The Contrivances - A History (Part Two)

(See here for Part One)

[Part Two - Medieval to Tudor Period]

Geoffrey Chaucer himself gives us evidence about which contrivances were most in use during the medieval period, when in his Canterbury Tales, the Pardoner reveals his Hand-cranked Crested Grebe to the rest of the pilgrims during a stopover in an Inn on the road to Canterbury. Of course, by this time, artisans had mastered the tricky process of attaching pedals to a mute swan, and also found ways of over-clocking the candle-powered badger - first invented by Alfred the Great - to enable it to operate for a full 24-hour day without needing rewinding.

During the Wars of the Roses, as well as the Battles of the Quality Street, a bellows-powered weasel was put to use by both sides in the conflict, with notoriously devastating consequences during the second battle of St. Albans when the Lancastrians used such a weasel to completely perplex the opposing side’s soldiery.

However, it wasn’t until just after the dissolution of the monasteries by Henry VIII, that the first gunpowder–driven contrivances arrived on the scene with the first gunpowder rabbits appearing on the battlefields of Europe. Of course, as these were used with devastating effect by the protestant armies, it wasn’t long before the papacy denounced them as witchcraft, promising excommunication for any catholic found with even gunpowder and rabbits in the same contrivance-cobbler’s shed.

During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, her navy’s devastating use of gunpowder fire-seagulls during its battle with the Spanish Amanda prevented an invasion of these Isles. Not much changed in England, thereafter, until the days of the English Civil War, which will be covered in: Part Three (From The English Civil War To The Victorians)