It is stated that some sort of cannon was known to the Moors very early, and that artillery was used in Spain during the second half of the thirteenth century in the defence of fortified places; but this is believed to be merely traditional, and that the piece of ordnance stated to be mentioned in the Archives of Ghent46 as being in possession of that town in 1313, was probably a very rough weapon and highly tentative in character. Without wishing to cast doubt on this statement, occurring in a work published in 1843, we may remark that frequent efforts have since been made to find the passage, but without success.
The earliest firearms were only adapted for throwing fire into fortified places by means of a hollow tube, such as those described by the Princess Anna Comnena in the Alexiad, “tubes fixed to the prows of the Emperor’s galleys for throwing Greek fire,” and cannon discharging missiles by the agency of detonating gunpowder were probably not invented before the fourteenth century. All guns made in this century were of the crudest description, fastened on to blocks of wood, and were of wrought iron, loaded at the breech, and used principally in sieges.
There is frequent mention of firearms in German and Italian “chronicles” late in the first half of the fourteenth century, but these references are invariably characterised by extreme vagueness. Froissart frequently alludes to cannon, and says that these weapons were used by the besieged at Cambray in 1339;47 his remarks concerning them are quite casual, and convey the impression that he attached very little importance to them. A French MS. of about 1338, in the Republican Library at Paris, mentions ordnance. This occurs in an account of the war treasurers, “To Henri de Vaumechon for buying powder and other necessaries for cannon;” and a year later reference is made to cannon in the Archives of Bruges, “niewen enginen di men heet ribaude.” The statement of Villani, so often repeated, that artillery was in operation at the battle of Creçy, in 1346, is open to very considerable question, as it is tolerably certain that there were no field-pieces so early, or indeed any cannon whatever that could be moved about to any useful purpose in a battle. Froissart makes no mention of any used in campaigning; but he refers to a bombard at the siege of Oudenarde, “the noise of its discharge could be heard five leagues away,” and he also states that bombards and cannon were in operation at the siege of Quesnoy in 1340—“Those of Quesnoy let them hear their cannon,” when huge bolts were used as missiles; and that artillery was in use at the siege of Vannes, both by the besieged and the attacking English.48 What gave rise to the tradition, if it be one, is probably the fact that Edward III. had established an ordnance factory, for siege guns, two years before the battle. Artillery of this date was quite unsuitable for field operations, and was only employed with other engines, as these examples show, in the reduction of fortified places. Demmin gives a drawing of a breech-loading cannon, open at both ends, strengthened by iron coils, which he states came from the field of Creçy, but we know not on what authority. This weapon was of forged iron, like all the earlier ordnance. Grose, in his History of the English Army,49 cites a MS., which has already been referred to in these pages, giving the force constituting the English army in Normandy and before Calais, in the twentieth year of the reign of Edward III., in which items appear for payments to gunners and artillerymen; but it would seem that their duty consisted in serving siege guns before Calais. Still, why should there be mention of what would appear to be two classes of gunners?
There was a gun foundry in France in 1346, Germany in 1378, in Switzerland in 1371. The first mention of any guns cast in England was, we believe, in 1521, when, according to Stone, brass cannon were first “cast” there; the founder’s name was Hugget, of Uckfield, in Sussex, and there are some specimens of about this date at Woolwich. Early cannon were fired by a live coal; later, by a slow match. There is nothing to indicate the date of the wooden cannon strengthened with iron coils, brought from Cochin China, and now in the Musée des Invalides at Paris. There is a mortar in the arsenal at Vienna, made in several layers of coiled hempen rope, with an outside covering of leather, which is said to have been captured from the Turks. There are also mortars made of paper, covered with leather, in the arsenal at Malta, but without any reliable record concerning their origin—doubtless they also came from the East. In Johnes’s version of Froissart, vol. ii., p. 252, is an account of a sea-fight between the English and Spanish fleets off Calais, King Edward commanding in person. It is there stated that the Spanish ships were amply provided with artillery, and a later passage specially mentions “cannon,”—this was probably the year after the battle of Creçy;50 but in 1340 these weapons are referred to in connection with the naval battle of Sluys.
In 1372 some of the French ships undoubtedly carried ordnance at the battle of Rhodes; and the Venetians used bombards a few years later at the battle before Chioggia, when some of the guns burst on the first discharge; one of these weapons, which is made of leather, is still preserved at the Vienna arsenal. Leathern cannon were also used at the siege of Hohensalzburg in 1525, and by Gustavus Adolphus in 1631. We may take it that some time before this both artillery and hand-guns were regularly used in battle, but side by side with catapultæ and other engines of war, thus clearly showing that they were at this time largely experimental. They were still but sparingly found at sea in the middle of the fifteenth century, when an English war vessel sometimes carried only one gun, and the largest ships never more than eight; and each piece of ordnance was then only provided with thirty rounds of ammunition for a month’s cruise. After this time, however, the progress was rapid, and some of the Mediterranean galleys of late in the sixteenth century were armed with as many as two hundred guns. In 1377, Thomas Norbury was directed by King Richard II. to provide “two great and two less engines called cannon,” to be sent to the castle of Bristol. The first reliable mention of field guns is on the occasion of a battle between the forces of Bruges and Ghent in 1382.
The first piece of ordnance was probably a mortar, the earliest form of which was a hollow tube, like an inverted cone, the butt-end being blocked with wood—they were short pieces of large bore.
The earliest artillery was breech-loading and called bombards, and some of these, towards the end of the century (the fourteenth), were capable of throwing two hundredweight shot, describing a parabolic curve of a radius of only three hundred yards, showing that the powder must have been very weak. In 1388, a stone shot, weighing 195 pounds, was discharged from a bombard called the “Trevisan.”51 Drawings of these engines may be seen in MSS. 851 and 852 in the Nat. Lib., Paris. One is on a flat wooden stand, the other on a low platform with small solid wheels. Fig. 50 exhibits one of these weapons. These guns, at first without trunnions, were made of bars of wrought iron, in overlapping coils or sections, welded together on a mandrel, and then hooped—in fact, similar in principle to the “Armstrong” gun. There is a breech-block in which the charge was previously laid, and fitted into the body of the piece by means of a wedge, but no apparent arrangement for sustaining the recoil. The Scottish cannon, “Mons Meg,” is forged in this fashion, and a rent near the breech is instructive in laying bare the system of construction. It is of fifteenth century date, and is said to have been wrought at Mons in Flanders, but there is no evidence of this being the case—indeed, it was probably made in Scotland about the middle of the century. The calibre is 20 inches, and length 13 feet 6 inches. The projectiles used were stone shot, weighing 330 lb. The powder-chamber is less in diameter than the barrel.
Culverins were long pieces, whose projectiles were usually of lead.
Bronze bombards were made by Aran of Augsburg as early as 1378; but it was considerably later before these pieces began to be cast in iron. A very early iron specimen may be seen in the Rotunda collection at Woolwich.
Breech-loading cannon were pieces of small calibre, and were followed by those constructed on the movable chamber system, and after that by muzzle-loaders. There is an interesting piece preserved at the Artillery Museum, St. Petersburg, dating from the end of the fourteenth or beginning of the fifteenth century; it is strengthened with coils: also some good fifteenth century specimens. To judge from the quantity of old arms of all sorts found in Belgium, that country must have been as much the cockpit of Europe during the middle ages as it was in much more recent times. At the Porte de Hal Museum at Brussels are pieces of artillery of the fifteenth century, including some very early examples of considerable interest, and among these is a breech-loading cannon, mounted on a carriage with wooden wheels which are encircled by studded iron hoops. The weapon is of wrought iron, clasped round with thick iron coils—length, 0.74. There is another of similar construction and date—calibre, 0.135; length, 0.77. The carriages have been reconstructed. A bombardelle, the calibre of which is 0.13, and length, 1.30.
The muzzle-loading crapeaudeau of the first half of the fifteenth century is a small iron tube, mounted in a thick piece of wood, which stands on a small square block, with side handles for transportation—calibre, 32 mm.; it is a model executed from an old MS. A small culverin, the progenitor of the early petronel and later blunderbuss—length with mount, 1.80; barrel, 1.15; calibre, 25 mm. A breech-loading culverin of the first half of the fifteenth century—calibre, 0.065; length, 1.97. This weapon was found at Luxemburg during the demolition of part of the ramparts; it has a ring for hoisting.
There is a serpentin forged on the “Mons Meg” principle, the carriage of which is constructed from an ancient MS. (Fig. 50). A ship falconet (Fig. 50), early sixteenth century, breech-loader; turning on a pivot—calibre, 0.035; length, 1.31. The collection of early ordnance at the Königl. Zeughaus at Berlin contains some interesting specimens. Among them is an example of the short early bombard, dating from the close of the fourteenth century; and a long serpent cannon, shooting a projectile of two and a half pounds weight, of the year 1419 (these two weapons have been constructed after contemporary drawings); two cannon, eighty-pounders; a seven-pounder bombard used by Charles the Bold, and taken by the Swiss at the battle of Nancy. There are also many others similar in character to specimens described in these pages. An interesting series of drawings of late fifteenth century artillery exists in the ordnance books of the Emperor Maximilian I., where you have examples of the bombard, serpentin, snakes, falconets, mortar, and orgue. The lighter guns are mounted on rude carriages, with heavy wooden wheels encircled with iron-hooping.
The elbow bombard, used in Italy early in the fifteenth century, was a tube fixed at right angles on to a carriage—the angle was capable of manipulation by a prop, and the breech-block is inserted in the side.
The orgue, the prototype of the modern mitrailleuse, was invented early in the fifteenth century—examples are mentioned with as many as thirty and forty barrels, and even more. There is an early specimen in the museum at Sigmaringen; and one dating from the beginning of the sixteenth century, with forty barrels, in the Imperial collection at Vienna. Another with five barrels, dating from about the end of the fifteenth century, and one a century later with sixty-four barrels; both in the collection of the Königl. Zeughaus at Berlin. A breech-loading gun of the fifteenth century may be seen in Fig. 50.
The connecting link between artillery and hand-guns has been mentioned in an example at the Porte de Hal Museum, Brussels, and there are many other specimens there, called bâton à feu. Among them is a harquebus-mitrailleuse; this weapon, which is only twenty-five inches long, has nine barrels, moves on a pivot, and is fired by a wheel-lock.
The transport of the heavy and cumbrous guns of the fourteenth century was found to be attended with so much difficulty and expense that lighter cannon were introduced in the century following for field use, and rude carriages on wheels drawn by oxen were added. The bombard thus mounted was called “cerbotana ambulatoria.” Gun carriages were vastly improved during the reign of Henry VIII., when horses were employed to draw them. Means of sighting and convenience for trajectory had to be thought of, and trunnions were invented towards the middle of the fifteenth century. There was another contrivance for raising and depressing by means of a long thin prolongation, a sort of tail in fact, attached to the piece behind, and a fork was sometimes used for holding up the breech. There is a specimen with this adjustment at the Musée d’Artillerie at Paris, with an inscription bearing the date 1490. Projectiles of iron did not become common until a little later, but there was nothing specially new in a metal projectile, for such had long been used for early war engines, throwing balls both cold and hot.
The English army before Orleans in 1428 had a train of fifteen breech-loading mortars. Valturio, an Italian, writing in 1472 describes the engines of war then in use, including cannon.
Specimens of ancient ordnance are not very numerous in England. There is a very interesting wrought-iron bombard in the collection at the Rotunda, Woolwich, dating from the commencement of the fifteenth century, or possibly somewhat earlier. It is lined with cast-iron,52 has a calibre of 15.1 inches; interior diameter of chamber, 14 inches; capacity of chamber, about 3.5 lb.; length of chase, 34 inches; present weight, 6 cwts. Also a wrought-iron cannon of about the same date—length, 24 inches; original calibre about 2 inches, without trunnions or cascabel, but provided with a couple of rings for transportation.
Double cannon, strengthened with coils, were common at this period, with the breech in the centre, and barrels running in two opposite directions. There are specimens at Woolwich, and at the Porte de Hal Museum, Brussels. There are several wrought-iron pieces at Woolwich, of the reign of Henry VI., and among them a serpent gun 8 feet 6 inches long, without trunnions, but provided with two rings for lifting—calibre, 4.25 inches; weight, about 9 cwts. A wrought-iron breech-loading gun with carriage was recovered from the wreck of the Mary Rose, sunk off Spithead in 1545, which is now at Woolwich; original calibre about 8 inches; the gun is a tube 9 feet 8 inches long, strengthened by a succession of heavy hoops, and is fixed by iron bolts to a beam of wood. The breech-block being removed for loading and charge inserted, the block is replaced and wedged, and the recoil was sustained by an upright piece of wood. There is no arrangement visible for raising or lowering the gun for taking aim. Similar guns may be seen at the Tower.
During the early days of artillery guns were constantly taken and retaken in battle after a first discharge, the process of reloading being so protracted that cavalry, or even infantry, were upon them long before the operation could be completed.
The fourteenth or early fifteenth century bombardier was clad in chain-mail, when stone shot was fired. He ignited his charge with a hot iron, guarding his face with his left hand from the sparks thrown off by the old-fashioned powder.
During the fifteenth century cannon were usually entrusted to the care of foreign mercenaries who were better disciplined than mere feudal or communal levies, and much less liable to panic. John Jedd was appointed Master of Ordnance in England, 1483, and the office was not abolished before 1852. Hand-grenades appear in 1536. Each gun was known by a special name, of which “Mons Meg” is a familiar example. The general estimation of the use of cannon in campaigning was for long discredited by reason of the manifold imperfections of the weapons, the frequency of their capture by the enemy, and the dangers attending their discharge; they were for long employed simultaneously with the more ancient projectile engines, and the latter were preferred by many commanders to the former; but the dawn of the sixteenth century saw such manifest improvements that artillery then began to take the first place among projectile weapons. The petard was an invention of the Flemings in the sixteenth century.
Ordnance of the sixteenth century varies very much in size, cannon throwing a projectile of from thirty to forty pounds; culverins, bastard-culverins, falcons, falconets, and many other varieties discharging balls from sixteen pounds down to a single pound.
Mortars were greatly used in the middle of the sixteenth century, and howitzers for throwing hollow balls a little later.
Gunpowder first became granulated during the second half of the fifteenth century, up to which time the powder was of a fine dust, and divided from the stone projectile by a wooden wad. There were coarse and fine granulations made for charging and priming respectively. That made in the seventeenth century had become much more powerful, and a proportionate amount of metal had to be allowed in the construction of cannon. Mr. John Hewitt quotes the author of Pallas Armata, which states “that a culverin that shot 16 pounds of iron had but a hundred pound of metal allowed for every pound of her shot, and so she weighed then but 1,600 pounds; but now and long before this she weighs 4,300 pounds, and consequently hath the allowance of near 270 pounds of metal for every pound of shot.”
All the gunlocks we are accustomed to associate with hand-guns were used with ordnance; they were fixed to the vent-field by pins passing laterally through it, or by side screws.
The first mention of bombs occurs in 1588.
Artillery had now become an important and independent arm in all campaigning, and it will be seen how numerous cannon had become when it is stated that the train of guns attached to the army of the Emperor Ferdinand in 1556 consisted of fifty-four heavy and one hundred and twenty-seven light pieces of artillery.
Rifled cannon, the principle of which was first applied to hand-arms in Germany, were introduced in this century; examples of which may be seen in the arsenal at Berlin, and in the museums of Nuremberg and the Hague.
Viscount Dillon, P.S.A., writing in Archæologia, vol. li., quotes Lord Herbert of Cherbury, who consulted the records for the compilation of his history of the reign of Henry VIII. Lord Herbert writes that “great brass ordnance, as cannons and culverins, were first cast in England by one John Owen in 1535; and that about 1544 iron pieces and grenades were first cast.” Viscount Dillon remarks “that the facts as to time and place seem to be different, for in September 1516 there occurs a payment of £33 6s. 8d. to John Rutter of London, for “hurts and damages by him sustained in a tenement to him belonging wherein the king’s great gun called the ‘Basiliscus’ was cast, and for rent.” In 1532 Carlo Capello, the Venetian, writes that Henry “visited the Tower daily to hasten the works then going on there, and was founding cannon and heavy gunpowder made.” This was in anticipation of the Scottish war.
A valuable account of the guns in the Tower, numbering 64 of brass and 351 of iron, of which follow some abridged extracts, may be seen in some notes by Viscount Dillon, appearing in Archæologia, vol. li., pp. 223–225. He states “that there are two bronze guns, octagonal externally, with bores 2½ and 2¾ inches, corresponding in form with types of 1500–1530, presumably of Venetian make. The ‘Brode Fawcon, shooting iij shotte,’ is rectangular externally, has three bores side by side, and the three spaces for placing the three chambers, as in early breech-loading cannon. The ‘French gonnes of Brasse’ may have been part of the spoils of Boulogne in 1554, or else the work of the same Peter Bawde who cast brass guns for King Henry at Houndsditch as early as 1525.” His lordship is of opinion that the seventeen “Scottishe gonnes of Brasse” would include some of the pieces taken at Flodden, which, according to Hall, consisted of “5 great curtalls, 2 great culverynges, 4 sacres (hawks), and 5 serpentynes, etc.” Viscount Dillon mentions in his notes that the Scotch made cannon in 1460, and that the iron guns in the Tower comprise eleven of the numerous varieties in use in Henry VIII.’s time, and he gives the names of makers of that period, both English and foreign. These notes, of which this is but a very imperfect outline, should be read in extenso by all specially interested in the subject.