Kartouwe

Kartouwe exhibit in Königstein Fortress (Germany)

Half-kartouwe exhibit in Magdeburg (Germany)

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

Characteristics

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 kartouwen 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-kartouwen 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]

Use and perception

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.^[10] As such, they were featured in contemporary poems,^[10] e.g. in Am liebsten bey der Liebsten by Sibylla Schwarz ("grausame Kartaune", "gruesome kartouwe").^[11] In his 1844 poem Die Tendenz, Heinrich Heine used kartouwen to symbolize loudness.^[12]

Sources

References

Bibliography