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07 6th, 2009| 
The improvement of the lock of the matchlock musket, which is referred to in this list, and some of the various accessories are discussed later. There are certain other- points worth noting.
The prices quoted show that firelocks (i.e. wheel-locks) -were much more expensive than snaphaunces (the name” applied at the time to any type of flintlock). A pair of wheel-lock pistols are priced at C,3, whereas flintlocks cost only &; and a wheel-lock arquebus was (1 16s. as compared with Cr for a flintlock carbine. The new type of matchlock musket was considerably cheaper than weapons with the spark ignition locks, for it could be purchased for 15s. 6d.
It is of interest that the proving and subsequent stamping of firearms had to be carried.out free of charge. The cost, no. doubt, was borne by the committee of gunmakefs; and it was probably considered that they were amply compensated by the elimination of competition from the sale of cheap and unserviceable arms.
The Commission of 1631 led six years later to the incorporation by Charles I of the Gunmakers’ Company of London as a permanent body. The aims of the Company were to protect the skilled gunsmiths from such unskilled competitors as blacksmiths, and from price undercutting ftom the import of cheap foreign arms; ‘that they may be the better enabled at all times to furnish Us and our-Subjects with good serviceable Handguns for Military Service and otherwise and to settle a better form of Regulation and Government of the said Art and Mystery’.
The original members of the Company were sixty-three in number, starting with ‘Henry Rowland our now Gun-Maker’, who had been the first mentioned of the seven gunmakers of the 1631 Commission.
There were to be ‘two or more of the said Company chosen to assist for the searching viewing gaging proving making trial marking or stamping of Handguns’.
They had the power to punish the ‘uttering of unartificial unmerchantable bad and deceitful Guns or parts of Guns or Guns made of ill materials whereby our Loving Subjects may be damnified or endangered’.
The proof was to be ‘with good and sufficient Gunpowder the weight of d Bullett of Lead sizeable to every several Gun be it greater or lesser according to the Bore of the Piece together with the said sizeable Bullett and rammed with paper before and after the Bullett the Charges of which said Proof and trial in the powder paper Bullett Shot and fraying powder for firing to be necessarily used therein to be always provided defrayed and born by the Makers or Owners of the same Guns’.
The stamp to show that a gun had been proved was to be
Cone Stamp or Stamps to be engraved with the letters G.P. 0
crowned’; and this was to be used to ‘mark or stamp all such Handguns Daggs Pistols and parts of Guns only as upon search view gage tryal and proof shall be found sufficiently serviceable and of good materials’.
The proof referred to above consisted in the gun barrels being fired with the test charge, first in the rough and then in the finished state, The ball was the standard size for the gun, but the powder was double the normal charge. The barrels to be proved were laid in racks with their muzzles towards a bank of sand. From twenty to a hundred were fired at a time by laying a trail of gunpowder which ran down the line of barrels across their touch-holes. After each proof the barrels which had passed the test were stamped with the marks of the Company. The mark’ for the first proof, to show ‘that the barrel had been tested in the rough, was a crown over the letter V. The mark indicating that the barrel had survived the second proof, of being tested in its finished state, was a crown over the letters G.P. (for ‘Gunmakers’ Proof’).
Under the original Charter of 1637 the right of proof vested in the Company applied only to weapons sold within ten miles of the City of London. A great number of arms, therefore, were both made in England and imported from the Continent without having been submitted to the proof; and most loving subjects continued to be damnified by bad and deceitful guns. This omission was subsequently rectified in the reign of Charles II, when a new and amplified Charter was granted in 1672. This forbade the sale of unproved firearms throughout England, and laid down that the only acceptable evidence of proof were the Company’s marks.
In about 1630 improvements were made to the mechanism of the matchlock musket, which was, of course, the standard infantry weapon. The flash-pan, with its cover, and a short shield to protect the eye of the musketeer from the flash of the priming powder, were attached to the lock. In addition, the scear and serpentine (which was now known as the ‘cock) were actuated by a separate trigger, instead of the long crossbow pattern trigger, or ‘tricker’, with its rigid attachment to the scear. These alterations made the matchlock a much better weapon, and gave the English some b advantage over Con- tinental armies, in most of which the old lock was retained till the end of the century. There were other gradual improvements and alterations to the musket during the first half of the seventeenth century. Progressive modifications to the stock eventually resulted in a form which bore some resemblance to the weapons of today. The balance of the gun was brought further back towards the rear, by lightening the barrel and reinforcing.the breech; thereby making it easier to dispense with the rest. The bore of the barrel was standardized at io, and this was designed to provide an easy fit for a i 2-bore bullet. The outside of the barrel was protected against rust by ‘russeting’; an ancient process which had been used to protect the steel-work on hafted weapons, and involved coating with some dark pigment.
Certain accessories were used with the musket at this period. They comprised: a wooden ramrod, with a horn or bone tip; a cleaning tool, known as a ’scowrer’; a tool for extracting bullets, called a ‘worm; an iron-shod musket rest; and a bandolier incorporating a set of twelve wooden chargers, each holding sufficient powder for one bullet. The rest in point of fact was now seldom used, and rarely carried on active service. It was retained as part of the musketeer’s equipment for many more years; presumably because its use added considerably to the accuracy of fire. On the other hand it was a nuisance on the march, and impaired individual mobility in action.
The matchlock was now no longer used for cavalry firearms, and all pistols and carbines were either firelocks (i.e. wheel-locks) or flintlocks.
The design of firearms was, and always has been, intimately connected with the quality of the gunpowder. The first gunpowder used consisted of equal parts of saltpetre (a chemical compound composed of nitric acid and potash), sulphur and charcoal. In the early days this was in the form of a meal, or fine powder.. In the fifteenth century the proportion of saltpetre was much increased, and the respective quantities became saltpetre eight parts, charcoal and sulphur three parts each. The hand-gun now became a practical proposition, whereas the old powder had only been suitable for cannon. At the beginning of the sixteenth century the saltpetre was again increased, the new proportions being four parts of saltpetre to one each of charcoal and sulphur. This change vastly increased the use of the arquebus.
The chief disadvantage of the meal gunpowder was the lack of air space acid consequent slow combustion. In i 52 `corned’ gunpowder was introduced. This was made by pounding the meal powder into a solid cake and then breaking it up into grains. This not only gave the required air space, but it also resulted in a better mixture of the components. The new powder- was still far short, however, of what was required. The grain was coarse and there was still too much charcoal and sulphur. Further, the saltpetre itself was full of impurities. Compared with later gunpowder, therefore, it was still relatively slow burning and a large charge was required. These deficiencies in speed of combustion and propelling power made it necessary to have a long barrel if the full strength was to be developed by the time the bullet left the gun. During the sixteenth century some improvement was effected by increasing the proportion of saltpetre to five parts to one part of each of the others.
The Civil War in England between Ying and Common–wealth was in one respect a turning-point in our military history; for it was the first conflict in which firearms exercised at least as much influence on the battlefield as shock weapons. The infantry arm was still the matchlock musket, with its original barrel length of 48 inches. The bore, however, had been reduced to the so-called ‘English’ bore, or 12.
In addition to the matchlocks there were a certain number of flintlock muskets. Some of these had the English lock with the steel and pan cover in one piece; others had the old snaphaunce lock with separate steel and pan cover. These latter -were almost certainly imported from the Continent. The barrel of both these flintlocks was 421 inches, .or Sl inches shorter than the matchlock.
A third type of flintlock in use was a conversion from the old arquebus. The barrel was only 4o inches long, but it was an unbalanced weapon, mainly owing. to its very light butt.
Cavalry firearms were either flintlocks or firelocks (wheel-locks). Heavy cavalry carried pistols and sometimes carbines. The Dragoons had their dragon, but this peculiar weapon was probably already being replaced by some sort of light musket, i.e. musketoon, carried hooked to a shoulder belt by runner and swivel.
The circumstances under which the Civil War was fought and the inevitable.shortage of arms resulted in a large number of sporting and other private arms being used on both sides. It was owing to the use of these private weapons that rifled firearms were first issued to English troops. Sharpshooters in particular were frequently armed with sporting rifles and the more accurate fowling-pieces. In his account of the defence of Lathom House by the Countess of Derby in x644, Bishop Rutter says:
`Upon the top of the towers were placed the best and choicest marksmen, who usually attended the Earl in his hunting and other sports as huntsmen, keepers, fowlers and the like, who continually kept watch, with screwed guns (rifles) and long fowling-pieces, to the great annoyance and loss of the enemy, especially of their commanders, who were frequently killed in their Trenches, or as they came or went to or from them.’
The first rifled barrel was probably made as early as 15 zo by Augustus Cotter at Nuremberg. The idea of spinning the bullet is believed to have been inspired by the effect of feathering an arrow, with the obvious hope that the appallingly inaccurate firearm of the day might be made to shoot as straight as the bow and arrow. However, although rifled arms were used in Europe during the second quarter of the sixteenth century, there was no real military requirement for them. For the close-order tactics of the day and for another three centuries the smooth-bore firearm gave adequate results. For sporting purposes, however, there were obvious advantages in having the most accurate firearm possible.
The rifles used in the Civil War were probably wheel-locks of German make. The bullets for these weapons were spherical, and were rammed down the barrel wrapped in a greased rag to make them a tight fit in the rifling.
Shortly before the start of the Civil War a breech-loading rifle appeared in England which was destined to be the standard sporting rifle for the next one and a half centuries. It is likely, therefore, that some arms of this type were used in the fighting. The bullet of a breech-loading rifle was cast somewhat larger than the bore, and therefore was gripped more securely by the grooves than the muzzle-loaded bullet in its greased patch. Breech-loading rifles were, however, considerably slower to reload than muzzle-loaders, so that they were not popular weapons for close-order fighting.
There were two methods of breech-loading; one of which was based on a detachable barrel, and the other on a threaded iron plug. In the first method the barrel was unscrewed from a fixed breeching or chamber, and the latter was loaded with the powder and bullet. In the second method a hole was drilled in the breech which was closed by a screw plug. The powder and then the bullet were inserted into the chamber through this hole.
The lance was, of course, the weapon specially associated with the knight. At its head, in the great days of chivalry, it bore the small flag which indicated the knight’s rank and. status. A baron or knight-banneret had a square or rectangular banner emblazoned with its owner’s arms. A knight commanding in the field had a swallow-tailed pennon, also
FIG. 6. BATTLE-AXES.
2, Henry VIII; 3 & 4, Elizabeth I; 5, James I; 6, Dutch.
emblazoned with his arms. If, for his distinguished conduct in action, he was made a knight-bannerct on the battlefield, his pennon was converted technically into a banner by cutting off the swallow tails. An ordinary knight, fighting in the ranks, carried a triangular pennon, or pensil, on which might be either his badge or arms, and frequently depicted so that they were the right way up when the lance was horizontal. In the reign of Henry VIII all this gay individual heraldry was swept away, and the lances of the cavalry bore the white pennon and red cross of St. George.
There were a number of other shafted weapons which had their origin in mediaeval times; some of them lasting until a
FIG. 8. BATTLE-AXES. From the Bayeux Tapestry.
much later period of history. The oldest of these was probably the battle-axe, which was used by the Normans at Hastings, and it had some affinity with the Saxon bill. It had, however, a much shorter shaft, and was essentially a weapon for the mounted man. Another early weapon was the guisarme, which was a form of lance with a hook at,its side, and which was known to the Normans in the eleventh century. It was probably derived from the peasant’s ox-goad.
FIG. 9. MACES.
Top row: Quadrelle, temp. Edward IV; Massuelle, temp. Richard III; temp. Henry VII with hand-gun; Henry VIII; Philip & Mary. Middle row: Mace, temp. Henry V-, Henry VI; Henry VI, Edward IV; Henry VII; Henry VII; Henry VIII. Bottom row: Henry VIII; Henry VIII; Henry VIII; Edward VI.
The guisarme appears to have been little used in England, but from it came a derivative which was very popular in Wales. It had a broad, heavy, pointed blade on the end of a long shaft, and could be used either for cutting or thrusting. Presumably experience of it in the Welsh wars had impressed its value on the English, for in the first year of Richard III’s reign one Nicholas Spicer is recorded as having issued an order for the impressment of smiths to make Zoo Welsh glaives. Chaucer gives a hint at its formidable nature in a line: ‘And
FIG. 10. PIKE HEADS.
Left to right: Henry VII;’Henry VIII; Edward VI; Elizabeth I;
James 1; Charles I; Cromwell; Charles II; Charles II.
whet their tongue as sharp as sword or glaive’. In the sixteenth century the glaive was fashioned in all manner of decorative shapes, and generally richly engraved.
The baston is another of the shafted weapons of the Bayeux Tapestry. At its best it was an iron-tipped staff, but was sometimes merely a wooden bludgeon or a knotted club. It was succeeded by the similar but much more decorative mace. Maces became very popular with the many war-like prelates of the Middle Ages; since by using this arm in battle they were able to persuade their elastic consciences that they were evading the condemnation of all holding office in the Church who fought with the sword. Maces were made in all sorts of decorative and fantastic shapes, and they were the weapons of the King’s Serjeants-at-Arms as early as the fourteenth century. There was a smaller kind of mace called a masuel. This must have been a cheap, handy and dangerous little weapon, for it was included in the list of arms which Edward 1, in the first year of his reign, forbade his turbulent London subjects to carry.
The pike, which from the time of its introduction until the coming of the bayonet was to be the main shock weapon of the British infantry, did not reach England until the reign of
FIG. II. LINSTOCKS.
Early Italian; Elizabeth I; Elizabeth I; Charles 1.
Edward IV. It could not claim to be an original weapon; for it was merely a modification of the cavalry lance adapted to the needs of infantry, and a reintroduction in a slightly different form of the earlier short and light infantry spear. Nevertheless, its appearance on the continent of Europe in the hands of well-disciplined infantry revolutionized military tactics. For the first time for centuries infantry had a shock weapon with which they could face and repel cavalry. For 400 years mounted troops had dominated the battlefield. That place was now to be taken by the infantry until armoured formations arrived to-redress the balance some 5oo years later.
