Mad about Science: Knightly weapons

By Brenden Bobby
Reader Columnist

Imagining a medieval knight conjures the image of a gallant plate-armored nobleman holding aloft a glimmering sword. It’s true that in medieval Europe, the sword became an image of prestige, wealth and honor displayed on noble coats of arms across the continent; however, its usefulness as a symbol vastly outweighed its value as a weapon — especially toward the end of the medieval period.

A medieval knight carried a number of weapons onto the battlefield, with each one designed to serve a specific purpose. The sword was a weapon designed to cut through unarmored opponents, which critically hamstrung its value against other armored warriors. Despite what the movies may tell you, a sword slash against a steel breastplate or even chainmail wouldn’t result in an instant kill — it’s effectively the same thing as slapping someone wearing a coat with a pool noodle.

Medieval knights had two weapons that were specifically designed to kill other knights in the age of the sword: lances and daggers. The war lance was designed to deliver the full weight and force of an armored horse, which could gallop at speeds of up to 30 miles per hour. The amount of force delivered by the impact of a point just a few inches across was tremendous and enough to fling a 200-pound man in 90 pounds of armor a dozen or more feet from his saddle. 

However, lances were largely a single-use weapon, and spares weren’t readily carried on the horse. Medieval cavalry’s strength also wasn’t catered toward engaging other cavalry, but instead targeting poorly armored infantry and soldiers armed with crossbows.

Regardless, knights still fought other knights, which made the lance their primary weapon for felling armored foes. The lance, however, came in second to the most lethal anti-knight tool in a medieval warrior arsenal: the dagger.

Contemporary fantasy depictions inaccurately portray the dagger as a tool of the coward — the dastardly rogue skulking about the tavern waiting to deliver a poisoned blow to the heart of some drunken lordling, or the lithe and agile archer that moves with a water-like grace (another grossly inaccurate depiction of medieval archers that we will explore another day).

The dagger was a utilitarian weapon used by many, but especially used by knights in the form of the rondel. Rondel daggers were often used as a boot knife — a last resort weapon to finish off another armored opponent — and they worked extremely well. 

Due to the nature of armored combat, two unhorsed knights would collide in a heavy metal wrestling match to utilize every advantage they could to incapacitate or kill their opponent. The rondel was perfectly designed to slip between the articulating plates of armor and pierce a vital artery in the neck, armpit or thigh.

Game of Thrones would have you believe that the goal of every nobleman on the battlefield was to kill his enemies as swiftly and viciously as possible; and, given the huge arsenal of armor and weapons they left behind for historians, it makes a convincing argument that this was true. In actuality, medieval war was often more like a game of rich man’s tag, in which the bulk of the casualties were the commoners forced to fight in their lords’ lethal games.

Capturing an enemy noble was a far more profitable act than simply murdering him and trying to control his family’s land. There was even a specific tool designed to achieve exactly this — a horrific contraption called the man-catcher. This was a spiked collar attached to the end of a pole and deployed against armored cavalry. 

The premise was simple: thrust the man-catcher at the charging knight’s neck, brace the back against the ground and let physics take care of the rest. If all went well, the horse kept moving without its rider, and a swarm of infantry would capture a valuable prisoner — or, they just accidentally decapitated someone who was worth more money alive than dead.

One of the most powerful tools in a knight’s arsenal is seldom seen in modern fantasy media, and I find that rather surprising. The poleaxe appeared in the middle of the 14th century, and its simplicity was a marvel of medieval ingenuity. This weapon was the Swiss Army knife of weapons in its day, blending the benefits of a spear, a hammer and an axe with virtually none of the drawbacks. 

The poleaxe was perfectly suited for every situation a knight might face on foot, with an axe head for hacking at unarmored opponents, a hammer for bludgeoning armored foes, and a spear for reach and poking at weak points in articulated plate.

The poleaxe itself was designed for grappling, locking up with another opponent’s weapon to twist and overpower them in an attempt to contort their limbs into submission and eke out an edge. The hammer side of the poleaxe even made for an effective leverage point for a foot, when a knight could point the tip downward and press with their full body weight to pierce a downed enemy through a visor or the gaps in the neck of their armor.

Of course, all of these weapons fell out of favor in the age of gunpowder. Plate armor couldn’t deflect a thumb-sized ball of metal, which meant steel became a more valuable resource for building artillery than defending noblemen who could command a battle from outside the range of artillery. Armor and helmets receded, and melee weapons fell out of favor. The age of knights then faded into history, replaced by the era of shot and pike.

Stay curious, 7B.