The Grand Master of Artillery or Grand Maître de l'artillerie was one of the Great Officers of the Crown of France

Great Officers of the Crown of France

The Great Officers of the Crown of France, known as the Grand Dignitaries of the Empire during the French Empire, were the most important officers of state of the royal court in France during the Ancien Régime and Bourbon Restoration. They were appointed by the French monarch, with all but the...

 during the Ancien Régime.

The position of Grand Master of Artillery replaced the earlier position of Grand Maître des arbalétriers

Grand Master of Crossbowmen

The Master of Crossbowmen or more precisely, Master of Arbalesters or Master of Archers was the title of a commander of the Infantry of the French army in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The position was an honorific title, not a military rank, created by Louis IX...

 ("Grand Master of the Archers"). It was made a Great Office of the Crown in 1601 by King Henry IV

Henry IV of France

Henry IV , Henri-Quatre, was King of France from 1589 to 1610 and King of Navarre from 1572 to 1610. He was the first monarch of the Bourbon branch of the Capetian dynasty in France....

 for the benefit of Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully

Maximilien de Béthune, duc de Sully

Maximilien de Béthune, first Duke of Sully was the doughty soldier, French minister, staunch Huguenot and faithful right-hand man who assisted Henry IV of France in the rule of France.-Early years:...

.

The Grand Master of Artillery had jurisdiction, at the beginning of the 17th century, over all the officers and the artillery

Artillery

Originally applied to any group of infantry primarily armed with projectile weapons, artillery has over time become limited in meaning to refer only to those engines of war that operate by projection of munitions far beyond the range of effect of personal weapons...

 of the French army

French Army

The French Army, officially the Armée de Terre , is the land-based and largest component of the French Armed Forces.As of 2010, the army employs 123,100 regulars, 18,350 part-time reservists and 7,700 Legionnaires. All soldiers are professionals, following the suspension of conscription, voted in...

, as well as oversight over siege

Siege

A siege is a military blockade of a city or fortress with the intent of conquering by attrition or assault. The term derives from sedere, Latin for "to sit". Generally speaking, siege warfare is a form of constant, low intensity conflict characterized by one party holding a strong, static...

s and encampments, the making of gunpowder

Gunpowder

Gunpowder, also known since in the late 19th century as black powder, was the first chemical explosive and the only one known until the mid 1800s. It is a mixture of sulfur, charcoal, and potassium nitrate - with the sulfur and charcoal acting as fuels, while the saltpeter works as an oxidizer...

 and cannon

Cannon

A cannon is any piece of artillery that uses gunpowder or other usually explosive-based propellents to launch a projectile. Cannon vary in caliber, range, mobility, rate of fire, angle of fire, and firepower; different forms of cannon combine and balance these attributes in varying degrees,...

s and management of the arsenal

Arsenal

An arsenal is a place where arms and ammunition are made, maintained and repaired, stored, issued to authorized users, or any combination of those...

s. At the end of the century, the position became merely honorific, and his duties passed to other more specialized officers, most notably the "surintendant des fortifications".