Castles on the Web
This extensive glossary of castle terms -- around 200 different words are described -- will provide any additional vocabulary needed for those detailed discussions about fortifications. The descriptions are brief and occasionally lack coherence, but this is otherwise a useful resource.
Ancient Roman Artillery
This is an excellent description of ancient artillery, complete with diagrams and explanations of the workings of various engines as well as archaeological evidence and their depiction in Roman art.
Medieval siege
An interactive exploration of the medieval siege presented by PBS as part of their Lost Empires series. A slide show takes you through a successful attempt to build a working trebuchet, there is a description of castle life and a brief explanation of the methods of siege warfare. If you have a shockwave plugin you can even build your own 'virtual trebuchet' and destroy a castle.
Siege and Siege Engines 1100 - 1215 AD
Conquest Online's description of siege warfare in early medieval England. Includes photographs and descriptions (including statistics) of two working, reproduction, counterweight engines: a perrier and a trebuchet.
The Grey Company: Trebuchet Page
An intensive site packed with illustrations and details about "leverage artillery". Covers historical fact and present day reconstruction.
Siege of Orleans and the Loire Valley Campaign 1428 - 1429
A very detailed and well researched description of the siege of Orleans, complete with maps and plans of relief -- not quite as depicted in the Luc Besson film Joan of Arc: The Messenger. Contemporary illustrations and modern photographs add to the atmosphere as you read about the siege, its relief and the associated campaign in the Loire Valley.
The Siege of Belgrade - 1456
It was only three years since the conquest of Constantinople and the fall of the fortress city of Belgrade could leave the European heartland open to the Ottoman Turks. Fortunately for Europe the Hungarian peasants took up arms...
The Geometry of War
This special exhibition at the Museum of the History of Science, Oxford, charts the developments in the mathematical arts used in warfare. During the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries single metal casting had improved the quality of heavy ordnance and geometry was needed to predict and calculate range.
Cannons and Gunpowder
A detailed and academic essay on the origins and uses of gunpowder and cannon. Early history is rather brief and easily dismissed and seems to ignore or refute documentary evidence such as the Milemete manuscript presented to Edward III.
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