Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, "Armour Plates" to "Arundel, Earls of"

heavy guns to the rear, except when a serious siege operation was in view, and in very rapid movements leaving even the field pieces far behind, was followed to some extent in the campaigns of the age of Louis XIV. The number of ammunition wagons, and above all of horses, required for each gun was four or five times as great as that required even for a modern quick-firer. In the days of Turenne heavy guns were much employed, as the campaigns of the French were directed as a rule to the methodical conquest of territory and fortified towns. Similarly, Marlborough, working amidst the fortresses of the Netherlands in 1706, had over 100 pieces of artillery (of which 60 were mortars) to a force of some 11,000 men, or about 9 pieces per 1000 men. On the other hand, in his celebrated march to the Danube in 1704, he had but few guns, and the allied armies at Blenheim brought into the field only 1 piece per 1000 men. At Oudenarde "from the _rapidity of the march_ ... the battle was fought with little aid from artillery on either side" (Coxe, _Marlborough_). There was less need now than ever before for rapid manoeuvres of mobile artillery, since the pike finally disappeared from the scene about 1700, and infantry fire-power had become the decisive factor in battles. In the meantime, artillery was gradually ceasing to be the province of the skilled workman, and assuming its position as an arm of the military service. In the 17th century, when armies were as a rule raised only "for the war" and disbanded at the conclusion of hostilities, there had been no very pressing need for the maintenance in peace of an expensive _personnel_ and material. Gunners therefore remained, as civilians, outside the regular administration of the forces, until the general adoption of the "standing army" principle in the last years of the century (see ARMY). From this time steps were taken, in all countries, to organize the artillery as a military force. After various attempts had been made, the "Royal Regiment of Artillery" came into existence in England in 1716. It is, however, stated that the English artillery did not "begin to assume a military appearance until the Flanders campaigns" of the War of the Austrian Succession. Even in the War of American Independence a dispute arose as to whether a general officer, whose regimental service had been in the Royal Artillery, was entitled to command troops of all arms, and the artillery drivers were not actually soldiers until 1793 at the earliest. French artillery officers received military rank only in 1732.