OF ARMOUR AND MUNITION.
[1577, Book II., Chapter 12; 1587, Book II., Chapter 16.]
How well or how strongly our country hath been furnished in times past
with armour and artillery it lieth not in me as of myself to make
rehearsal. Yet that it lacketh both in the late time of Queen Mary, not
only the experience of mine elders, but also the talk of certain Spaniards
not yet forgotten, did leave some manifest notice. Upon the first I need
not stand, for few will deny it. For the second, I have heard that when
one of the greatest peers of Spain espied our nakedness in this behalf,
and did solemnly utter in no obscure place that "it should be an easy
matter in short time to conquer England, because it wanted armour," his
words were then not so rashly uttered as they were politically noted. For,
albeit that for the present time their efficacy was dissembled and
semblance made as though he spake but merrily, yet at the very entrance of
this our gracious queen unto the possession of the crown they were so
providently called to remembrance, and such speedy reformation sought of
all hands for the redress of this inconvenience, that our country was
sooner furnished with armour and munition, from divers parts of the main
(beside great plenty that was forged here at home), than our enemies could
get understanding of any such provision to be made. By this policy also
was the no small hope conceived by Spaniards utterly cut off, who, of open
friends being now become our secret enemies, and thereto watching a time
wherein to achieve some heavy exploit against us and our country, did
thereupon change their purposes, whereby England obtained rest, that
otherwise might have been sure of sharp and cruel wars. Thus a Spanish
word uttered by one man at one time overthrew, or at the leastwise
hindered, sundry privy practices of many at another. In times past the
chief force of England consisted in their long bows.[208] But now we have
in manner generally given over that kind of artillery, and for long bows
indeed do practise to shoot compass for our pastime: which kind of
shooting can never yield any smart stroke, nor beat down our enemies, as
our countrymen were wont to do at every time of need. Certes the Frenchmen
and Rutters, deriding our new archery in respect of their corslets, will
not let, in open skirmish, if any leisure serve, to turn up their tails
and cry: "Shoot, English!" and all because our strong shooting is decayed
and laid in bed. But, if some of our Englishmen now lived that served King
Edward the Third in his wars with France, the breech of such a varlet
should have been nailed to his bum with one arrow, and another feathered
in his bowels before he should have turned about to see who shot the
first. But, as our shooting is thus in manner utterly decayed among us one
way, so our countrymen wax skilful in sundry other points, as in shooting
in small pieces, the caliver, the handling of the pike, in the several
uses whereof they are become very expert.
Our armour differeth not from that of other nations, and therefore
consisteth of corslets, almaine rivets, shirts of mail, jacks quilted and
covered over with leather, fustian, or canvas, over thick plates of iron
that are sewed in the same, and of which there is no town or village that
hath not her convenient furniture. The said armour and munition likewise
is kept in one several place of every town, appointed by the consent of
the whole parish, where it is always ready to be had and worn within an
hour's warning. Sometimes also it is occupied when it pleaseth the
magistrate either to view the able men, and take note of the well-keeping
of the same, or finally to see those that are enrolled to exercise each
one his several weapon, at the charge of the townsmen of each parish,
according to his appointment. Certes there is almost no village so poor in
England (be it never so small) that hath not sufficient furniture in a
readiness to set forth three or four soldiers, as one archer, one gunner,
one pike, and a billman at the least. No, there is not so much wanting as
their very liveries and caps, which are least to be accounted of, if any
haste required: so that, if this good order may continue, it shall be
impossible for the sudden enemy to find us unprovided. As for able men for
service, thanked be God! we are not without good store; for, by the
musters taken 1574 and 1575, our number amounted to 1,172,674, and yet
were they not so narrowly taken but that a third part of this like
multitude was left unbilled and uncalled. What store of munition and
armour the queen's majesty had in her storehouses it lieth not in me to
yield account, sith I suppose the same to be infinite. And whereas it was
commonly said after the loss of Calais that England should never recover
the store of ordinance there left and lost, that same is at this time
proved false, sith even some of the same persons do now confess that this
land was never better furnished with these things in any king's days that
reigned since the Conquest.
The names of our greatest ordnance are commonly these: _Brobonet_, whose
weight is two hundred pounds, and it hath one inch and a quarter within
the mouth; _Falconet_, weigheth five hundred pounds, and his wideness is
two inches within the mouth; _Falcon_, hath eight hundred pounds, and two
inches and a half within the mouth; _Minion_, poiseth eleven hundred
pounds, and hath three inches and a quarter within the mouth; _Sacre_,
hath fifteen hundred pounds, and is three inches and a half wide in the
mouth; _Demi-Culverin_, weigheth three thousand pounds, and hath four
inches and a half within the mouth; _Culverin_, hath four thousand pounds,
and five inches and a half within the mouth; _Demi-Cannon_, six thousand
pounds, and six inches and a half within the mouth; _Cannon_, seven
thousand pounds, and seven inches within the mouth; _E. Cannon_, eight
thousand pounds, and seven inches within the mouth; _Basilisk_, nine
thousand pounds, eight inches and three-quarters within the mouth. By
which proportions also it is easy to come by the weight of every shot, how
many scores it doth flee at point-blank, and how much powder is to be had
to the same, and finally how many inches in height each bullet ought to
carry:
---------------------------------------------------------------
The names of the | Weight of | Scores of| Pounds of| Height of
greatest ordnance.| the shot. | carriage.| powder. | bullet.
---------------------------------------------------------------
Robinet | 1 lb. | 0 | 0-1/2 | 1
Falconet | 2 lb. | 14 | 2 | 1-1/4
Falcon | 2-1/2 lb.| 16 | 2-1/2 | 2-1/4
Minion | 4-1/2 lb.| 17 | 4-1/2 | 3
Sacre | 5 lb. | 18 | 5 | 3-1/4
Demi-Culverin | 9 lb. | 20 | 9 | 4
Culverin | 18 lb. | 25 | 18 | 5-1/4
Demi-Cannon | 30 lb. | 38 | 28 | 6-3/4
Cannon | 60 lb. | 20 | 44 | 7-3/4
E. Cannon | 42 lb. | 20 | 20 | 6-3/4
Basilisk | 60 lb. | 21 | 60 | 8-1/4
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I might here take just occasion to speak of the prince's armories. But
what shall it need? sith the whole realm is her armory, and therefore her
furniture infinite. The Turk had one gun made by one Orban, a Dane, the
caster of his ordnance, which could not be drawn to the siege of
Constantinople but by seventy yoke of oxen and two thousand men; he had
two other there also whose shot poised above two talents in weight, made
by the same Orban. But to proceed. As for the armories of some of the
nobility (whereof I also have seen a part), they are so well furnished
that within some one baron's custody I have seen three score or a hundred
corslets at once, besides calivers, hand-guns, bows, sheaves of arrows,
pikes, bills, poleaxes, flasks, touchboxes, targets, etc., the very sight
whereof appalled my courage. What would the wearing of some of them do
then (trow you) if I should be enforced to use one of them in the field?
But thanked be God! our peaceable days are such as no man hath any great
cause to occupy them at all, but only taketh good leisure to have them in
a readiness, and therefore both high and low in England.[209]
"_Cymbala pro galeis pro scutis tympana pulsant._"
I would write here also of our manner of going to the wars, but what hath
the long black gown to do with glittering armour? what sound acquaintance
can there be betwixt Mars and the Muses? or how should a man write
anything to the purpose of that wherewith he is nothing acquainted? This
nevertheless will I add of things at home, that seldom shall you see any
of my countrymen above eighteen or twenty years old to go without a dagger
at the least at his back or by his side, although they be aged burgesses
or magistrates of any city who in appearance are most exempt from brabling
and contention. Our nobility wear commonly swords or rapiers with their
daggers, as doth every common serving-man also that followeth his lord and
master. Some desperate cutters we have in like sort, which carry two
daggers or two rapiers in a sheath always about them, wherewith in every
drunken fray they are known to work much mischief. Their swords and
daggers also are of a great length, and longer than the like used in any
other country, whereby each one pretendeth to have the more advantage of
his enemy. But as many orders have been taken for the intolerable length
of these weapons, so I see as yet small redress; but where the cause
thereof doth rest, in sooth for my part, I wot not. I might here speak of
the excessive staves which divers that travel by the way do carry upon
their shoulders, whereof some are twelve or thirteen foot long, beside the
pike of twelve inches; but, as they are commonly suspected of honest men
to be thieves and robbers, or at the leastwise scarce true men which bear
them, so by reason of this and the like suspicious weapons the honest
traveller is now forced to ride with a case of dags at his saddlebow, or
with some pretty short snapper, whereby he may deal with them further off
in his own self-defence before he come within the danger of these weapons.
Finally, no man travelleth by the way without his sword, or some such
weapon, with us, except the minister, who commonly weareth none at all,
unless it be a dagger or hanger at his side. Seldom also are they or any
other wayfaring men robbed, without the consent of the chamberlain,
tapster, or ostler where they bait and lie, who feeling at their alighting
whether their capcases or budgets be of any weight or not, by taking them
down from their saddles, or otherwise see their store in drawing of their
purses, do by-and-by give intimation to some one or other attendant daily
in the yard or house, or dwelling hard by, upon such matches, whether the
prey be worth the following or no. If it be for their turn, then the
gentleman peradventure is asked which way he travelleth, and whether it
please him to have another guest to bear him company at supper, who rideth
the same way in the morning that he doth, or not. And thus if he admit
him, or be glad of his acquaintance, the cheat is half wrought. And often
it is seen that the new guest shall be robbed with the old, only to colour
out the matter and keep him from suspicion. Sometimes, when they know
which way the passenger travelleth, they will either go before and lie in
wait for him, or else come galloping apace after, whereby they will be
sure, if he ride not the stronger, to be fingering with his purse. And
these are some of the policies of such shrews or close-booted gentlemen as
lie in wait for fat booties by the highways, and which are most commonly
practised in the winter season, about the feast of Christmas, when
serving-men and unthrifty gentlemen want money to play at the dice and
cards, lewdly spending in such wise whatsoever they have wickedly gotten,
till some of them sharply set upon their chevisances, be trussed up in a
Tyburn tippet, which happeneth unto them commonly before they come to
middle age. Whereby it appeareth that some sort of youth will oft have his
swing, although it be in a halter.[210]