In the heading to this chapter, I have used the word ' handgun' to express any hand fire-arm that was carried by the individual soldier in mediaeval times.

Hand-guns were first seen in warfare at the end of the fourteenth century, and were then known as hand-cannon. They were merely small reproductions of the fire-arms or cannon which for many years previously had been employed in sieges.

The earliest hand-gun consisted of a short metal tube, of  1/2 in. to 3/4 in. bore, with a touch-hole on the top of its breech-end, like a cannon.

This tube was fastened to a straight piece of wood, either by means of small iron hoops, or by thongs of leather.

The weapon was discharged by placing a burning fuse to the priming powder which was piled up over its touch-hole. The first hand-gun was, in fact, a miniature cannon, made light enough to be manipulated by one man, and with a handle fastened to its breech-end by which to hold and direct it. This form of hand-gun was in limited use in foreign armies till about 1460.

For a long time after their introduction, the smaller hand-guns had straight narrow stocks, similar in shape to those of military crossbows, the pointed end of the stock of the handgun, as in the larger crossbow, being rested upon the top of the right shoulder when aim was taken, fig. 4, p. 8.

Even the manner of sighting over the thumb, as it lay on the top of the stock, was also copied from the crossbow, a primitive system of alignment retained in the hand-gun for many years.

The straight crossbow-shaped stock was not generally discarded in handguns, and the enlarged butt-end for the shoulder substituted, till about 1500.

The next variety of hand-gun was very heavy, and was known as a culverin. Small culverins were, however, carried by horsemen, but the

The Crossbow   > Chapter 8   >  Summary of the Development of the Medieval Handgun  > p.40