Siege Engines (Towers and Scaling Ladders)

Timeline

1. c. 1100–1490Castle siege battlefields of Western Europe · Western EuropeMedieval sieges commonly combined wooden siege towers (belfries), scaling ladders, and trebuchets to cover infantry scaling the walls; siege towers could carry archers and assault parties on multiple storeys and were the core engine for attacking vertical ramparts, with technical experience passed down through the Crusades and the Hundred Years' War.
2. 1551Siege battlefields of the Spanish Netherlands and Italy · Southern EuropeFacing the low sloping glacis and crossing fire of bastions, traditional tall siege towers were easily destroyed by gunfire, so besiegers relied more on scaling ladders, mobile mantlets, earth-and-timber approach trenches, and mining charges; in the religious-war sieges of the 1550s, climbing engines were still used to storm secondary defenses and in street fighting, but were already auxiliary compared to artillery-dominated siegecraft.
3. c. 1560–1700Siege battlefields across Eurasia and Africa · AfricaFrom the 17th century onward, parallel trenches, zigzag saps, and systematic artillery bombardment became the mainstream of bastion sieges, and tall siege towers largely disappeared from Europe; but scaling ladders and light climbing engines were still occasionally used in assaults on colonial outposts, attacks on fortress supply lines, and traditional city-defense warfare across Eurasia and Africa, reflecting the global diversity and lagging diffusion of siege technology.