Matchlock musket
Mosquete de mecha
- Date
- c. 1521 · confidence medium
- Place
- Spain and Italy (siege of Parma, 1521)
- Credited to
- Spanish tercios; the serpentine matchlock documented in Germany from c. 1475
- Field
- Conflict
What it is
A large-calibre portable firearm with a matchlock mechanism, fired from a rest, capable of piercing armour at 100 metres. Its mass deployment by the tercios decided battles such as Pavia (1525).
The musket was spread to Japan by the Portuguese in 1543 (Tanegashima), and to India and China.
What it led to
- The end of armoured cavalry and of pure pike infantry
- Large infantry armies and disciplined volley fire by ranks
- The military revolution and a fiscal state to sustain armies
- The conquest of America and European expansion (alongside the horse and steel)
Built on
- Matchlock arquebusc. 1420
- Corned (granulated) gunpowder
- Serpentine lock
Made possible
- Tercio (pike-and-shot infantry)1534-1536
- Flintlockc. 1610
- Bayonetc. 1647 (de cubo, 1687)
- Standard infantry musket