another theater.
In 1494, Charles VIII of France took his artillery into Italy to enforce his claim to Naples. The result was a sort of 15th century Blitzkrieg. Cities and fortresses surrendered to the French as soon as they saw the French artillery.
There was some resistance in Naples. The fortress of Monte San Giovanni, which had previously withstood a siege of seven years, was taken in eight hours, after which the French troops massacred the garrison. Charles took Naples and then returned to France.
His success, however, inspired an alliance of Spain, Venice, the Papal States, and Milan. The Italian Wars, what some historians consider Europe’s first “world war,” had begun. Before they were over, all the major European powers except England, Sweden, and the Ottoman Empire would be sucked into the Italian battlefield. The principal combatants were the strangely named Holy Roman Empire of the German People — which, under Emperor Charles V, included the rich and powerful kingdom of Spain — and the kingdom of France. The perpetu-ally quarreling Italian mini-states allied themselves with one or another of the great powers. The Swiss cantons supplied troops to both the French and the Imperialists. Infantrymen were, in fact, the main cash crop of Switzerland. Because they had defeated the armies of both Burgundy and the Empire, the Swiss infantry had become the terror of Central Europe. The Swiss cantons rented out their soldiers to the princes of Europe. The Swiss fought in a dense phalanx — mostly pikemen supported by halberdiers, crossbow archers, and men swinging six-foot-long two-handed swords. The Swiss phalanx was quickly copied by the infantry of all the continental powers. The Swiss soldiers considered fighting in these many wars their patriotic duty. They brought money to their home cantons. Their motives were not pure patriotism, however. The loot from enemy camps and cities was a powerful inducement, as was their hatred for the Holy Roman Empire (the Swiss heroes, Arnold von Winkler and William Tell, had resisted the Empire).
Usually, the Swiss fought on the side of the French. In 1513, however, the Imperialists outbid the French, and the Schweizer footmen marched with the forces of the Empire to break the siege of Novaro, where a Swiss garrison was holding out against the French. French artillery broke down the walls of Novaro, but the Swiss erected barricades behind the breaches. Then the relieving army swept down on the French, captured 22 French guns and killed all the gunners.
They lost only 400 men in their attack. Two years later, at Maringano, the Swiss didn’t do so well. This time, they did not attack the rear of a besieging army, but charged directly at the front of a heavily fortified French army equipped with 72 field guns. The Swiss did capture part of the French works but had to dig in under heavy fire. The next day, they were forced back by fire from the artillery and the French harquebusiers. Then the French cavalry turned their retreat into a rout. The attack at Marignano was the last time the Swiss fought French troops and their artillery before the Swiss Guard was wiped out in the French Revolution.
In 1522, the Swiss were again on the side of the French. Prospero Colonna, a condottiere in the service of the Empire, was besieging Milan. The Swiss were eager to attack. As at Novaro, they would come in behind a besieging army, and their enemy was the hated Imperialists. The French commander, Lautrec, was not so optimistic. It looked as if Colonna had fortified the rear of his army as well as the part facing the city. But the Swiss were so insistent, Lautrec was afraid they’d mutiny if he didn’t let them attack. So on April 27, 1522, he ordered the attack.
Colonna had placed cannons and Spanish arquebusiers and musketeers behind a breastwork that overlooked a sunken road. The Imperial cannons blasted bloody lanes through the Swiss phalanx. A single shot striking that dense mass of humanity could kill up to 30 men. A thousand Swiss were killed before they even reached the sunken road. When the Swiss reached the ditch and leaped into it, four lines of Spanish handgunners firing successive volleys shot them down. A few Swiss climbed over the bodies of their comrades to reach the top of the breastwork, but Imperial pikemen pushed them back. More than 3,000
Swiss were killed. The survivors fled, and, as historian Christopher Duffy puts it, “The bellicose and independent spirit of the Swiss was broken forever.”
Field artillery was improved continuously, well into the 19th century. It became one of the three key elements of warfare and was the key to Napoleon’s victories. For a time, its supremacy was challenged by the high-velocity rifle, but then cannons were given rifling and recoil-absorbing mechanisms, and in World War II, it was still the most lethal of military weapons.
Chapter 15
Power in the Hands: The Matchlock
The first gun small enough to be carried by infantry was far from a decisive weapon. A typical “hand cannon” was a short metal tube fitted to the end of a wooden pole. From a distance, it looked like a short spear. The hand gunner loaded his weapon with gunpowder and a lead ball. He then held the wooden pole with one hand, and with the other he poked a red-hot iron wire into a hole, called a “touch-hole” in the top of the gun. Guiding the wire to the touch-hole meant that he was not able to aim. The gun made a bright flash, a terrifying noise, and a lot of smoke. Other than that, it seldom did any damage. There was a good reason why the Arabs and Turks were not interested in guns.
Jump ahead about three centuries: Samuel de Champlain, the French explorer, is asked by some Indians he is visiting (members of the Huron tribe), for help against their enemies, members of the formidable Iroquois confed- eracy. Champlain loads his gun, a long heavy device that bears no resemblance to the early hand cannons, with a charge of powder and three bullets. He joins the army of his new friends, and they confront the Iroquois army. Both armies consist of naked warriors armed with bows and arrows. Two of the Iroquois chiefs advance to challenge the Hurons. One of the chiefs lifts his bow.
Champlain fires.
Both chiefs fall to the ground. The Iroquois flee.
Champlain’s shot, hitting two enemies at once, was probably the best the explorer ever made. It was also one of the most historic in North American history. It started the centuries-long hostility between the Iroquois and the French, a development that had the most profound effect on colonial North America.
A lot of development went into Champlain’s exceptionally lethal weapon.
One of the first was getting rid of the hot wire as a means of ignition. Using wires to fire guns meant that soldiers had to have a fire nearby to keep their wires hot. That was not very convenient in the midst of a battle. Somebody substituted a piece of cord that had been steeped in potassium nitrate and brandy to make it burn slowly and steadily. Its effect was something like the punk used to ignite Fourth of July fireworks. Some fires were still needed in case a match went out, but usually a soldier could reignite his match from another soldier’s.
A burning match could not be easily poked into a touch-hole, so gunmakers built guns with a small pan above the touch-hole. When gunpowder in this “priming pan” ignited, the fire would flash into the main charge.
The gun, though, was still no easier to aim. Then some genius built a gun with a pivoted arm that would swing the burning end of the match right into the pan. The arm was fastened to the wooden stock, so the pan and the touch-hole were moved to the side of the gun. That made construction of the swivel simpler, but, more important, it made aiming the gun easier — the swivel didn’t interfere with the line of sight.
While these improvements had been going on, guns got longer and heavier.
Their long barrels could propel a bullet with enough force to be deadly at a distance. Fitting a trigger to let the gunner move the swiveled arm with one finger made aiming still easier. Gunsmiths used a variety of trigger arrangements. The simplest was extending the swiveling arm below the pivot so the gunner could lower the match by pulling the bottom of the arm. That made an awkward reach for the trigger finger, and it required the touch-hole to be too far forward for efficiency. More efficient was the system that put the trigger at the center of the bottom of the stock and had it move the match-holder with an arrangement of levers. A spring returned the match-holder, or “serpentine,” to its original position when the gunner released the trigger. It finally became easy to aim and fire a gun — as easy as aiming and shooting a crossbow. To further aid the process, gunsmiths began fitting sights to their products.
The Portuguese brought this more efficient gun to India, and Indian gunmakers were still building this type of
