After countless unsuccessful experiments, lethal accidents
and ineffective trials, firearms research and techniques gradually improved,
and chroniclers report many types of guns—mainly used in siege warfare—with
numerous names such as veuglaire, pot-de-fer, bombard, vasii, petara and so on.
In the second half of the 14th century, firearms became more efficient, and it
seemed obvious that cannons were the weapons of the future. Venice successfully
utilized cannons against Genoa in 1378. During the Hussite war from 1415 to
1436, the Czech Hussite rebels employed firearms in combination with a mobile
tactic of armored carts (wagenburg) enabling them to defeat German knights.
Firearms contributed to the end of the Hundred Years' War and allowed the
French king Charles VII to defeat the English in Auray in 1385, Rouen in 1418
and Orleans in 1429. Normandy was reconquered in 1449 and Guyenne in 1451.
Finally, the battle of Chatillon in 1453 was won by the French artillery. This
marked the end of the Hundred Years' War; the English, divided by the Wars of
the Roses, were driven out of France, keeping only Calais. The same year saw
the Turks taking Constantinople, which provoked consternation, agitation and
excitement in the whole Christian world.
In that siege and seizure of the capital of the Eastern
Roman empire, cannon and gunpowder achieved spectacular success. To breach the
city walls, the Turks utilized heavy cannons which, if we believe the
chronicler Critobulos of Imbros, shot projectiles weighing about 500 kg. Even
if this is exaggerated, big cannons certainly did exist by that time and were
more common in the East than in the West, doubtless because the mighty
potentates of the East could better afford them. Such monsters included the
Ghent bombard, called "Dulle Griet"; the large cannon "Mons
Berg" which is today in Edinburgh; and the Great Gun of Mohammed II,
exhibited today in London. The latter, cast in 1464 by Sultan Munir Ali,
weighed 18 tons and could shoot a 300 kg stone ball to a range of one
kilometer.
A certain number of technical improvements took place in the
15th century. One major step was the amelioration of powder quality. Invented
about 1425, corned powder involved mixing saltpeter, charcoal and sulphur into
a soggy paste, then sieving and drying it, so that each individual grain or
corn contained the same and correct proportion of ingredients. The process
obviated the need for mixing in the field. It also resulted in more efficient
combustion, thus improving safety, power, range and accuracy.
Another important step was the development of foundries,
allowing cannons to be cast in one piece in iron and bronze (copper alloyed
with tin). In spite of its expense, casting was the best method to produce
practical and resilient weapons with lighter weight and higher muzzle velocity.
In about 1460, guns were fitted with trunnions. These were cast on both sides
of the barrel and made sufficiently strong to carry the weight and bear the
shock of discharge, and permit the piece to rest on a two-wheeled wooden
carriage. Trunnions and wheeled mounting not only made for easier
transportation and better maneuverability but also allowed the gunners to raise
and lower the barrels of their pieces.
One major improvement was the introduction in about 1418 of
a very efficient projectile: the solid iron shot. Coming into use gradually,
the solid iron cannonball could destroy medieval crenellation, ram
castle-gates, and collapse towers and masonry walls. It broke through roofs,
made its way through several stories and crushed to pieces all it fell upon.
One single well-aimed projectile could mow down a whole row of soldiers or cut
down a splendid armored knight.
About 1460, mortars were invented. A mortar is a specific
kind of gun whose projectile is shot with a high, curved trajectory, between
45° and 75°, called plunging fire. Allowing gunners to lob projectiles over
high walls and reach concealed objectives or targets protected behind
fortifications, mortars were particularly useful in sieges. In the Middle Ages they
were characterized by a short and fat bore and two big trunnions. They rested
on massive timber-framed carriages without wheels, which helped them withstand
the shock of firing; the recoil force was passed directly to the ground by
means of the carriage. Owing to such ameliorations, artillery progressively
gained dominance, particularly in siege warfare.
Individual guns, essentially scaled down artillery pieces
fitted with handles for the firer, appeared after the middle of the 14th
century. Various models of portable small arms were developed, such as the
clopi or scopette, bombardelle, baton-de-feu, handgun, and firestick, to
mention just a few.
In purely military terms, these early handguns were more of
a hindrance than an asset on the battlefield, for they were expensive to
produce, inaccurate, heavy, and time-consuming to load; during loading the
firer was virtually defenseless. However, even as rudimentary weapons with poor
range, they were effective in their way, as much for attackers as for soldiers
defending a fortress.
The harquebus was a portable gun fitted with a hook that
absorbed the recoil force when firing from a battlement. It was generally
operated by two men, one aiming and the other igniting the propelling charge.
This weapon evolved in the Renaissance to become the matchlock musket in which
the fire mechanism consisted of a pivoting S-shaped arm. The upper part of the
arm gripped a length of rope impregnated with a combustible substance and kept
alight at one end, called the match. The lower end of the arm served as a
trigger: When pressed it brought the glowing tip of the match into contact with
a small quantity of gunpowder, which lay in a horizontal pan fixed beneath a
small vent in the side of the barrel at its breech. When this priming ignited,
its flash passed through the vent and ignited the main charge in the barrel,
expelling the spherical lead bullet.
The wheel lock pistol was a small harquebus taking its name
from the city Pistoia in Tuscany where the weapon was first built in the 15th
century. The wheel lock system, working on the principle of a modern cigarette
lighter, was reliable and easy to handle, especially for a combatant on
horseback. But its mechanism was complicated and therefore expensive, and so
its use was reserved for wealthy civilian hunters, rich soldiers and certain
mounted troops.
Portable cannons, handguns, harquebuses and pistols were
muzzle-loading and shot projectiles that could easily penetrate any armor.
Because of the power of firearms, traditional Middle Age weaponry become
obsolete; gradually, lances, shields and armor for both men and horses were
abandoned.
The destructive power of gunpowder allowed the use of mines
in siege warfare. The role of artillery and small firearms become progressively
larger; the new weapons changed the nature of naval and siege warfare and
transformed the physiognomy of the battlefield. This change was not a sudden
revolution, however, but a slow process. Many years elapsed before firearms
became widespread, and many traditional medieval weapons were still used in the
16th century.
One factor militating against artillery's advancement in the
15th century was the amount of expensive material necessary to equip an army.
Cannons and powder were very costly items and also demanded a retinue of
expensive attendant specialists for design, transport and operation.
Consequently firearms had to be produced in peacetime, and since the Middle
Ages had rudimentary ideas of economics and fiscal science, only a few kings, dukes
and high prelates possessed the financial resources to build, purchase,
transport, maintain and use such expensive equipment in numbers that would have
an appreciable impression in war.
Conflicts with firearms became an economic business
involving qualified personnel backed up by traders, financiers and bankers as
well as the creation of comprehensive industrial structures. The development of
firearms meant the gradual end of feudalism. Firearms also brought about a
change in the mentality of combat because they created a physical and mental
distance between warriors. Traditional mounted knights, fighting each other at
close range within the rules of a certain code, were progressively replaced by
professional infantrymen who were anonymous targets for one another, while
local rebellious castles collapsed under royal artillery's fire. Expensive
artillery helped to hasten the process by which central authority was restored.
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