The Artillery of the Dukes of Burgundy, 1363-1477
Anyone who has conducted research on early gunpowder artillery knows that it can be a frustrating endeavor. The weapons nomenclature is inconsistent and confusing. There are few intelligible descriptions of the guns' manufacture and operation. And finally, there is the much fought over issue of measuring the weapons' effects at sieges and in battle. Little wonder, then, that so little consensus has emerged from the field.
In an attempt to remedy this situation, two scholars with different areas of expertise have teamed up to produce this study of early gunpowder artillery in Western Europe. Kelly DeVries brings to bear a literally encyclopedic knowledge of medieval military history, while Robert Douglas Smith contributes his highly specialized skills gained while Head of Conservation at the Royal Armouries (Tower of London). The result is an extremely important contribution that no scholar with interests in gunpowder artillery can afford to miss.
The book is broken into four main sections, the first of which is a forty-eight-page "Overall History of Gunpowder Weapons during the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries." This section alone is required reading for medieval and early modern military historians. Here, the authors have written a state-of-the-question essay that underscores the need for a reassessment of the field. Why were Western powers relatively slow to use gunpowder weapons; how did they change the course not only of sieges, but of battles; and just how effective were these guns in their infancy? The authors then use the vigorous military careers of the four Valois dukes of Burgundy (Philip the Bold, John the Fearless, Philip the Good and Charles the Bold) as case studies. Although their arsenals became ever larger and more sophisticated, the dukes' guns alone were rarely decisive either in sieges or battles. Nevertheless, they became a signature arm of ducal armies fighting an ever-changing set of adversaries (who of course marshaled their own guns against the Burgundians), and the historian's records base thickens accordingly with more detailed inventories, narratives, and extant weapons to scrutinize. Whether decisive or not -- and it is striking how often these guns failed in siege operations -- the dukes' ever-growing reliance on gunpowder artillery is clearly discernable.
The next section essentially consists of four chapters, each being a much longer politico-military history devoted to the Burgundian dukes already discussed in the "Overall History" section. This portion covers in painstaking detail the dukes' roles in the Hundred Years War, and their reliance on gunpowder arms to maintain control over their possessions, especially in the Low Countries. One gets little sense of a "military revolution" here: true, the guns played an increasingly prominent role throughout the period; but they were no doomsday weapon, as gunpowder sieges against standard medieval fortifications were often unsuccessful. Large cities like Paris were nearly impregnable to even the strongest siege train, unless the urban population could be co-opted by the besieger. In the case of a Burgundian defeat outside the walls of Neuss in 1474, the authors posit that the determination of the town's population was more than a match for Charles the Bold's guns. Likewise in the field two years later, gunpowder weapons could not save Charles' troops or his own life against a determined Swiss-Lorrainer infantry onslaught at Nancy.
The third section is a detailed analysis of documentary sources, including numerous translations of primary sources. The authors do their best to define such elusive technical terms as "bombard," "canon," "coulovrine," "courtau," "crapaudeau" and "serpentine," among others. In addition, they offer source information as well as speculation on such matters as the types of materials used in these weapons' construction, their builders and suppliers, their transport, their ammunition, their loading and firing, and references to surviving Burgundian examples. Although the authors sometimes cannot draw authoritative conclusions -- indeed, some of these issues will likely never be fully understood -- this reference section will prove immensely helpful to other historians attempting to untangle the difficult source material of the field.
Smith's skills shine in the fourth chapter, an illustrated catalog of twenty-seven surviving Burgundian arms. For each piece, the reader finds its provenance and present-day location, shorter and longer descriptions, the gun's composition and date, its dimensions, and finally references to treatment in other literature. Several black-and-white photographs, as well as line drawings, accompany each piece. Six appendices follow, the first being a tabular "Summary of Weapons" (based on Joseph Garnier's rare 1895 work, L'artillerie des ducs de Bourgogne), with the remaining five consisting of editions and translations of important primary sources.
The book is not entirely without its faults. Perhaps as an inevitable consequence of its dual authorship, the various sections are a bit disjointed. The portions on the four dukes covered in both chapters 1 and 2 are somewhat redundant. Moreover, the second chapter sometimes goes into political and dynastic details that do little to augment the history of artillery. The conclusion (pp. 316-18) barely fills two pages, and is disproportionate to the rest of the book. Finally, it is surprising that there is not more cross-referencing between the narrative and catalog sections of the study. Since terminological issues and the surviving Burgundian arms are covered in detail in chapters 3 and 4, it would seem to have made sense to refer the reader to these catalog sections when such issues are mentioned in the first two chapters. This would have been especially simple and convenient to do, owing to the much appreciated footnote reference system employed throughout the book.
The above criticisms in no way detract from the overall value of this book. The introductory essay is a refreshing reassessment of the field, as well as a call to action; the careers of the four dukes is a book unto itself; and the voluminous catalog and appendices will undoubtedly serve as a handy and informative reference work for years to come.