What did attackers do when tunneling under a medieval castle's walls?

Answer 1

When attackers were tunneling under the walls of a medieval castle, they had to use a variety of techniques to penetrate the defense. The most common way of accomplishing this was to build a mine, or tunnel, under the walls. This was done by digging a long, narrow passage, often by hand, and using wooden supports to keep the tunnel open. The miners would then use the tunnel to reach the base of the walls and plant explosives or set fire to the supports. The explosion would create a breach in the wall, allowing the attackers to enter the castle.

In some cases, attackers would also use siege towers, battering rams, and catapults to break through the walls. Siege towers were large wooden structures which attackers used to reach a height that allowed them to fire arrows and other projectiles over the walls. Battering rams were wooden structures with large metal heads which were used to batter down the castle gates. Catapults were devices which used a large arm to launch projectiles over the walls.

In addition to these methods, attackers would sometimes use subterfuge in order to gain entry to a castle. In some cases, attackers would disguise themselves as merchants or other travelers in order to gain access to the castle gates. In other cases, attackers would bribe castle guards to leave the gates open or allow them access to the castle.

Finally, attackers could also use psychological warfare to weaken the defenders' morale. This could include spreading false rumors that the attackers had magical powers or that the castle was doomed. In some cases, attackers would even resort to bribery or threats of violence in order to coerce the defenders into surrendering.

Answer 2

The people who dug under castle walls were miners, and their work was intended to wreck the walls.

I have read a passage that talked about this in some detail, where miners dug a tunnel under a castle wall, producing a rather large chamber that had exposed the stone of the wall itself. They did not allow the wall to collapse right away because a small break would not produce the breach they wanted. They filled the chamber with the bodies of pigs and bits of cloth, and lit them on fire. The pigs gave off fat, which the cloth wicked and this produced a slow burn lasting days. The stone in the castle walls lost its integrity because if the heat, and the whole wall collapsed into the moat ditch, creating a large breach of the wall, through which the foot soldiers could pass relatively easily.