Middle Ages: Weapons

Weapons and Arms in the Middle Ages In my observations of the Medieval time period I found the weapons to be brutal, and atrocious. From war hammers to napalm to the arquebus, this was by far the most in-humane advancement in weapons apart from modern day. The Medieval time went from about the 11th century to the 14th. During this time survival depended on the power of the certain ruler people served under. The power of the ruler depended directly upon his army and the army upon their weapons. This is why we see such rapid advancement of the weapons in Medieval times. In this time "might" was right. "A knight or any other warrior is only as effective as his skills and the quality of his weapons" (Medieval Weapon Links). This paper will cover the making and use of a broad range of weapons used from about 1000-1400 A.D. Good weapons were a necessity in the medieval times. The making of these weapons relied strongly upon the areas local blacksmith. The blacksmith was often the most skilled man in the kingdom. He made everything from nails, to shoes for horses, to weapons. The making of medieval weapons was particularly hard. Although iron was a fairly easy metal to work with, it had a fairly high melting point which meant you had to heat it quite a bit before you could do any work with it. Also the hotter the blacksmith got it the weaker it became when cooled. The atoms would not bond with their originals, making it more brittle. A skilled blacksmith was prized beyond any knight in the king's army (Martin 34). Unlike the weapons of today, some of the most effective weapons were often the simplest. Today our weapons have many gadgets and moving parts that can break and fail in Medieval times there were often no moving parts and it was possible to train the dullest peasant to use them. These simple hand-to-hand weapons were known as Melee weapons. One of the most popular weapon of this type was the "club". It was probably the one that

Cited: Funcken, Liliane and Fred. Arms and Uniforms The Age of Chivalry Part 1. Englewood Cliffs: Ward Lock Limited, 1978. ---. Arms and Uniforms The Age of Chivalry Part 2. Englewood Cliffs: Ward Lock Limited, 1978. H.W Martin, Paul. Arms and Armor-From the 9th century to the 17th. Mowbray, Munich: Dorwich, 1975.