Mons Meg
Encyclopedia
Mons Meg is a medieval
bombard
which can be classed as a supergun
, now located at Edinburgh Castle
, Scotland
. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years later to King James II of Scotland
, with other artillery
supplies.
was manufactured from longitudinal bars of iron, hooped with rings fused into one mass. The Duke's artillery maker Jehan Cambier constructed it, and it was successfully tested at Mons
(in the County of Hainaut
in Wallonia) in June 1449; however, the Duke did not take delivery of the Mons Meg until 1453. Desiring to "interfere in English affairs", the Duke decided to help the Scots against the English
. Mons Meg weighs 15366 pounds (6,969.9 kg), is 15 feet (4.6 m) in length, and has a calibre of 20 inches (508 mm). The final cost of the gun was £1,536. 2s
.
A conflicting theory, based on limited evidence, suggests it was constructed in order to aid James II in the 1452 siege of Threave Castle
in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, when the Clan MacLellan used it to batter the castle.
The 20 inches (508 mm) calibre cannon accepted balls
that weighed about 400 pounds (181.4 kg), although it could only be fired 8-10 times a day due to the tremendous heat generated by the powder
charge required. It has been suggested that Meg was one of the armaments on James IV
's carrack
, the Great Michael
, which would make it the ship with the largest calibre gun in history. In early years the gun, like the other royal cannon, was painted with red-lead to keep it from rusting. This cost 30 shillings in June 1539. From the 1540s Meg was retired from active service and was fired only on ceremonial occasions from Edinburgh Castle, from where shot could be found up to two miles distant. When Mons was fired on 3 July 1558, workmen were paid to find and retrieve the shot from Wardie Mure
, near the River Forth
. The salute marked the solemnization of the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the French Dauphin
.
The gun was fired in 1680 to celebrate the arrival of James Duke of Albany and York, later King James II of England
and VII of Scotland, when the barrel burst. An English cannoneer had loaded the charge and many Scots believed that the damage was done on purpose out of jealousy, because the English had no cannon as big as this. The incident was also seen as a bad omen for the future King.
The cannon was left outside Foog's Gate at Edinburgh Castle. It was next taken, with other disused ordnance, to the Tower of London
in 1754, but was returned to the Castle in 1829, after the intervention of Sir Walter Scott
. Following a restoration, it now sits outside St. Margaret's Chapel
.
The gun is not called "Mons Meg" in any contemporary references until 1678. In 1489, she first appears in record as "Monss," and in the painter's account of 1539 she is called; "Monce in the castell," the only piece with an individual name. In 1650 she was noted as "Muckle Meg." "Meg" may either be a reference to Margaret of Denmark, Queen of James III of Scotland
, or simply an alliteration
, while Mons was one of the locations where the cannon was originally tested. McKenzie records that this class of artillery was known as a murderer and Mons Meg was certainly described as such.
Besides the Mons Meg, a number of 15th-century European superguns are known to have been employed primarily in siege warfare, including the wrought-iron pieces Pumhart von Steyr
and Dulle Griet
as well as the cast-bronze Faule Mette
, Faule Grete
and Grose Bochse
.
During the Hogmanay
celebrations of 2009/2010 the District Gunner, Sgt Jamie Shannon (also known as "Shannon the Cannon") fired Mons Meg from Edinburgh Castle. A cannonball was placed inside the weapon for visual effect, while the powder was ignited by use of a car battery.
In 1835, after the return of Mons Meg to Edinburgh Castle, the London-made carriage rotted away too and fabrication of a cast-iron replacement was undertaken.
As we see Mons Meg today, it is mounted on a reproduction of the carriage depicted in a stone carving of ca. 1500 on a wall of Edinburgh Castle.
Middle Ages
The Middle Ages is a periodization of European history from the 5th century to the 15th century. The Middle Ages follows the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476 and precedes the Early Modern Era. It is the middle period of a three-period division of Western history: Classic, Medieval and Modern...
bombard
Bombard (weapon)
A bombard is a large-caliber, muzzle-loading medieval cannon or mortar, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls. The name bombarde was first noted and sketched in a French historical text around 1380. The modern term bombardment derives from this.Bombards were usually used during...
which can be classed as a supergun
Supergun
A supergun is an extraordinarily large artillery piece. This size may be due to a large bore, barrel length or a combination of the two. While early examples tended to have a fairly short range more recent examples sometimes had an extremely high muzzle velocity resulting in a very long...
, now located at Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle
Edinburgh Castle is a fortress which dominates the skyline of the city of Edinburgh, Scotland, from its position atop the volcanic Castle Rock. Human habitation of the site is dated back as far as the 9th century BC, although the nature of early settlement is unclear...
, Scotland
Scotland
Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
. There are conflicting theories about its origins, but it appears from the accounts of Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy that it was made to his order around 1449 and sent as a gift 8 years later to King James II of Scotland
James II of Scotland
James II reigned as King of Scots from 1437 to his death.He was the son of James I, King of Scots, and Joan Beaufort...
, with other 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...
supplies.
History
The bombardBombard (weapon)
A bombard is a large-caliber, muzzle-loading medieval cannon or mortar, used chiefly in sieges for throwing heavy stone balls. The name bombarde was first noted and sketched in a French historical text around 1380. The modern term bombardment derives from this.Bombards were usually used during...
was manufactured from longitudinal bars of iron, hooped with rings fused into one mass. The Duke's artillery maker Jehan Cambier constructed it, and it was successfully tested at Mons
Mons
Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...
(in the County of Hainaut
County of Hainaut
The County of Hainaut was a historical region in the Low Countries with its capital at Mons . In English sources it is often given the archaic spelling Hainault....
in Wallonia) in June 1449; however, the Duke did not take delivery of the Mons Meg until 1453. Desiring to "interfere in English affairs", the Duke decided to help the Scots against the English
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
. Mons Meg weighs 15366 pounds (6,969.9 kg), is 15 feet (4.6 m) in length, and has a calibre of 20 inches (508 mm). The final cost of the gun was £1,536. 2s
£sd
£sd was the popular name for the pre-decimal currencies used in the Kingdom of England, later the United Kingdom, and ultimately in much of the British Empire...
.
A conflicting theory, based on limited evidence, suggests it was constructed in order to aid James II in the 1452 siege of Threave Castle
Threave Castle
Threave Castle is situated on an island in the River Dee, 2.5 km west of Castle Douglas, in Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland...
in the Stewartry of Kirkcudbright, when the Clan MacLellan used it to batter the castle.
The 20 inches (508 mm) calibre cannon accepted balls
Round shot
Round shot is a solid projectile without explosive charge, fired from a cannon. As the name implies, round shot is spherical; its diameter is slightly less than the bore of the gun it is fired from.Round shot was made in early times from dressed stone, but by the 17th century, from iron...
that weighed about 400 pounds (181.4 kg), although it could only be fired 8-10 times a day due to the tremendous heat generated by the powder
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...
charge required. It has been suggested that Meg was one of the armaments on James IV
James IV of Scotland
James IV was King of Scots from 11 June 1488 to his death. He is generally regarded as the most successful of the Stewart monarchs of Scotland, but his reign ended with the disastrous defeat at the Battle of Flodden Field, where he became the last monarch from not only Scotland, but also from all...
's carrack
Carrack
A carrack or nau was a three- or four-masted sailing ship developed in 15th century Western Europe for use in the Atlantic Ocean. It had a high rounded stern with large aftcastle, forecastle and bowsprit at the stem. It was first used by the Portuguese , and later by the Spanish, to explore and...
, the Great Michael
Michael (ship)
Michael was a carrack or great ship of the Royal Scottish Navy. She was too large to be built at any existing Scottish dockyard, so was built at the new dock at Newhaven, constructed in 1504 by order of King James IV of Scotland...
, which would make it the ship with the largest calibre gun in history. In early years the gun, like the other royal cannon, was painted with red-lead to keep it from rusting. This cost 30 shillings in June 1539. From the 1540s Meg was retired from active service and was fired only on ceremonial occasions from Edinburgh Castle, from where shot could be found up to two miles distant. When Mons was fired on 3 July 1558, workmen were paid to find and retrieve the shot from Wardie Mure
Trinity, Edinburgh
Trinity is a leafy district of northern Edinburgh, Scotland, once a part of Greater Leith it is one of the more desirable neighbourhoods in Edinburgh...
, near the River Forth
River Forth
The River Forth , long, is the major river draining the eastern part of the central belt of Scotland.The Forth rises in Loch Ard in the Trossachs, a mountainous area some west of Stirling...
. The salute marked the solemnization of the marriage of Mary, Queen of Scots to the French Dauphin
Francis II of France
Francis II was aged 15 when he succeeded to the throne of France after the accidental death of his father, King Henry II, in 1559. He reigned for 18 months before he died in December 1560...
.
The gun was fired in 1680 to celebrate the arrival of James Duke of Albany and York, later King James II of England
James II of England
James II & VII was King of England and King of Ireland as James II and King of Scotland as James VII, from 6 February 1685. He was the last Catholic monarch to reign over the Kingdoms of England, Scotland, and Ireland...
and VII of Scotland, when the barrel burst. An English cannoneer had loaded the charge and many Scots believed that the damage was done on purpose out of jealousy, because the English had no cannon as big as this. The incident was also seen as a bad omen for the future King.
The cannon was left outside Foog's Gate at Edinburgh Castle. It was next taken, with other disused ordnance, to the Tower of London
Tower of London
Her Majesty's Royal Palace and Fortress, more commonly known as the Tower of London, is a historic castle on the north bank of the River Thames in central London, England. It lies within the London Borough of Tower Hamlets, separated from the eastern edge of the City of London by the open space...
in 1754, but was returned to the Castle in 1829, after the intervention of Sir Walter Scott
Walter Scott
Sir Walter Scott, 1st Baronet was a Scottish historical novelist, playwright, and poet, popular throughout much of the world during his time....
. Following a restoration, it now sits outside St. Margaret's Chapel
St. Margaret's Chapel
St. Margaret's Chapel, at Edinburgh Castle, is the oldest surviving building in Edinburgh, Scotland. An example of Romanesque architecture, it is a Category A listed building....
.
"Mons Meg was a large old-fashioned piece of ordnance, a great favourite with the Scottish common people; she was fabricated at Mons, in Flanders, in the reign of James IV. or V. of Scotland. This gun figures frequently in the public accounts of the time, where we find charges for grease, to grease Meg’s mouth withal (to increase, as every schoolboy knows, the loudness of the report), ribands to deck her carriage, and pipes to play before her when she was brought from the Castle to accompany the Scottish army on any distant expedition. After the Union, there was much popular apprehension that the Regalia of Scotland, and the subordinate Palladium, Mons Meg, would be carried to England to complete the odious surrender of national independence. The Regalia, sequestered from the sight of the public, were generally supposed to have been abstracted in this manner. As for Mons Meg, she remained in the Castle of Edinburgh, till, by order of the Board of Ordnance, she was actually removed to Woolwich about 1757. The Regalia, by his Majesty’s special command, have been brought forth from their place of concealment in 1818, and exposed to the view of the people, by whom they must be looked upon with deep associations; and, in this very winter of 1828–9, Mons Meg has been restored to the country, where that, which in every other place or situation was a mere mass of rusty iron, becomes once more a curious monument of antiquity" Notes to Rob RoyRob Roy (novel)Rob Roy is a historical novel by Walter Scott. It is narrated by Frank Osbaldistone, the son of an English merchant who travels first to the North of England, and subsequently to the Scottish Highlands to collect a debt stolen from his father. On the way he encounters the larger-than-life title...
, Sir Walter Scott.
The gun is not called "Mons Meg" in any contemporary references until 1678. In 1489, she first appears in record as "Monss," and in the painter's account of 1539 she is called; "Monce in the castell," the only piece with an individual name. In 1650 she was noted as "Muckle Meg." "Meg" may either be a reference to Margaret of Denmark, Queen of James III of Scotland
James III of Scotland
James III was King of Scots from 1460 to 1488. James was an unpopular and ineffective monarch owing to an unwillingness to administer justice fairly, a policy of pursuing alliance with the Kingdom of England, and a disastrous relationship with nearly all his extended family.His reputation as the...
, or simply an alliteration
Alliteration
In language, alliteration refers to the repetition of a particular sound in the first syllables of Three or more words or phrases. Alliteration has historically developed largely through poetry, in which it more narrowly refers to the repetition of a consonant in any syllables that, according to...
, while Mons was one of the locations where the cannon was originally tested. McKenzie records that this class of artillery was known as a murderer and Mons Meg was certainly described as such.
Besides the Mons Meg, a number of 15th-century European superguns are known to have been employed primarily in siege warfare, including the wrought-iron pieces Pumhart von Steyr
Pumhart von Steyr
The Pumhart von Steyr is a medieval supergun from Styria, Austria, and the largest known wrought-iron bombard by caliber. The cannon was produced in the early 15th century and could fire, according to modern calculations, a 690 kg stone ball around 600 m, loaded with 15 kg of powder and set up at...
and Dulle Griet
Dulle Griet
The Dulle Griet is a medieval supergun from Ghent, Belgium. The wrought-iron bombard was constructed in the first half of the 15th century from 32 longitudinal bars enclosed by 61 rings...
as well as the cast-bronze Faule Mette
Faule Mette
The Faule Mette or Faule Metze was a medieval supergun of the city of Brunswick, Germany....
, Faule Grete
Faule Grete
The Faule Grete was a medieval supergun of the Teutonic Order. The bronze bombard was cast in 1409 in the cannon foundry of the Marienburg by the gunfounder Heynrich Dumechen...
and Grose Bochse
Grose Bochse
The Grose Bochse was a medieval supergun of the Teutonic Order. It was cast from June to September 1408 in several pieces and was presumably assembled by a screw or plug connection...
.
During the Hogmanay
Hogmanay
Hogmanay is the Scots word for the last day of the year and is synonymous with the celebration of the New Year in the Scottish manner...
celebrations of 2009/2010 the District Gunner, Sgt Jamie Shannon (also known as "Shannon the Cannon") fired Mons Meg from Edinburgh Castle. A cannonball was placed inside the weapon for visual effect, while the powder was ignited by use of a car battery.
Evolution of the carriage
For a while in its early days the Mons sat on a plain box without any wheels. Evidently, when Mons Meg was removed from Edinburgh Castle in 1754, her carriage had long since rotted away. A contemporary account describes her as lying "on the ground" near the innermost gate to the castle. Presumably the Ordnance Board fabricated a new carriage after her arrival at the Tower.In 1835, after the return of Mons Meg to Edinburgh Castle, the London-made carriage rotted away too and fabrication of a cast-iron replacement was undertaken.
As we see Mons Meg today, it is mounted on a reproduction of the carriage depicted in a stone carving of ca. 1500 on a wall of Edinburgh Castle.
External links
- The official Edinburgh Castle website
- Mons Meg at Edinburgh Castle
- Photo of Mons Meg from RampantScotland.com