The Refined Miquelet
Moving closer to a true flintlock was a development from Spain. According to the royal gunsmith and historian, Isidro Soler, in his 1796 treatise Historical Account of the Gunmakers of Madrid, during 1530 the Emperor of the Roman Empire, Charles V (formerly Charles I of Spain), brought to Madrid two master gunsmiths from Augsburg, Germany — Simon and Peter Marquarte — to improve Spanish gunmaking. Simon’s son, Simon Marquarte, Jr., is credited with developing the refined “Spanish” or miquelet lock during the reign of Philip II (1556-1598).
The key improvement over the snaphaunce was the battery — now combined with the flash pan cover — was no longer a free-swinging arm but was mounted to the lock, just like the frizzen we’re familiar with in later flintlocks.
The miquelet lock is a powerful and rugged design. Mounted in pistols, rifles and shotguns, it spread quickly throughout Anatolia, North Africa, Arabia, the Caucasus and beyond.
The cock jaws are massive and fitted with a prominent thumbscrew to facilitate flint changes. I believe the quality of flint found throughout the range of the miquelet varied considerably (as did the shape of the flint) so the massive jaws compensated to hold lesser-quality flints.
The strong exterior mainspring of the lock is one of its most distinguishing characteristics, although some late miquelet locks did sport interior mainsprings. Three positive qualities of the exterior miquelet mainspring are (1) it’s easy to maintain and replace, (2) it minimizes inletting so the stock is stronger over the lock area and (3) it’s large and powerful enough to deliver a real wallop to the frizzen when using inferior flint. The exterior mainspring bears on either the front or the rear of the cock.
The frizzen itself is heavy and robust and normally grooved down its face to really dig into the flint and direct the sparks into the flash pan. It’s so robust — even without any spring tension on it — it’ll still deliver a shower of sparks. The grooved face of the frizzen was “re-soled” as it wore down.
Another interesting feature of the miquelet is its sear arrangement. Like the snaphaunce, it features a sear projecting laterally through the face of the lock plate which mates with a fan-shaped tail at the base of the cock. Typically, there are two visible sears stacked on top of each other. The bottom sear is a secondary one which serves as a safety. The upper sear allows the hammer to fall when the trigger is pressed.
There’s a great story about how revered the miquelet lock was in Spain. In 1752 the Spanish infantry musket was issued with a French flintlock. Forty years later Spain reverted to a military miquelet lock in their Model 1789-91 infantry musket. Then in their 1803 model they returned to the French flintlock but retained the horizontal operating, exterior sear of the miquelet!
The development of the snaphaunce and miquelet led to the future design of the French flintlock.
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