Class Book for the School of Musketry, Hythe / Prepared for the Use of Officers

by Ernest Christian Wilford

Harquebusiers.

Arquebusiers, or harquebusiers, are mentioned as troops, by Philip de Comines, in these words, Morat 1476.where he speaks of the battle of Morat, fought on the 22nd of June, 1476. “The said towns had in their army, as some that were in the battle informed me, 35,000 men, whereof fower thousand were horsemen, the rest footmen, well chosen and well armed, that is to say, 10,000 pikes, 10,000 halberds, and 10,000 harquebusiers.”

Improvements.

Hitherto the harquebuss had only a straight stock, but now it had a wide butt end, Held to breast.which might be placed against the right breast, and thus held more steadily. Many ancient pieces were held to the breast instead of the shoulder, which will account for their being so short in the stock. A notch was made in the butt for the thumb of the right hand, in order to hold the piece more firmly. Bent butt.When the butt was bent down or hooked as it was at a later period, it was called, from the German word Hake, Hackbutt.a hackbutt, haggebut or hagbut, the small sort being denominated demi-hags.

Mounted Harquebussiers.

Philip de Commines mentions that there were at the battle of Fourniée, in 1495, German harquebusiers, on foot and on horseback. ([Plate 19], fig. 6.)

Arms in time of Henry VIII.

The small arms in the time of Henry VIII., were hand-guns, haguebuts, demi-hagues and the pistol, and it was enacted, “that no hand-gun should be used, of less than one yard, gun and stock included, and the haguebut was not to be under three-quarters of a yard.” The demi-hagues were still smaller, and gave occasion for the origin of pistols, which were invented in the latter part of this reign, at Pistoria in Tuscany. The dag, dagger, or tache, differed from the pistol merely in the shape of its handle.

Inconveniences of match.

The match was a constant source of trouble to the soldier, both from the difficulty of keeping it alight in bad weather, and from the length of time it sometimes took to ignite the charge. Objections to fire-arms.It was therefore not without justice that many persons clamoured about this time against the introduction of fire-arms. They contended that upon no point, save that of penetration, was the harquebuss superior or equal to the long-bow; Rest.its great weight 16 or 18lbs. (seldom less than 12lbs.) obliged it to be supported by a rest, which had a kind of fork to receive the musket, and at the bottom a sharp metal spike, to strike into the ground; ([Plate 19], fig. 5, 7, and 8). When the harquebuss was shouldered the rest was carried in the right hand, and subsequently hung upon it, by means of a string or loop. The difficulty of keeping the powder and match dry, the time taken to load, and its comparative inaccuracy, rendered it of low reputation. Nevertheless it held its ground, Wheel-lock, 1517.and the next improvement was the wheel-lock, by which a more instantaneous ignition of the charge was secured; it was invented at Nuremberg, 1517. It consisted of a little solid wheel of steel, fixed against the plate of the lock of the harquebuss or pistol; it had an axis that pierced it in its centre; at the interior end of this axis which went into the lock, a chain was fastened, which twisted round it on the wheel being turned, and bent the spring by which it was held; to bend this spring a key was made use of, into which the exterior end of the axis was inserted. By turning this key from left to right, the wheel was made to revolve, and by this movement a little slider of copper, which covered the pan with the priming, retired from over it; and by the same movement the cock, armed with a flint like the cock of a fusil, was in a state to be discharged on pulling the trigger with the finger; the cock then falling on the wheel, produced fire, and communicated it to the priming. Used at Parma, 1521.The wheel-lock was first used at the siege of Parma, 1521, In England, 1530.and was brought to England 1530. It was however complicated and difficult to repair, for which reason it could not always be depended upon, as is proved by some fire-arms of this description at the Tower, Serpentine and wheel.which are made with a serpentine, as well as with a wheel, both acted upon by the same trigger.