Cathal Hall
Weapons Room
 

A brief history of the time period weapons!



 
 
 
 
        Crossbow - A short steel mechanical bow
  that shoots heavy bolts (small arrows). It takes
  a long time to load using a cranking
  mechanism. An archer can shoot dozens of
  arrows while a crossbow reloads. Banned by
  the church, most knights considered it a
  dishonorable weapon, but some soldiers used
  it anyway. William Tell was a legendary
  crossbowman who had to shoot an apple from
  his son's head as a punishment for not being
  loyal to the Austrian court. 

 
Longbow - A large bow under great tension
  that was difficult to master, but could fire
  deadly arrows up to 100 yards. The English
  used it to defeat the French at the battle of
  Crecy (1346) despite being outnumbered 4 to
  1. In order to take care of a longbow, an
  archer would unstring the bow to release the
  tension from the frame, and to keep the string
  from getting wet. 

 
 
Axe - A short chopping blade on the end of
  about two to three feet of a wood handle.
  Often tipped with a spike to keep an attacker
  at bay. 

 
 

  Mace - A blunt or spiked heavy ball attached
  directly to a handle. Used to smash the enemy,
  it came in both footman's (long-handled) and
  horseman's (short-handled) versions. 

 
 
Sword - the most common hand-to-hand
  fighting weapon of knight was a tempered
  blade of steel that ranged from two and a half
  to four feet in length. Blessed by the priest, the
  sword was usually a knight's favorite weapon.
  He spoke of it almost as affectionately as if it
  had been a brother in arms. "My own good
  sword," he called it. He even gave it a name.
  Charlemagne's sword was Joyosa; Roland's
  was Durindana; Arthur's was Excalibur. The
  Cid's favorite sword, Tizona, was buried with
  him. The sword was more than a weapon, for
  blade and hilt formed the sacred sign of the
  cross, and many a good knight and true has
  kissed it fervently and murmured his last
  prayer as he lay dying on the field of battle.
  The most common sword was the
  broadsword. This two-edged weapon was
  30" to 42" in length, but only weighed 3 to 4
  pounds. Thus a knight could wield it all day in
  battle by it's lightness, but give crushing blows
  with it's rarely sharpened edge. A larger
  sword was the bastard sword. This versitile
  44" to 50" weapon was made to be used
  two-handed, but had a short enough handle to
  be used one-handed by a knight on
  horseback. In contrast, the claymore, a
  Scottish sword also known as the two-handed
  or great sword, was 50" to 72" long (that's up
  to six feet!). 18" to 21" of the sword was
  made of the handle alone. 

This is the Sword I used, now drapped with a Healers Marking

 
 
Lance - A jousting weapon; a modified spear
  that is 8 feet long with a 6-inch blade shaped
  like a leaf. 

 
 
Catapult - A launching machine for
  flinging objects over castle walls. A
  massive cup or net is held under great
  tension by a strong rope or chain. The
  tension is mechanically released and the
  cup flings its contents of rocks, trash,
  cows, or Greek fire. 

 
 
Battering ram - Formally known as a
  bosson, this was a huge log with an iron
  end used to break down castle doors and
  walls 

These are some examples of the time period weapons.



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