It is, however, the use of them in the fifteenth century, to which our attention is at present to be devoted. Although writers admit the occasional use of cannons and other firearms by the English, in that century, it has been commonly imagined, that they were not generally used by them until the following one. I, therefore, shall endeavour to show, that that idea is not correct, and that in the fifteenth century, firearms of various descriptions and sizes, were in general use by them, as principal and important military weapons; that they appear seldom to have undertaken any warlike expedition of magnitude without them; that they constantly attacked and defended towns and fortresses with them; that they used them in the open field; and also, that there is some evidence of guns being in use even on shipboard. The English, as early as in the middle of that century, were also sometimes armed with portable guns, or small arms, then called Hand Coulevrines, or hand guns; and they are expressly mentioned by Monstrelet by the name of “Coulevrines à main,” and he states, that they were reserved to the English, at Caen, in 1450, when they capitulated under the Duke of Somerset. This was considerably earlier than the period, when Mr. Grose, in his work on _Military Antiquities_, {217a} supposes that they were first used in England; as he mentions the year 1471, on the occasion of the landing of Edward IV. at Ravenspur, as the period of their introduction into this country. Monstrelet, as will be afterwards noticed, mentions “Petis Canons” as having been carried in eight little boats across the Seine, by the English, in attacking Pont de l’Arche, in 1418, which, and also the “Artillerie menue,” occasionally mentioned by him, probably apply to guns of a size small enough to be portable. {217b} We cannot well entertain doubts of the fact of the English having made use of portable firearms in the fifteenth century, when we reflect that there is undisputed historical evidence of the use of them, at that period, by continental nations, who reckoned them by thousands in their armies; and that before the close of that century, they appear to have been even used on the Continent by cavalry as well as by infantry. {218a} Very early in the fifteenth century, firearms varied very much in size, appearance, and denomination; and even as early as in the year 1406, the Duke of Burgundy and the King of France, in preparing for the siege of Calais, had, according to Monstrelet, “bombardes, canons, artilleries,” &c. &c. We also learn from the same authority, that in 1430, in raising the siege of Compeine, which was defended by the English, the Duke of Burgundy was obliged to abandon his ordnance, consisting of “bombardes, canons, veuglaires, serpentines, coulevrines, et autre artilleries.”