Medieval Weapons: an Illustrated History of Their Impact

MEDIEVAL WEAPONS Other Titles in ABC-CLIO’s WEAPONS AND WARFARE SERIES Aircraft Carriers, Paul E. Fontenoy Ancient Weapons, James T. Chambers Artillery, Jeff Kinard Ballistic Missiles, Kev Darling Battleships, Stanley Sandler Cruisers and Battle Cruisers, Eric W. Osborne Destroyers, Eric W. Osborne Helicopters, Stanley S. McGowen Machine Guns, James H. Willbanks Military Aircraft in the Jet Age, Justin D. Murphy Military Aircraft, 1919–1945, Justin D. Murphy Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918, Justin D. Murphy Pistols, Jeff Kinard Rifles, David Westwood Submarines, Paul E. Fontenoy Tanks, Spencer C. Tucker MEDIEVAL WEAPONS AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF THEIR IMPACT Kelly DeVries Robert D. Smith Santa Barbara, California • Denver, Colorado • Oxford, England Copyright 2007 by ABC-CLIO, Inc. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, except for the inclusion of brief quotations in a review, without prior permission in writing from the publishers. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data DeVries, Kelly, 1956– Medieval weapons : an illustrated history of their impact / Kelly DeVries and Robert D. Smith. p. cm. — (Weapons and warfare series) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN-10: 1-85109-526-8 (hard copy : alk. paper) ISBN-10: 1-85109-531-4 (ebook) ISBN-13: 978-1-85109-526-1 (hard copy : alk. paper) ISBN-13: 978-1-85109-531-5 (ebook) 1. Military weapons—Europe—History—To 1500. 2. Military art and science—Europe—History—Medieval, 500-1500. I. Smith, Robert D. (Robert Douglas), 1954– II. Title. U810.D48 2007 623.4094'0902—dc22 2006102102 111009080710987654321 Production Editor: Vicki Moran Editorial Assistant: Sara Springer Production Manager: Don Schmidt Media Editor: J. R. Withers Media Resources Coordinator: Ellen Brenna Dougherty Media Resources Manager: Caroline Price File Management Coordinator: Paula Gerard This book is also available on the World Wide Web as an eBook. Visit abc-clio.com for details. ABC-CLIO, Inc. 130 Cremona Drive, P.O. Box 1911 Santa Barbara, California 93116–1911 This book is printed on acid-free paper. Manufactured in the United States of America CONTENTS Introduction to Weapons and Warfare Series, Spencer C. Tucker vii Introduction to Medieval Weapons ix Acknowledgments xiii chapter one The Early Middle Ages, 376–750 1 chapter two The Carolingian Era, 750–1050 49 chapter three The Crusades, 1050–1300 89 chapter four The Late Middle Ages, 1300–1550 143 conclusions 211 illustrations 217 Glossary 291 Bibliography 303 Index 313 About the Authors 335 v INTRODUCTION TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE SERIES Weapons both fascinate and repel. They are used to kill and maim individuals and to destroy states and societies, and occasionally whole civilizations, and with these the greatest of man’s cultural and artistic accomplishments. Throughout history tools of war have been the instruments of conquest, invasion, and enslavement, but they have also been used to check evil and to maintain peace. Weapons have evolved over time to become both more lethal and more complex. For the greater part of human existence, combat was fought at the length of an arm or at such short range as to represent no real difference; battle was fought within line of sight and seldom lasted more than the hours of daylight of a single day. Thus individual weapons that began with the rock and the club proceeded through the sling and boomerang, bow and arrow, sword and axe, to gunpowder weapons of the rifle and machine gun of the late nine- teenth century. Study of the evolution of these weapons tells us much about human ingenuity, the technology of the time, and the societies that produced them. The greater part of technological development of weaponry has taken part in the last two centuries, especially the twentieth century. In this process, plowshares have been beaten into swords; the tank, for example, evolved from the agricul- tural caterpillar tractor. Occasionally, the process is reversed and military technology has impacted society in a positive way. Thus modern civilian medicine has greatly benefited from advances to save soldiers’ lives, and weapons technology has impacted such areas as civilian transportation or atomic power. Weapons can have a profound impact on society. Gunpowder weapons, for example, were an important factor in ending the era of the armed knight and the Feudal Age. They installed a kind of rough vii viii INTRODUCTION TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE SERIES democracy on the battlefield, making “all men alike tall.” We can only wonder what effect weapons of mass destruction (WMD) might have on our own time and civilization. This series will trace the evolution of a variety of key weapons sys- tems, describe the major changes that occurred in each, and illus- trate and identify the key types. Each volume begins with a descrip- tion of the particular weapons system and traces its evolution, while discussing its historical, social, and political contexts. This is followed by a heavily illustrated section that is arranged more or less along chronological lines that provides more precise information on at least eighty key variants of that particular weapons system. Each volume contains a glossary of terms, a bibliography of leading books on that particular subject, and an index. Individual volumes in the series, each written by a specialist in that particular area of expertise, are as follows: Aircraft Carriers Ancient Weapons Artillery Ballistic Missiles Battleships Cruisers and Battle Cruisers Destroyers Helicopters Machine Guns Medieval Weapons Military Aircraft, Origins to 1918 Military Aircraft, 1919–1945 Military Aircraft in the Jet Age Pistols Rifles Submarines Tanks We hope that this series will be of wide interest to specialists, re- searchers, and even general readers. Spencer C. Tucker Series Editor INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL WEAPONS Whatever one’s political or personal feelings, it is undeni- able that warfare is endemic in the cultures of the world—people have always fought one another for power, prestige, property, and/or influ- ence. Into the past, one can trace the development of warfare from individual combat, warrior to warrior, to conflicts fought at greater and greater distances. Flint arrowheads and knives became bronze spear- heads and axes, which became iron swords and crossbow bolts, which became pikes and guns, which became today’s advanced weapon sys- tems designed to hit targets at long distance—attacking from tens of miles away or, with intercontinental missiles, from across the globe. This book will outline the weapons used from the fall of the Roman Empire to the Renaissance—from the spear and sword to the hand- gun and from the mail shirt to the fully armored knight. It is sometimes said that warfare is the force that drives technology as man’s desire to constantly improve weapons and protection from attack is the primary impetus for change. While this need to constantly find better forms of attacking one’s enemy and protecting oneself has been a major spur to change, it would be wrong to believe there is a direct and deterministic link. Advances in technology were, of course, exploited by the military and used wherever possi- ble, but it is incorrect to believe the two were inextricably linked. Only occasionally, for example the development of cast-iron cannon in England in the 1540s, are there explicit examples of the desire to develop technologies for warlike purposes, and here it is doubtful whether the change was an “improvement” or was driven by economic and monetary ends. It is true, however, to say that weapons and technology did, and still do, have many links and connections, which make a study of the two important. ix x INTRODUCTION TO MEDIEVAL WEAPONS Cave paintings, the earliest illustrations of man’s behavior, show early man armed with a variety of weapons. While it is true that most of these are hunting scenes, showing man against beast, some depict men fighting men suggesting that warfare has been endemic since the dawn of time. In these illustrations the soldiers, to use the term that would later be applied to their occupation, are armed with spears, clubs, and rudimentary bows, a means of fighting wars that would remain unchanged until the large-scale adoption of gunpowder weapons after 1500. The weapons themselves improved and di- versified, and some soldiers would become specialists, including those who fought on mounts—horses, camels, and elephants—but essentially the categories of weapons remained the same: handheld weapons and close-range and long-range missile weapons. As warfare became more and more common, these earliest hu- mans, who seem, like their descendants, to have been especially par- tial to hand-to-hand combat, the desire for increased defense devel- oped. Protection of the vulnerable torso and head encouraged the development of armor. Although not often depicted, a few cave paintings show soldiers who are outfitted with thicker articles of clothing and headwear than others, which some have described as wicker or bark armor. A natural progression to portable defenses, or shields, seems to have followed shortly. Emerging from the ancient world was the largest political entity before the modern era, the Roman Empire. Rome extended its boundaries beyond Italy throughout the Mediterranean, the Middle East, and Western Europe using armies of unparalleled size and strength to overwhelm previous inhabitants, and using weapons and armor hardly changed in purpose from those seen in the cave paintings. But these arms and armor, tied into a system of economic unity and prosperity and combined with a strong centralized political and military control, good leadership, and discipline, enabled the Ro- mans to create military forces, both regular and irregular armies, that were able to conquer their opponents, even those using similar weapons.

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