Walter de Milemete

Who is Walter de Milemete?

Walter de Milemete was an English scholar who wrote a treatise on Kingship for the young prince Edward, later king Edward III of England called De nobilitatibus, sapientiis, et prudentiis regum in 1326. The Treatise includes images of siege weapons and what is probably the first illustration of a firearm: a pot-de-fer. One of the marginal border illustrations in the Milemete Treatise shows a soldier firing a large vase-shaped cannon, the arrow-shaped projectile is seen projecting from the cannon which is pointed at a fortification. In the 1331 siege of Cividale, German knights used guns which were probably very similar to Milemete weapons.