Field Artillery Before the 18th Century

Field guns were first used in Iberia in 1385, at Aljubarrota. The first recorded use in Italy was by John Hawkwood, at Castagnaro in 1387. But in no early example was a sufficient rate of fire achieved to effect anything resembling a bombardment, let alone a barrage. Bulky hoop-and-stave cannon in India were positioned to the front of the battle line but used only to signal the start of a day’s fighting. Then they just lay on the field while cavalry and infantry attacked or defended. Lack of corned powder and primitive carriages also impeded development and deployment of true field artillery in India, as they did everywhere initially.

That began to change in Europe in the late 15th century, where ribaudequins originally mounted on town or castle walls were moved onto fourwheeled carts to form an early, small-bore field artillery. The French astonished Italian defenders in 1494 when they used 40 such small cannon to knock down, in days or weeks, thin walls designed to stop scaling that had stood for months or years in prior sieges. Yet, these guns remained poor quality with low practical mobility and very low rates of fire. Slowly, more and bigger guns appeared on the battlefield in the 16th century. Once in place they could not be moved, and so were easily overrun in the thick of a fight. But they could outrange small arms and archers, and that was something.

As casting improved, barrels thinned and artillery lightened and improved. As it did so, the presence of big guns on the battlefield expanded the scale of war as opposing troops sought to move beyond hitherto unheard of killing ranges. At the start of the 16th century bombards could throw a large stone ball close to 2,500 meters, and an iron ball perhaps 1,800. No archer-not even a longbowman-came close to that range, while handguns were useless as aimed weapons past 50 meters. Artillery also encouraged broadening of formations by compelling defenders to stretch their squares so fewer ranks were exposed to frontal cannon fire, which could bore bloody holes many ranks deep through a densely packed human square. But this should not be overstated: the shift to fewer infantry ranks did not take hold until the start of the 17th century and had more to do with increasing the effect of massed offensive fire by infantry than trying to avoid cannon fire.

As demand for cannon that might be deployed as field artillery grew, efforts were made to further reduce size and weight. Other experiments refined the recipe for black powder, or altered the weights of powder charges and projectiles. One result was that for a long time types of guns and calibers of ammunition proliferated wildly. This meant that even though cannon were at hand in an artillery train, available ammunition and pre-measured charges might not fit the tubes. Charles V was the first major ruler to standardize artillery. He ordered Imperial guns to conform to seven types. Henri II followed suit, ordering French guns to conform to six standard calibers (cannon, great culverin, culverin-bastard, culverin-moyenne, faucon, and fauconneau). By 1500, France had the best artillery in Europe, a lead it kept to the end of the 16th century. The real breakthrough in field artillery did not occur until the turn of the 17th century, with the innovations of Maurits of Nassau. He reduced artillery used by the United Provinces to four standard calibers (6, 12, 24, and 48 pounders) at a time when the Spanish were still using over 50 types of guns spread over 20-odd calibers.