In the last quarter of the fifteenth century the crossbow with its ropes and windlass, and its stirrup and necessarily long and heavy stock (to suit the action of the windlass), fell into disfavour with hunters of deer and other animals. The reason of this was the gradual perfecting of an instrument for stretching the string of a crossbow which enabled the crossbowman- to dispense with the cumbersome metal foot-stirrup, and to have a much shorter and lighter stock to his weapon than had hitherto been possible. This apparatus was the French ' cranequin ' or ratchet-winder. Not only was the cranequin simpler in use and more portable than the windlass, but it was also nearly as powerful, and, as it had no cords to fall out of repair, was practically indestructible.¹

The cranequin was, however, considerably slower to work than a windlass, and could not, for instance, wind up the bow-string of a military crossbow with the rapidity necessary in open warfare. Its costly construction was also against its adoption by soldiery.

Slow to manipulate and expensive to make in comparison with the windlass, I doubt if the cranequin crossbow was ever popular in armies, though it is quite likely that it was employed by picked marksmen from behind the loop-holes and battlements of a besieged fortress. It is stated by various authors on military subjects, that in the fifteenth century crossbowmen were sometimes known as ' crenequiniers,' from their practice of shooting at the besiegers of a castle or town through the crenelles (loop-holes) in its walls.²

¹ The mechanism of the cranequin was precisely the same as that of the old-fashioned lifting jack to be seen in timber yards.

² Crenequin or crennequin is a way of spelling this word only to be found in modern works on armour and weapons. Cranequin is the old French spelling, and for this reason I consider there is no foundation for the surmise that the word ' cranequin' is in any way derived from "crenelle." In manuscripts of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, cranequin is sometimes spelt crannequin, carnequin, carnequyn and carnequing. Littre', in his Dictionnaire de la Langue Francaise, states that ' cranequin is derived from the Low German, " Kraeneke, a crane," owing to its shape.' The crossbow was itself often called a " cranequin," and the crossbowman a '"cranequinier" or " crannequinier."