Medieval Serbian Army - Artillery

Artillery

Serbia had adopted gunpowder artillery from Dubrovnik (Ragusa), where a centre for the manufacture of wrought-iron cannon existed by 1363. (The first gun foundry in the Balkans, casting bronze cannons, was also established at Dubrovnik, in 1410.) Neighboring Bosnia had cannon by 1380, and they were in use in Serbia by 1382-86 at the very latest, probably served and certainly made by Ragusan engineers. In fact Mavro Orbin claims that Despot Lazar used guns against Nikola Altomanović even as early as 1373. Guns were apparently employed in the field by the Serbians as early as 1389 at the Battle of Kosovo, being clearly mentioned in one later Ottoman chronicle (Mehmed Neşrî) and alluded to in a contemporary Serbian source which says that 'fiery explosions thundered, the earth roared greatly, and the air echoed and blew around like dark smoke'; we know too that King Tvrtko of Bosnia (1353–91) brought one gun, a gift of the Italians, with him to the battle. The Serbian contingent in the Ottoman army defeated at Ankara in 1402 also had artillery, but as at Kosovo it failed to affect the outcome, probably for the same reasons on both occasions - i.e. the guns were too small to be effective in order that they might be maneuverable on the battlefield. In siege work trebuchets and ballistae remained in service alongside gunpowder artillery for a long time.

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