Fighting with maces, etc. -- myArmoury.com

Hisham Gaballa · Posted: Sat 23 Dec, 2006 7:39 am Post subject:

It's worth remembering that by the late 14th century only a small minority of men-at-arms (i.e. heavily armoured warriors trained to fight on horseback) were actually "knights" in the sense of having gone through a knighting ceremony etc. Most men-at-arms were esquires or of even lower status. So by this time at least ideas of what was a knightly weapon are probably irrelevant anyway, so men-at-arms would have used maces.

Jean-Carle Hudon · Posted: Sat 23 Dec, 2006 3:58 pm Post subject:

Howard,
with regard to the good bishop, have you ever come across the mention that men of the cloth were not allowed by the Church to wield the sword, hence the use of the mace by the bishop ?
Jean-Carle

David Welch · Posted: Sat 23 Dec, 2006 10:54 pm Post subject:

I like to play around with maces, axes, hammers and the like, and I like to think the above seem to be very knightly weapons.

The mass weapons are very hard to use defensively, and rely on an almost total offensive posture. You are always looking for the vorschlag when you use them. I think that would have made them seem the choice of a brave man. Also, many of the maces in museums are well made and highly decorated. Obviously, they were not the weapons of peasants.

And look at the Kings and heroes that used the mass weapons. Robert the Bruce (axe) and the Hungarian king Stephen the Great (mace) as examples.

“God grant a beard were on thy face, and strength thine arm within,
To fling a spear, or swing a mace, like Roland Paladin!

Dan Howard · Posted: Sun 24 Dec, 2006 1:05 am Post subject:

Elling Polden · Posted: Sun 24 Dec, 2006 3:14 am Post subject:

I've put this forth previously, in other threads, but never the less;
There are two kinds of maces; the long hafted ones, with metal heads and wooden shafts, as seen in up until the high middle ages, and the short, all metal ones of the late middle ages.

The long hafted maces would be used against lightly or unarmoured foes, dealing hard blows to the head; The usage would be akin to a sword or axe. (though, most likely, the axe would be heavier due to the relatively small amount of metal in this kind of mace head...)

The short, all metal mace would be used for close combat; against a heavily armoured foe, individual blows would be less likely to decisive. Thus, the late mace is made for rapid attacks; Move into close combat, push/grapple through the defences, and hit him in the head until he falls over.
This also works for mounted combat, where the ability to manoeuvre is limited.