Artillery in the Hundred Years War

The 100 Years war is interesting for a number of reasons, not least of which is the development of artillery during the period. 

Artillery started to be used early in the conflict and there are conflicting reports of their use and effectiveness in Crecy 1346. Here Edward is reported to have had several bombards, and a number (up to 100 in some reports) of smaller weapons mostly organ guns. Where I’ve seen Frossart quoted he talks about guns making several discharges into the Genoese, but Giovanni Villani (an Italian Source) writes:

 “The English guns cast iron balls by means of fire...They made a noise like thunder and caused much loss in men and horses... The Genoese were continually hit by the archers and the gunners, the whole plain was covered by men struck down by arrows and cannon balls.”

This gives an indication that they may have played a more significant role in the battle then perhaps they’re given credit for, but this is something of a nebulous historical debate.

 

Edward III counts the dead at Crecy (image dated 1410).

In terms of the later period the predominant weapon of choice for siege warfare seemed to be the Bombard, which would be wheeled into place on a wagon(s) to sit in the appropriate place in the siege works. They are often depicted behind mantlets (such as the image from the Siege of Orleans below), although unlike later periods not gabions. In the period I am currently focussed on we can see from the contemporaneous pictures below that wooden walls/stockades were used, in some cases going as far as wooden Towers. 

Bombards being used in the siege of Orleans. Note the wheeled cannon, which may not have been developed until after this period and the wooden siege walls (Image dated 1484).

It’s in one of these that Thomas Montagu the 4th Earl of Salisbury is hit and killed by cannon fire. It’s not clear exactly what happened whether he was hit directly or took shrapnel to his face, nor whether it was deliberate or happy coincidence for the French.  But whatever the circumstances it was decisive for the French as it meant the English Army was then led by the Earl of Suffolk, who proved to be a much less spirited commander and the siege promptly lost momentum. 

I have built 3 bombards that could be used to cover a wide range of the latter part of the conflict. I will consider adding more, but need to work out (for reasons I’ll explain), what type of weapon fits into which era as there was some variance. Anyway the weapons are a mix of Front rank, Perry and Old Glory, with vintage GW crew, Foundary and again Old Glory. If I was doing this again I’d likely use Perry plastics for the crew, with a few tweaks as some of these crew look a bit incongruous for the look I want to achieve. If only the Perry would develop some dedicated 100yw guns and crew.

Larger later 100yw bombard, Perry Gun with GW crew.

Rear view of the gun. The figure on the far right is actually wrong, men didn't go topless back then and instead tended to go bottomless. Essentially this was because (so re-enactors tell me) the hose are normally tied into the doublet, which means if you go topless you end up going bottomless as well by default.

Another smaller bombard, which given their was no uniform size is fine. Front rank gun with mix of Perry/Foundry crew.

Same gun from above, this gives a better view of the rings of the gun, they were made by melding together a lot of iron rings (must have been a real art to get it right).

The wooden frames were more ubiquitous in later periods. At first they simply mounted them in the ground and added/removed earth for elevation.

This is from Old Glory, in their medieval siege weapons range. It's a great kit that comes with a load of extras.

It’s perhaps fitting that in the final battle of the war guns also proved decisive, when Talbot led his fateful charge against a well-fortified French position in the Battle of Castillion.  While in Crecy the role of artillery is in debate, at Castillion it was beyond doubt witheringly effective. Though the English did make it to the French position, they’d taken so many casualties the battle was already decided. I might do a small force for this battle, with some Wars of the Roses figures (where the earlier period figures for this era would be about the right fit), but this is a project for another day. 

Castillion proved how decisive artillary could be when used on mass in defence of a fortified position (image dated 1484)

 

In terms of what they looked like, it depended what era is being talked about. Certainly bombards mounted as per my interpretations above were used throughout the conflict in varying guises, with larger versions appearing later as the technology developed. But other than that it’s hard to guess from the various Chroniclers because a lot of the images weren’t contemporary, and were often produced some decades later. For instance I don’t know if larger cannon were mounted on wheeled carriages until toward the end of the war in the 1430s-40s. Certainly organ guns were used throughout, and it’s indicated they used wheeled platforms from the 1380s onwards (at least according to David Nicole in his book on Crecy). In the very early period Pot De Fer (pictured below) were used, though I can’t imagine them being massively effective given they fired an arrow. So as can be seen it’s quite an evolution!

A pot de fer (image dated 1326).

I will return to the subject of guns, as there are a number of projects in the area to consider. Alongside more types of guns from different eras I want to do some mantlets with crew and wooden siege walls. I did have a project in mind for this at the end of 2018, but couldn’t quite work out a basing approach. It will happen though.