French cannon 15th-16th Century, Rhodes

[ChrisPer]

I was recently privileged to go to the Musee de l'Armee, at the Hotel des Invalides, Paris. As an Australian I find the highest thrill in going to see places that had walls; and the artillery in one gallery are of the period that brought down the Medieval walls and inspired the Italian system of fortification commonly known as Star forts, developed in response to the smashing superiority of cannon against medieval walls when France under Charles VIII invaded the Italian peninsula from 1494..

The week before I had seen one of the simplest examples of these, Fort Medoc a simple four-point star fort of earth banks with moat that was part of a three-fort chain designed by Vauban to close the Gironde to ships sailing from the Atlantic to attack Bordeaux.
Star forts described here

Excellent resource on star forts history and operation under siege
Resource on seige warfare in age of star forts

The great sieges of Rhodes were in 1444 by the Sultan of Egypt and 1480 by Mehmet the Conqueror (who had taken Constantinople in 1453). The Knights survived those sieges, but finally were defeated in 1522 and their few survivors moved to re-establish in Malta.

Having read this I was thrilled to see the dates on a series of French bronze guns in the Musee de l'Armee which could indicate they were involved in this campaign - except that their provenance was Rhodes. These guns instead were made to defend Rhodes where the Knights Hospitaliers of Saint John eventually re-established themselves in 1309 after they were kicked out of Jerusalem by the Turk. They show what the gunfounders of that period were up to.
Firstly, they are all solid bronze rather than forged iron like the bombards of fifty to a hundred years earlier. They were made of 1.5 to 2.5 tonnes of bronze, a magnificent feat of gunfounding. Just melting that much bronze probably required ten times that weight of charcoal, and therefore consumed large patches of forest.

They are marked with the arms of the commissioning individuals cast in high relief, but without the formal sophistication and symmetry typical of decoration on guns of a hundred years later. Formed rings are
plate-bands, and multiple flats on some give a polygonal profile that shows quite sophisticated mould-making. Decorations include fleur-de-lys, fleur-de-lys as a garland, and rampant lions.

The guns range in form from a short-fat tube that is more a howitzer form, to the super-long grand culverin. They are all cast with strong large-diameter trunnions, so the carriages were obviously not the wooden 'beds' of the more medieval type.

The culasse (Arse-end) of the guns have lion-faces, radiant suns (seen later on the guns of Louis XIV) and the late ones have an awkward-looking projecting beam, above the centre line, which I presume to be a lift point for slinging and perhaps was also meant for the wedge (quoin) to lift and set the elevation. None had sights that I could see.

The first gun I am showing is the oldest. From the label:
1. Cannon of Louis XI, 1476
length 2.24m, 245mm bore, weight 1633 kg
Ball of stone or iron
From Rhodes

Shape in transition from the bombard and the Renaissance French cannon. It carries fleur de lys surmounted by a corona of high flowers. The band around the mouth is particularly interesting it says inscribed in Gothic characters

The command of Louis, by the grace of God king of France, the eleventh of the name, Jean Chollet, knight, master of artillery said Lord led me in Chartres, 1478

The second gun in this post is

2. Cannon of the end of the reign of Louis XI (last quarter of the 15th century)
Bronze, length 2.56m, 180mm calibre, 1,421 kg, ball of stone or iron
From Rhodes

The morphology of this piece is developed further from that of bombards; the culasse is less thick than the reinforce. It is decorated with large plate-bands/ fleurs
de lys, and the muzzle with a garland of fleur de lys which is typical of the reign of Louis XII.


The photos are my own and may be freely used without attribution except for the last one of the Grande Culverin which is open copyright from Wikipedia. The line drawing from the second resource on siege warfare and star forts.