~18 min video in the link

https://laughingsquid.com/trebuchet-history/

On July 24, 1304 King Edward I of England captured the last stronghold of resistance against English rule in Scotland, the formidable Stirling Castle. But he did not have to storm the castle to make the defenders surrender. He merely had to threaten them with perhaps the most terrifying siege engine in the era…

I built a model trebuchet years ago, the arm perhaps a foot long, which I would demonstrate to some visitors to the lab

20 minutes ago, swansont said:

~18 min video in the link

https://laughingsquid.com/trebuchet-history/

On July 24, 1304 King Edward I of England captured the last stronghold of resistance against English rule in Scotland, the formidable Stirling Castle. But he did not have to storm the castle to make the defenders surrender. He merely had to threaten them with perhaps the most terrifying siege engine in the era…

I built a model trebuchet years ago, the arm perhaps a foot long, which I would demonstrate to some visitors to the lab

Yes the “Hammer of the Scots”. A tough guy. But left rather a mess for his son, who wasn’t up to it.

I always thought trebuchets, and such, siege engines originated in China, and spread westward about 1000 years later
Turns out, it was the torsion, or man-powered, trebuchet that originated in China ( 4th Century BC).
But the counterweight trebuchet originated ( 11th Century ) in the West ( Muslim or European ) and was introduced to China in the 13th Century.

More trebuchet-related science

Shattered skeleton in Scottish castle is first confirmed death from trebuchet

https://www.science.org/content/article/shattered-skeleton-scottish-castle-first-confirmed-death-trebuchet

Accounts of the battle don’t mention any trebuchet casualties. But Buckberry says Skeleton 150’s injuries strongly suggest at least one defender was hit from behind by a flying boulder, launched by War Wolf or one of the other siege engines arrayed outside Stirling Castle’s walls. “It’s a huge amount of energy delivered in milliseconds,” Waltenberger says. “In skeletons from past times you rarely see this.”

Thus 150 is catapulted to fame, thanks to this bare bones description. A rock star, of sorts.

I found this, "The individual is pinned to the ground quite quickly afterwards," quite credible if this was in fact a boulder ~ 100 kg.

Watching the final season of Game of Thrones, it was interesting how they used another projectile device, the ballista. Apparently it was less popular than the trebuchet in medieval times, which makes sense - a springed launcher would probably be more prone to mechanical problems than the elegantly simple counterweight system of the trebuchet. And the trebuchet could hurl more mass, so more useful for knocking down structural elements of a castle. (I suspect the GoT writers selected the ballista because it looked cool, like a giant crossbow, and more suitable for piercing dragons or other moving targets)

7 hours ago, TheVat said:

Watching the final season of Game of Thrones, it was interesting how they used another projectile device, the ballista. Apparently it was less popular than the trebuchet in medieval times, which makes sense - a springed launcher would probably be more prone to mechanical problems than the elegantly simple counterweight system of the trebuchet. And the trebuchet could hurl more mass, so more useful for knocking down structural elements of a castle. (I suspect the GoT writers selected the ballista because it looked cool, like a giant crossbow, and more suitable for piercing dragons or other moving targets)

The number of people needed to run it would be a factor, as well as the firing rate. Also, I imagine boulders to fling are easier to come by than oversize arrows

1 hour ago, swansont said:

The number of people needed to run it would be a factor, as well as the firing rate. Also, I imagine boulders to fling are easier to come by than oversize arrows

Good reasons but there were further considerations, most notably portability and speed of firing/operation.

Note the Ballista could also fire stones.

However the ballista was a much smaller machine with a much shorter range.

So we have the difference in modern terms between a 5inch and a 15inch gun and shell.

Note in the Game of Thrones Trebuchets were also used to hurl Greek Fire (called wildfire in the films) .

In Medieval times hot pitch was more likely to be used. I thought they had lost the formula for Greek Fire.

Included video of a modified trebuchet whose projectile at the release breaks the sound barrier

Popular Science

Man builds supersonic trebuchet in his backyard

The customized siege weapon hurls projectiles at 776 mph.

2 hours ago, swansont said:

Included video of a modified trebuchet whose projectile at the release breaks the sound barrier

Interesting video.

Strange combination of accent, and units.