Johnston R.A. All Things Medieval: An Encyclopedia of the Medieval World
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Guilds
310
Guilds set the rules for apprenticeships, and they varied by craft, time,
and place. As a general rule, boys younger than 7 could not be apprenticed,
and most began closer to 12. The period of apprenticeship was usually
around seven years, and rarely less. Crafts with the fi nest skills, such as clock
makers or goldsmiths, required the longest terms, while cooks and bakers
required terms of only a few years. A boy’s family could pay a higher ap-
prenticeship fee to buy a shorter term, in some cases. A master was required
to give his apprentice living space and food, and sometimes he gave him a
small amount of money. If a master did not treat his apprentice well, the
guild would investigate the complaint and fi nd the apprentice a new master
if the original one could not remediate his ways.
The apprentice did menial chores and began to learn the craft, and the
master could not expect to earn any profi ts from his work for the early
years. The guild’s wardens inspected wares and did not permit sale of be-
ginners’ work. As the apprentice learned, the master might begin to profi t,
and he was permitted to keep this profi t in order to earn back the losses
from his earlier teaching. The apprentice could be hired out with a builder’s
crew at a fraction of the cost of a skilled worker, or his wares could be sold
in a shop.
The transition from apprentice to master usually took the form of an ex-
amination by the guild. The guild specifi ed a masterpiece that served as a
test of skill. A baker’s masterpiece would be a set number of diffi cult breads
and pastries, completed within a set time. A mason’s masterpiece would
demonstrate mastery of arches, pillars, walls, and foundations. A gold-
smith’s masterpiece would be intricate jewelry. These tests varied widely
over Europe, and they tended to be more challenging in places where the
guild did not wish to admit many new members. Some guilds also required
a year of traveling, working for wages, to learn the craft as practiced by
other masters.
See also: Barrels and Buckets, Cities, Drama, Gold and Silver.
Further Reading
Binski, Paul. Painters. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1991.
Brown, Sarah, and David O’Connor. Glass-Painters. Toronto: University of To-
ronto Press, 1991.
Cherry, John. Goldsmiths. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Coldstream, Nicola. Masons and Sculptors. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,
1991.
Epstein, Steven A. Wage Labor and Guilds in Medieval Europe. Chapel Hill: Uni-
versity of North Carolina Press, 1995.
Hanawalt, Barbara A. Growing Up in Medieval London: The Experience of Child-
hood in History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.
Harvey, John. Mediaeval Craftsmen. New York: Drake Publishing, 1975.
Gunpowder
311
Hunt, Edwin S., and James M. Murray. A History of Business in Medieval Europe,
1299–1550. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1999.
Kilby, Kenneth. The Cooper and His Trade. Fresno, CA: Linden Publishing,
1989.
Newman, Paul. Growing Up in the Middle Ages. Jefferson, NC: McFarland Pub-
lishers, 2007.
Orme, Nicholas. Medieval Children. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2001.
Pfaffenbichler, Matthias. Armourers. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1992.
Gunpowder
Gunpowder was formulated in China during the Middle Ages; its written
formula was published in the 11th century, and, in the 13th century, fi re
arrows and simple guns were produced. Chinese emperors tried to make
saltpeter and the gunpowder formula a secret, but somehow it was trans-
ferred to Europe, across the Arab empire. Its use in Europe revolutionized
warfare. Gunpowder required training, but not the noble training of a
knight. Gunpowder specialists were technicians whose hands got dirty,
and they were usually lowborn trained technicians. The medieval associa-
tion of warfare with castles, nobility, and good manners was of no use in an
age of cannons. The introduction of gunpowder was the beginning of the
end of the Middle Ages.
The original formula for gunpowder used charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter,
along with some inactive ingredients such as arsenic. Saltpeter is potassium
nitrate; it was called in Latin sal petrae, or “stone salt.” It was a known sub-
stance in medieval Europe and was used as both preservative and medicine.
Small amounts of it grew naturally on stone walls in certain environments,
particularly stables and latrines. Northern Europe’s climate did not pro-
duce large enough amounts of it to support an industry, but large saltpeter
deposits occurred naturally in Spain and India. It was imported to Europe
through Arab and Venetian traders. Most saltpeter in the Middle Ages was
imported this way until, in the late 14th century, Germans worked out a
way to grow it on purpose using earth, dung, urine, and lime. By the 16th
century, there were saltpeter farms.
Sulfur occurred naturally and could be found in Europe. Charcoal was a
very common ingredient, but gunpowder required a fi ne-structured char-
coal with minimal ash. Willow wood made the best charcoal, and a few
other kinds of wood, all small, could be used: grapevines, alder, hazelwood,
and chinaberry. The charcoal had to be ground fi nely with a mortar and
pestle and then mixed with fi nely ground sulfur and saltpeter. Grinding
gunpowder was dangerous; it could explode in the mortar, maiming or kill-
ing the artisans.
Gunpowder
312
Gunpowder made of charcoal, sulfur, and saltpeter was described by
Roger Bacon around 1260 in a scientifi c work he wrote for the Pope. He
spoke of it as an astonishing explosion that could terrify men but did not
discuss its use as a weapon. In the 13th century, it was seen only as a method
for making fi reworks and rockets or for setting houses on fi re in a siege.
True gunpowder as a propellant came in the 14th century.
The fi rst cannons were simple, small devices for shooting bolts at high
velocity. They were large iron bottles, and the explosion of the gunpow-
der inside shot out a bolt with iron fl etching. The French called them pots
de fer, or “fi re pots.” The city of Florence cast small cannons and bought a
supply of powder for possible defense of the city in 1326, and French forces
may have used pots de fer in a siege in 1327. Muslim armies in Spain, fi ght-
ing against the advancing Christian armies, may have used cannon around
the same time.
The fi rst documented use of gunpowder on a battlefi eld was by the En-
glish at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. They had three cannons next to their
longbow archers. The type of cannon could have been a ribald. It was a set
of tubes, loaded with small balls, locked together on a wooden frame. The
touchholes of these tiny cannons were in a line so the gunner could set
them all off at once, in a single sweep.
Names for early gunpowder weapons included not only fi re pots and rib-
alds, but also various terms referring to their thunderous sound. The term
for a gun in English became blunderbuss, while in Italian it was schioppi, a
thunderer. The word cannon came from the Latin canna, a reed, since it
was made with a tube. Gun was another early word; it was used by Chaucer
in 1384. He spelled it gonne and called its bullet a pelet.
The earliest gunpowder-fueled weapons were very crude by later standards. In this early
14th-century picture, a team of men is managing a “pot de fer,” whose ballistic load
seems to be pointed like an arrow. Gunpowder technology was far from standardized in
those times. Every weapon was uniquely designed and had a different concept.
Gradually, experimenters found that the best use for gunpowder’s force was not in darts
but in large rocks used to batter walls, and the standard cannon was born. (The British
Library/StockphotoPro)
Gunpowder
313
The main problem in war in the 14th century was how to break a siege
by effectively battering a castle or city wall. Early cannons were made of
cast bronze, but they were too small and weak to damage stone walls. Later,
larger cannons were made by welding iron bars and rings in a process simi-
lar to making barrels. Hooped cannons could be made very large and had
to be moved on special carts that were lifted by pulleys and towed by many
yoke of oxen or pairs of horses. The fi rst cannonballs were often stones
rounded to rough spheres by masons. Early matches were pieces of rope
soaked in saltpeter and sulfur so they would smolder slowly.
These early cannons, called bombards, were usually loaded at the back.
There was a separate metal chamber with one opening and a small hole for
ignition. The gunpowder was packed into this, and a wooden plug covered
the opening. When the chamber was placed against the end of the cannon
itself, the wooden plug touched the cannonball. When the gunpowder was
ignited, the wooden plug and the cannonball would both blast out the
mouth of the cannon. There were accidents; sometimes the metal chamber
could not hold the blast, and it fl ew apart, killing bystanders.
Since cannons were used as siege engines, they were designed to be
larger and larger. Longer cannon barrels meant greater velocity and accu-
racy. The stones for these large cannons could weigh 200 pounds or more.
By 1388, one large bombard required 12 horses to draw its cart. Nurem-
berg’s hooped cannon, called Krimhilde, shot 300-pound rocks. Bombards
in the 15th century were even larger. The duke of Burgundy had one made
that used 100 pounds of gunpowder to shoot a 500-pound stone.
Sieges were now broken quite literally by repeated thunderous booms
and huge stones or iron balls crashing into the fortress’s stone walls. Bat-
tering rams and siege mining, the old methods, could take six months to
bring down a wall. By 1450, that same wall could be pounded into rubble in
about two weeks. The cannon’s success in breaking sieges meant that battle-
fi eld victories became more important. City and fortress walls were mean-
ingless; a king could only protect his land by winning battles. Joan of Arc, in
her campaign against the English in 1429, used cannons on the battlefi eld.
Gunpowder technology was the deciding factor in the 1453 fall of Con-
stantinople to the Turks. A metalworker named Urban, reportedly from
Hungary, offered the emperor in Constantinople his services to make can-
non. When they did not offer to pay him much or give him good metal re-
sources, Urban crossed over to the Turks. For the Turks, he made a large
cast-bronze bombard with a long barrel and a removable powder cham-
ber. The Turks used it to menace and stop shipping in the Bosporus Strait.
Urban made a second bombard, even larger, with a 26-foot barrel. The
Turkish army used this and many smaller piece of artillery to batter the
walls of Constantinople until they had breached the walls and could open
the main gate.
Gunpowder
314
Early cannons had only one purpose: to batter stone walls more effectively than
battering rams. Rams had to be swung by rope, close to the wall, and that left the
ram’s human team exposed to attack. Cannons could throw stones and iron balls at
the walls from a little distance away. By the close of the 14th century, the use of
cannon, as at the siege of Tunis, was routine. When the cannon’s force overcame
even Constantinople in 1453, it was evident to all city planners that walls were no
longer a good defense. Battles had to be won in the fi eld. (Duncan Walker/
StockphotoPro)
Gunpowder manufacture became more skilled and on a larger scale as
the cannon proved successful in breaking sieges. Gunpowder was corned
during the 15th century; it was wetted with wine, rolled into balls, and
dried. Guns became increasingly larger. French cannons began using iron
balls, instead of stone. In the last years considered medieval, handguns were
used in Italy. They were very simple front-loading guns with iron tubes
mounted on wooden stocks.
See also: Sieges, Weapons.
Further Reading
Crocker, Glenys. The Gunpowder Industry. Princes Risborough, UK: Shire Publi-
cations, 1999.
Keen, Maurice, ed. Medieval Warfare: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press,
1999.
Gunpowder
315
Kelly, Jack. Gunpowder: Alchemy, Bombards, and Pyrotechnics. New York: Basic
Books, 2004.
Nossov, Konstantin. Ancient and Medieval Siege Weapons. Guilford, CT: Lyons
Press, 2005.
Oakeshott, Ewart. A Knight and His Weapons. Chester Springs, PA: Dufour Edi-
tions, 1997.
Partington, J. R. A History of Greek Fire and Gunpowder. Baltimore: Johns Hop-
kins University Press, 1999.
H
Hair
319
Hair
Roman hairstyles for men had been short and clean shaven, while Roman
women wore elaborate braided and jeweled hairstyles. Barbarian men at the
same time often had long hair and beards, while barbarian women used a
variety of braided and veiled styles. When the Roman Empire ended, the
Eastern Roman Empire of Constantinople became the fashion leader. In
the late Middle Ages, women’s hairstyles were sophisticated and diffi cult to
create. Their hair was integrated with headdresses, hats, and veils. Men’s
styles alternated between long and short but were always simpler than
women’s.
European hair care was simple through most of the Middle Ages. Not
more than once a week, and usually less, hair was washed with soap and
combed out. Combs are routinely found in Dark Ages burials. They were
made from thin slices of bone or antler that could be cut into thin teeth,
and a second piece was riveted to the handle to strengthen it. In a big city
like Constantinople, combs were carved from ivory or cast in silver. A vari-
ety of ties, jewels, and pins were used to hold hair in place.
Women’s Styles
Early medieval styles, in Constantinople and Northern Europe, seem to
have been most commonly a pair of very long braids. Byzantine women did
not cut their hair unless they entered a convent. At the end of each braid,
they wore a weighted pendant that covered the hair’s ends. This pendant
was their opportunity for jeweled decoration.
Northern European women—Franks and Anglo-Saxons—usually wore
veils and scarves. We have few pictures of women in this time, and all im-
ages show their hair covered. We do not know how they wore the hair itself.
Anglo-Saxon women probably braided it, but they may have left it loose.
Norman ladies seem to have worn long single or paired braids.
During the 12th century, Norman ladies in England began wearing their
own hair, without a veil. It was divided into braids, either two full braids
or two braids at the front with the back hair loose. These braids were often
wrapped in long ribbons.
Young girls during the Middle Ages are nearly always shown with their
hair long (below the shoulders) and loose. It was sometimes bound with a
fi llet or barbette as the fashion of the times dictated, but it was not braided
or coiled. The fi llet was a cloth or metal band that encircled a woman’s head,
while a barbette was a vertical cloth band that ran under the chin. The com-
mon girl’s form of fi llet was a simple ribbon of cloth around her head. For
spring or summer holidays, a girl could wear a fl ower garland.