Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

there may be others which cannot be recognized because the use of some forms of
blade and hilt span centuries.*
It is possible to suggest, albeit tentatively, that swords of the 11th and 12th
centuries developed out of those of the preceding Viking era, having broad, flat blades
that tapered gently and terminated in a round point, and short, single-handed grips.
In the 13th century the longer 'great sword' or 'war sword' appeared, whose blade,
whilst of the same cross-section as earlier forms, was much longer, as was the grip,
which enabled it to be used with the left hand 'steering' the sword from the pommel
and the right providing the power at the grip. This distinction between the larger 'great
sword' and the smaller 'arming sword' would continue throughout the rest of the
middle ages and into the early Renaissance. Whilst swords of this period were
well-balanced for both cut and thrust, prior to the mid-14th century their blade form
made them more of a cutting weapon than a thrusting one.
Some time around 1350 a new blade form developed. Longer, narrower and stiffer,
with diamond or hexagonal cross-section, there can be little doubt that this new form
was designed in response to the increased use of plate armour. Although many studies
suggest that these blade forms were designed to penetrate armour, the 15th-century
treatises on longsword fighting, or Fechtbiicher, show that in fact the main techniques
used against armoured opponents were performed at 'half sword', with the left hand
grasping the sword at the mid-point of the blade so that the point could be thrust
into the relatively unprotected armpit or groin, or into the eye-slit or between the
helm and the bevor.
Although not normally considered a knightly weapon the falchion is occasionally
seen in the hands of knights in contemporary illustrations. Shorter than the 'knightly'
sword, single-edged and very broad bladed, widening out to a flat end like a modern
machete or with a cutback on the back edge, the weapon had a fearsome cutting
power. Again the Fechtbiicher show men fighting with these GroMnuMer (literally big
knives'), losing hands to the cleaving blows of their opponents. The fight-master Hans
Talhoffer, active between around 1430 and 1460, introduces the section on Mejjer
fighting in his manual with the words 'Now they fight with messers, God help them!'
Knives were carried by all classes in the middle ages, as much as a tool and eating
implement as for defence. The deax, the single-edged knife of the Saxon and Norse
world, tell out of use by the end of the 12th century. From then onwards the most
common style was the so-called bollock' dagger (re-named by the sensitive
Victorians as the ballock' or 'kidney' dagger), named for the bulges at the base of
The best and definitive work on this must be Ewart Oakeshott's Record of the Medieval Sword (Woodbridge,
1991). His typology offers 22 classifications of sword based on blade, cross and pommel forms.
ARMS AND ARMOUR •*}*•
A rondel dagger. The
quintessential military
knife of the later middle
ages, its narrow and
stiffened blade, combined
with the large disc
pommel, were all aimed
at making it easy to thrust
through a visor or the gaps
between plates.
(Bridgeman Art Library)
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