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November 11, 2026
November 11, 2026
How long did medieval sieges last: Albrecht Dürer’s woodcut of an army encamped around a besieged fortress, 1527
Warfare

Starving Out a Castle: How Long Could a Siege Last?

Films love a siege that ends in a single bloody night of ladders and burning arrows. Real medieval commanders often preferred something cheaper and safer: sitting outside, blocking every road and waiting for the people inside to run out of bread. So how long did medieval sieges last? Sometimes a few days, sometimes eleven months and, in one famous Welsh case, on and off for seven years. The answer depended on food, water, disease, the weather and whether anyone was coming to the rescue. Pull up a camp stool. This could take a while.

How long did medieval sieges last: the surrender of Acre to Richard I and Philip II in 1191, after a siege of nearly two years, in a medieval manuscript
Acre surrenders to the kings of England and France in 1191, after almost two years. Nobody in this picture looks as tired as they should. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Why starve a castle at all?

Attacking a strong castle head-on was expensive in every sense. Ladders and siege towers got men killed, mines took weeks, and stone-throwing machines needed skilled engineers and mountains of timber. Starvation needed only one thing: patience. If you could surround a castle or town and stop food from getting in, every day made the defenders weaker without costing you a single soldier in an assault.

That sounds simple, but a blockade was really a race. The besiegers were hungry too. A large army ate an astonishing amount, and it had to be fed from the surrounding countryside or by long supply trains. Disease thrived in crowded, muddy siege camps. That’s why the answer to how long did medieval sieges last so often depended on the attackers’ stomachs as much as the defenders’. The real question in any blockade was brutally simple: who would crack first, the people inside or the people outside? For the full range of other methods, from rams to towers, see medieval siege warfare.

How long did medieval sieges last?

There’s no single answer, and anyone who gives you an average is guessing. Many sieges were short. A small castle with a weak garrison might surrender within days, especially if offered good terms. Others dragged on for months. A few became legends because they lasted so long. These real examples show the range:

  • Calais, 1346–47: about eleven months.
  • Acre, 1189–91: nearly two years.
  • Rouen, 1418–19: almost six months.
  • Harlech, 1461–68: held on and off for about seven years.

What decided the length? Mostly arithmetic: how much food was stored inside, how many mouths had to share it, whether there was a reliable well, and whether supplies could be smuggled in. A castle on the coast or a river could sometimes be fed by boat, which could stretch a siege almost indefinitely.

Calais: how long did medieval sieges last when a king was determined?

After his great victory at Crécy, Edward III of England marched to the port of Calais and settled down outside it on 4 September 1346. The walls were too strong to storm, so he blockaded the town by land and sea. His army grew steadily until, at its height, it numbered around 32,000 men, which Wikipedia notes was the largest English army sent overseas before 1600. That’s a lot of people eating breakfast in a French marsh.

Inside, things grew desperate. On 25 June 1347, the garrison commander wrote to the French king, Philip VI, that their food was exhausted and hinted that they might soon have to eat one another. Philip finally arrived with a relief army in late July, looked at the English defences, failed to negotiate and marched away again. Calais surrendered on 3 August 1347. According to the chronicler Froissart, a group of leading citizens came out expecting to be executed and were spared only after Queen Philippa begged Edward for mercy. It’s a famous scene, later immortalised in Rodin’s sculpture of the Burghers of Calais, but it comes from a storyteller who loved a dramatic moment.

A 15th-century miniature of the English army besieging the walled town of Calais in 1346–47
The English settle in outside Calais. They would be there for most of a year. Image: Wikimedia Commons, public domain.

Rouen: the people in the ditch

The darkest side of starving a city out was what happened to civilians. In 1418 Rouen found itself encircled by Henry V’s army, and the city expelled more than 12,000 of its poorest inhabitants to save food for the defenders. Henry refused to let them through his lines. Trapped between the walls and the English army, they were left in the town ditch with nothing to eat. On Christmas Day he allowed two priests to bring them food, but the respite was brief. Inside the city, people were reduced to eating horses, dogs, cats and mice. Rouen surrendered on 19 January 1419. It’s a story also told in how gunpowder ended the age of castles, because even an army with cannon chose hunger as its main weapon.

Historians often call such expelled civilians “useless mouths”, in French bouches inutiles. It’s a grim phrase for a grim calculation: in a blockade, anyone who couldn’t fight was simply a drain on the bread supply.

Acre: when the besiegers were besieged

Sometimes the people outside suffered more than those inside. The Crusaders besieged the port of Acre from 28 August 1189 until 12 July 1191, nearly two years. Saladin soon arrived with an army of his own and surrounded the Crusader camp, so the besiegers were themselves besieged. Food ran short, the water was fouled by corpses, and disease swept through the camp, especially in the bitter winter of 1190–91. Plenty of nobles died of sickness rather than in battle. Acre finally fell after the kings of England and France arrived with fresh troops. For the bigger picture, read the Crusades explained.

Harlech: seven years by the sea

The champion of stubbornness is Harlech Castle in north Wales. During the Wars of the Roses, Lancastrian supporters held it against the Yorkist king Edward IV from 1461 until 1468. History of War calls it famous as the longest siege in British history, though it points out that for most of that time the castle faced only intermittent attack rather than a tight, continuous blockade. Harlech’s secret was its position: in those days the sea came right up to the foot of its rock, so supplies could be landed by ship.

Harlech Castle on its rock in north Wales, in a colour photochrom print of about 1890–1900
Harlech Castle around 1890–1900. The sea has since retreated, but in the 1460s ships could unload right below the walls. Image: Library of Congress, public domain.

In 1468 a large royal army under William Herbert finally closed in. After about a month of formal siege, with supplies running short, the garrison surrendered on terms on 14 August 1468. The siege is traditionally credited with inspiring the stirring Welsh song “Men of Harlech”.

The gentleman’s deadline

One of the strangest customs of medieval warfare was the conditional surrender. A garrison could agree to hand over the castle on a fixed date unless a relief army turned up first. It saved everyone from a long, miserable blockade, and it gave the defenders’ lord a fair chance to rescue them.

The most famous example led to a battle that changed history. In 1313–14 the Scots under Edward Bruce besieged Stirling Castle, then held by the English. The two sides agreed that if the castle wasn’t relieved by midsummer, it would be surrendered to the Scots. Edward II of England led a huge army north to beat the deadline and was crushingly defeated at Bannockburn. The castle surrendered soon afterwards.

So, how long did medieval sieges last? As long as the food did, give or take a relief army, a deal or an epidemic. The winner was usually whoever could keep their own people fed and healthy longest. To see what those people ate in normal times, discover what medieval peasants ate.

Frequently asked questions

What was the longest medieval siege?

Harlech’s seven years, from 1461 to 1468, is often called the longest siege in British history. Across Europe and the Mediterranean, some later sieges lasted even longer, but most medieval sieges were measured in weeks or months.

How long did medieval sieges last on average?

There’s no reliable average. Most lasted weeks or a few months, a handful dragged on for a year or more, and some ended in days with a negotiated surrender.

How long could a castle hold out without supplies?

It depended on its stores and its well. A well-stocked castle with few defenders might last many months; a crowded town could be desperate within weeks.

What did starving defenders eat?

Once the grain ran out, they turned to horses, then dogs, cats and even mice, as accounts of Rouen in 1418 describe.

Why didn’t besiegers just attack?

Storming strong walls cost lives and often failed. Waiting was slower but safer, as long as the attackers could feed themselves and avoid disease.

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