"not be the same as an arbalest). In some cases, the word has been used to refer to arbalists, the people who actually used the weapon. Arbalest The arbalest (also arblast) was a late variation of the crossbow coming into use in Europe during the 12th century. A large weapon, the arbalest had a steel prod (""bow""). Since the arbalest was much larger than earlier crossbows, and because of the greater tensile strength of steel, it had a greater force. However, the greater draw weight was offset by the smaller powerstroke, which limited its potential in fully transferring the energy"
"in many European armies during the 12th century, except in England, where the longbow was more popular. Later crossbows (sometimes referred to as arbalests), utilizing all-steel prods, were able to achieve power close (and sometime superior) to longbows, but were more expensive to produce and slower to reload because they required the aid of mechanical devices such as the cranequin or windlass to draw back their extremely heavy bows. Usually these could only shoot two bolts per minute versus twelve or more with a skilled archer, often necessitating the use of a pavise to protect the operator from enemy fire."
"steel laths emerged in the 1300s. Crossbows with steel laths were sometimes referred to as arbalests. These had much higher draw weights than composite bows and required mechanical aids such as the cranequin or windlass for spanning. Usually these could only shoot two bolts per minute versus twelve or more with a skilled archer, often necessitating the use of a pavise to protect the operator from enemy fire. Despite the appearance of stronger bows, wooden laths remained popular into the 1400s due to being less sensitive to the water and cold. The crossbow superseded hand bows in many European armies"
"into the Late Medieval era when the longsword became commonplace. Faussart The Faussart is a long bladed two handed weapon, sometimes referred to as a Warbrand (by modern reproduction manufacturers). It is essentially a two handed falchion. It is different to a glaive in that a glaive is more like a halberd, and the Faussart is more like a sword. While the glaive has a lighter head and longer blade than a halberd, it has a shorter length blade than the Faussart. The Faussart could be used by both cavalry and infantry. It eventually evolved into the longsword. The weapon"
"precursor to many other such European weapons. Introduced around 1630, it served as a Polish cavalry mêlée weapon, mostly used by heavy cavalry, or Polish Hussars. Much less curved than its Armenian predecessors, it was ideal for horseback fighting and allowed for much faster and stronger strikes. The heavier, almost fully closed hilt offered both good protection of the hand and much better control over the sabre during a skirmish. Two feather-shaped pieces of metal on both sides of the blade called moustache (""wąsy"") offered greater durability of the weapon by strengthening its weakest point: the joint between the blade"
"have been Peter Connolly and Eric Marsden, who have not only written extensively on the subject but have also made many reconstructions themselves and have refined the designs over many years of work. With the decline of the Roman Empire, resources to build and maintain these complex machines became very scarce, so the ballista was supplanted initially by the simpler and cheaper onager and the more efficient springald. Though the weapon continued to be used in the Middle Ages, it faded from popular use with the advent of the trebuchet and mangonel in siege warfare. Ballista The ballista (Latin, from"
"Faussart The Faussart is a long bladed two handed weapon, sometimes referred to as a Warbrand (by modern reproduction manufacturers). It is essentially a two handed falchion. It is different to a glaive in that a glaive is more like a halberd, and the Faussart is more like a sword. While the glaive has a lighter head and longer blade than a halberd, it has a shorter length blade than the Faussart. The Faussart could be used by both cavalry and infantry. It eventually evolved into the longsword. The weapon probably relates to the agricultural tool for grass cutting, the"
"(an expensive material before the 19th century), was used in its production. It was not the ancient gastraphetes, but the Roman weapon. However, the same physical limitations applied as with the gastraphetes. The carroballista was a cart-mounted version of the weapon. There were probably different models of ballista under the ""cheiroballistra"" class, at least two different two-wheeled models and one model with four wheels. Their probable size was roughly 1.47 m width, i.e., 5 Roman feet. The cart system and structure gave it a great deal of flexibility and capability as a battlefield weapon, since the increased maneuverability allowed it"
"invented by King Jan III Sobieski). Another use of the bardiche was for execution. Bardiche A bardiche , berdiche, bardische, bardeche,(""long pollaxe"") or berdish is a type of axe/pole weapon known in the 14th through 17th centuries in Europe. Ultimately a descendant of the medieval sparth (Danish axe), the bardiche proper appears around 1400, but there are numerous medieval manuscripts that depict very similar weapons beginning . The bardiche differs from the halberd in having neither a hook at the back nor a spear point at the top. Use of bardiches started in early 14th century Austria and in Scandinavia"
"Excalibur Excalibur (), or Caliburn, is the legendary sword of King Arthur, sometimes also attributed with magical powers or associated with the rightful sovereignty of Britain. Excalibur and the Sword in the Stone (the proof of Arthur's lineage) are sometimes said to be the same weapon, but in most versions they are considered separate. Excalibur was associated with the Arthurian legend very early on. In Welsh, it is called ""Caledfwlch""; in Cornish, ""Calesvol""; in Breton, ""Kaledvoulc'h""; and in Latin, ""Caliburnus"". The name ""Excalibur"" ultimately derives from the Welsh ""Caledfwlch"" (and Breton ""Kaledvoulc'h"", Middle Cornish ""Calesvol"") which is a compound of"
"Baselard The baselard (also ""basilard, baslard"", in Middle French also ""badelare, bazelaire"" and variants, latininzed ""baselardus, basolardus"" etc., in Middle High German ""beseler, baseler, basler, pasler; baslermesser"") is a historical type of dagger or short sword of the Late Middle Ages. In modern use by antiquarians, the term ""baselard"" is mostly reserved for a type of 14th-century dagger with an I-shaped handle which evolved out of the 13th-century knightly dagger. Contemporary usage was less specific, and the term in Middle French and Middle English could probably be applied to a wider class of large dagger. The term (in many spelling"
"the darts used with ""atlatl""s were adapted from hand-thrown darts, which in turn were derived from light javelins. In Europe, short but heavy-pointed darts were sometimes used in warfare. These had a length of about and resembled an arrow with a long head and short shaft. The Roman model, the ""plumbata"", was weighted with lead. In some legions, five of these were carried inside each soldier's shield; reconstructions show a range of or more when thrown overhand in the fashion of a German stick grenade (Model 24). Feathered spears, often called darts or javelins, were used in medieval and Renaissance"
"the spot where it entered the tree, it suspended him there a corpse. The cheiroballistra and the manuballista are held by many archaeologists to be the same weapon. The difference in name may be attributable to the different languages spoken in the Empire. Latin remained the official language in the Western Empire, but the Eastern Empire predominantly used Greek, which added an extra 'r' to the word ballista. The manuballista was a handheld version of the traditional ballista. This new version was made entirely of iron, which conferred greater power to the weapon, since it was smaller, and less iron"
"period, both Chinese and European crossbows used stirrups as well as belt hooks. In the 13th century European crossbows started using winches, and from the 14th century an assortment of spanning mechanisms such as winch pulleys, cord pulleys, gaffles, cranequins, and even screws. The smallest crossbows are pistol crossbows. Others are simple long stocks with the crossbow mounted on them. These could be shot from under the arm. The next step in development was stocks of the shape that would later be used for firearms, which allowed better aiming. The arbalest was a heavy crossbow that required special systems for"
"Bardiche A bardiche , berdiche, bardische, bardeche,(""long pollaxe"") or berdish is a type of axe/pole weapon known in the 14th through 17th centuries in Europe. Ultimately a descendant of the medieval sparth (Danish axe), the bardiche proper appears around 1400, but there are numerous medieval manuscripts that depict very similar weapons beginning . The bardiche differs from the halberd in having neither a hook at the back nor a spear point at the top. Use of bardiches started in early 14th century Austria and in Scandinavia in the late 15th century. In the 16th century the bardiche became a weapon"
"a ""spear thrower"". Western culture has been able to borrow a name for this tool from the Aztec, who used it against the invading Spanish, and who called it the ""atlatl"". In Europe, the atlatl was supplemented by the bow and arrow in the Epipaleolithic. By the Iron Age, the amentum, a strap attached to the shaft, was the standard European mechanism for throwing lighter javelins. The amentum gives not only range, but also spin to the projectile. Archery may be easier to learn and have a faster rate of fire, yet perhaps this system's greatest advantage over the atlatl"
"more readily available to poorer members of society. The Athenian general Iphicrates destroyed a Spartan phalanx in the Battle of Lechaeum in 390 BCE, using mostly peltasts. In the account of Diodorus Siculus, Iphicrates is credited with re-arming his men with long spears, perhaps in around 374 BCE. This reform may have produced a type of ""peltast"" armed with a small shield, a sword, and a spear instead of javelins. Some authorities, such as J.G.P. Best, state that these later ""peltasts"" were not truly peltasts in the traditional sense, but lightly armored hoplites carrying the ""pelte"" shield in conjunction with"
"Ballista The ballista (Latin, from Greek βαλλίστρα ""ballistra"" and that from βάλλω ""ballō"", ""throw""), plural ballistae, sometimes called bolt thrower, was an ancient missile weapon that launched a large projectile at a distant target. Developed from earlier Greek weapons, it relied upon different mechanics, using two levers with torsion springs instead of a tension prod (the bow part of a modern crossbow), offering much greater efficiency over tension-based weaponry. The springs consisting of several loops of twisted skeins. Early versions projected heavy darts or spherical stone projectiles of various sizes for siege warfare. It developed into a smaller precision weapon,"
"they were tougher and cheaper to make. The linen was thick. By contrast with hoplites, other contemporary infantry (e.g., Persian) tended to wear relatively light armour, use wicker shields, and were armed with shorter spears, javelins, and bows. The most famous are the peltasts, light-armed troops who wore no armour and were armed with a light shield, javelins and a short sword. The Athenian general Iphicrates developed a new type of armour and arms for his mercenary army, which included light linen armour, smaller shields and longer spears, whilst arming his peltasts with larger shields, helmets and a longer spear,"
"Knightly sword In the European High Middle Ages, the typical sword (sometimes academically categorized as the knightly sword, arming sword, or in full, knightly arming sword) was a straight, double-edged weapon with a single-handed, cruciform (i.e., cross-shaped) hilt and a blade length of about . This type is frequently depicted in period artwork, and numerous examples have been preserved archaeologically. The high medieval sword of the Romanesque period (10th to 13th centuries) developed gradually from the Viking sword (spatha) of the 9th century. In the Late Medieval period (14th and 15th centuries), late forms of these swords continued to be"
"1149. The arms and armour of the Byzantine forces in the late 11th and 12th centuries were generally more sophisticated and varied than those found in contemporary Western Europe. Byzantium was open to military influences from the Muslim world and the Eurasian steppe, the latter being especially productive of military equipment innovation. The effectiveness of Byzantine armour would not be exceeded in Western Europe before the 14th century. Close combat troops, infantry and cavalry, made use of a spear, of varying length, usually referred to as a ""kontarion."" Specialist infantry called ""menavlatoi"" used a heavy-shafted weapon called the ""menavlion"" the"
"a medieval battle. The term ""musket"" originally applied to a heavier form of the arquebus, which fired a shot that could pierce plate armour, though only at close range. In the 16th century it still had to be mounted on a support stick to keep it steady. The caliver was the lighter form of the arquebus. By 1600, armies phased out these firearms in favour of a new lighter matchlock musket. Throughout the 16th century and up until 1690, muskets used the matchlock design. However, the matchlock design was superseded in the 1690s by the flintlock musket, which was less"
"was depicted among a pile of trophy weapons in relief on a balustrade. The torsion ballista, developed by Alexander, was a far more complicated weapon than its predecessor and the Romans developed it even further, especially into much smaller versions, that could be easily carried. The early Roman ballistae were made of wood, and held together with iron plates around the frames and iron nails in the stand. The main stand had a slider on the top, into which were loaded the bolts or stone ""shot"". Attached to this, at the back, was a pair of 'winches' and a 'claw',"
"weapon before the development of cannons. These weapons were vulnerable to fire from the castle as they had a short range and were large machines. Conversely, weapons such as trebuchets could be fired from within the castle due to the high trajectory of its projectile, and would be protected from direct fire by the curtain walls. Ballistas or springalds were siege engines that worked on the same principles as crossbows. With their origins in Ancient Greece, tension was used to project a bolt or javelin. Missiles fired from these engines had a lower trajectory than trebuchets or mangonels and were"
"at altars, etc. Buckler A buckler (French ""bouclier"" 'shield', from Old French ""bocle, boucle"" 'boss') is a small shield, up to 45 cm (up to 18 in) in diameter, gripped in the fist with a central handle behind the boss. While being used in Europe since antiquity, it became more common as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Its size made it poor protection against missile weapons (e.g., arrows) but useful in deflecting the blow of an opponent's weapons, binding his arms or hindering his movements. MS I.33, considered the earliest extant armed-combat manual,"
"skilled artisans. Roman weapons were mostly made of internally produced steel such as ""chalybs Noricus"" which was superior to unhardened iron. In contrast, forging technology, capacity and personnel were more limited in ""Germania libera"", although there is evidence that production and standardization of equipment had greatly improved since the time of the Roman Principate. Steel-making was also known in ""Germania libera"" (spathae and rapier-like swords out of flexible steel were in use). But Alamanni production of sophisticated forge-products such as metal armour, helmets and swords was on a much smaller scale than the Romans'. Simple weapons such as axes and"
"in the Latin, which is most likely an assimilation of ""Martio-barbuli"", ""little barbs of Mars"". The barb implied a barbed head, and Mars was the god of war (among other things). Archaeology gives a clearer picture of ""martiobarbuli"". The reference listed has an illustration of a find from Wroxeter identified as the head of a ""plumbata"" and a reconstruction of the complete weapon: a fletched dart with an iron head weighted with lead. The reconstruction seems entirely consistent with Vegetius' description. War darts were also used in Europe later in the Middle Ages. Plumbata Plumbatae or martiobarbuli were lead-weighted darts"
"Buckler A buckler (French ""bouclier"" 'shield', from Old French ""bocle, boucle"" 'boss') is a small shield, up to 45 cm (up to 18 in) in diameter, gripped in the fist with a central handle behind the boss. While being used in Europe since antiquity, it became more common as a companion weapon in hand-to-hand combat during the Medieval and Renaissance periods. Its size made it poor protection against missile weapons (e.g., arrows) but useful in deflecting the blow of an opponent's weapons, binding his arms or hindering his movements. MS I.33, considered the earliest extant armed-combat manual, (around 1300) contains"
"began to exhibit a more slender blade geometry, moving the center of mass closer to the hilt to improve wieldability. The one-handed sword of the high medieval period was typically used with a shield or buckler. In the late medieval period, when the longsword came to predominate, the single-handed sword was retained as a common sidearm, especially of the estoc type, and came to be referred to as an ""arming sword"", later evolving into the cut and thrust swords of the Renaissance. At the end of the medieval period, the estoc arming sword develops into the Spanish ""espada ropera"" and"
"couple of short javelins (""lanceae""). Late infantrymen often carried half a dozen lead-weighted throwing-darts called ""plumbatae"" (from ""plumbum"" = ""lead""), with an effective range of c. , well beyond that of a javelin. The darts were carried clipped to the back of the shield. The late foot soldier thus had greater missile capability than his Principate predecessor, who was usually limited to just two ""pila"". Late Roman archers continued to use the recurved composite bow as their principal weapon. This was a sophisticated, compact and powerful weapon, suitable for mounted and foot archers alike (the cavalry version being more compact"
"makers, charcoal burners and often by other traditional craftsmen, farmers and woodsmen. They are also the primary tool for hedgelayers. In the medieval period a weapon similar to the halberd was called a bill or billhook. It consisted of a pole with a bill-like blade mounted below a spearhead, with spikes added to the back of the blade to increase the versatility of the weapon against cavalry and armour. The English in particular were known for using massed billmen rather than pikes or halberds in the Renaissance period, notably at the Battle of Flodden in 1513, when the Scottish king"
"Laertes will defeat Hamlet by three or more touches. Poignard A poniard or poignard (Fr.) is a long, lightweight thrusting knife with a continuously tapering, acutely pointed blade and crossguard, historically worn by the upper class, noblemen, or the knighthood. Similar in design to a parrying dagger, the poniard emerged during the Middle Ages and was used during the Renaissance in Western Europe, particularly in France, Switzerland, and Italy. During the Safavid era in Iran (1501-1736), the army used the poniard; it was considered a weapon especially typical to have for soldiers who originated from the Caucasus region, particularly Circassians,"
"hand overhead. In the 11th century, after the adoption of stirrups and a high-cantled saddle, the spear became a decidedly more powerful weapon. A mounted knight would secure the lance by holding it with one hand and tucking it under the armpit (the ""couched lance"" technique) This allowed all the momentum of the horse and knight to be focused on the weapon's tip, whilst still retaining accuracy and control. This use of the spear spurred the development of the lance as a distinct weapon that was perfected in the medieval sport of jousting. In the 14th century, tactical developments meant"