ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the political control of gunpowder weaponry in Burgundy, France, and England during the last two centuries of the Middle Ages. The history of fourteenth-century gunpowder weaponry in continental Europe is one of almost complete local control. Further evidence for the local possession of gunpowder weaponry during the fourteenth century is found in the construction of gunports in the town wall of Mont-Saint-Michel and at the castles of Blanquefort and St Malo. Outside the Low Countries before the end of the fourteenth century, and the total Burgundian 'kingdom' after this, there is no question as to the interest of Philip the Bold and his successors in gunpowder technology In many ways because of this interest it is the Burgundian dukes who can be credited with causing the rapid evolution of gunpowder weaponry during the last half of the Hundred Years War.
