Wars of the Roses: Weapons

Showing posts with label Weapons. Show all posts

Tuesday, June 16, 2015

THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF FIREARMS

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.

Wednesday, March 18, 2015

Wars of the Roses: Artillery

By the start of the WARS OF THE ROSES in the late 1450s, artillery had been in use in northern Europe for over a century, and most civil war armies included at least a small artillery force.

The pace of advancement in European gun technology had quickened in the 1370s, when the small, inaccurate, and unreliable artillery used early in the HUNDRED YEARS WAR gave way to larger, more powerful weapons able to breach the high stone walls of towns and castles. Although the new artillery could still be unpredictable-JAMES II of SCOTLAND was killed in 1460 when one of his siege cannons exploded-the English began using such guns with great effect in WALES and on the Scottish border in the early fifteenth century. The new guns came in many types and sizes, ranging from massive bombards, which could batter down walls with huge balls of stone or iron, through a variety of intermediate-sized serpentines, orgues, and ribaudequins, to the smaller culverins, which could be fired from tripods or used as handguns. Fifteenth-century cannon were made of iron or bronze, although cast bronze weapons were most common because techniques for casting iron did not reach a similar level of expertise until the late sixteenth century. Because weapons were nonstandard and each large gun fired projectiles made especially for it, the gun makers usually also served as gunners.

This uniqueness in projectile size caused individual large guns to be given their own names, such as Mons Meg, now in Edinburgh Castle, a 14,000-pound cannon with a caliber of twenty inches.

Firing a fifteenth-century artillery piece was a slow and difficult process. The larger siege guns threw stone and iron projectiles that could weigh hundreds of pounds. To fire the weapon, the gunner used a firing iron-an iron bar heated in a pan of charcoal that was kept hot and near at hand. Because one pound of powder was required to throw nine pounds of shot, and because the barrel had to be washed with a mixture of water and vinegar after every firing, ten shots per hour was considered a good rate of fire. During the Wars of the Roses, this slow rate meant that cannon were used mainly on the eve or at the start of a battle, firing one volley at the enemy before the hand-to-hand combat commenced. During the night before the Battle of BARNET, Richard NEVILLE, earl of Warwick, fired his cannon continuously, hoping to create fear and disorder in the Yorkist ranks; however, Warwick was unaware of how close the enemy was and his guns overshot. To keep Warwick from learning his error, EDWARD IV ordered his own guns to refrain from revealing their position by returning fire. A few weeks later at the Battle of TEWKESBURY, Edward drew the Lancastrians out of an excellent defensive position with an opening artillery salvo.

Nonetheless, artillery pieces were much less of a factor in the Wars of the Roses than they were in contemporary campaigns on the continent. Able to fire a ball about 2,000 to 2,500 paces, cannon could be used with devastating effect against massed immobile troop concentrations, such as at river crossings, or against town or castle walls during a siege, situations where the slow rate of fire did not matter. But the art of fortification was less advanced in England than elsewhere, and the English civil wars were therefore characterized by pitched battles, not by sieges; during the Wars of the Roses, the enemy's towns or castles usually surrendered soon after the enemy's field armies had been defeated.

Still, both sides recognized the growing importance of artillery and took measures to ensure a good supply of guns. Since about 1415, the English Crown had appointed a master of ordnance to supervise the king's artillery. In 1456, John Judde, a LONDON merchant, won appointment to the post by offering to supply

HENRY VI with guns and powder at his own expense. Judde's ambitious program of collecting and manufacturing guns for the Lancastrians so alarmed the Yorkists that they ambushed and killed him in June 1460 as he was supervising delivery of a new shipment of weapons. Edward IV also appreciated the importance of artillery, and his Masters of Ordnance (like John Wode, who held office from 1463 to 1477) were trusted members of the royal household. Edward was said to frequently inspect his ordnance, and his campaigns usually included a sizable artillery train. Thus, by HENRY VII's reign, the English Crown housed a large and growing collection of ordnance in the TOWER OF LONDON.

LINK

ARMOR

During the WARS OF THE ROSES, English MEN-AT-ARMS, and especially members of the PEERAGE and GENTRY, entered battle encased in a defensive body covering of metal plate armor, which was designed to deflect blows from heavy weapons in close combat and to ward off arrows shot from a distance. Because most civil war battles were decided by hand-to-hand combat between men fighting on foot, full or partial sets of armor of any available quality were worn by any soldier able to buy or otherwise procure them.

By the late fifteenth century, the making of plate armor was a fine art, and new methods of forging iron allowed for the production of lighter, stronger, more flexible suits that could better protect a larger portion of the body and allowed for greater mobility and endurance. Although a complete set of armor, or "harness," was expensive, and might only be available to wealthy nobles and knights, most men went into combat at least partially harnessed, even if with older, lower-quality pieces. The finest armor had curved and fluted design elements, which gave it strength and allowed it to deflect blows more easily. Totally encased in metal, a knight in full harness had greater confidence in battle, and by the late fifteenth century many discarded the shields of earlier times and opted instead to wield the heavy two-handed weapons, such as poleaxes, which were, ironically, designed to crush the new, stronger body armor. Although they also employed two-handed, shafted weapons, such as the bill and glaive, more lightly armored men-at-arms continued to carry a small, round shield known as a buckler, which could be easily slung from a belt or strap worn around the waist.

Full harness was worn over a heavy padded doublet that was slit for ventilation. Gussets (i.e., metal or mail inserts) were sewn to the doublet to protect vulnerable areas such as the arms, elbows, and armpits, where metal joints would have been too restrictive of movement. Wax cords (arming points) were attached to the doublet to allow the plate armor to be secured to the body. Other undergarments included heavy, padded hose and leather shoes. The main body armor comprised upper and lower breastplates, which were hinged vertically on one side, back plates, a metal skirt, and tassets, which hung from straps on the skirt and protected the lower body. The feet were encased in plate shoes called sabatons, which were attached to lower leg coverings called greaves. The greaves and the upper leg coverings, known as cuisseis, had two halves that hinged on the side and were secured by buckles and straps. A special knee piece, attached by rivets or pins, protected the gap between greaves and cuisseis. Arms were protected by two similar coverings, the vambraces (for the lower arm) and rerebraces (for the upper arm), with special pieces called cowters and pauldrons attached by straps to protect, respectively, the elbows and the shoulders. Gauntlets fitted over the vambrace protected the hands and wrists. The sallet, a visored metal helmet worn over a padded arming cap, protected the head, while the bevor, a triangular metal plate worn below the sallet, protected the neck.

Although most knights dismounted for battle, the grand cavalry charge, as RICHARD III proved at the Battle of BOSWORTH FIELD, could still be employed to retrieve desperate situations. During the HUNDRED YEARS WAR, unarmored horses had been extremely vulnerable to ARCHERS. Thus, many noblemen armored their mounts during the Wars of the Roses. Horse armor involved protective pieces for the head, neck, chest, rump, and flank, and might even include armor-plated reins to prevent an enemy from cutting them and depriving the rider of control. Nonetheless, the weight and expense of horse armor limited its use to the wealthiest combatants, who generally used their mounts only to ride to or escape from the battlefield.

Further Reading: Ayton, Andrew, "Arms, Armour, and Horses," in Maurice Keen, ed., Medieval Warfare (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); Boardman, Andrew W., The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing, 1998); DeVries, Kelly, Medieval Military Technology (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1992); Prestwich, Michael, Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1996).

WEAPONRY

During the WARS OF THE ROSES, English MEN-AT-ARMS carried various types of weapons into battle, including thrusting and stabbing implements, such as swords and daggers, and powerful battering weapons, such as maces and poleaxes.

For close-quarter combat, the fifteenth-century knight usually carried a sword that could be used for both cutting and thrusting. Such weapons varied greatly in length and width, from a broad, single-handed sword that was about two and a half feet in length to a narrower, two-handed version that was almost three and a half feet long. Swords meant solely for thrusting tended to have longer, narrower blades and longer hilts. When not in use, a sword fit into a scabbard that hung from a hip belt in such a way as to position the point a little to the rear where it could not trip its owner. From the other hip usually hung a rondel dagger, which was used to exploit gaps in an opponent's ARMOR or to pry open the visor of a downed enemy, who was then dispatched by a thrust to the eye or throat. The rondel was characterized by a disk- or cone-shaped guard between hilt and blade and a similarly shaped pommel at the other end of the hilt. Because it was used for stabbing, the rondel had a straight, slender blade that was triangular in shape and up to fifteen inches in length to allow for maximum penetration of an enemy's body.

Because the stronger, fluted armor used in the fifteenth century could deflect sword and spear thrusts, many knights began carrying new types of heavy weapons, often with hooks or spikes, which were designed to crush or puncture plate armor. Perhaps the most deadly of these weapons was the poleax, which consisted of a wooden shaft, four to six feet long, topped by a long spike that was flanked on one side by an ax head and on the other by a spiked hammer or fluke (a curved, beaklike extension for hooking an opponent to the ground). The spike could puncture plate or damage armored joints and rob a man of mobility. The ax and hammer could crush both armor and the flesh it covered. Against unarmored opponents, a skillfully wielded poleax was devastating.

While the poleax was used only for combat on foot, such other battering weapons as the battle-ax, the mace, and the war hammer were carried primarily by horsemen, who swung their weapon with one hand and held their reins with the other. RICHARD III supposedly led his famous cavalry charge at the Battle of Bosworth Field while wielding a battle-ax. Weighing from two to five pounds, the war hammer was serrated and usually carried a fluke opposite the hammerhead. Of a similar weight, the mace had a head composed of six interlocking serrated edges or some similarly formidable configuration of spikes and points. Like the poleax, these weapons were used to deliver crushing blows to armored opponents.

Besides the more formally trained and heavily armored men-at-arms, most civil war armies contained sizable contingents of billmen, foot soldiers who carried any of a wide variety of shafted weapons that could be used to drag enemies to the ground, to cut armor straps, and to frighten horses. Such weapons derived from the billhook, a common agricultural implement used for cutting and pruning that consisted of a blade with a hooked point attached to a long wooden shaft. Characterized by some type of blade, hook, or spike topping a pole that ranged in length from six to ten feet, a bill weapon could be raked, stabbed, or swung at an enemy. Depending on the type of head they employed, such weapons were known by various names, such as the halberd, which carried a spiked ax head and had to be swung at an opponent to be used most effectively. Because they required little training to use and, unlike bows, were easy to maintain, various forms of bills were the weapons usually carried by common soldiers and most often found in rural cottages and houses for protection against intruders.

Further Reading: Boardman, Andrew W., The Medieval Soldier in the Wars of the Roses (Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: Sutton Publishing, 1998); DeVries, Kelly, Medieval Military Technology (Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview Press, 1992); Goodman, Anthony, The Wars of the Roses (New York: Dorset Press, 1981).

Sophistication of Fifteenth Century Armour

The increasing sophistication of fifteenth century armour, which was designed to deflect sword and spear, made crushing weapons more popular. Noblemen tended to use maces, battle axes, and hammers. Common infantry made use of staff weapons, combining axes, spikes, and hooks. They were intended to knock an armoured opponent off his feet, rather than to pierce his armour.

In the fifteenth century, the fully equipped man-at-arms was encased from head to foot in articulated metal plates. The haubergeon was no longer required, nor was the shield; the great helm was abandoned in favour of the visored bascinet, then armets and longtailed sallets, whose weight was supported on a gorget. This occurred across western Europe, although more slowly in Spain and Italy. A heavier lance was adopted to counter the improved protection, which necessitated a lance-rest to be attached to the breastplate from c. 1390.

In producing such armour, improved metal-working techniques were employed: steel with a high carbon constituent and hardening techniques for outer surfaces were used; surfaces were rippled and fluted to deflect lances, swords, and arrows; vulnerable areas were reinforced. The best armours were tested at point-blank range against steel crossbows. Improved protection was achieved without reducing the man-at-arms to immobility. A mid-century armour weighed about 50-60lbs (23-27kg) - comparable to infantry equipment in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries - but the weight was better distributed than earlier mail. Only the attempt to proof armour against firearms made it impossibly heavy in the sixteenth century. The horse was not neglected, and by c.1450 the neck, breast, and flanks were given some protection against pike and arrow. This required breeding heavier horses. The expense of cavalry warfare was mounting inexorably. By no means all knights or men-at-arms could afford full equipment. Those without horse armour or full body armour fought behind the front ranks, adding weight, or performing auxiliary tasks.

How much protection did this armour afford? In the view of the twelfth-century historian Orderic Vitalis, only 3 out of 900 knights engaged in the battle of Brémule (1119) were killed because all were mail-clad. Knightly armour did afford a good deal of protection. The Muslim Beha ad-Din described Christian infantry in 1191 with ten arrows stuck in their quilted armour, and it was easier to batter a well-armed man to the ground than to kill him. However, when mail was pierced the rings were driven into a wound. In chivalric warfare it made sense not to kill a ransomable knight or man-at-arms since he represented a profitable asset. But when knocked to the floor (heavy armour made it difficult to rise), if his opponent did not wish to ransom him, the heavily armed knight was vulnerable. Even the fifteenth-century carapace had vulnerable points - the visor being forced open followed by a dagger in the eye. The study of medieval armour presents many difficulties and risks of creating a false impression of standardization. Although medieval rulers legislated for the equipment to be owned, it is difficult to determine how often ideal standards were met. Individual wealth and personal inclination determined the equipment possessed, and at times of low military activity there was no incentive to maintain readiness.

English Armour Development 1415-1475

1413 Agincourt Period
1420
1414 Agincourt Period
1425
1416 Agincourt Period
1419
Wars of Roses 1465
1410 Agincourt Period
Wars of Roses 1458
Wars of Roses 1473
1430
1425
Wars of Roses 1488
Wars of Roses 1460
Great Basinet 15^th century

THE DEVELOPMENT AND INFLUENCE OF FIREARMS

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.

Techniques with the Pollaxe

www.MEMAG.net CORRECTIONS: The first translation should read "He wants to freely hit - He wants to bind in behind and make him defenseless and help his blow across"

Pollaxe!
Music: "Duke of Death" from Medieval II Total War Soundtrack