Warwolf

The Warwolf, also known as the Loup-de-Guerre or Ludgar, is believed to have been the largest trebuchet ever made. It was created in Scotland by order of Edward I of England, during the siege of Stirling Castle in 1304, as part of the Wars of Scottish Independence. A contemporary chronicle refers to it as une engine orrible.

Warwolf at Stirling

When disassembled, the weapon would fill 30 wagons in parts. It reportedly took five master carpenters and forty-nine other labourers at least three months to complete.

The Flores Historiarum claims that the Warwolf sent a single stone through two of the castle's walls in the course of the siege, "like an arrow flying through cloth". Other sources, however, report that the weapon was only finished after the Scots had surrendered. Edward decided to use it anyway, refusing to let anyone enter or leave the castle until it had been tested.

In the original records

Some of the original parchment rolls of the accounts of King Edward survive. Two references to the Warwolf in Latin read:

Another payment refers to a watchman; Reginald the Janitor was paid wages for guarding the Warwolf's beams for forty nights in June and July 1304.

References

External links

• War Wolf at Stirling Castle Historic Environment Scotland
• Secrets of Lost Empires: Medieval Siege (building of and history of trebuchets), from the NOVA website