Cannon had been in use for about two hundred years by the time Elizabeth came to the throne but hand guns had been slow to arrive on the battlefield, mainly due to the problem of ignition in the field. Gunpowder had to be set alight with something, otherwise it would not do its job – so the first solution to this problem was the invention of the match, in the late fourteenth century. The match was a piece of cord soaked in saltpetre and then dried. Once the tip was lit, then the cord smouldered slowly and would stay alight for a couple of hours – if it didn’t rain! The next invention to advance the use of firearms was the “serpentine” – an S-shaped arm, fitted to the side of the gun, which held the match. The serpentine then swung the match down and ignited the priming powder. The next invention was the priming-pan – a metal device at the side of the gun barrel which held the priming powder and had a metal cover which could be swung over to keep the powder dry if it rained.

So, by the middle of the sixteenth century, the match-lock musket was in regular use by armies but it was not an easy weapon to use. The barrel was about four feet long and it was so heavy that a musketeer could not support the gun unaided. Therefore, a musketeer had to carry a long wooden rest on to which he put the musket for aiming. The musketeer was also strung about with bandoliers – belts from which hung many containers, each carrying a measured amount of powder, plus another bag of bullets. The bullets had to be loaded from the end of the barrel, along with a dose of powder, then rammed down into the gun with a rod. It was a slow and cumbersome weapon and usually only used in siege situations, where musketeers did not have to move from their appointed spot.

The genius, Leonardo da Vinci, was one of the first to design a new type of gun – one which would remove the need for matches. He devised a mechanical means of ignition which scraped a piece of pyrites over a rough surface, producing sparks which ignited the powder. The mechanism was known as the wheel-lock and the beauty of it was that it could be produced in any size, so gunsmiths began to experiment with smaller hand guns, which came to be known as pistols. (They were probably named after the town of Pistoia in Italy.) The wheel-lock became very popular but it was very expensive to make and the mechanism was also prone to jamming – not a good idea when face-to-face with the enemy! But, when it worked, the wheel-lock allowed men to carry ready-loaded weapons and gun warfare was much easier than in the days of the match-lock.

Then, in the mid-sixteenth century, a type of flintlock gun was developed, called a snaphaunce (from the Dutch word snaphaans – which means, roughly, ready-cocked or ready to fire.). Instead of pyrites, the flintlock, as its name suggests, used a piece of flint to create the sparks and the firing mechanism also pushed the pan-cover away at the same time, thus making the ignition process simpler.

The final invention, during the Elizabethan period, was yet a further refinement of the ignition system – which finally allowed pressure on the trigger to complete the firing action in one go. It also allowed for the trigger to have a safety position, known as half-cock, which allowed the shooter to get ready, while taking aim, then additional pressure released the “safety” and firing took place. This basic design, with a few variations, was to be used right up until the early nineteenth century.

Click here for Further Reading on this topic