We have already dealt with the second half of the 15th century battle-related bronze arquebus barrel in the Hungarian National Museum, now I would like to present a fine art source that provides further clues for the precise dating of the weapon and confirms our previous assumptions.

A Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum mohácsi csatához köthető arkebúz csöve / The arquebus barrel of the Hungarian National Museum

Our era is rich in magnificent visual representations, of which tapestries are a particularly exciting group. These truly large-format works reveal important details about the art of war and military equipment of the era. We have used them in our analyses before: the series of tapestries depicting the Battle of Pavia and the Tunisian campaign of Charles V are important sources for an accurate understanding of the firearms of the Battle of Mohács.

Now I would like to present a source that I have not had the opportunity to process so far. This week I am spending time in Portugal, at the European Championships of Muzzle Loading arms in Barcelos, near Porto, which is very close to the town of Guimarães. On the hill above the city with its wonderful old town, you can see the medieval fortress that protects the city, a classic knight’s castle, and the prince’s palace.

Guimarães is the cradle of the Portuguese nation, the source of the formation of the independent Portuguese state. By the 15th century, the state, which had significant naval and land power, had also begun to expand. The story of King Afonso V’s successful North African campaign in 1471 is presented in four huge tapestries measuring 4-5 x 10 meters, museum copies of which can be viewed in the exhibition halls of the castle. The originals have been kept in Spain, in the Colegiada de Pastrana Museum, since 1664.

During the campaign, the Portuguese king captured the cities of Asilah and Tangier, which secured the control of the Strait of Gibraltar and thus further expansion for them. The tapestries depict four stages of this campaign: the landing at Asilah, the siege of Asilah, the assault on Asilah, and the capture of Tangier.

The tapestries were made in the Netherlands at the end of the 15th century, but the paintings on which they are based were made by the court painter of the Portuguese monarch, so the work of art paints a fairly accurate picture of the Portuguese army.

It is a particularly important source for us, since few more detailed depictions capture the moment when the hand cannon becomes an arquebus. On the tapestries, we see together gunners firing traditional hand cannons with iron and bronze barrels and gunners who already have weapons with a stock and a lock mechanism. The latter clearly belong to the family that Giorgio Martini calls “scopietto” or is called “escopeta” in Spanish sources and are clearly related to the Mohács-related arquebus barrel of the Hungarian National Museum.

Christian soldier with early arquebus

A closer look at the images shows that in only few cases do we find a depiction in which the soldier holds the handle of the hand cannon under his armpit. The vast majority of shooters aim with a hand cannon in the same way as with crossbows and arquebuses: that is, they use the upper plane of the barrel as a sight. In most cases, the handle, or the simple bed of the early arquebus, is above the shoulder and not below.

Christian soldier with hand cannon held on top of the shoulder

Morish soldier with hand cannon

In the case of the early arquebuses depicted, it is necessary to emphasize that no sights are visible on them, just as in the case of the Mohács arquebus barrel. The stock is no longer simply a handle, but has an angled break at the neck, which allowed the right hand, which is gripping the stock and operating the firing mechanism, not to obscure the barrel plane from view during aiming.

Keresztény lövészek korai, lakatszerkezetes arkebúzzal / Christian soldiers with tinder lock arquebus

One of the arquebuses with a lock mechanism can be seen in the hands of a Christian gunner. The weapon clearly has a cock, probably an early tinder-lock firing mechanism. We do not see a match in the images, but one of the Moorish hand cannon soldiers clearly lights the powder of his weapon with a stick-shaped device – a stick roller from tinder – which supports our earlier assumption that in the era slow matches were used more to light the piece of tinder that was held in the cock.

Bal oldalon: mór lövész kéziágyúval, amint taplópálcával begyújtja a töltetet. Jobb oldalon: mór klövész arkebúzzal, mely számszeríjaknál szokásos emelőkaros elsütőszerkezettel rendelkezik. / Left side: Moorish soldier iginiting hand cannon with a tinder stick, middle: Moorish soldier with an arquebus with lever actuated firing mechanism

In the hands of one of the Moorish warriors we can also see an arquebus with an interesting firing mechanism. Its stock is modern, it is clearly not a hand cannon, and it clearly has a lever-actuated firing mechanism used on crossbows. Confusingly, there is no cock on the weapon. Similar crossbow firing mechanism-like parts were found in the Mohács sites, which, based on this depiction, can also be linked to an arquebus with lever actuated firing mechanism.

These early arquebus stocks resemble crossbow stocks, but their hold differs. Crossbows do not have significant recoil, since the system only must deal with the recoil according to the law of conservation of momentum. Accordingly, the crossbow could be aimed while held close to the cheek.

Puskások és számszeríjászok egy harcrendben, előttük hidegfegyveresek és állópajzsosok (paveserek) / Gunners and cold armed soldiers and paveser in one combat formation

In the case of the “scopietto” or “escopeta”, however, the recoil was much stronger: not only did the law of conservation of momentum apply, but the rocket effect of the gunpowder gases blowing out of the muzzle also increased the recoil. This hard recoil contributed to the development of the stock that could be placed on top of the shoulder and then into the shoulder. However, stocks that could be secured to the face were also present in the 17th century, but the large charges of military weapons typically required more comfortable stocks.

The Pastrana tapestries are particularly exciting visual sources, since other details of the soldiers’ equipment can be analysed in a similar way. I am sure that during the Mohács 1526 research, they will be scrutinized for other details.

Balázs Németh

Janus Pannonius Museum Mohács 500 research group

MATE Wildlife Management and Nature Conservation Institute