Hi,

My question to the Forum is how 'retro' did soldiers equipment go? For example, at the Battle of Lepanto 1571, would one see weapons and armor from as far back as the late 1400's? The esteemed Mr. Senefelder told me about the finds at Rhodes(from the Christian armoury during the siege) including some arms that were from the 14th century! I was wondering if the same held true for the Spanish land and marine units in the K of Naples, Flanders. For example, would there have men armed with swords dating from the turn of the 16th century and/or helmets and armor?

Thanks

BUMPing this question

Good question... I'm wondering about the same thing myself...

Old blades were undoubtedly remounted into later hilts. Oakeshott in Archeology of Weapons mentions two examples of pattern welded blades ( which date from the 10 th c. Or earlier). one is in a hilt from 1250 or later, the other is in a landesknecht hilt, ca. 1500! so long as the blade type was still useful, it might be reused .

Excellent, what about armour, helmets etc

i think it depends on the battallion really, and the wealth of the men and the strictness of policy regarding the issuing of equipment.

but of course this rarely matches reality if the group equipping the unit hasn't got the money or they cant get stuff from an armoury, it may well be quite ancient stuff scrounged up but this is likely a rarity

but during the 16th century for example, the styrians and holy roman empire went on a massive arms manufacturing rush examples such as the graz armoury show the sort of organisation to be prepared against the ottomans

i have no idea what the spanish practice was and the extent of spanish armouries