CHAP. VII.] 



DECLINE OF FEUDALISM. 



209 



of the nicety in workmanship necessary to give full effect 

 to the various inventions. Through the clumsy and in- 

 efficient manner in which the different cannon and other 

 firearms were made, the value of gunpowder and its 

 immense influence was very slow in being perceived. 



Revolving pistols similar to the deadly weapon of 

 to-day, breech-loading rifles on the same principle as the 

 present English Snider, cannon on the principle of the 

 breech-loading Armstrong, were all invented and made 

 hundreds of years ago, and specimens of them can be 

 seen in the Tower of London and elsewhere. They all 

 failed however in the workmanship, and on that account 

 they at once fell into disuse. The great improvement in 

 the mechanical skill of modern times has enabled so- 

 called inventors to furbish up the old discoveries and to 

 construct in an efficient manner the neglected inventions 

 of bygone ages. 



It can readily be understood therefore that at first 

 gunpowder would not produce a striking effect, and this 

 accounts for so little importance being given by the old 

 chroniclers to the use of cannon at Crecy. 



Another peculiarity which marks Crecy as a great 

 epoch in the art of war is the extraordinary influence 

 exerted by the English archers in a pitched battle against 

 the proudest chivalry in Europe. At Crecy also we see 

 the first instance of men-at-arms in a great action 

 deliberately dismounting and fighting on foot with their 

 lances as pikemen. St. Louis's knights, we have seen, 

 used the same tactics at Damietta, but it was in a combat 

 or skirmish covering a landing from vessels, and is no 

 proof that the army in a regular engagement would have 

 adopted 3uch a course. 



Edward III. at Crecy took up a defensive position and 

 evidently intended to await an attack, and his manner of 

 drawing up his army proves that he understood fully the 

 principle (unknown among the Crusaders) that cavalry 

 cannot await an attack and maintain itself on the defen- 

 sive. To give stability and order to his line, to oppose a 

 firm and solid resistance to the charge of the hostile 

 cavalry — which was far superior in numbers to his own — 



p 



