CHAPTER XVIII THE EVOLUTION OF ARTILLERY AND ENGINEERS The early history of the Engineers and the Artillery in England may be traced in the continued existence, from the Conqueror to Henry VIII., of a high official called in Latin documents the King’s _Ingeniator_, because he had charge of _Engines_ of War (Latin _ingenium_). About 1300 the _Ingeniator_ (or _Engyneor_, as he was called in English, from the Old French _Engineur_) became styled _Attilator_ (probably a slovenly rendering of _Artillator_), from the fact that, having charge of the engines of war, he naturally took over the latest form of them, the new invention of _artillery_. This word is derived from the French _artillerie_, which meant the art of the _artilleur_, or _articulier_, from _articularius_, or the man who handled _articula_, the _articles_ or the “_things_,” as the newly invented guns began by being styled, that word being a diminutive of _art-em_, _art_. THE ARTILLERY The word _artillery_ meant in the sixteenth century the guns used by the _artilleur_, but did not denote the Arm of the Service till the end of the next century, before which time Artillery had hardly an independent existence, but formed merely a portion of the train, or mass of vehicles which followed an army. GUNS Cannon were at first used in fortresses during the fifteenth century, soon after the invention of gunpowder. They were soon mounted on wheels, and then provided with trunnions and a trail. They seem to have been first brought into the field by the Hussites in Bohemia, and then in the French invasion of Italy in 1496. The French added the limber to carry the trail on the march, and thus finally gave guns the form they still have. In the mid-sixteenth century the armies of three great monarchs, the Emperor Charles V., Francis I. of France, and Henry VIII. of England, possessed a train of cannon for the field. At this epoch there were many descriptions of mobile guns of various calibres: the heavy, 42- and 24-pounders, for siege purposes chiefly, were drawn by several yoke of oxen; the lighter ones, for use in the field, fired 2, 4, or 6 pound shot, and were drawn by horses in single file. The drivers, till the end of the eighteenth century, walked on foot beside their horses, carrying carters’ whips, and were civilians, hired with their teams from the country. To keep them from running away, the train of guns and wagons carrying ammunition were under an escort of Infantry, who were only much later used for protection of the guns. The working of the gun, and its technical mysteries, were in the hands of the _Master Gunner_, with his _Gunner_ and two assistants for each gun. In England these gentry were apart from the army, and solely controlled by the _Master-General of the Ordnance_, as the Artillery and the nearly related Engineers remained down to our own time.