Medieval Weapons

by Lulujones

Not unlike wars of today, war during medieval times was all about control over land. Living in castles with integrated fortresses of massively thick stone fortification and support, were garrisons of knights and soldiers. In order to take over land control, and to conquer a territory, an army had to strike and attack major strongholds such as these castles.

Planning was everything and in order to successfully take over territories, these attacking armies had to launch carefully thought out sieges. Medieval armies developed strategies and large scale combat operations, evolving the science and art of military command and the use of force over time. Also evolving were weapons of war, and their evolution was oftentimes the result of their enemy's changing and evolving technological advancement in their own weapons systems.

I first think of the mace, with it's overbearing ball and iron spikes connected to a chain and handle giving an advantage of accumulating momentum and force before administering a huge WHACK! After further research, I realized that was, in fact, a spiked flail. You learn somethin' every day! Here's a sampling of the arms race in medieval times.

Trebuchet
The giant trebuchet was the dominant siege weapon, and one of the most destructive of the medieval weapons ever made. The trebuchet is a catapult that gathers the potential energy of a held weight, then harnesses and channels this weight by hurling it in mid air toward the unfortunate victim.

Battering Ram
To knock down the entrance gates of castles or to smash castle walls, siege armies would use battering rams, basically, a very large tree trunk suspended by chains from a beam above. Soldiers built rolling sheds above the battering rams to shield themselves from attack. The tree trunks were tapered into a point and then capped with iron. Soldiers then swung the battering ram back and forth then against their targets. The defending factions inside the castle or other stronghold would shoot flaming arrows in an attempt to burn down the batterning ram's shed, or they would drop mattresses down to shield the battering ram's blows. In some cases, they would lower grapplling irons to hold onto the trunks and divert it away from the target and impeding it from swinging.

Crossbow and Longbow
Archers had a choice of three weapons to choose from but the most effective and most powerful weapon was the crossbow. The heads of the bolt on the arrow were coated with beeswas to facilitate piercing through armor. The longbow was quicker to load than the crossbow but took more expertise and strength toshoot an arrow as far as 1,000 feet.

Other Weapons of Medieval Destruction
It's an exhaustive list! Among the hand weapons: bill, danish axe, flail, spiked flail, gisarme, glaive, halberd, langdebeve, lochaber axe, mace, spiked mace, single ball mace, double ball mace, military fork, partisan, several different kinds of crossbows, pole-axe, war-scythe, large battle axe, daggers, spears, and swords.

The list of weaponry of medieval times, obviously, goes on and on, perhaps part 2 will come at a later date...