stylistic:tone, structural:scholar_edition, linguistic:paraphrasing
Notable sieges

Battering rams had an important effect on the evolution of defensive walls, which were constructed ever more ingeniously in a bid to nullify the effects of siege engines. Historical instances of the usage of battering rams in sieges of major cities include:

There is a popular myth in Gloucester, England that the well known children's rhyme, Humpty Dumpty, is about a battering ram used in the siege of Gloucester in 1643, during the Civil War. However, the story is almost certainly untrue; during the siege, which lasted only one month, no battering rams were used, although many cannons were. The idea seems to have originated in a spoof history essay by Professor David Daube written for The Oxford Magazine in 1956, which was widely believed despite obvious improbabilities (e.g., planning to cross the River Severn by running the ram down a hill at speed, although the river is about 30 m (100 feet) wide at this point).