GUNPOWDER. 183 



In 1418 iron balls were not used for cannon in England, 

 since in Rymer there is an order from King Henry V. to the 

 clerk of the ordnance, and John Bonet, a mason of Maidstone, 

 in Kent, to cut 7,000 stone shot in the stone quarries there; 

 but there is reason to believe that the French had at that time 

 iron balls in common use, since at the attack of Cherbourg, 

 towards the close of the year 1418, the Duke of Gloucester, 

 who commanded the beseigers, was much annoyed by red hot 

 balls fired from the town : a very singular occurrence, the state 

 of artillery at that period being considered. 



In 1428 the valiant and dreaded Earl of Salisbury fell by a 

 cannon shot at the siege of Orleans, and was, according to 

 Camden, the first English gentleman "ever slain thereby e." 

 Salisbury was reconnoitring the town from a high tower on the 

 bridge, when the son of the master gunner of Orleans, pointed 

 a cannon at the window and slew him ; the ball carried away one 

 of his eyes and his cheek, and mortally wounded one Sir Thomas 

 Gargrave. 



At the siege of Belgrade by the Turks A. D. 1437, they 

 were repulsed by the help of gunpowder, then used for the first 

 time in that part of Europe. But the extreme awkwardness in 

 the early construction of cannon, and the great cost of gun- 

 powder, may fairly account for the preference still given to the 

 old engines for discharging stones. Two pieces of artillery used 

 at Dieppe in 1442, as represented by Pere Monffaucoti, seem 

 ill calculated for service ; nor does there appear throughout the 

 century any contrivance to elevate or depress the pieces ; a de- 

 ficiency which must have rendered them comparatively useless.* 



* Edward IV. had field pieces when he defeated Sir Robert Wells at 

 Stamford 1469, and which was the first time they were employed by an 

 English army. < The King, (says Leland) sparkeled the enemie with 

 his ordnance, slew many of the commons, and thereby gained the vic- 

 tory." At the battle of Flodden, 1515, the Scots were much superior 



Q2 



