Medieval castle SIEGES in depth

A detailed video about castle sieges in the medieval period.

[AeneasGemini]

John didn't 'become' a Vassal, all the English Kings post Norman conquest were automatically French vassals and this led to a little series of conflicts called the 100 years war. John really gets a bad rap, he wasn't a good king by any measure, but he wasn't as bad as he's made out to be. Mostly he had to deal with the costly adventures of Richard the Lionheart and people didn't want to blame their beloved Richard for his pointless wars so they heaped it onto John

[Voxcast]

A great piece of sage wisdom, “one of the most important resources was food and resources”

[oddtail_tiger]

One correction: quicklime is not a type of acid. It's literally the opposite - it's alkaline.

What you probably meant is that it's highly corrosive.

[kirknay]

My favorite example of sapping is the Siege of Vienna, where it literally turned into a battle of the defenders of Vienna actually having a battle under the walls, seeking out sapper tunnels and fighting the fighters digging them, collapsing the tunnels when the attackers retreated. It's almost like submarine warfare, but with explosive payloads crippling defenses if the defenders fail.

[pekkamakela]

A few extra points:

Trebuchets were not easy to build. It was a subject that recuired specialists. According to the Livonian Chronicle of Henry, when pagans were besieging one of the crusader castles, pagans tried to build a trebuchet, but the first shot went straight up and crashed the machine. During the first crusade crusaders were forced to employ armenian siege engineers for the job.

Traction trebuchets were often very large. The weapon shown in the video was very small. Larger ones required over hundred men to shoot.

[papapok]

Siege: an extensive time period of two armies glaring at each other in an epic contest of endurance, while simultaniously dying from hunger and disease.

[MrGeorgeFlorcus]

Today I learned that the 3 worst things about war are:
1. Crappy food
2. Dysentery
3. French soldiers breaking into your house to steal you silver cross

[napamodesto]

Machicolations are so good they put it on a sword and called it a sword breaker.

[kacperwoch]

How was the largest castle in the world taken? It was bought.
After the battle of Grunwald (Tannenberg) in 1410 the defeated Teutonic Knights managed to retreat to their capital Marienburg and reinforce it just on time. The siege lasted 3 months but it failed. A few years later during another war, the castle's crew wasn't getting their payments from the Knights, so they parleyed with Polish king and just surrendered the fortress for money.

[DaglasVegas]

3:45 boiling oil was used in the defense of the fortified town of Yodfat in 1st-century Holy land...which 43 miles from where i live.
It's not medieval, not a castle, and not European, but it is a historically recorded case of boiling oil used to defend a fortification.

[nantha]

13:30 - Did they forget to skill on inventory? Mount and Blade players can relate... Great video! So much information, I'll probably watch it some more times to remember all of it.

[DaveOpoien]

"the war in france that one time"
About 817, 000, 000 results (1.41 seconds)

[barnabyjones]

I was in the library.
I forgot this fact.
I joined in with "MACHICOLATIONS!"
I am no longer in the library.

[notanimportantchannel]

Me: *pleasantly watching video*
Shad: *shows picture of the mother of all machiculations*
Me: *desperately scrambles to lower volume*
Shad: *rips apart space and time breaking through headphones*

[Ghastly_Grinner]

Shad : All castles have one main vulnerability
Me: Canon balls
Shad: ...Starving them out

[tando]

Great video. About Sapping, the fire is just to burn away the support timbers of the tunnel. If you imagine what is holding up the wall it goes like this:
1. Wall is held up by dirt and rock
2. Sappers carefully remove the dirt and rock and replace it with tunnel support timbers
3. Wall is now partially supported by tunnel timbers
4. Timbers are set alight, causing them to fail.
5. The wall that was supported by the timbers gives way as they fail, causing a local collapse
6. The local failure propagates throughout the wall, causing secondary failing.
7. A breach is made.

The takeaway, its not the fire that hurts the wall, its the loss of structural support from the burnt away beams.

[thetheory]

I think we passed over one thing: A castle is f*cking valuable! Why would you level it unless you absolutely HAVE to?

[elcarto]

The Blackfish - "I have enough supplies to last two years. Do you have two years, Kingslayer?"

[michielvoetberg]

I think this deserves a part 2. or even 3

There is so much more to tell about sieges. Stories of specific castles, epic last stands, lucky easy take-overs, rediculously stupid game or movie sieges, what kind of weapons are best used to defend or attack a castle.

This is what Shad does best

[gabriellunde]

On the topic of bombardment: during the war of Breton succession Count Charles of Blois employed 9 trebuchets to besiege La Roche-Derrien. But unfortunately for him the civilians liked the English occupants because of trade and they disliked him because of the bombardment of the town so it was a sally of commoners as well as the less than 100 English defenders that won the battle in the end.