The basilisk was a very heavy bronze

cannon A cannon is a large- caliber gun classified as a type of artillery, which usually launches a projectile using explosive chemical propellant. Gunpowder ("black powder") was the primary propellant before the invention of smokeless powder ...

employed during the

Late Middle Ages The Late Middle Ages or Late Medieval Period was the period of European history lasting from AD 1300 to 1500. The Late Middle Ages followed the High Middle Ages and preceded the onset of the early modern period (and in much of Europe, the Renai ...

. The barrel of a basilisk could weigh up to 4,000 lb (1,800 kg) and could have a

calibre In guns, particularly firearms, caliber (or calibre; sometimes abbreviated as "cal") is the specified nominal internal diameter of the gun barrel bore – regardless of how or where the bore is measured and whether the finished bore match ...

of up to 5 inches (13 cm). On average they were around 10 feet long, though some, like Queen Elizabeth's Pocket Pistol, were almost three times that length. The basilisk got its name from the mythological basilisk: a fire-breathing venomous serpent that could cause large-scale destruction and kill its victims with its glance alone. It was thought that the very sight of its 160 lb shot would be enough to scare the enemy to death. In 1588 the Spanish Armada was equipped with many basilisks for their invasion of England with the intent of using them to besiege towns loyal to

Elizabeth I Elizabeth I (7 September 153324 March 1603) was List of English monarchs, Queen of England and List of Irish monarchs, Ireland from 17 November 1558 until her death in 1603. Elizabeth was the last of the five House of Tudor monarchs and is ...

. Many of these guns were lost when the ships were wrecked on their return to Spain. Due to its large size, the basilisk fell out of favour of European generals, who preferred lighter, more accurate artillery in the late 16th century. A late example is the Maltese Gun, built in Holland in 1607 and, like many of its contemporaries, fitted with a replacement carriage during the

Napoleonic Wars The Napoleonic Wars (1803–1815) were a series of major global conflicts pitting the French Empire and its allies, led by Napoleon I, against a fluctuating array of European states formed into various coalitions. It produced a period of Fren ...

References

{{Early firearms Cannon Medieval artillery Renaissance-era weapons

Further reading

References