EARLY ARTILLERY.
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 Ghent[46] 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.
[Illustration: Fig. 48.--Principle of the Ballista.]
[Illustration: Fig. 49.--Staff and Club Weapons, etc.]
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.
[Illustration: Fig. 50.--Early Artillery.]
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.