A Knight in Action
Our early Anglo-Saxon fathers fought with swords, spears, axes, and a heavy, single-edged knife. The sword was especially the weapon of the horseman, and was not carried by anyone under the rank of thane. The infantry bore the other weapons. The early Anglo-Saxons do not appear to have used the bow and arrow, though in later times the long bow was an important weapon in England. The Anglo-Saxons of olden times were not strong in cavalry. Saxon warriors carried round or oval shields made of wood and covered with leather. Suits of metal armor were worn for defense.
The gallant knights of the Middle Ages fought on horseback, as they went about protecting the weak, redressing the wrongs of the injured, and upholding right against might. They were clad in armor of metal, with swords buckled to their sides. Mail armor of interlinked metallic rings was used until the beginning of the fourteenth century. From this time to the beginning of the seventeenth century, armor was made of solid plates of metal. After 1600, armor was gradually replaced by a new agent of warfare, against which it was no protection. Likewise the shield, the dagger, and the bow gave way, though the long bow continued in use as an English weapon until the close of Queen Elizabeth's reign.
An Archer of the Fifteenth Century
The invention of gunpowder was one of the most far-reaching events of all history. This terrific substance has not only revolutionized warfare, but has changed the current of human history itself. It is not known who invented gunpowder, or when it was first used. It is a compound of saltpetre, charcoal, and sulphur; the proportions in which these three ingredients are mixed vary in different countries and in different kinds of powders. It seems likely that powder was invented in the Far East, perhaps in China. Saltpetre comes, for the most part, from China and India, on whose vast plains it is found mixed with the soil. An ordinary wood fire kindled on ground containing saltpetre would bring the saltpetre into contact with charcoal, and thereby practically produce powder. It is probable that the discovery of the explosive occurred in this accidental way. Fireworks were used in China from a very early date, but it is doubtful if the Chinese, or any other nation of Asia, used gunpowder as a propelling force. It was left for the Western nations to develop and give practical value to the discovery of the Chinese.
Our first knowledge of powder as an agency of war dates from about the year 700 A.D., when it was used by the Byzantine emperors in defending Constantinople against the Saracens. It was employed there, however, not as a propelling force, but in the form of rockets or a fiery liquid called Greek fire. Its first real use in Europe as a power for propulsion was in Spain, where the Moors and the Christians both used some kind of artillery as early as the twelfth century after Christ. Gunpowder was first introduced into England by Roger Bacon, a British scientist, who was born early in the thirteenth century. He probably did not discover its properties independently, but by reading ancient manuscripts. Owing to the crude and uncertain methods of making gunpowder, it did not attain much value until Berthold Schwarz, a German monk, at about 1320 A.D. introduced an improved method of manufacture. The improved powder thus made was first used in England by King Edward III in his war against the Scotch in 1327. It was perhaps used on the continent of Europe earlier than this, but the occasions are uncertain. The tubes from which the missiles were propelled were called "crakeys of war."
Spenser called cannon "those devilish iron engines." They were probably used for the first time in field warfare by the English in the battle at Crécy, a small town in France, where on August 26, 1346, the English defeated the French. The artillery seemed to have been used in this battle merely to frighten the horses of the enemy, and the cannon were laughed at as ingenious toys.
From the Battle of Crécy onward, the use of gunpowder spread rapidly throughout Europe, the Russians being the last to adopt it. Saltpetre, at first used in its natural state, began to be produced artificially, and then the manufacture of powder extended among the nations. During the French Revolution, according to Carlyle, the revolutionists were driven to such extremities for want of powder that they scraped old cellars seeking material for its manufacture. Many recent improvements have been made in the production of gunpowder, the most important resulting in the smokeless powder.
Before the introduction of cannon using gunpowder as a propelling force, various machines were used in warfare for hurling missiles. Large stones and heavy darts or arrows were thrown by means of tightly twisted ropes, like the action of a bow, or through the aid of a lever and sling. Various names were applied to these weapons, the chief of which were the ballista and the catapult. The ballista hurled stones by means of a twisted cord or a lever; the catapult by darts or arrows could throw a projectile half a mile. Both machines were used by the Romans with great effect, in both defensive and offensive warfare. In destroying the wall of a besieged town, the Romans used a battering-ram. It consisted of a beam of wood with a mass of bronze or iron on the end resembling a ram's head. In its earliest form, the battering-ram was beaten against the wall by the soldiers; later it was suspended in a frame and made to swing with ropes. Another kind moved on rollers, the swinging movement being given to it also by means of ropes. The beam of the ram was from sixty to one hundred and twenty feet long, the head sometimes weighed more than a ton, and as many as a hundred men were necessary to swing it. For the protection of the soldiers using it, a wooden roof covered it, and the whole was mounted on wheels. Scarcely any wall could resist the continued blows of the battering-ram. The Romans were the most effective in the use of this engine, though they borrowed it from the Greeks.