"A gunne, fundibalum, murusculum. A gunner, fundibalarus, fundibalista." CATH. ANG. written A. D. 1483. The difficulty of ascertaining with precision the period of the introduction of engines from which missiles were propelled by means of gunpowder, arises chiefly from the circumstance, to which allusion is made by Selden, that the term gun, supposed by Somner to be merely a contraction of mango, or mangona, may have been used to denote some engine of war, long before the application of gunpowder to such purpose. Mr. Douce observes that the earliest mention of "gonnes" is found in the Romance of Kyng Alisaunder, line 3268; but in his note on that passage he says that it must not be conluded that they were used with powder, as originally they might have been engines of the catapult kind. Weber, Metr. Rom. iii. 306. The same remark applies to the account of the siege sustained by Kynge Aragus, who
—"ordeyned hym ful well
With gonnes, and grete stones rounde
Were throwen downe to the grounde." Syr Tryamoure, 955.
In the Avowynge of Kyng Arther, a "gunne" is mentioned, the effect of which is compared to lightning, but it is still doubtful whether the term should be understood to imply a projectile impelled by any ignited substance, or merely filled therewith.
"There came fliand a gunne,
And lemet as the leuyn." St. 65, edit. by Mr. Robson.
It seems very probable that the missile here intended was a tube filled with Greek fire, or feu volant. In several MSS. of the Practica of John Arderne, a surgeon of emi∣nence t. Edw. III. instructions are found for compounding "fewes Gregois" and "fewes volants:" the latter being a liquid mixture, described as of an oily nature, with which a pipe being filled, and ignited by a match, would fly in any direction. A figure is given in the margin. He proceeds to describe "fewe volant" of another kind. "Pernez j. li. de soufre vif, de charbones de saux, (i. weloghe,) ij. li., de salpetre, vij. li. si les fetez bien et sotelment moudre sur un piere de marbre, puis bultez le poudre parmy vn sotille couerchief. Cest poudre vault à gettere pelottes de fer, ou de plom, ou d'areyne, oue vn instrument qe l'em appelle gonne." See Sloane MSS. 335, 795. A detailed account of passages in ancient documents or chronicles which throw light on this obscure subject has been given by Sir S. Meyrick, in his Crit. Enquiry, and a paper on the history of hand fire-arms, Archaeol. xxii.; and likewise by Mr. Archibald, in his description of ancient artillery discovered on the coast of Lancashire, Archaeol. xxviii. It may here suffice to state that gunpowder was known in Western Europe about the middle of the XIIIth cent.; and that the earliest recorded instance of its use in war, in this country, appears to have been in the first expedition of Edw. III. against the Scots, in 1327, when artillery, termed by Barbour "crakys of wer," was employed. See Jamieson. There can be no doubt that Chaucer uses the term "gonne," to signify an engine charged with gunpowder; as in the following comparison:
"Swift as a pellet out of a gonne,
When fire is in the pouder ronne." House of Fame, B. iii.
The Household of Edw. III. as appears by the ordinances which commence 1344, printed by the Ant. Soc., comprised "Ingyners lvij. Artellers vj. Gonners vj." Their daily pay in time of war was 6d. The invention of hand fire-arms is assigned by Sir S. Meyrick, on the authority of Billius, to the Lucquese, in 1430; (Archaeol. xxii. 60) yet a prior use of some weapons of the sort seems to be indicated. In an Inventory of the arms and effects of Sir Simon Burley, taken apparently after his execution, 1388, and now in the possession of Sir Thomas Phillipps, among "petites choses à Baynard Castell," is named "j. petit gonne de feer." In the Pell Records, 1 Hen. IV. 1400, payments appear for "quarell gunnes," at 7s. each; for saltpetre, sulphur, and wadding; and the contemporary evidence of Monstrelet shews that "bastons à feu" were among the arms of the English sent to the relief of the siege of Orleans, in 1428. Hand-guns are named among purchases for the defence of Holy Island, 1446; and were used at the siege of Caistor, in Norfolk, about 1459. Paston Lett. iv. 316. In the version of Vegecius at∣tributed to Trevisa, and completed 1408, in the account of military engines, allusion is made to "grete gonnes that shete now a daies stones of so grete peyse that no walle may with-stonde them; as hathe be wele shewede bothe in the Northe cuntre, and eke in the werres of Wales." B. IV. c. 22, Roy. MS. 18 A. XII.