Bombard (siege gun)

Timeline

1. c. 1400–1450Western European gunfounding centers (Ghent, Bruges area) · Burgundian Low CountriesWorkshops in Flanders and Burgundy cast giant bronze bombards such as Mons Meg, hauled by ox teams and fired from fixed carriages against stone castles, representing the peak of medieval siege firepower.
2. 1452–1453Positions outside the walls of Constantinople · former Byzantine capitalThe Hungarian gunfounder Urban cast an oversized wrought-iron bombard for Ottoman sultan Mehmed II, battering the Theodosian Walls and hastening the fall of the Byzantine Empire, shocking the whole Christian world.
3. 1481–1490Ottoman Balkan frontier · Ottoman EmpireUnder Bayezid II, the Ottomans stationed batteries of large bombards at frontier fortresses such as Belgrade and the Morea, maintaining constant pressure on Hungarian and Venetian border castles and adopting European gunfounding techniques to improve carriages.
4. c. 1490–1550Castle defense lines of the Italian Peninsula · Italian PeninsulaDuring the Italian Wars, attackers and defenders alike deployed super-heavy bombards against the walls that preceded bastions, spurring sloping gun emplacements and thicker walls until lighter bronze guns and bastion theory transformed siege warfare.