🌅 The First Confirmed Trebuchet Victim

SOURCE

25th European Paleopathology Association Meeting

WHAT TO KNOW

• Researchers at the University of Bradford in England recently presented what they believe to be the first confirmed victim of the devastating medieval war catapult known as the trebuchet. The team documented 167 fractures across the shattered skeleton of a man who died while defending Stirling Castle in Scotland during the Wars of Scottish Independence more than 700 years ago. The fractures included distinct zigzag patterns similar to those of modern car crash victims and unlike anything the researchers had seen in medieval remains.

WHY IT MATTERS

• After analyzing the fractures and comparing them to other types of trauma, the team believes the man was struck from behind by a large object moving at a high speed that pinned him to the ground and killed him instantly. The researchers argue only one thing can explain such a high-speed, high-force impact during medieval times: projectiles launched by trebuchets. Radiocarbon dating of the bones—one of nine skeletons unearthed at Stirling Castle in 1997—indicates the man died during the Wars of Scottish Independence between 1296 and 1357, suggesting he could have been killed during Edward I’s 1304 siege of the castle, when the English king unveiled the War Wolf, the largest wooden trebuchet ever built.

CONNECT THE DOTS

• At the time of the siege, Stirling Castle was the last remaining stronghold of the Scottish independence movement. Edward, determined to finally pummel the Scots into submission, assembled 13 catapults and trebuchets outside the walls to hurl stones and fire at the castle day and night. The Scots held out for three months before Edward unveiled the War Wolf, prompting Sir William Oliphant, the governor of Stirling Castle, to surrender in an attempt to save the castle and his remaining men. Edward, apparently unmoved, still launched a 300-pound stone at the castle, tearing through its walls and ending the fight for Scottish independence. That “peace” lasted until King Robert the Bruce’s victory over English forces at the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, which paved the way for England’s official recognition of Scottish sovereignty in 1328. However, that peace was also short-lived, and it wasn’t until 1603 that England and Scotland were united under one crown.