Artillery of France in the Middle Ages The artillery of France in the Middle Ages begins only with the fourteenth century , a century in which appears for the first time in Europe a depiction of a cannon , in Walter de Milemete ' s 1326 " De Nobilitatibus sapientii et prudentiis regum " , and in which start to appear small rudimentary weapons such as the pot - de - fer or the portable bâton à feu . At this early stage , cannon would fire either stone or metal pellets . 14th - century developments . The 14th century saw a considerable development of the new weapons in France and in Western Europe in general , especially with the outbreak of the Hundred Years ' War ( 1337 – 1453 ) . Cannons were soon used at sea , with ships being used as firing platform . Small guns projecting quarrel s or lead pellets were used at the 1340 Battle of Sluys , and in the French defense of Tournai in August 1340 . Edward III used similar weapons at the Battle of Crécy in 1346 , and in the Siege of Calais in 1347 . " Ribaldis " were first mentioned in the English Privy Wardrobe accounts during preparations for the Battle of Crécy between 1345 and 1346 . Cannons evolved considerably towards the end of the century with the collapse of the Treaty of Bretigny and the resumption of the war in 1369 . Until 1370 , cannons were essentially small weapons of 10 to 20 kg ( 20 to 40 lbs ) , made of brass or copper . After that point , larger guns appeared , made of wrought iron or cast iron . During the 1375 siege of Saint - Sauveur - le - Vicomte , French troops successfully breached the walls of the fortress with guns weighing over 1 ton , and firing 50 kg stone balls . The English trailed behind French developments in the area and only had a few such weapons before 1400 . By the end of the century , new firearm types appeared , such as a variety of hand guns , small mortars and ribaudequin s . These complemented , but did not replace , heavier artillery . 15th - century developments . By the early 15th century , both armies had a wide variety of gunpowder weapons . Large guns were developed , known as bombard s ( French " bombardes " ) , weighing up to 3 tonnes and firing stone balls of up to 150 kg ( 300 lbs ) , which seem to have been more prevalent among the French than among the English until 1420 . Such bombards were often made by welding bars of wrought iron together and holding them inside circular bracelet s , a process known as " " à tonoille " " , similar to that involving the manufacture of wine barrels ( " tonneaux " ) . " Veuglaires " ( Englic " fowlers " ) were developed , up to 2 meters ( 8 feet ) long , and weighing from 150 kg to several tonnes , while the " crapaudins " or " crapaudaux " were shorter ( 4 to 8 feet ) and lighter than the " veuglaires " . The first Western image of a battle with cannon goes back to the Siege of Orleans in 1429 , in which both the English and the French side are depicted with firearms . French cannon killed the English commander Thomas Montagu in 1428 . Joan of Arc used cannon effectively during the Loire campaign in 1429 . Portable hand cannons , the ancestors of modern firearms , continued to be used on a wide scale , sometimes even by mounted soldiers . Small portable arms were also developed such as " serpentines " and " couleuvrines " . They were not able , however , to replace the widespread longbow s or crossbow s during the Hundred Years ' War . In contrast , cannon took on a major role in siege warfare , where they came to replace traditional wooden siege engine s of the types used since antiquity . From the 1430s , the artillery of Charles VII was managed by the Master Gunner Jean Bureau . Artillery was key to the French successes at Meaux ( 1439 ) , Pontoise ( 1441 ) , Caen and during the Norman Campaign ( 1449 – 1450 ) . French artillery was used with great efficiency at the 1453 Battle of Castillon , in which grouped and entrenched cannons decimated the English army , killing the commander John Talbot . Artillery also started to affect military architecture , leading to the development of lower , thicker walls in order to better resist the effect of cannonballs .