Not Only Barrels – Equipment for Firearms in the State of the Teutonic Order in Prussia
Journal Title: Ordines Militares Colloquia Torunensia Historica. Yearbook for the Study of the Military Orders - Year 2017, Vol 22, Issue
Abstract
The study focuses on equipment for firearms in the state of the Teutonic Order in Prussia in the Middle Ages and the Early Modern Period. The paper is chiefly based on written sources, both concerning the Order itself (mainly account books, inventories and visitation reports) and those related to Prussian towns (chiefly account books). In some cases relevant pieces of information could also be retrieved from narrative sources. For the sake of comparison, data from contemporary and later manuscripts on firearms was consulted. The first issue which is dealt with are stocks for hand-held firearms and trestles, stands and carriages for artillery. In many cases it is possible to offer a closer identification of kinds of gun beds, trestles and carriages. Then, gun instruments are discussed: charging ladles, ramrods, linstocks, and the like, as well as various kinds of containers for gunpowder, projectiles and tools for firearms. Regrettably, it is only in exceptional cases that it is possible to relate discussed equipment to a particular gun. A separate section is devoted to the analysis of tools which were used in the manufacture of projectiles and gunpowder. In spite of all the limitations resulting from the nature of consulted sources, it is possible to offer a reasonable image of equipment which accompanied firearms in the Order’s state.
Authors and Affiliations
Grzegorz Żabiński
Keywords
Related Articles
- EP ID EP306374
- DOI 10.12775/OM.2017.007
- Views 110
- Downloads 0
A proposal for the reform of the Hospital in the Late Thirteenth Century
Although opposition to masters was voiced in several military orders in the thirteenth century, the criticism expressed in the Hospital in 1295 was unusual in that an attempt was made to alter the order’s structure of go...
Reformen und Erneuerungen im Deutschen Orden vom 16. bis zum 20. Jahrhundert
The turning-points in the 16thcentury made renewals necessary. After loosing Prussia in 1525 the German Master took over the leadership, not the Master of Livonia. He united the bailiwicks in the German Empire, but Livon...
Gab es Reformen im Templerorden?
The downfall of the Templars in the early fourteenth century has on occasion been explained as a consequence of the Order’s supposed inability to reform, particularly when compared to the Hospitallers and Teutonic Knight...
Herausforderung und Schwache: die Johanniter und die Anfange der äußeren Bedrohung von Rhodos, 1428–1464
The Hospitallers’ and Templars’ involvement in warfare on the frontiers of the British Isles in the late thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries