegin attacks the rebel fortress (Arg) of Zarang in Sijistan in 1003 AD. From the illuminated manuscript of Rashid ad-Din's Jami al-Tawarikh, written in about 1307. Edinburgh University Library.jpg|[[Mahmud of Ghazni]] attacks the rebel fortress (Arg) of [[Zaranj]] in [[Sijistan]] ([[Nimruz province]]) in 1003 AD, from the ''[[Jami' al-tawarikh]]'', c. 1306–18{{sfn|Fulton|2018|p=425}}{{sfn|Needham|1994|p=236}}
File:Al-Anīq fī al-manājanīq.png|Fortress with trebuchet, from [[Yusuf ibn Urunbugha al-Zaradkash]]'s ''Kitāb anīq fī al-manājanīq''
File:Ms.Thott.290.2º 016v.jpg|15th-century depiction of a counterweight trebuchet
File:Vier Bücher der Rytterschafft p33.tif|16th-century depiction of a counterweight trebuchet
File:Counterweight trebuchet 1726.jpg|Possibly a counterweight trebuchet (however text says cannon) from the Chinese encyclopedia ''[[Gujin Tushu Jicheng]]'', 1726
File:Imperial Encyclopaedia - Military Administration - pic062 - 樓船圖.png|Early 18th-century depiction of a Chinese ship armed with three counterweight trebuchets{{sfn|Needham|1994|p=227}}
</gallery>