The first firearms can be dated to about the 1200s in China. In Europe, the first gun barrels were made by p Italian craftsmen. But gunsmithing was new in the Middle Ages. For a long time they did not have their own guilds and many joined blacksmiths’ guilds. By the mid-1400s, there were enough gunsmiths to form their own guilds. One of the first was in 1463 in Suhl, Germany. England did not develop gunsmiths as quickly as other European countries and to change this, King Henry VIII invited leading gunsmiths in Europe to come live and work in England. Many accepted and not long afterwards more gun shops began appearing in England. Several appeared in London near the Tower of London, which held the country's stockpile of guns. Soon they were training English citizens in this new trade.