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Recommended: Medieval England
Medieval Ages The Medieval Ages was a time in history when people were extremely undeveloped, war was not uncommon, and people had absurd beliefs. Among these poor things, culture did have a big role in the Medieval Ages; since there was a majority Christian population, the church was very influential in people’s lives. This was also a time of great kings and kingdoms, and the valiant knights that protected them. In medieval times, many people fought other kingdoms for various reasons: payback, gold, necessities, even religion. Maintaining the most up advanced weaponry available was paramount. Swords were used by knights when fighting close combat. They used swords around AD 1,000-1,350. Swords can be single or double bladed which means that you can fight with either side of the sword. Sword blades can also be straight or curved. A popular weapon was the dagger. The dagger was intended for stabbing your foe in close quarters. Daggers were unlike knives as knives were mainly used for cutting and daggers were designed to …show more content…
This is why they made long-range weapons. Since they hadn’t learned yet how to use gunpowder to their advantage in warfare, they needed to use traditional methods of attacking from a distance. These weapons would allow for the attacker to injure someone from yards away. Some of these long-range weapons were the trebuchet, and the catapult. These were used to fling large objects towards a crowd of people or a wall. Although they were slow to reload, it was very effective. These weapons were mainly used for sieging. Other smaller weapons would include cross-bows, bows, javelins, and throwing knives. These weapons were smaller and easier to move around (compared to the trebuchet and catapult) because they were meant to be held. A last weapon they used near the end of the medieval period was the gonne. The gonne was an early form of firearm. Gonnes were also called Hand
Saber a sword was only the Calvary and generally in the beginning of the war were used regularly and to their full extent Saber became marks of ranking later years and were abandoned in favor of efficient weapons.
The Met museum said that the most popular used weapons were “spear, sword, axe, and the bow and arrow.” These weapons and tactics of fighting then became the backbone of weapons today, such as guns. Spears, bows and arrows allow knights to fight from a distance, such as hand grenades and guns used in today’s military.
Long distance weapons were essential to European combat. The main long distance weapons used by Europeans during that time were the longbow and the crossbow. Each form of weaponry had its unique advantages and their pejorative. The long bow (shown in figure 1) was the original form of distance weapons. The term ‘bow’ means to be made from wood, iron or steel. The Welsh, who inhabited England, were the first people to use longbows. Longbows were 6-7 feet long and had a range of 250 yards, and still had the ability to pierce a knight’s armor (Byam 12). A well trained archer could shot 10- 12 arrows in a single minute. Despite these pro’s the longbow had a lot of disadvantages as well. One draw back was only skilled archers, who were costly to train, could use a longbow. Another disadvantage was it didn’t have a ready loaded arrow (Edge 34). The crossbow (shown in figure 2) on the other had been emphatically different. The crossbow had a span of 2-3 feet and could kill a knight on horseback with one shot, because of good aim (Byam 30). Crossbows had ready loaded projectiles, while the longbow didn’t and the crossbow could be used by anyone since it didn’t require any skill. The crossbow did have a down side though, it had slow reloaded because of a crank and it was expensive. Crossbows were also used for other thi...
This is a brief paragraph or two on each of the major siege weapons. For the not just the besiegers but also the defenders. Please note most of these weapons were not used alone and often had many different versions of the same weapon.
European knights wore armor that is made of metal. Due to the metal armor, their whole body was protected very well, and yet it was too heavy. In addition, it sometimes even limited knight’s vision and breathing ability because of the large protection of the helmet. In contrast, samurai’s armor was very light compared to the knight’s. “Samurai wore armor that is made of leather and steel laced together with silk cords.” Therefore, samurai was able to move quickly and agilely. However, samurai’s armor had less protection for their body, making them more vulnerable than knights. Their weapons had some differences as well. The primary weapons of knights were the long lance and the sword, but they also used poleaxe, dagger, and mace. The sword was always the foundational weapon of knights, whereas, the sword was not the one of the major weapons for samurais. Samurais primarily used the bow and arrow and the Yari that is, “One of the Japanese traditional blades in the form of a
The Field Guns, which were lightweight and easier to move, and the Siege Guns, which were much heavier and less mobile. The cannons utilize three different types of rounds. The rounds were solid shot, grapeshot, and canister. Solid shot rounds were used for structures, buildings, and ships. The grapeshot, which was a canvas bag of lead or iron balls, was ideal for long range personnel.
In Spain they were master swordsmen that preferred short swords. This is because they are great at close up combat. In Southern Gaul they made great armor and preferred long swords. Mainly because they weren’t afraid of their opponent’s swords penetrating the armor. Nothing really changed in Britain because they fought with chariots.
“Feudalism was a political, economic, and social system in which nobles were granted the use of land that legally belonged to the king” (Doc. 1) "Social" life in the Middle Ages was the only kind of life people knew. Whether nobility, craftsperson or peasant your life was defined by your family, your community and those around you (OI). “The Church protected the Kings and Queens (OI).” “The King is above Nobles, Nobles above Knights, and the Knights are above serfs (Doc.1).” “ Nobles provides money and knights. Knights provide protection and military service (Doc. 1).” Social network, your village and your local nobility, was your family (OI).” “From the moment of its baptism a few days after birth, a child entered into a life of service to God and God’s Church (Doc.3).” “Every Person was required to live by the Church’s laws and to pay heavy taxes to support the Church (Doc.3).” “In return for this, they were shown the way to everlasting life and happiness after lives that were often short and hard (Doc. 3).” In conclusion, this is what it was like in the Middle Ages from a social
The trebuchet is used with a long wooden arm refreshed on a hinge point, which acted as a big level. A bullet was placed on one end and soldiers in this earlier form of the trebuchet pushed on slings devoted to the other end to fundamentals swing the arm around and throw the
When in combat, both sides had the same kind of artillery. Soldiers used muskets and small handguns and generals on the other hand would ride on horseback with a sword and pistol. Another type of weaponry that was used were cannons. Even though cannons were much more powerful, muskets were easier due to the fact that they were portable and fired rounds quicker.
The English used the Welsh Longbow first against the Scots and then they saw how good it worked so they used them and brought along guys to use them to defeat the French. B. The longbow was more effective thus using the old crossbows they had used before. 1. “ The longbow was a simple yet highly effective device that had greater range than the crossbow and could be fired at unprecedented speed”
“Volley Guns” (Chivers, 2010, p.26) or also known as “Organ Guns” (Ellis, 1975, p.10) were first attempts at increasing firepower by adding several barrels at the firing itself, rather than simply attempting to increase the rate of fire. “Gunsmiths had long ago learned to place barrels side by side on frames to create firearms capable of discharging projectiles in rapid succession. These unwieldy devices, or volley guns, were capable in theory of blasting a hole in a line of advancing soldiers” (Chivers, 2010, p.26). An example of such weapons can be seen on July 28, 1835 when Giuseppe Fieshi unleashed terror on King Louis-Phillipe in Paris, France. He fired his 25 barrel “volley gun”, killing 18 of the king's entourage and grazing the King's skull. The weapon was ineffective however. Four of the barrels failed and another four ruptured. Two other barrels had exploded inside, grievously wounding Giuseppe. (Chivers, 2010, p. 27)
Catapults have been a major part of war for many countries for years. They have helped lengthen the firing distance for countries and have therefore allowed soldiers to stay further away from the opposing country. Catapults came about as attempts to put more power and range in crossbows. In 399 BC a Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, was the first person to document a catapult with an arrow hand, also known as a ballista. The French were the first army to use catapults as a weapon.
Catapults revolutionised the way war worked because they
A popular ancient Japanese saying states that “The sword is the soul of the warrior.” (Buchanan 120) The warrior in the proverb pertains to the samurai of feudal Japan and the sword refers to their most prominent weapon, the Katana. An ancient blade made through a complicated forging process, the Katana is truly a work of art. Also known as the Japanese long sword or the samurai sword, the Katana is a curved, single-edged blade with ridges along its exterior. It is primarily used as a weapon to cut down or slash its foes (Robinson 28). The ridges along the blade, called the hamon, divides the soft metal components, the shingane, from the hadagane of the hard metal components used to forge the sword to give it its trademark razor sharp edge and flexibility (Turnbull 12). The blade of the Katana is around sixty to seventy centimeters in length and is often likened to the arc of the new moon. With its signature curved edge and its fusion of hard and soft metals, the Katana is considered to be the greatest offensive weapon ever created (O’Neill 114,116). It is a hallmark of Japanese sword history and is a noteworthy aspect of Japanese craftsmanship. The Japanese Katana is an important symbol of Japanese culture whose significance must be asserted.