In the Romanian principalities the first firearms were recorded at the start of the XVth century. The first voivode to equip his army with firearms was Alexander the Kind, voivode of Moldova (1400 - 1432), who received a few bombards from the Polish king Władysław Jagiełło as a gift and also bought bombards from Genovese traders. In Wallachia it is believed that the first voivode to equip his army with gunpowder artillery was Mircea the Elder (1355 - 1418).
The bombards used in the principalities were usually built out of tree trunks, iron and placed on a mobile platform. However, there were some that were built out of castings and iron. In 1432 the Wallachian voivode Vlad Dracul sent a request to the cannon makers of Brasov saying "I beg you, as brothers of mine, build for me a hundred guns". Two of the bombards with a metal barrel were used by Vlad Dracul's army in the siege of Giurgiu in 1445. The chronicle of Jean de Wavrin mentioned that these two bombards "made more noise then actual damage".
Another documented use of artilery by the Wallachians was during the reign of Vlad the Impaler. Vlad was the most innovative general in terms of the use of gunpowder in Wallachia. This is due to his time spent at the Ottoman court as a young hostage and also his knowledge of Western warfare and his time spent first as an exile and later as a hostage in Hungary.
During Vlad's reign the chronicle on the walls of the Putna monastery tell us how at the siege of Chilia in 1462 the defenders of the fortress repelled the first attack of Vlad's cousin and former ally Stefan the Great using artilery. During the siege Stefan was wounded in the heel by the Wallachian cannon fire, a wound which would cause him grief for the rest of his life.
Vlad the Impaler was also the first Wallachian voivode to use handheld firearms in an organised way. He captured the pasha of Giurgiu using an ambush and a force made up exclusively of troops with handheld firearms. He surrounded the Turks and ordered his handgunners to fire in volleys.
Although, the first documents mentioning firearms in the principalities predate the ascension of Stefan the Great on the Moldavian throne, historical research show that only in his reign (late XVth century) was artilery used as a distinct type of weapon with an operational use.
Differently from Janos Hunyadi who was an adept of offensive actions and who in the first half of the XVth century focused on the development of field artilery, Stefan concentrated on defensive strategies and on the development of an extensive system of fortifications with artilery positions.
Giovani Maria Angiollelo, the secretary of the Ottoman sultan Mehmet Fatih wrote that during the siege of the Neamt citadel in 1476 "the defenders from the fortress did not want to talk to us and defended themselves with cannons and did not care about us". The turkish chronicle quotes that "the carts were located on the infidels' side, from which cannons were fired...making the earth shatter from their thundering...the janissaries, not being able to withstand such hits, although they were used to face cannons and guns with their chests, had to lie with their faces on the ground". The Polish historian Bernard Wapowski described that during the Polish siege of Suceava in 1497 "the citadel was reinforced with a powerful garrison which defended it bravely because they had cannons and other war machines". Also, according to Wapowski, Suceava was besieged by "grand cannons, machines for bringing down walls, two of which were of such a size that one had to be drawn by 40 horses, the other by 50 horses". The Moldavians preceded to lift the siege and capture all this artillery.
The cannons of the citadels were fixed in the towers of the outer walls, were made out of metal, especially bronze and were bought from Transilvania (from Brasov, Sighisoara, Sibiu/Hermanstadt) or from Poland (from Lvov). The projectiles were built locally out of stone or metal and the gunpowder was usually brought from Lvov. In 1475 a Moldavian army engineer called Mihail was sent to Lvov to purchase 16 saltpeter stones. The cannon handlers were usually members of the local armourer guilds or foreign mercenaries.
In 1999 during archaeological investigations done around the Moldavian citadel of Orheiul Vechi two artilery pieces from the reign of Stefan the Great were discovered. These cannons are the oldest cannons discovered in Bessarabia. The cannons were made of bronze and were discovered in the soil beneath a wrecked house in the south-western corner of the citadel. They were oriented with their mouths towards east and inside one of the cannons a stone cannon ball was found. The hiding of these cannons in the citadel's soil is connected to the 1510 Tatar invasion of Moldova led by the khan Beti-Ghirei. The heraldic symbols on the cannons indicate they were built in Poland and were either purchased from the neighbouring state or captured during the battle of Cosmin Forest in 1497.
Besides the citadel cannons the Moldavian army was also equiped with smaller field artilery. Their number was much smaller then the citadel artilery. Their caliber was only 10 and 15 cms and they were transported on carriages. When firing the cannons were mounted on wooden platforms.
Most of the field cannons used by the Moldavians in the late XVth century (excepting the locally made cannons with wooden barrels) were either imported or captured during the victories over the Hungarians at Baia (1467) and the Ottomans at Vaslui (1475). After the battle of Baia, Stefan wrote to the Polish king Cazimir telling him that he had captured "all the enemy's wagons, tents and all types of cannons, tools, small guns and big guns".
At the battle of Vaslui in 1475 Stefan already had 20 bombards which could fire 7 rounds each. Following the battle the Moldavians captured all of the Ottoman's artilery. One year later at the battle of Razboieni (Valea Alba) there are abundant sources that mention field artilery in the Moldavian army. At this battle the Moldavian army dug entrenchements where the field artilery was placed and protected with shrubs and fallen logs. Giovanni Maria Angiollelo mentions that the first salvo of the cannons did not hurt the Turks as they were too far away. However, as the Turkish attack drew close the cannon fire caused considerable victims. This event is later confirmed in Turkish historiography, first in 1584 by the Ottoman historiograph Sa'adeddin Mehmed efendi and later in the XVIIIth century by the Ottoman prime-chancellor the Kodja Husein.
When it comes to handheld gunpowder weapons the most important one used by the Moldavian army in the late XVth century was the arquebus. One such arquebus was uncovered by archaeological digs at Cetatea Alba (Akkerman) in 1929. The arquebus is simillar to the ones produced in the same period in Bohemia. It is assumed that it was imported from that region, being well known that Stefan had diplomatic relations with the king of Bohemia, confirmed by correspondence between that two from 1468. The description of the captured guns from the Poles after the battle of Cosmin Forest is as follows "all the big guns with which they bombarded Suceava, they took other small ones and a lot more of the smallest ones". In this context "the smallest ones" has been interpreted as portable bombards (arquebuses). Handgunners are also mentioned at the Battle of Valea Alba in 1476 and at the Battle of Vaslui in 1475 when Stefan ordered his artilery, followed by the archers and handgunners to fire on the Ottoman army from three sides.
During the XVIth century a new phase occured in the the development of artilery. The quality and number of artilery pieces in the Wallachian and Moldavian armies increased.
The Moldavian voivode Petru Rares (1527 - 1546) acquired several artilery pieces from Genovese traders. In 1529 he fought alongside the Transilvanian prince Jan Zapolya at the battle of Feldioara. Historians mention the Moldavians had 50 heavy cannons and several more cannons with multiple barrels mounted on the same platform (known as ribaldequins). In 1531 the Moldavians were defeated by the Poles at the battle of Obertyn and the polish historian L. Bielski described that the Poles captured all of the 50 heavy cannons and smaller cannons with multiple barrels. These small cannons had between 6 and 8 barrels and once one barrel was ignited all the other ones would catch the spark and fire one after the other.
During the XVth to XVIth centuries various types of gunpowder weapons were used in the principalities: bombards (heavy and light), culverins and arquebuses. The turkish historian Tur Sun Bey mentions that besides firearms the Moldavian army of the period used other types of warmachines, catapults and balistas to enforce the effect of the cannons.
It must be noted that both Moldavians and Wallachians believed that the use of handguns against the enemy was a shameful thing. That is why handheld guns were only used by the Voivode's hunters and foreign mercenaries.
The increase of the importance and power of gunpowder weapons deeply impacted on the army composition of the two principalities. As gunpowder weapons became more numerous in the armies of the time, foreign mercenaries started having a greater role starting with the late XVth century. More and more foreign mercenaries were employed by the voivodes of Wallachia and Moldavia and by the late XVIth century half of the army was composed of mercenaries.