Mons Meg
Mons Meg | |
---|---|
Hainault, Wallonia | |
Service history | |
Used by | Kingdom of Scotland |
Production history | |
Designer | Jehan Cambier |
Produced | June 1449 |
Specifications | |
Mass | 6.6 t |
Length | 406 cm |
Barrel length | 280 cm |
Diameter | 20 inches (510 mm) |
Shell weight | 175 kg |
Mons Meg is a medieval bombard in the collection of the Royal Armouries, on loan to Historic Environment Scotland and located at Edinburgh Castle in Scotland.[1] It has a barrel diameter of 20 inches (510 mm), making it one of the largest cannons in the world by calibre.
Mons Meg was built in 1449 on the orders of
Construction
The bombard was manufactured from 25 longitudinal staves of iron, held together with iron hoops shrunk into place, to form one piece.[2][3] A separate breech for loading is screw-fitted into the rear of the barrel.[4] The barrel is attached to the powder chamber by means of a groove on the powder chamber into which lugs on the end of the barrel staves fit, and then bound permanently together by the hoops. The powder chamber itself is made from small pieces of iron hammer-welded together to make a solid wrought-iron forging.[5] Mons Meg has a diameter of 19 inches (480 mm), one of the largest ever built,[6] weighs 15,366 pounds (6,970 kg)[7] and is 13 feet (4.0 m) in length.[8]
History
Mons Meg was constructed by Jehan Cambier, artillery maker to the Duke of Burgundy.
An alternative legend about its manufacture is that it was built by a local blacksmith for the siege of
The 20 inches (510 mm)-diameter cannon accepted stone balls that weighed 175 kilograms (386 lb). In April 1497, John Mawer elder, one of the castle gunners, made new wheels for Mons Meg and the bombards. The cannon was drawn down the Royal Mile to the sound of minstrels playing, placed on a new carriage or "cradle" and taken to assault Norham Castle in August 1497.[13] Regent Albany brought Mons Meg to Stirling Castle in August 1515 to threaten Margaret Tudor, who kept her son James V of Scotland in the castle.[14]
In early years the gun, like the other royal cannon, was painted with
The gun was fired on 30 October 1680 to celebrate a visit by James, Duke of Albany and York (later King James VII), but the barrel burst.[6] An English cannoneer had loaded the charge and many Scots believed that the damage was done on purpose out of jealousy, because the English had no cannon as big as this. The incident was also seen as a bad omen for the future King.[17]
The cannon was left outside Foog's Gate at Edinburgh Castle. It was next taken, with other disused ordnance, to the
Mons Meg was a large old-fashioned piece of ordnance, a great favourite with the Scottish common people; she was fabricated at Mons in Flanders, in the reign of James IV. or V. of Scotland. This gun figures frequently in the public accounts of the time, where we find charges for grease, to grease Meg's mouth withal (to increase, as every schoolboy knows, the loudness of the report), ribands to deck her carriage, and pipes to play before her when she was brought from the Castle to accompany the Scottish army on any distant expedition. After the Union, there was much popular apprehension that the Regalia of Scotland, and the subordinate Palladium, Mons Meg, would be carried to England to complete the odious surrender of national independence. The Regalia, sequestered from the sight of the public, were generally supposed to have been abstracted in this manner. As for Mons Meg, she remained in the Castle of Edinburgh, till, by order of the Board of Ordnance, she was actually removed to Woolwich about 1757. The Regalia, by his Majesty's special command, have been brought forth from their place of concealment in 1818, and exposed to the view of the people, by whom they must be looked upon with deep associations; and, in this very winter of 1828–9, Mons Meg has been restored to the country, where that, which in every other place or situation was a mere mass of rusty iron, becomes once more a curious monument of antiquity.
— Notes to Rob Roy, Sir Walter Scott
Naming
The gun is not called "Mons Meg" in any contemporary references until 1678. In 1489, she first appears in record as "Monss" and in the painter's account of 1539 she is called; "Monce in the castell", the only piece with an individual name. In 1650 she was noted as "Muckle Meg".[19][15] "Meg" may either be a reference to Margaret of Denmark, Queen of James III of Scotland, or simply an alliteration, while Mons was one of the locations where the cannon was tested. McKenzie records that this class of artillery was known as a murderer and Mons Meg was certainly described as such.[20] Mons Meg was made in the town of Mons (now the Walloon French-speaking part of Belgium) or Bergen (in Dutch as in those days it was part of Flanders). Three cannons were founded, one resides in Edinburgh, one in the Flemish town of Ghent at the Friday Market and one in France but this disappeared ages ago. The one in Ghent can be visited today, undamaged. The cannon is named "Dulle Griet" which translates into "Mad Meg".
Evolution of the carriage
For a while in its early days the Mons sat on a plain box without any wheels. Evidently, when Mons Meg was removed from Edinburgh Castle in 1754, her carriage had long since rotted away. A contemporary account describes her as lying "on the ground" near the innermost gate to the castle.[21] Presumably the Ordnance Board fabricated a new carriage after her arrival at the Tower. In 1835, after the return of Mons Meg to Edinburgh Castle, the London-made carriage rotted away too and fabrication of a cast-iron replacement was undertaken; the new carriage weighed three and a half tons and cost £53.[22] Mons Meg is now mounted on a reproduction of the carriage depicted in a carving of c. 1500 on a wall of Edinburgh Castle, built in 1934 at a cost of £178 and paid for by the Lord Provost of Edinburgh.[23]
See also
- List of the largest cannon by calibre
References
- ^ "Loans out". Royal Armouries. Archived from the original on 13 November 2017. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
- OCLC 18037111.
- ^ a b "Technique: Hoop and Band". royalarmouries.org. Royal Armouries. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
- ^ "Bombard and carriage—Mons Meg—1449". royalarmouries.org. Royal Armouries. Retrieved 29 January 2024.
- ^ ISBN 0948092092.
- ^ .
- ISBN 978-0-85115-357-5.
- ^ "Edinburgh Castle, Mons Meg | Canmore". canmore.org.uk. Retrieved 24 November 2020.
- ^ Morvern French & Roger Mason, 'Art, Artefacts, Artillery', Alexander Fleming & Roger Mason, Scotland and the Flemish People (John Donald, 2019), pp. 110-2.
- ^ McGladdery, Christine (2015). James II (2 ed.). Edinburgh, Scotland: Birlinn Ltd. p. 201.
- ^ "The Ancient Bombard, Preserved at Edinburgh Castle". The Archaeological Journal. 10. 1853. Retrieved 16 December 2013.
- ISBN 9781904607892.
- ^ Thomas Dickson, Accounts of the Treasurer, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), pp. 328, 347–350.
- ^ J. S. Brewer, Letters and Papers, Henry VIII, 2:1 (London, 1864), clxxix, 209 no. 788.
- ^ a b Accounts of the Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 7 (Edinburgh, 1907), 222.
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 1 (Edinburgh, 1877), ccxxiii footnote; vol. 10 (Edinburgh, 1913), lxxv–lxxvi, 367.
- ^ Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland. Edinburgh : W & R Chambers. p. 329.
- ^ "'Shannon the Cannon' – Edinburgh's District Gunner". Ministry of Defence. 3 February 2009. Archived from the original on 23 April 2010. Retrieved 14 May 2010.
- ^ Accounts of the Lord High Treasurer of Scotland, vol. 1, Edinburgh (1877), ccxx–ccxxiii, 115.
- ^ McKenzie, Page 319
- ^ Blair, Claude (1967) "A New Carriage for Mons Meg" Journal of the Arms and Armour Society London V(12) pages 431–452
- ISBN 978-1-84033-920-8.
- ^ "Mons Meg Cannon at Edinburgh Castle to have a 'MOT'". BBC. 19 January 2015. Retrieved 21 January 2015.
Sources
- Gaier, Claude (1967) The Origin of Mons Meg. Journal of the Arms and Armour Society London V(12) 425–431
- Grose, Francis (1801) Military Antiquities respecting a History of the English Army from the Conquest to the Present Time. T. Egerton and G. Kearsley London, UK
- Hewitt, J (1853) Mons Meg the ancient bombard, preserved at Edinburgh castle. Archeological Journal 10 25–32
- Lead, Peter (1984) Mons Meg: A Royal Cannon. Mennock Publishing Cheshire, UK
- Lead, Peter (2021) Mons Meg - a symbol of Scotland. Catrine: Stenlake Publishing Ltd
- McKenzie, Agnes Mure (1948). Scottish Pageant 1513–1625. Edinburgh : Oliver & Boyd.
- Norris, John (2003) Early Gunpowder Artillery 1300–1600 Motorbooks International
- Paul, Sir James Balfour (1915–1916) Ancient Artillery. With Some Notes on Mons Meg. Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 50 191–201
- Sands, Kathleen (1999) Though one of the best-documented of medieval bombards, Mons Meg was the subject of exaggeration and legend Military History. 16(3) 22–23
- Scott, Sir Walter (1817) Waverley Novels, Rob Roy (Notes G) Edinburgh
- Schmidtchen, Volker (1977), "Riesengeschütze des 15. Jahrhunderts. Technische Höchstleistungen ihrer Zeit", Technikgeschichte, 44 (2): 153–173 (166–168)
- Smith, Robert D and Brown, Ruth Rhynas Bombards- Mons Meg and her sisters Royal Armouries Monograph 1 ISBN 0-948092-09-2
External links
- The official Edinburgh Castle website
- Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle
- Photo of Mons Meg from RampantScotland.com