Kartouwe

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Kartouwe

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(Redirected from Quarter cannon)

Kartouwe exhibit in Königstein Fortress (Germany)

Half-kartouwe exhibit in Magdeburg (Germany)

The fortifications of Ostend (Fig. 1) and the parts of a kartouwe (Figs. 2 and 3) in a 1616 print

Kartouwe and accessories in a 1616 print

A kartouwe (plural: kartouwen) is a siege gun used in European warfare during the 16th and 17th centuries.^[1] The name kartouwe is of Dutch origin,^[2] a corruption of Latin quartana^[3] (quarter cannon).^[2] In the Holy Roman Empire the gun was called Kartaune in German or cartouwe in contemporary Latin usage,^[4] in the Swedish Empire Kartow,^[4] spelling variants include kartouw, kartouve,^[5] cartow,^[2] cartaun,^[2] courtaun,^[2] and others.

Characteristics

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Kartouwen were developed from bombards.^[1] A kartouwe has a caliber of 8 inches (200 mm), weighs about 8,000 pounds (3,600 kg), and is designed to fire cannonballs weighing up to 52 pounds (24 kg).^[6] As a minimum, twenty horses or oxen were needed to move a kartouwe.^[6]

In addition to "whole" ("hele") kartouwen, there were also double,^[7] half ("halve")^[8] and quarter kartouwen.^[4] The barrel of a whole kartouwe has a length of 18 to 19 times the caliber, weighs 300 kilograms (660 lb) to 350 kilograms (770 lb) and was transported on a special wagon by 20 to 24 horses, another four to eight horses were needed to transport the mount (lafette).^[9] The barrel length of a half-kartouwe is 32 to 34 times the caliber, which ranges between 105 millimetres (4.1 in) and 115 millimetres (4.5 in).^[9] Its barrel weighs 110 kilograms (240 lb) to 150 kilograms (330 lb), the whole gun 170 kilograms (370 lb) to 240 kilograms (530 lb).^[9] Half-kartouwen fired cannonballs weighing between 8 pounds (3.6 kg) and 10 pounds (4.5 kg), and for the transport of its barrel, 10 to 16 horses were needed.^[9]

The huge size of the cannon and the weight of its 48-pound projectiles (standard value, though real projectiles could vary from 30 to 60 pounds) made it onerous to maneuver and reload. William P. Guthrie estimates that a single kartouwe averaged only 8 to 10 shots under sustained combat conditions, half to a third as much as the more common 3 to 6 pounder field guns, though in all cases "well-drilled troops could shave these times."^[10]

Use and perception

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Kartouwen were used for example in the Livonian War by the Russian^[5] and Swedish forces.^[7] During the Battle of Narva (1581), the besieging Swedish forces destroyed the walls of Narva, 5.5 metres (18 ft) strong, within two days using twenty-four double and half-kartouwen.^[7]

Kartouwen were also the characteristic of the Thirty Years' War.^[11] As such, they were featured in contemporary poems,^[11] e.g. in Am liebsten bey der Liebsten by Sibylla Schwarz ("grausame Kartaune", "gruesome kartouwe") and Tränen des Vaterlandes, anno 1636 by Andreas Gryphius ("donnernde Karthaun'", "thundering kartouwe").^[12]^[13] In his 1844 poem Die Tendenz, Heinrich Heine used kartouwen to symbolize loudness.^[14]

Sources

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References

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^ ^a ^b Meyers (1907), p. 682; Brockhaus (1911), p. 943
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d ^e Llewellyn (1936), p. 24
^ Meyers (1907), p. 682; Brockhaus (1911), p. 943; Adelung (1796), p. 1506
^ ^a ^b ^c Adelung (1796), p. 1506
^ ^a ^b Peterson (2007), p.95
^ ^a ^b Kasekamp (1990); Peterson (2007), p. 95
^ ^a ^b ^c Kasekamp (1990)
^ Kasekamp (1990); Adelung (1796), p. 1506
^ ^a ^b ^c ^d Medick & Winnige, entry "Stück"
^ William P. Guthrie. "The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia." Praeger. Feb 2003. Page 13.
^ ^a ^b Hartung (1995), p. 329
^ Deutsche Gedichte Eine Auslese (in German). Tosa Verlag. 2003. p. 15.
^ Sibylla Schwarz, Am liebsten bey der Liebsten: "So schreckt mich die Posaune / das Spiel der Schwerdter nicht / die grausame Kartaune / kompt nie mir ins Gesicht."
^ Sørensen & Arndal (2002), p. 23

Bibliography

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Hartung, Harald (1995). Gedichte und Interpretationen. Vom Naturalismus bis zur Jahrhundertmitte. Reclam Universal-Bibliothek (in German). Vol. 7894. Reclam. ISBN 3-15-007894-6.
Kasekamp, Andreas (1990). "Characteristics of warfare in the times of Henry of Livonia and Balthasar Russow". Lituanus. 36 (1). ISSN 0024-5089. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
Llewellyn, E.C. "The Influence of Low Dutch on the English Vocabulary. Oxford University Press, London 1936". De Digitale Bibliotheek voor de Nederlandse Letteren. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
Medick, Hans; Winnige, Norbert. "Begriffsregister zum Selbstzeugnis des Hans Krafft" (in German). Thüringer Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Jena. Retrieved 8 March 2010.
Peterson, Gary Dean (2007). Warrior kings of Sweden. The rise of an empire in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-2873-1.
Sørensen, Bengt Algot; Arndal, Steffen (2002). Geschichte der deutschen Literatur (in German). Vol. 2 (2 ed.). C.H.Beck. ISBN 3-406-47589-2.
"Meyers Großes Konversations-Lexikon, Band 10. Leipzig 1907, S. 682" (in German). zeno.org. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
"Brockhaus' Kleines Konversations-Lexikon, fünfte Auflage, Band 1. Leipzig 1911, S. 943" (in German). zeno.org. Retrieved 7 March 2010.
"Adelung, Grammatisch-kritisches Wörterbuch der Hochdeutschen Mundart, Band 2. Leipzig 1796, S. 1506" (in German). zeno.org. Retrieved 7 March 2010.

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Siege artillery

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CS1 German-language sources (de)