It just so happened in the history of war that defensive technologies were significantly superior to those associated with offensive weapons. The powerful city walls held back the most powerful enemy armies. It is not surprising that the history of war was replete with sieges, and people used all their ingenuity to create a variety of siege weapons, among which, it should be said, there were very bizarre specimens.
1. Fire pig
King John the Landless is generally considered the worst king in the history of England. His inability to get along with his nobles led them to revolt several times. After one of these uprisings, the nobles forced the king to agree to the Magna Carta, which is still considered the foundation of English civil rights. But John, immediately after agreeing to Magna Carta, changed his mind and declared it invalid. The barons rebelled again.
During the First Baronial War, one of the castles that rebelled against John was in the city of Rochester. The king tried many times to capture the castle through diplomacy, catapults and bribery. He managed to capture the outer courtyard of the castle, but the rebels could not manage to "smoke out" from the central fortress, the keep. So the king decided to seek help from … pigs.
John ordered his military engineers to dig under the wall of the fortress. When the tunnel was ready, he ordered the "forty fattest pigs, which were least good for food" to be placed in the tunnels and set on fire. The fire from the burning fat was so strong that the supporting beams caught fire, after which the tower over the tunnel and part of the wall collapsed. The rebels soon surrendered.
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2. Plague corpses
When the enemy is hiding behind the walls, and the catapults are useless, it often turns into a disaster on the offensive. In the past, army camps did not smell of sanitation, and epidemics could easily devastate an attacker's camp. When the city of Kaffa (now Feodosia) in the Crimea was attacked by the Mongols in 1346, they came up with more effective "shells" compared to ordinary stones, which could be thrown over the walls using catapults.
The Black Death had not yet devastated Europe, but the invading Mongol army brought the disease with it. And the Mongols began to put the corpses of those who died from the disease into catapults and toss them through the walls of Kaffa in the hope that "the terrible stench will kill everyone inside." As a result, the city was flooded with "mountains of the dead", but it was not the smell that was deadly - the rotting corpses brought the plague with them. Kaffa survived the siege, but it is believed that the ships fleeing the city may have helped spread the plague across Europe.
The use of biological weapons was also considered by those under siege. In the 17th century, when the siege of Candia (Crete) dragged on for 21 years, the inhabitants of the city came up with a plan to make a poisonous liquid in order to infect the army outside. It was essentially a plague virus taken from the spleen and ulcers of the victims of the disease. As far as we know, this plan was never implemented into reality.
3. Heat rays
When the Romans tried to capture the Greek city of Syracuse, they faced not only fierce resistance from the inhabitants, but also the genius of Archimedes. It is said that the mathematician and inventor created a weapon that could, from a distance, set fire to ships attacking the harbor of Syracuse. Using mirrors or polished shields, Archimedes directed the concentrated light of the Sun onto the ships.
It was assumed that the heat set fire to the resinous wood of the hulls of the ships and caused a fire. Some have argued that the story is contrived, but several attempts to recreate a similar heat ray have shown that in this way it is possible to set fire to ships. Even if Archimedes had not burned the Roman fleet, in any case such huge "sunbeams" would distract and blind the sailors on board.
4. Burning cats
Franz Helm was a master artilleryman in 17th century Germany, and he wrote an entire book on siege weapons. In one text, he described how you can use a cat to destroy your enemy. You need to make a bag of gunpowder and a wick in the likeness of an incendiary arrow. Then you need to catch a cat from a besieged city or castle, tie this bag to the back of the cat, set fire to the fuse and scare the animal. The cat will allegedly rush to the castle or city in which she lived, and most likely will hide in a barn with hay or straw. After the explosion, the barn will catch fire.
Most researchers have seen illustrations of this method, which looked like the cat was moving along the walls with a rocket behind it. Although it is believed that fire or rocket cats were probably never used in battle, there are records of fire pigs. When the Greek city of Megara was besieged, its defenders dispersed the elephants of the besieging army in an unusual way. They coated the pigs with oil and set them on fire, and then released them from the city.
5. Hot sand
In any film about a medieval siege, there is a scene where defenders pour boiling water or oil over the heads of invaders climbing the walls. But if water or oil was too valuable due to lack of food, other hot things could be thrown from the walls. During the siege of Caen in 1346, Sir Edward Springhouse was knocked down a staircase and the defenders threw a bunch of burning hay at him, causing the knight to burn in his armor. Other people under siege were even more creative.
When Alexander the Great attacked the city of Tire, his people were faced with something worse than boiling oil. The defenders of the city took fine sand and heated it, after which they began to pour from the walls at the attackers. Fine sand penetrated through the smallest holes into any armor and burned people. The warriors who tore off their armor were shot from the walls by archers. Sand could also be carried by the wind onto enemy ships and set fire to their sails.
6. Greek fire
Greek fire has been a weapon that has inspired fear for hundreds of years. It was a liquid that flashed on contact with water and burned everything it touched. With pots of Greek fire, it was possible to shoot from catapults at enemy ships or the besieging army, spraying a combustible substance over a large area. No one knows the exact recipe for Greek fire, but it is believed to contain corrosive chemicals, tar and tar.
The only ways to put out the Greek fire were sand, salt, or urine. In addition to being used in the defense of cities, there was also a hand-held firearm called the cheirosyphon that could be used in attacks on a city. The siphon was installed on the siege tower, which was brought up to the city wall, after which the device spewed a stream of burning Greek fire at the defenders and buildings inside the city.
7. Toilet on the fortress wall
Most people take the toilet for granted. However, in the Middle Ages, a castle toilet was often just a hole in the floor through which "waste" fell down. While one might think that feces were thrown at the besiegers, toilets could be a way for the enemy to get inside the castle. Château Gaillard was built by Richard the Lionheart and was supposed to be impregnable. But it was captured less than ten years after its construction.
The French king Philip II captured the outer parts of the castle, but was unable to take the inner fortress. One of his men offered to climb through the toilet. The soldier made his way through a narrow feces tube that led to the toilet, opened a window in the castle chapel, and allowed French soldiers to take the impregnable Château Gaillard.
8. Exploding mill wheel
In 1552, Ottoman troops laid siege to the Eger Fortress in Hungary. The castle was in a good defensive position as it was built on a hill, giving the castle's guns an advantage over the enemies below. However, the Ottoman troops significantly outnumbered the defenders (40,000 versus 2,000), and they almost constantly shelled the Eger fortress. The outer walls of the castle began to collapse under fire, and the guns of the defenders could not harm the besiegers, since they did not reach them.
A Hungarian named Gergely Bornemisza developed a weapon that could reach the attackers. He took mill wheels, heavy stones used to crush and grind grain into flour, and filled them with gunpowder. Since the Eger Fortress is located on the top of the hill, these exploding millstones were able to accelerate to tremendous speed as they rolled towards the enemy camp. There they exploded, scattering burning wood and stone fragments among the Ottomans.
9. Riding on the backs
In the XII century, Germany was a real "patchwork" of small principalities within the Holy Roman Empire. These miniature states were constantly at war with each other. In 1140, Conrad III fought with the Duke of Welf and surrounded the city of Weinsberg. The citizens held out for a long time. Conrad III told the residents that if they did not surrender, he would burn the city to the ground and kill everyone inside it. When the townspeople continued to resist, Konrad decided to turn his threat into life.
In the end, due to the famine, the citizens of Weinsberg had to surrender. Konrad ordered everyone to gather in one place for execution. The men of the city announced that they were ready to die, but asked to release their women. As a knight, Konrad allowed the women to leave the city with what they could take with them. When the time came for evacuation, the besieging army was amazed to see the women march out of the city in formation, carrying their husbands with them on their backs.
10. Bee hives
The advantage of walls is that you can hide behind it if the enemy is shooting from something, or you can throw something at the enemy from its height. However, the besieging armies were also not stupid and did their best to avoid something deadly falling on their heads. The attackers either dug tunnels underground or used shields to stay safe.
When the Vikings attacked Chester in the tenth century, they used large wooden shields against the defenders.
The residents of Chester collected all the beer in the city, brought it to a boil in cauldrons, and then poured it on the Vikings. Boiling beer seeped through the wicker shields and scalded the attackers "so that their skin began to fall off in layers." The Vikings responded by covering the shields with animal skins so that the boiling liquid would drain to the sides. But the defenders had another trick. They began to rush at the attackers from the walls in hives with bees. Unable to withstand the furious insects, the Vikings lifted the siege.
