Could a Trebuchet REALLY Break a Castle Wall?

Could a trebuchet really break a castle wall? In the summer of 1304, thirty starving Scots in Stirling Castle offered to surrender, and King Edward I said no, because he wanted to test his brand new monster, the Warwolf, on them first. Today we put the trebuchet on trial: two very different machines hiding under one name, the physics in plain words, the people who built working ones in the 21st century, and siege after siege from Kenilworth and Acre to Chateau Gaillard, Rochester and Constantinople. The answer is more interesting than yes or no. Chapters: 0:00 Cold open: Stirling, 1304 1:28 The trial 2:05 Two machines, one name: traction and counterweight 4:45 Mangonel and onager 6:40 The first engineers 7:02 The physics: weight, speed, range, accuracy, rate, the wall 12:18 Exhibit A: Stirling and the Warwolf 13:20 Exhibit B: Kenilworth, 1266 15:13 Exhibit C: the modern builders 17:01 Exhibit D: Acre, 1291 18:47 Xiangyang, 1267-1273 19:22 Exhibit E: Chateau Gaillard, 1203-1204 21:56 Mining 23:18 Rochester, 1215, and the forty pigs 25:11 The castle arms race 25:59 Hunger: Calais, 1346-1347 26:52 Treachery: Antioch and the Krak des Chevaliers 28:05 The unwritten rule of sieges 28:43 Sidebar: what else to throw 29:18 Gunpowder 31:23 The last trebuchet: Tenochtitlan, 1521 31:48 The verdict 33:14 Back to Stirling Sources and further reading: Michael S. Fulton, Artillery in the Era of the Crusades (2018) Paul E. Chevedden, "The Invention of the Counterweight Trebuchet", Dumbarton Oaks Papers 54 (2000) Peter Vemming Hansen, interview and reconstruction notes (Middelaldercentret, Denmark; Warwick Castle trebuchet, 2005) NOVA, Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (PBS) Ammianus Marcellinus, Res Gestae, book 23 (the onager) Michael Prestwich, Edward I Jim Bradbury, The Medieval Siege Kelly DeVries and Robert D. Smith, Medieval Military Technology Jean Froissart, Chronicles Overview articles on Stirling 1304, Kenilworth 1266, Acre 1291, Chateau Gaillard, Rochester 1215 and the trebuchet Stories that survive only as tradition or contested accounts are flagged in the video: whether the Warwolf really broke Stirling's wall, the stones colliding in mid air at Kenilworth, the thunderous first shot at Xiangyang, Richard's butter boast, the burghers of Calais, the forged letter at the Krak, the dead horses at Thun-l'Eveque, the unlocked gate at Constantinople and the Tenochtitlan trebuchet.