The arquebus gave firearms their first trigger and took 28 steps to fire
Before the arquebus, a gunner held the weapon against his chest and used his free hand to poke a hot wire into the touch hole. The matchlock arquebus of the late 15th century changed that with a trigger that lowered a smouldering cord into the powder, letting soldiers aim with both hands.
The name comes from the Dutch haakbus, hook gun. The earliest versions, in the early 15th century, were defensive guns fixed to German city walls, with a lug underneath that could be braced against a battlement to absorb the kick. Around 1470 a shoulder stock, probably borrowed from the crossbow, was added, and the matchlock followed shortly before 1475, making the arquebus the first firearm with a trigger and the first carried and fired from the shoulder. Some historians argue matchlocks appeared in the Ottoman Empire as early as 1465, though the dating is disputed.
The mechanism clamped a length of rope, 60 to 90 cm long and soaked in saltpetre, which burned slowly as the match. It was fiddly and risky. The match had to be removed while loading to avoid setting off the powder, and because it could go out, soldiers kept both ends burning. A Dutch drill manual of 1607 by Jacob de Gheyn broke loading and firing into 28 separate steps.
The weapon became decisive once armies organised around its slowness. With volley fire, one rank shoots while the others reload in rotation. Ottoman Janissaries used matchlock volleys at the Battle of Mohács in 1526, and in 1594 William Louis of Nassau wrote to his cousin Maurice proposing that musketeers copy an ancient Roman counter-march, each rank firing then moving to the back. From then on the arquebus went from support weapon to the core of early modern armies.
Variations multiplied. A heavy version meant to punch through plate armour, called the musket, appeared around 1521, and the standard-bore caliver made loading quicker. The wheellock, available from 1505, cost three times as much and broke down easily, so the flintlock musket eventually succeeded the arquebus.
Source: Arquebus
