Maybe it's from watching too much history channel about medieval weapons, or maybe it's from playing the great medieval war video games from the Total War Series, but I love reading about, and studying, medieval siege weapons.

A trebuchet is the king of all the Medieval siege weapons and they were used to either smash castle walls or to throw projectiles right over them. Trebuchets as most people know them are sometimes also referred to as "counterweight trebuchets" in order to tell them apart from an earlier weapon that has come to be called the "traction trebuchet."

The counter weight trebuchet is the one that most people think of when they imagine a trebuchet (Think "Kingdom of Heaven," if you've seen that movie). While most people think of swords and armor when they think of medieval weapons, siege weapons were a major part of medieval times.

The counterweight trebuchet appeared in both Christian and Muslim lands around the Mediterranean in the 1100s. These massive siege weapons could fling 300 pound projectiles at deadly high speeds into enemy fortifications and bring down entire walls.

The projecticles were usually stones or pots of flaming pitch, but the Mongols introduced biological warfare by slinging the corpses of plague victims over the city walls, and were also known to launch dead bodies, bee hives, or even cows over the walls. Medieval Warfare could be brutual.

Most historians agree that trebuchets were invented in China in about the 4th century BC, came to Europe in the 6th century AD, and did not become obsolete until the 16th century, well after the introduction of gunpowder. Trebuchets were far more accurate than other medieval catapults, and a good trebuchet design could infuse a military family with massive political power, and remain popular as a study subject today, although their use for battle ceased long ago.