Town guard weapons and equipment
Some larger cities in the Renaissance (and Medieval?) periods had dedicated town guard troops. My reading indicates the favored shorter weapons more suited to the cramped urban environment like maces and war hammers. Did that also extend to pole arms? Did they commonly use short spears or javelin, or some other compact pole arm?

Another interesting thing is lanterns. It seems they started out with a lantern on short stick, then directional lanterns that do not blind the user, and then shield/lantern combination devices, some of them quite intricate and mounting multiple blades. And of course, styles of fencing at night using sword and lantern together were developed.

Town guards are somewhat analogous to modern law enforcement. Like them, town guard used a lot of tools and methods from both the civilian and military sides. So if you guys could explain the differences in equipment, tactics and mindset between regular troops and town guards (I know in most cases garrisons of regular troops *were* the town guards), that would be greatly appreciated.

Also, 15th century Munich seems to be the most commonly cited town guard example. How widespread was the use of town guard forces over the centuries?

TIA
Re: Town guard weapons and equipment
Kirk K. wrote:
My reading indicates the favored shorter weapons more suited to the cramped urban environment like maces and war hammers.


Your "reading" does not make any sense.

Why would they use anti-armor weaponry in a civilian environment where they are dealing with unarmored opponents?

Even in battlefield scenarios, maces and warhammers were much rarer than swords as sidearms.
I just found an existing thread on this very topic, so I would appreciate it if the mods could close this one. Thanks!

http://myArmoury.com/talk/viewtopic.php?t=31343

Page 1 of 1

Jump to:  
You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum
You cannot attach files in this forum
You can download files in this forum




All contents © Copyright 2003-2006 myArmoury.com — All rights reserved
Discussion forums powered by phpBB © The phpBB Group
Switch to the Full-featured Version of the forum