Mons Meg
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| Mons Meg | |
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 Mons Meg with its 20" (50 cm) caliber cannon balls |
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| Type | Cannon |
| Place of origin | Mons, Duchy of Burgundy |
| Service history | |
| Used by | Kingdom of Scotland |
| Production history | |
| Designer | Jehan Cambier |
| Produced | June 1449 |
| Specifications | |
| Weight | 6.6 t |
| Length | 406 cm |
| Barrel length | 280 cm |
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| Shell weight | 175 kg |
| Caliber | 50 cm (ball diameter) |
Mons Meg is a medieval supergun now located at Edinburgh Castle, Scotland. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip III, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years later to King James II of Scotland, with other artillery supplies.
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[edit] History
The bombard was manufactured from longitudinal bars of iron, hooped with rings fused into one mass.[1] The Duke's artillery maker Jehan Cambier constructed it, and it was successfully tested at Mons, Hainaut, Wallonia, in June 1449; however, the Duke did not take delivery of the Mons Meg until 1453. Desiring to "interfere in British affairs"[citation needed], the Duke decided to help the Scots against the English. Mons Meg weighs 15,366 pounds (6,970 kg), is 15 feet (4.6 m) in length, and has a calibre of 20 inches (510 mm). The final cost of the gun was £1,536. 2s.
A conflicting theory, based on limited evidence, suggests it was constructed in order to aid James II in the 1452 siege of Threave Castle in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, when the Clan MacLellan used it to batter the castle.
The 20-inch (510 mm) calibre cannon accepted balls that weighed about 400 pounds (180 kg), although it could only be fired 8-10 times a day due to the tremendous heat generated by the powder charge required. It has been suggested that Meg was one of the armaments on James IV's carrack, the Great Michael, which would make it the ship with the largest calibre gun in history.[citation needed] From the 1540s Meg was retired from active service and was fired only on ceremonial occasions from Edinburgh Castle, from where shot could be found up to two miles distant.[citation needed]
The gun was last fired in 1680 to celebrate the arrival of James Duke of Albany and York, later King James II of England and VII of Scotland, when the barrel burst. 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 future King.[2]
The cannon was left outside Foog's Gate at Edinburgh Castle. It was next taken, with other disused ordnance, to the Tower of London in 1754, but was returned to the Castle in 1829, after the intervention of Sir Walter Scott. Following a restoration, it now sits outside St. Margaret's Chapel.
"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.
The gun is never called "Mons Meg" in any contemporary references until the 17th century. The "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 originally tested.
Besides the Mons Meg, a number of 15th century European superguns are known to have been employed primarily in siege warfare, including the wrought-iron Pumhart von Steyr and Dulle Griet as well as the cast-bronze Faule Mette, Faule Grete and Grose Bochse.
[edit] Evolution of the carriage
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.[3] Presumably a new carriage was fabricated by the Ordnance Board 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.
As we see Mons Meg today, it is mounted on a reproduction of the carriage depicted in a stone carving of ca. 1500 on a wall of Edinburgh Castle.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland. Edinburgh : W & R Chambers. p. 330
- ^ Chambers, Robert (1885). Domestic Annals of Scotland. Edinburgh : W & R Chambers. p. 329.
- ^ Blair, Claude (1967). A New Carriage for Mons Meg.Journal of the Arms and Armour Society London V(12) pages 431 - 452.
[edit] References
- 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 *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 0948092092
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
Media related to Mons Meg at Wikimedia Commons- The official Edinburgh Castle website
- Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle
- Photo of Mons Meg from RampantScotland.com
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