Note 215c — Chapter X · ON THE GENERAL USE OF FIREARMS BY THE ENGLISH, IN THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY. [213]

See Hallam’s State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. i. pp. 361 and 363. See also Archæologia, vol. xxxii. p. 379. In Hallam’s talented work on the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, vol. i. pp. 361 and 363, and in the notes to them, are some valuable observations on the early introduction of gunpowder. He appears to consider it of eastern invention, and ascribes to the Moors, with every appearance of probability, the introduction of it into Europe, and mentions some very early instances of the use of cannons in the fourteenth century. He even refers to a writer who seems to mention the use of gunpowder in engines of war, in 1249.