I need to do a five page research report on hand-to-hand combat weapons of 16th century Western Europe (That means Germany/Italy on west). I was wondering if anyone knew the best sites for doing research into the weapons.

I suggest myArmoury.com :)

:O


I did not notice the plethora of information on this site. o_o

There is a ton of content on this site. You found the forums. There is a ton of info related to your subject right here on the forums.

Right next to the links that lead to the forums are links that lead to other parts of the site.


The navigation bar has these sections:

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Each of these sections has valuable content fairly unique on the Internet.


This is from our home page and it includes a descriptions of much of what we offer:

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They tell you 16th Century, and expect it to fit within five pages? Teachers these days!

Best of luck.

M.

Suggestions:

Stick with military arms (as opposed to civilian weapons)

1. The Sword
2. The Halberd
3. The Dagger

That will cover the main edged weapons used in close-quarters personal combat on the 16th c. battlefield and give you a little more than one page for each subject plus half a page each for intro and conclusion. Minus fluff and with economy of words (always good,) I think you could present a decent overview in the given space.

And if you find you can't get it down to 5 pages... footnotes are your friend, since they don't count towards world limit....

It seems like you are looking at the Holy Roman Empire. Who uses the weapons is another aspect to consider. One direction to go would be with the professional soldiers in the 16th century, the landsknechts, who used the pike, halberd, katzbalger, dagger. Another direction would be to look at the weapons of the renaissance martial arts system with which any good German would be familiar: the longsword, messer/dusack, quarterstaff/halberd, dagger, and rapier/side-sword/cut & thrust). Joachim Meyer (http://www.thearma.org/pdf/JoachimMeyer.htm) and Paulus Hector Mair (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Mair/Mair.htm) were two Important German fight masters who wrote fight books in the 16th century. Even Albrecht Durer did a fight book (http://www.thearma.org/Manuals/Duerer.htm).

Pike: pike squares supported by arquebuses and halberds were the primary infantry formation throughoutt the 16th century. So the pike was the primary battlefield weapon.
Halberd: the all-purpose polearm of the day, used extensively on the battlefield and a main component of the German martial arts of the renaissance.
Staff: quarter staff is analogous to the halberd and the long staff is analogous to the pike.
Longsword: arguably the primary sword in use during the 16th century. The longsword was the central weapon of the martial arts systems. It did not see as much use on the battlefield by infantry troops, such as the landsknechts who prefered the katzbalger, but was still carried by knights and served as an important side-arm off the battlefield.
Katzbalger: the prefered side arm of the German professional infantry, the landsknechts.
Dagger: an important arm both on an off the battlefield. Everybody carried a dagger and it is important in the martial arts teachings (along with wrestling).
Messer: a carry-over weapon from the 15th century. All-purpose tool and weapon but used in battle less and less. The place of the messer in 15th century martial arts was taken over by the dusack.
Dusack: basically a messer with a knuckle guard. Some people interpret the dusack to be just a training tool for the messer. Either way, shorter curved swords with complex hilts continue to be used throughout the 16th century and especailly in central Europe (Hungary).
Rapier/cut&thrust/side-sword: There is the one-handed cutting sword, the 'true' rapier without substantial cutting edge, and then everything in between. The highly tapered, thrusting sword became more and more prevalent as the 16th century wore on and all of these swords became known as "rapiers." But the one-handed sword that could both cut and thrust equally well did not go away until sometime in the 17th century. Due to the broad spectrum of blades in this category and the fact the they were all called the same thing, it is hard to make a distinction between cut&thrust and rapier. Certainly, some swords fall squarely in the middle. Yet the swords at either end of the spectrum are extremely different weapons.

So there is an overview of the normal selection of weapons. If I was going to just pick four, I would say that the most important are the longsword (b/c its the most important sword overall), pike (b/c it's the primary battlefield weapon), halberd (b/c it's the most important polearm on or off the battlefied overall), and rapier (b/c it is the wave of the future). Start with this link (http://www.myArmoury.com/feature_euroedge.html) if you are unfamiliar with the terms. You can run a search in the forums for more particular information. Wikipedia is another place to start for an overview. If you can't find specific information, then ask and we will be glad to provide more details if possible.

That would be an interesting paper. Of course contrasting the early 16th with the later 16th could be interesting as well such as the increase in handguns while forgoing the lance amongst the mounted troops/aristocracy.

Thanks! It's western Europe only, and I'm focusing on the Swords, daggers, and pole arms. Finding information is difficult though. I'm keeping it military only.