Arquebus

An arquebus (/ˈɑːrk(w)əbəs/ AR-k(w)ə-bəs) is a form of long gun that appeared in Europe and the Ottoman Empire during the 15th century. An infantryman armed with an arquebus is called an arquebusier.

The term arquebus was applied to many different forms of firearms from the 15th to 17th centuries, but it originally referred to "a hand-gun with a hook-like projection or lug on its under surface, useful for steadying it against battlements or other objects when firing". These "hook guns" were in their earliest forms defensive weapons mounted on German city walls in the early 15th century. The addition of a shoulder stock, priming pan, and matchlock mechanism in the late 15th century turned the arquebus into a handheld firearm and also the first firearm equipped with a trigger.

The exact dating of the matchlock's appearance is disputed. It could have appeared in the Ottoman Empire as early as 1465 and in Europe a little before 1475. The heavy arquebus, which was then called a musket, was developed to better penetrate plate armor and appeared in Europe around 1521. Heavy arquebuses mounted on war wagons were called arquebus à croc. These carried a lead ball of about 100 grams (3.5 oz).

A standardized arquebus, the caliver, was introduced in the latter half of the 16th century. The name "caliver" is an English derivation from the French calibre – a reference to the gun's standardized bore. The caliver allowed troops to load bullets faster since they fitted their guns more easily, whereas before soldiers often had to modify their bullets into suitable fits, or even made their own prior to battle.

The matchlock arquebus is considered the forerunner to the flintlock musket, and successor to the hand cannon.

The term arquebus is derived from the Dutch word haakbus ("hook gun"). which was applied to an assortment of firearms from the 15th to 17th centuries. It originally referred to "a hand-gun with a hook-like projection or lug on its under surface, useful for steadying it against battlements or other objects when firing". The first certain attestation of the term arquebus dates back to 1364, when the lord of Milan Bernabò Visconti recruited 70 archibuxoli, although in this case it almost certainly referred to a hand cannon. The arquebus has at times been known as the harquebus, harkbus, hackbut, hagbut, archibugio, haakbus, schiopo, sclopus, tüfenk, tofak, matchlock, and firelock.

The musket, essentially a large arquebus, was introduced around 1521, but fell out of favor by the mid-16th century due to the decline of armor. The term, however, remained and musket became a generic descriptor for smoothbore gunpowder weapons fired from the shoulder ("shoulder arms") into the mid-19th century. At least on one occasion musket and arquebus were used interchangeably to refer to the same weapon, and even referred to as an arquebus musket. A Habsburg commander in the mid-1560s once referred to muskets as double arquebuses. The matchlock firing mechanism also became a common term for the arquebus after it was added to the firearm. Later flintlock firearms were sometimes called fusils or fuzees.

Prior to the appearance of the serpentine lever by around 1411, handguns were fired from the chest, tucked under one arm, while the other arm maneuvered a hot pricker to the touch hole to ignite the gunpowder. The matchlock, which appeared roughly around 1475, changed this by adding a firing mechanism consisting of two parts, the match, and the lock. The lock mechanism held within a clamp a 60-to-90 cm (2-to-3 ft) long length of smoldering rope soaked in saltpeter, which was the match. Connected to the lock lever was a trigger, which lowered the match into a priming pan when squeezed, igniting the priming powder, causing a flash to travel through the touch hole, also igniting the gunpowder within the barrel, and propelling the bullet out the muzzle.