The crossbow was an arm of great importance from about the eleventh century until the seventeenth, and Spain, throughout the latter of these centuries, was celebrated for their manufacture. Roquetas, a Catalan, "master-maker of crossbows," constructed them of steel, so skilfully and finely that they could be carried concealed inside the sleeve of a coat, and discharged without awaking the suspicion of the victim. A letter of René of Anjou, quoted by the Count of Valencia de Don Juan, also refers to the skill of the Catalans in making crossbows, and mentions one of these weapons constructed by "Saracen," of Barcelona, "who refuses to teach his craft to Christians." The letter further states that this arm was of a curious shape, and that, "despite its small dimensions, it carries to a greater distance than any other I have yet possessed."
A handsome Moorish crossbow, inlaid with bronze (Plate xliii.), exists in the provincial museum of Granada. The Royal Armoury has no example of the rare form of crossbow fitted with wheeled gear, but all the commoner kinds employed for hunting or for war are represented here, including those with the _armatoste_ or goat's-foot lever, stirruped crossbows, and those which have the _torno_ or windlass (French _cranequin_). Demmin appends the following note to an illustration in his handbook of a crossbow with a goat's-foot lever fixed to the stock:--"A similar weapon in ironwood, sixteenth century, belonged to Ferdinand the First, proved by the inscription on the bow: DOM FERNANDO REI DE ROMANO, followed by four Golden Fleeces. It bears the name of the Spanish armourer Juan Deneinas. This valuable crossbow once belonged to M. Spengel, at Munich, but it is at present in the collection of the Count of Nieuwerkerke."
There is also in the Royal Armoury a crossbow of the scarcer kind known in Spanish as _ballestas de palo_, in which the gaffle is not of steel, but put together from slips of springy woods, including yew. The wings are tipped with horn, and traces of heraldic and Renaissance decoration, painted on parchment, yet remain upon the weapon. Other portions are inlaid. Except for the erasure of the painting, this arm is splendidly preserved, and still retains its double cord, nut, and pins, together with the separate lever.