The Legendary Weapons That Marked The Middle Ages

When it comes to military history I think I spend too much time pondering what it was like for those guys, the top brass, the senior commanders and perhaps not enough time thinking about what it was like for the men actually doing the fighting on the front line. So I've come to the world's best collection of arms and armour, the Royal Armouries in Leeds. I'm going to get hands-on with those weapons used way back in the struggle against the Vikings but also more I'm going to discover how those weapons decided the course of a battle and define the way in which it was fought. How hard or easy were they to operate? Yay you're an archer, let's go! And what was it like to use them and face them if you're on the front line? I'm starting over a thousand years ago in the early medieval period. Our base is the Royal Armouries tilt yard but there are no knights in shining armour jousting here today. Instead it's just me and the Armouries top medieval coach Andy Dean. Andy how you doing? Good to see you, you well? Very good to see you man and today we're talking about this aren't we? I mean what is it with medieval warfare? When I think about it I know there's all sorts of weapons and weapon systems but the sword it is like an icon of the period. I think partly because of its cost. I mean getting the the metal together and then heating it and doing all the various processes to make an extraordinarily sharp weapon it takes a lot of time and energy to make it and then even more time and energy to practice to become efficient so it's only the top echelons of society are ever going to be able to afford a weapon of such beauty and deadliness. I would only expect the sort of top five ten percent of the fighting force would have a sort of real class the rest would have axes, bastardised farming utensils, pointy sticks. Can I pick it up? Of course you may. It is extraordinarily sharp. Oh is it? And this one as you can see the pattern welding it is quite extraordinary so eighth ninth century Saxon sword obviously a beautiful replica and razor sharp. Is it just because they look good or is it a very versatile weapon as well because you've got a stab, a slash and then a useful little... Yeah I think it's a versatile weapon in the sense that exactly you've got two cutting edges it's heavy in the blade so it's like concussive blows it comes down onto your collarbone or it breaks bones underneath and the slicing and the slashing that goes with a sword that is beautifully treated and annealed and such like means that it cuts through not only skin and bone it sort of cuts through to the fresh air the other side if you don't have protection on. That's why protection was so important but protection was also fairly exclusive as well and so the entire army said Hastings not everyone would have the mail shirt you'd believe if you saw the Bayer tapestry. The Bayer tapestry captures a vivid scene of the brutal battle of Hastings in 1066. Most of the fighters are carrying spears or bows but some elite warriors are armed with swords on foot and horseback and they're inflicting terrible injuries. Going back up to 500 years before Hastings I recently came up close with actual early medieval weapons from the 5th and 6th century Anglo-Saxon cemetery discovered at the HS2 excavations near Wendover. Lots of spears of every size emerged from the ground and a single sword found buried with an elite male. It was almost certainly pattern welded made of bars of folded iron beaten together just like the replica of the royal armories. So as I'm standing here talking to you I'm embarrassed to admit my arm's getting a bit tired. It's heavy, it's a pig but if you train with it all your life it's like anything in life it becomes an extension of you. I've been wielding my phone not wielding a sword that's the problem. But it's that single-handedness so I mean the hammer effect is intensified in this early medieval sword and paired with later swords where the pommel is further down you've got the possibility of using a second hand and then it becomes much more wielded but this as I say with the chopping slashing attacks you basically got to keep the sword moving doing that it's going to be hard work but if you can wheel it and move it around your shield. There's stories about passing it from father to son all that kind of stuff presumably this was an heirloom and a very special object. It will forever be a sword if you keep it keep it well and what you find is swords that have been used you find that there's a little sort of curve here and then another little curve here minute but it means that people have been using the sword time and time again attacking with that part of the blade and defending the opponent with this part of the blade so as the blade gets older it sort of becomes almost like an hourglass so yeah keep sharpening keep looking after it keep oiling it and pass it on to your son or daughter. So can you show me some basic drills I'm dying to have a go. Yes is the answer we'll set you up we'll swing the sword around make sure you're nice and safe and then we'll put something for you to eat. The Anglo-Saxon period was frequently a time of conflict with wars between rival kingdoms and the threat from viking invasions. The art of the time often shows spears and axes but swords were at the heart of the fighting too. Right what's first? One sword for the use of. Thank you. And one shield. Do you know shields sound kind of technical don't they it's just a big old piece of wood. Well often it was laminated then sort of covered in rawhide and such like but yeah intensely it's basically a mobile wall isn't it and the heavier you make it the more you feel defended but of course that limits its use. But yeah my arm you can already feel that can't you. You can. Okay. Right so obviously the sword if you're in in a tight press so if I'm here and you've got somebody there all you can really do is. Bit of stabbing like that. And come underneath yeah you do everything you can but you'd bring the shield up to protect your head when you did that but now the shield war is over okay exploded open and now you've got to use the short shield to defend everything on your left hand side while using that effectively. Effectively means a fighting distance so if I'm here that your sword's no good other than using pommel okay yeah smash or even the cross just smash get me away once I've been thrown off by now the areas you'd go for imagine I've got the helmet on there's still areas that are unprotected the neck inside the arm back of the hamstrings is an excellent one so working around so if you were going to don't cut me in pieces but if you were going to come down just show me how you come down good now if I was really good I'd move my leg at the same time so you've got a lot of energy so step forward okay there perfect then step back you draw the cut back and if you're going to do the same with the leg step forward step step step get that leg and now draw back it's if when you cut with the sword it's not in well that breaks the bones it's either sliding it forward or sliding it back that does that cuts the meat that's nasty yeah and once you've done that so do that again cut me in the hamstring from I've gone down you pull back go through there out the other side move on because anything more than two or three moves and it's not me who kills you it's my mate to the left or the right or the bloke who's got behind you so you can't remain static for very long because you're becoming a target literally a tree to be chopped down so that movement is everything and then of course you've only got about two or three minutes of energy before you're utterly broken so you need to find somebody else find help find the the flag fluttering in the in the breeze that says that that's your household and you need to get back over there because numbers are your safety rather than really weapons so shall we have a have a go with a sharp one is that what that's blunt that one well yeah I didn't want you to kill me okay so Dan we've got our test cutting mat here if you're going to cut through this way make sure that your body is either central or even slightly to the right 60 degree cut try and hit halfway down the blade slice it through so it comes through here if you're going to do the same remember lead with the knuckles 60 degree angle up hold on to the blade we'll need it later spinning off right I'll get the sharp one and we'll have a go right Andy this is the sharp edge here that is sharp whoo shave with that that way yeah yeah so a wider stance yeah yeah that sounds good don't think about cutting into it think about going all the way through it there you go come across the other side there you go easy isn't it that sword does all the work doesn't it yeah I mean that's why it scares me even this day after 40 years we're playing swords doesn't take much for it to go wrong does it that just that's ridiculous it just felt like I was just just floating and it just completely cut it off it felt effortless I mean you can see it's perfect angle and it's like like a scalpel going all the way through and this is the same thickness as an arm and it's the same resistance as an arm is that realistic yeah arm would be off like that yeah yeah having said that if it hit this then you got some protection but without it it's just this bit but you can see why once the shield wall breaks there's a route a knight with a sword would be a terminator to all the yes lightly armed lightly armored people who made up the majority of the battlefield find a bush to hide behind or run faster than their horse because you're you're going to die I just it just felt like a just felt like a sweet you almost didn't notice when you're going through exactly if you if you keep the movement smooth and you think about going through rather than into that's what happens to limbs oh that is properly terrifying you can see why for generations this was king of the battlefield so effective and it's it's a sign that you are at the top of your game if you can afford this and you wield it with that sort of efficiency you are a man of extraordinary power both on the battlefield and in society it's so instructive getting hands-on with a weapon it's an insight into the skill required and the dangers faced by ordinary fighters on the front line of history the sword wrought havoc across battlefields for but it was a short-range weapon the air above battlefields was filled with the projectiles of ranged weapons that could strike enemies down at a distance everything from catapults and ballista to slingshots most common was the bow from pre-history through the ancient world and into the medieval period it was a weapon that required skill and constant training to master we're going to use a later medieval version that's part of british military legend we've gone forward a few centuries yep archery obviously for the british isles in the medieval period the longbow and archery was central to almost every victory that we still talk about today why is britain ever reputation was the wood better what's what is it just a culture well by the sort of middle ages the u was being imported so it wasn't the wood as such it was the fact that we took to it in a very early period in the sort of 11th 12th century and just ran with it so we were importing the wood but every sunday or six days a week everyone was practicing day in day out and that militia became extraordinarily successful on european battlefields you're not just wielding a bow here but you've got everything that goes with it because they didn't bowman didn't just they weren't just armed with one weapon were they no i mean they weren't the knights so they didn't get the wonderful beautiful broad swords and all the armor that went with it you could pick up armor i'm not wearing any armor at all but maybe i've got myself brigandine or a little steel pot but i'm happy like this because most of the time my enemies over there but you're right once they close then basically what you've got here is a small round shield known as a buckler and off the buckler you have a for want of a better word a meat cleaver a falchion so once you close with your enemy then you're using the buckler a bit like a fist and just wailing away at people and again it doesn't need a much subtlety with this kind of blade to keep your enemy at uh well at the tip of your blade well should we take a look at the longbow yeah simple isn't it yeah simple but highly effective the longbow is at the heart of victories at battles such as Cressy Poitiers and Agincourt that's just one piece of wood isn't it yes and and but two properties so you've got you've got the sapwood and the heartwood so it makes the perfect spring with the so the lighter the lighter wood is the sapwood so that's towards the outside and has elasticity and then of course in the belly here you've got the hardness so it makes a perfect spring it can be made out of ash most famously of course it's made out of yew you have to be pretty sure again it's all about a lifetime of practice it's like and that's why we know i mean most of our evidence comes from the mary rose as you well know and a lot of the archers are sort of disfigured in their shoulders from that constant practice across the chest but the big mistake lots of people make is trying to use their arms to to draw it you've got to get inside the bow and use your back and your shoulders to extend even your hips really but yeah you'd work up i mean this is a proper war bow uh which is a bit unfair to sort of give you straight off the bat you you'd start as an 11 12 year old and you work your way up so uh blokes today can pull 180 200 pounds but i think uh back in the middle ages i think it's near a sort of 80 up to maybe 150 pounds but nonetheless is it different arrows for different jobs yeah what we got here let's first one oh there we go that's that's a sort of needle bodkin in it's kind of famous for uh going through armor like a hot knife through butter well she'll see whether that happens or not but that i think it would probably be better slipping through a lynx of mail than it would plate what else have we got here oh quite the opposite there we are that's a you sort of swallowtail broadhead they're very broad flesh cutter but if you imagine that obviously that that pierces deep into the meat and it's spinning and there's only one way out and you've got to just keep pushing it through so basically once it's entered it's twisting so there's no way it's coming back the way it came what have we got left that's the arrowhead that most people find on battlefields when they're sort of trekking anti-personnel yeah and again a small barb nice and sharp a small head to sort of find those gaps in the armor um oh here we go so this one last one is kind of the one i'd probably try and use against plate armor it's it's it's it's sharp it doesn't have any barbs on it it's nice and strong it's got two cutting edges on the end so this is probably the one i would would be the best one for trying to to go through armor not that i'd be aiming at a man uh where the armor is i'd generally be aiming where the armor was not and and so if we think about the battle of agincourt 14 15 where we we imagine these archers play such a decisive part are they are they killing french mountain knights just by banging straight to their armor or they just discombobulate them by raining down a hail of iron on them i wish somebody was there to tell us because we we only have sort of romantic views of it and we have lots of lists and that and the rest is all very vague i've never seen an arrow knock anybody off their feet so i don't think they're going to be knocked out of their saddle the other thing about an arrow arrow on its own isn't particularly dangerous if you're 40 meters away from me and i shot you at you you'd be able to step to one side and let the arrow go past step away quickly but get a thousand archers who can shoot 12 to 15 hours a minute shooting and generally at close range then they're picking the targets out so i think arrow storms are extraordinary and would have sent i imagine the effect of hot on horses well that's what i'd aim at okay for me if i was if they were closing in i'd take a massive flesh cutter like that and aim for the vulnerable parts of the horse if he's got a retinue guys coming towards him pick out the ones to the left and the right he's trained all his life with and suddenly he's got an arrow through an unprotected arm or unprotected leg take out the horse that he's trained with for 10 years and uh and eventually when the guy comes off in the armor that's where the falchion the buckler the the dagger comes and then you go where the armor is not no part of this is like a hollywood film where they just roll down and uh and the camera moves away it would have affected a man a man's soul for the rest of his life seeing a brutal and medieval battle and using those weapons and so it's it's such a basic idea isn't it you're just using a you're using a natural flex in wood yep putting it under pressure it'll bounce back and then it's a beautiful natural spring and if you use uh a piece of wood that it's not too knotted up and your bow flexes it again and again and again chamfers a little bit of the belly wood off the back wood so that it becomes that perfect arc of a spring then the load across your chest will increase uh as you draw the bow back and what kind of range what kind of range are we talking about it being lethal up to well you can drop it well over 200 yards away 200 meters away lethal then it becomes who are you shooting against if it's a man in full plate armor wait till you can see the whites of his eyes if it is a militia running with sort of uh uh pitch forks and and long sticks then just start throwing them up because it's going to come down at terminal velocity and start going through uh unprotected bits of them because they haven't got any armor so it depends on your opponent but if it's a man in proper armor and you see a lot of images in the 15th century of a lot of the archers in the illustration shooting straight you don't see so many of them shooting upwards so they're obviously waiting to shoot a close range fully armored yeah yeah there's as much inertia as you can muster and how many a minute again the good people will do 15 16 hours a minute but then you've only got 24 hours with you so you do use it all up in a minute in a bit um obviously there might be young lads bringing more arrows up as you go but you've got to conserve ammunition so there's a lot of conjecture and i wouldn't say for me i would probably wait till they're a lot closer and make sure that every arrow counted but then you've got to have a lot of courage when 600 french knights are coming at a flat-out gallop and someone's shouting in your ear wait wait and you're thinking i'm not gonna wait any longer right can i go shooting then absolutely let's go on your marks thank you archery training was taken very seriously there are even laws banning the playing of football because it took time away from practice i've shot a few bows before but compared with my medieval forebears i'm a total right then so first of all can i relieve you that horrendous huge war bow this one's still going to have a bit of punch to it but it's a more accessible bow for somebody who's starting out okay and then other bits of kit you'll require so you don't get a massive great welt on your left arm that's a bracer stick it on there so if the string kind of yeah brushes down sometimes people basically shoot and their left arm is too straight and literally the bowstring rubs down the inside so the thing to remember is to keep that front arms down a bit slightly bending and lock the shoulder down the straighter you are the more likely the string is going to destroy the inside of your arm trust me i've been there the other piece of kit which i will give you to you in a moment it's for us really is what we call today a tab it's just a bit of leather and the leather will go through your fingers and basically protect the fingers on the inside and we can flatten it down that's it and basically the arrow will sit in there yay okay ready to go all right all right so before we add the arrow a couple of things don't stand sideways on okay come around a bit so your shoulders are facing you a little bit more keep both eyes open yeah and remember that you're not pulling the string back towards you look at the target and push the bow away bring the bowstring back towards you and there and then basically if you can you've got what we call an anchor point here so you want to come back to exactly the same position every time wherever it might be i have my finger just underneath my chin other people have different places but basically bring it in and keep both eyes open and just look at where you want to go and sort of in your peripheral you'll see the shaft of the arrow and you'll kind of your brain works it out okay from this distance aim at the bottom of the target and you should hit the middle of the target all right shall we add some arrows let's do it so here we go you've got the cock feather on this occasion it's easy to see because it's the white one rather than the gray one you've got the knock lock it very easily against now most important thing do not grip the end of the arrow let your tab and your fingers be either side of the arrow don't if you pinch it the arrow starts going off so leave the arrow alone set yourself as we've instructed and then basically remember to draw back the bow as you push away and loose very nice right dan from that distance aim here and you'll hit here there all right well you better move out the way i think andy right your turn i have to admit that even though i'm just standing in the armory's tilt yard in leeds without any fully armored cavalry charging towards me i still feel nervous that i'll let andy my senior archer down let it rest on your knuckle make sure you're not touching the arrow chest and back i've got the chest and back pull pull pull back back back oh that was luck right we'll give that up that's perfect let's not do any more yeah i think you're right yay you're an archer let's go one more let's see i think it was beginners luck let's try that again go on have a go this time little bodkin head here my beginners fumblings mean my rate of shooting would be about two arrows per minute far slower than an experienced bowman but can i repeat my short range accuracy same again front arm slightly bent let it sit on your knuckle don't touch the arrow slightly oh okay all the mistakes that's archery done so basically it went down to the left and that's because your hand here went away from your chin rather than pulling back and through okay and you dropped your bow hand slightly and that's why it went down and to the left okay just gotta try one more now make up for that yeah yeah yeah should i go and get it no no we've got that's why archers don't run off into the french and say can i have my arrows back all right here we go nice and relaxed don't touch the arrow keep front arm bent use your back to pull it back bring it down bottom of the target yay yeah not bad it's all right right height and again if that's slightly to the left that's again you're not your anchor point is not anchored so it's going away yeah so you've got to feel the same point at the same time but yeah two out of three three out of four practicing archery is all about being able to repeat the action consistently again and again bring it down down down down oh lovely that was nice strength as well and you brought your good that one yeah i'll have problems getting that out the target now thank you wow there's a lot of power in this isn't there there is and that's a little boat bow you know if you think uh 120 150 pounds but um 100 and 120 pounds means what the weight the energy it takes required to sort of pull the the string back from the the bow itself you can see why they call it the uh medieval machine gun yes although you'd be on a charge if you stuck it in the ground stick it on your toe like a proper archer don't let the wood get wet awful man so this was your first one lucky and that's where you should have walked away exactly second one miles over there somewhere but you know all this is the size of a body devastating yes you can imagine those those horses charging down the ashen cordon just hideous casualty rates among those animals yes i mean they talk about the bodies being piled four foot high in front of the stakes yeah and and of course you you're shooting if you've got any arrows left you're shooting fish in a barrel and if you haven't got any arrows left well then you're just literally clunking them on the heads with mauls mallets yeah falchions whatever it might be meat cleavers oh yeah horrible and really for anyone who sort of traveled european battlefields from the british isles this was the king of the battlefield this weapon well there's food for thought there thanks very much andy we can never really experience what it was like to fight on one of those battlefields but handling these weapons does give you a glimpse of the challenges faced by a foot soldier at the sharp end of medieval warfare in the next episode with the experts the royal armories i come forward through the centuries to experience how gunpowder would change the front line of battle forever that was like being punched in the face repeatedly the power of this weapon that is the noise the first world war