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.

1st post on a new blog - small selection of late 100yw commands

Hello all, my name is Tom and this post marks my first entry to my new blog on the 100yw.

The intention is to cover various eras of the conflict, early late and perhaps right at the end, depending mostly upon whether manufactures cover the respective eras. For now it's focused on the later periods because it has more interesting armour and more developed artillery, but I will flit around depending on whichever project I happen to be working on at the time. 

So for that reason for now the focus is on the Orleans period, and this can be seen in the selection of commands pictured below. This was the turning point in the war for the French, who after this managed to almost consistently trounce the English for a number of reasons I won’t delve into here. This decline accelerates particularly after John the Duke of Bedford dies in 1435. Bedford’s is quite a sad tale really, given he made a reasonable fist of maintaining Henry VI’s possessions in France. Still even had he lived the tide was turning by this point anyway. 

First up on the English side is an attempt at Sir William Glasdale. Rarely I’ve actually done a coat of arms for him, it looked reasonably simple to do, but actually pulling it off was quite another matter. 

Sir William Glasdale (in the red coat of arms on the right)

View from the side

View from the rear

Glasdale was one of the principle English Captains in the siege and is reputed to have exchanged words with Jeanne d’Arc herself.  He also died in the battle when the Siege was broken by the same women. 

Next up is Jean de Dunois or Batard d’Orleans as he’s commonly referred to. Again a coat of arms, though it’s not really showing through in the pictures very well.

The Bastard of Orleans (in blue in the left), I've put him with La Hire as he was also at the battle, though that was just to use up the spare standard bearer I had (I doubt they fought right next to each other). When I do some generic French flags I can swap them out as needed.

View from the rear, you can just make out the coat of arms detail, such as they are.

In the 100yw he was one of the then Duke of Orleans (later Charles VII) principle military commanders in the siege and led the forces, which included Jeanne d’Arc, to ultimately lift the siege.  My depiction of him is slightly improbable given he’s holding a two handed sword, which  was unusual for a nobleman to do himself, it was likely a prestige/intimidation thing given to the beefier companions in a retinue.  At least that’s the theory put forward by Scholar Gladiatoria in their Youtube videos. This would seem credible to me, it also seems you needed to be very skilled (more so than normal) to use them as they have a very different dynamic to normal sword use. 

The next command is a more generic one, which most of mine will be, though the intention is to do more specific character one’s like royal commands and other characters like Bedford, Falstoff etc. Here it’s a generic French one, though I’ve got interchangeable banners and in this case have depicted Sir Guillaume Gaucort (the French Captain of Orleans as I recall). 

The Captain of Orleans up close.

Here he is again, you can see why I balked at attempting this coat of arms!

Finally as any good Siege of Orleans post should include, this is my attempt at Jeanne d’Arc herself or the Maid of Orleans as she was otherwise known. Hers is an interesting tale, which I won’t go into here other than a couple of highlights as it’s well-trodden elsewhere.

Jeanne d'Arc with La Hire (the figure for Jeanne d'Arc is one of the Perry give aways when you buy 3 sets of their plastic men at arms).

I used a circular base for this one as I wanted it to stand on it's own. Where I've used square bases the intention is to include them with a wider unit. The IHS on her banner stands for Jesus if you were wondering.

What I love about the 100 years war is the mix of quite primative armour like padded jackets and mail, alongside early full sets of plate. Painting the coats of arms are a chore, but they do look gorgeous when their finished (espechially when you get more used to doing them). 

It’s interesting to know what role she actually played, she never really got into combat, but sort of acted as a kind of mascot who rallied and encouraged the men through both her force of personality not to mention fervent piety, effectively turning the war from a political to one almost religious in nature. She certainly seemed to at least be involved in pulling France back from the brink. While not a commander like say La Hire (also depicted on the base, he’s the chap in the black coat of arms - don’t get too used to these with me) or Batard d’Orleans, she did none the less seem to be listened to, though whether this was because her advice was sound or the nobles thought her to be divinely inspired is open to debate.  When reading about her what was shocking was how young she was, she started at 16 and was burned at the stake by 19! I certainly wouldn’t have been up for that in my late teens!

Hope you’ve enjoyed my random segways into various things here. I shall be posting other projects, both new and past over the coming weeks and months. So feel free to follow and keep an eye on this blog if it interests you.