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- Hacker News
- "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 quickby NeoByte
- > surviving the siege
It's pretty clear he didn't pull that off...
by happyopossum - Simply not true. See: https://archive.vanityfair.com/article/share/ae8c0c7b-0905-4...
There have been some serious injuries, too:
https://www.oregonlive.com/washingtoncounty/2006/10/child_tv...
by fortran77 - So, is this because Trebuchet are not particularly lethal, or because they were not used much?
- Clearly you guys have never played medieval ii total war!by chermi
- Trebuchets crushed their victims so hard that they were erased from history.by dullcrisp
- They typically weren't trying to hit people with them.by sco1
- the key word is "known"by agos
- 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.
by mapt - People didn't really bother recording cause of death for every casualty on medieval battlefieldsby gyomu
- 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.by clort
- Not the only known trebuchet casualty in history, unfortunately: https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/oct/31/highereduc...by jcalx