Early Field Artillery | Evolution of Warfare 1450-1650

Artillery was a touchy subject in the late medieval and the early modern period. For example, captured enemy master gunners were frequently made a human cannonball. Friendly artillerymen, in contrast, were usually appreciated for their destructive capabilities but not trusted completely. Their craft of killing and destroying at a distance was incomprehensible to the other soldiers and considered by many to be a dark art. So, without further ado let’s look at what this dark art looked like in practice and what the position of artillery was within early modern armies.

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