nationality and of about the same period (Fig. 937b). This view shows how the twisted cord loop of the windlass fitted over the butt of the stock, but was prevented from slipping too far forward by the presence of the winder pin.
Some authors are of the opinion that the "cranequin" is nothing else than the goat's-foot lever, to which we shall refer. Among others Colonel Penguilly L'Haridon gives as a reason the fact that mounted crossbowmen were called cranequiniers, and that it was impossible for a man on horseback to bend a crossbow à cranequin. On the other hand Du Cange quotes from a passage in the Crenkinarii, written in 1422: "Icellui Bauduin prist une arbalestre, nommée crennequin, qui est dire arbalete à pié." Now the crossbow of the foot soldier is certainly the crossbow with stirrup, the bow of which is bent, not by a goat's-foot lever but by the cranequin. It may therefore be granted that at the beginning of the XVth century the "cranequin" was a wheel and ratchet winder.
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Fig. 938. Crossbow
Probably Northern French, about 1470. Wallace Collection (Laking Catalogue, No. 143)
The fine crossbow of Ulrich V, Count of Würtemberg, dating from about 1460, was, as we have said, described in minute detail by the Baron de Cosson in Archaeologia at far greater length than we have here space to devote to it. Readers should consult the Baron's admirable paper for the constructional detail of this so-called horn bow, which is now in the Metropolitan Museum, New York. Another crossbow of the same nationality as the Ulrich V example, and of about the same period, bent too by the same jack windlass, but richer in appearance, and having a bow of steel, is in the Wallace Collection, No. 143 (Fig. 938). So elaborate are
