[Bill Fryman]

I've a sudden interest in the weapons and armor used by criminals in Europe from the migration to the start of the industrial age. Thats a huge area to cover, and I have no idea where to start. Help?

Edit:
It occured to me to read some of the outlaw tales at the robinhood project. I found references to "sweard and bucler" as well as "polax" and "bowe". I don't know the time on the story, but its a start.

[Stephen Hughes]

It might be a little hard to pin down because the term "criminal" is a label applied rather loosely to anyone that was against the politics of the writer of the history one reads it in! Was Cromwell a criminal? Was Fawkes? All a question of one's point of view.

I'm guessing you mean the professional criminals - bandits, brigands, pirates, thieves, maybe assassins. I bet they basically used the same equipment that other blokes used. Daggers and the coustille have reputations as weapons favoured by people engaged in criminal activity. Obviously the cutlass for the pirates. I expect bandits were probably mostly out of work mercenaries anyway, or men-at-arms who got into trouble with someone and could not hire out in the "public world."

Flintlock pistols were probably favoured a lot too.

Famous "criminals," Like Robert Roy MacGregor, used weapons common for folk in their time and place.

Hunting swords and other cheaper weapons may have been common. I bet the sneak-thieves and toughboys of the bigger cities kept small concealable weapons, again daggers or "short" swords.

All just speculation on my part, but it is kind of fun to speculate.

[Bill Fryman]

Well I'd figured that legality would have an influence on the choice of criminals who were not yet outlawed. As in many times and places blades over length X could not be carried by commoners inside cities. And certain weapons restricted altogether (like bodkin arrows) except to military personel and nobles. But the scene with the sword and bucler and pole axe occurs within city walls. Seems a bit hard to conceal, but the character had already been outlawed for poaching deer, so I guess it might be like an escaped felon carrying a shotgun under his trenchcoat.

[Dan Howard]

Who reckons that bodkins were restricted and what reason is given for this restriction? My research suggests that bodkins were intended for flight arrows, not armour-piercers. A primary source suggesting that bodkins were banned would put a spanner in that theory.

One myth that probably should get knocked on the head is that brigandines were so named because they were worn by robbers/bandits. At the time this armour was named the word "brigand" simply refered to a foot soldier. So a brigandine is simply a type of armour for infantry. It wasn't until much later that the word "brigand" began to be associated with outlaws.

[Wolfgang Armbruster]

I think there's another thread here with a reference to a very small type of cross-bow which can be easily concealed. These bows were all steel constructions and very popular among assasins. Cities tried to ban them immidiately as soon as they surfaced in the 16th century.
I'll try to find that thread and then I'll post the link.

EDIT: Found it, but it was an item on Herman Historica. Here you go - http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/hhm50...b=A-50.txt

[Elling Polden]

Selfigniting guns was initialy banned in many countries, because they could be carried loaded and ready to fire.
Early flintlock mechanisms where known as "shnaphan" locks, because they where alegedly used by poachers.

[Folkert van Wijk]

Considering criminals, would this crosbow also be interresting...

http://www.hermann-historica.de/auktion/hhm50...B&co=3

[Bill Fryman]

My only source on the bodkin being outlawed was wiki so it may be completely off.

To penetrate chain mail armour many war arrows had "chisel" (or "bodkin") heads and were quite massive. Bodkin arrows have tips like elongated pyramids, which result in a very sharp and very narrow point. With their bodkin points these massive war arrows probably weighed around 65 to 100 grams (1000 to 1500 grains, grain being a unit of measure often used for arrows and bullets). This is 2 or 3 times the weight of wooden or aluminum arrows used today and 4 to 5 times the weight of modern carbon fiber arrows or pre 20th century "flight arrows," used in distance shooting contests. In peacetime, in some regions, carrying chisel points was a hanging offence, because it was thought to threaten noblemen, or they were taken as evidence that one was a highwayman.

It does say elsewhere that it seems likely it came about as a cheaper alternative to the broadhead.

[Wolfgang Armbruster]

My guess is that apart from a few specialized designs like the mini-crossbows mentioned above criminals just used what came in handy. Back then everybody wore swords, daggers or other bladed weapons.

[Matthew Amt]

Cap'n Atli tells an interesting story, that according to medieval English law court records, the most common murder implement of the time was a club, specifically a piece of firewood! Makes perfect sense--domestic argument gets out of hand, and someone reaches for the woodpile.

Otherwise, like other folks have said, I'd bet that most career criminals simply used the common weapons of the time. Pirates used pistols and cutlasses because that's what any armed sailor of that era used. (Cannons, muskets, boarding pikes, and axes, too!) Roman-era pirates used spears, swords, and bows.

Matthew

[Steven H]

[Wolfgang Armbruster]

[Sean Flynt]

I recall seeing a 15th or 16th c. German woodcut/etching depicting a robbery on a wooded path. Maybe it's a Dürer(?).