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A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When belligerents in warfare had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, they would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively low, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favoured weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.
A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, diamond, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp points, with or without barbs.
A rapier is a type of sword originally used in Spain and Italy. The name designates a sword with a straight, slender and sharply pointed two-edged long blade wielded in one hand. It was widely popular in Western Europe throughout the 16th and 17th centuries as a symbol of nobility or gentleman status.
The English term lance is derived, via Middle English launce and Old French lance, from the Latin lancea, a generic term meaning a spear or javelin employed by both infantry and cavalry, with English initially keeping these generic meanings. It developed later into a term for spear-like weapons specially designed and modified to be part of a "weapon system" for use couched under the arm during a charge, being equipped with special features such as grappers to engage with lance rests attached to breastplates, and vamplates, small circular plates designed to prevent the hand sliding up the shaft upon impact. These specific features were in use by the beginning of the late 14th century.
A pike is a long thrusting spear formerly used in European warfare from the Late Middle Ages and most of the early modern period, and wielded by foot soldiers deployed in pike square formation, until it was largely replaced by bayonet-equipped muskets. The pike was particularly well known as the primary weapon of Spanish tercios, Swiss mercenary, German Landsknecht units and French sans-culottes. A similar weapon, the sarissa, had been used in antiquity by Alexander the Great's Macedonian phalanx infantry.
A flame-bladed sword or wave-bladed sword has a characteristically undulating style of blade. The wave in the blade is often considered to contribute a flame-like quality to the appearance of a sword. The dents on the blade can appear parallel or in a zig-zag manner. The two most common flame-bladed swords are rapiers or Zweihänders. A flame-bladed sword was not exclusive to a certain country or region. The style of blade can be found on swords from modern-day Germany, France, Spain, and Switzerland.
Cuirassiers were cavalry equipped with a cuirass, sword, and pistols. Cuirassiers first appeared in mid-to-late 16th century Europe as a result of armoured cavalry, such as men-at-arms and demi-lancers discarding their lances and adopting pistols as their primary weapon. In the later part of the 17th century, the cuirassier lost his limb armour and subsequently wore only the cuirass, and sometimes a helmet. By this time, the sword or sabre had become his primary weapon, with pistols relegated to a secondary function.
The English language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise and has varied widely over time. There is no historical dictionary for the universal names, classification, or terminology of swords; a sword was simply a single-edged or double-edged knife.
The lance fournie was a medieval equivalent to the modern army squad that would have accompanied and supported a man-at-arms in battle. These units formed companies under a captain either as mercenary bands or in the retinue of wealthy nobles and royalty. Each lance was supposed to include a mixture of troop types that would have guaranteed a desirable balance between the various components of the company at large; however, it is often difficult to determine the exact composition of the lance in any given company as the available sources are few and often centuries apart.
Light cavalry comprised lightly armed and armored cavalry troops mounted on fast horses, as opposed to heavy cavalry, where the mounted riders were heavily armored. The purpose of light cavalry was primarily raiding, reconnaissance, screening, skirmishing, patrolling, and tactical communications. Prior to the 17th century they were usually armed with swords, spears, javelins, or bows, and later on with sabres, pistols, shotguns, or carbines.
Jacques de Lalaing (1421–1453), perhaps the most renowned knight of Burgundy in the 15th century, was reportedly one of the best medieval tournament fighters of all time. A Walloon knight, he began his military career in the service of Adolph I, Duke of Cleves, but was quickly noticed by Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy by whom he was knighted and whom he went on to serve. Jacques, known as the "Bon Chevalier" due to his military prowess in tournaments and battles, became the most famous Burgundian knight of his time, and was well known throughout Europe as one of the best medieval tournament fighters. Jacques was inducted into the prestigious Burgundian chivalric order, the Order of the Golden Fleece, in 1451. Jacques' deeds in tournaments and battles were recorded in the Livre des Faits de Jacques Lalaing attributed mainly to the Burgundian chroniclers Jean Le Fevre de Saint-Remy, Georges Chastellain, and the herald Charolais. Throughout his life, Jacques was entrusted by the Duke of Burgundy to serve in delegations to the King of France and the Pope, as well as with the suppression of the Revolt of Ghent in 1453.
Ronald Ewart Oakeshott was a British illustrator, collector, and amateur historian who wrote prodigiously on medieval arms and armour. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Founder Member of the Arms and Armour Society, and the Founder of the Oakeshott Institute. He created a classification system of the medieval sword, the Oakeshott typology, a systematic organization of medieval weaponry.
The Oakeshott typology is a way to define and catalogue the medieval sword based on physical form. It categorises the swords of the European Middle Ages into 13 main types, labelled X through XXII. The historian and illustrator Ewart Oakeshott introduced it in his 1960 treatise The Archaeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry.
The compagnie d'ordonnance was the first standing army of late medieval and early modern France. The system was the forefather of the modern company. Each compagnie consisted of 100 lances fournies, which was built around a heavily armed and armored gendarme, with assisting pages or squires, archers and men-at-arms, for a total of 600 men. By 1445, France had 15 compagnies, for an army of 9,000 men, of which 6,000 were combatants and 3,000 non-combatants. Over the course of the 15th century, the compagnies d'ordonnance expanded to a peak strength of 58 compagnies of 4,000 lances and 24,000 men in 1483. It was later supplemented by the bandes d'artillerie, the franc-archers militia after 1448 and standing infantry regiments from 1480 onward.
The lancea was a javelin used in ancient Rome. According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word originally came from the Celtiberian language, also cf. λόγχη (lonche), the Greek term for lance. One kind of lancea, possibly known as the lancea pugnatoria or "the fighting lance" was used as a thrusting weapon by cavalrymen. This weapon was used by cavalrymen as it was lighter and easier to use than the pilum. The lancea was also used by auxiliaries. legionaries would use the lancea if the occasion called for it. Arrian equipped his army with the weapon during a battle with the Alans. Soldiers that used it were known as lancearii. It is unclear how the lancea was distinguished from the hastae. Many lancea had amenta, although not all. This kind of javelin also had short wooden shafts and small leaf-shaped metal heads. Sometimes the heads had elongated points which may have been used to increase the penetration of the spear.
The First Battle of Guinegate took place on 7 August 1479. King Louis XI's French troops, led by Philippe de Crèvecœur d'Esquerdes, were defeated by the Burgundians, led by Archduke Maximilian of Habsburg. The battle was the first in which the innovative Swiss pike square formation was used by a power that was not natively Swiss.
The basket-hilted sword is a sword type of the early modern era characterised by a basket-shaped guard that protects the hand. The basket hilt is a development of the quillons added to swords' crossguards since the Late Middle Ages. This variety of sword is also sometimes referred to as the broadsword, though this term may also be applied loosely and imprecisely to other swords.
In the European High Middle Ages, the typical sword was a straight, double-edged weapon with a single-handed, cruciform hilt and a blade length of about 70 to 80 centimetres. This type is frequently depicted in period artwork, and numerous examples have been preserved archaeologically.
After the French lifted the siege of Orléans and won a decisive victory at the Battle of Patay, the English and Burgundians no longer posed a threat. Joan of Arc convinced the Dauphin Charles to go to Reims for his coronation. Successfully marching their army though the heart of territory held by the hostile Burgundians solidified the Dauphin’s regrasp of the throne of France. He had been disinherited from it through the Treaty of Troyes.
The Sword and Spurs of Giampietro de Proti are pieces of smithy objects dating from the late Middle Ages, between the 14th and 15th centuries. They were made by an Italian manufacturer with materials of gilded bronze and steel components. It was found in the tomb of its owner and commissioner, Giampietro de Proti (1345–1412), a significant political and military figure of Vicenza. The tomb was located in the Proti chapel inside the Cathedral of Vicenza. Today, the Sword and Spurs of Giampietro di Proti are exhibited in the Museo Diocesano of Vicenza, near their place of discovery. These objects are linked to nobility and chivalry.
References
- ↑ Goubert, Pierre; Maarten Ultee (1991). The Course of French History. Routledge. p. 44.
- 1 2 Fowler, Kenneth (1980). The Age of Plantagenet and Valois. London: Ferndale. p. 137. ISBN 0-905746-09-0.
- 1 2 Contamine, Philippe (1984). War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Blackwell. p. 128. ISBN 0-631-13142-6.
- ↑ Ordonnance du Duc Pierre pour faire armer la Noblesse & les Archers des Paroisses : "Preuves" de Dom Morice, Tome II, colonnes 1555-1557. Publié ez plaids generaux de Rennes le 29. jour de Mars 1450. Tiré des Archives du Présidial de Rennes.
- ↑ Ewart, Oakeshott (1960). The Archeology of Weapons. London: Lutterworth. p. 253.
- ↑ Nicolle, David (2000). French Armies of the Hundred years War. Oxford: Osprey. p. 21. ISBN 1-85532-710-4.