- I'm Alice Loxton and
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"Absolutehistory", all one word when you sign up, now on with the show. - [Narrator] In 1459, a book was written that contained images so bizarre
that even 500 years later, their meaning is still
shrouded in mystery. It depicts improbable
medieval siege engines and machines of war, figures an extraordinary apparatus and bloodthirsty duelers. But key information is
missing from the manuscript and the author is displayed cryptically, holding a broken chain. Why was this manuscript ever written and who could have unlocked
its full potential? This book will reveal the
secrets of a medieval age far more advanced than future generations would ever imagine. (upbeat music) Deep in the volts of the
Royal Library in Denmark is a book over 500 years old. It's time worn leather cover bears one simple inscription, Talhoffer. The mysterious fight
monster of the middle ages. This enigmatic book is written in Swabian in ancient German dialect
and contains 300 color pages of images and texts, offering
an astounding account of life in the middle ages. - This is Talhoffer's
actual 1459 manuscript, beautifully executed with colors as fresh as if it were painted yesterday. And there's Talhoffer himself in the center dictating to his scribe. - [Narrator] The coded imagery and text within this manuscript has
the potential to dispel the very beliefs the modern world has about the medieval age. Was combat and warfare technology really as primitive as we imagined? Did Knights act as
chivalrously as depicted in Victorian times and was the population as unsophisticated as history suggests? - This is an incredibly important document because it tells us so much
about this mysterious world. It's really a kind of box
of secrets that we can open. - [Narrator] For the first
time the Royal Library in Denmark have allowed the
manuscript to be filmed. And a team of experts from
around the world will investigate the mysterious images and texts within, by using cutting edge computer graphics and attempting unorthodox
fighting techniques. - It's actually making
me sick to my stomach. - [Narrator] Decoding the
book's puzzling designs and constructing it's enigmatic machines. - Really get pumping,
he is underwater now. - [Narrator] The team
will test the methods and technologies and the manuscript and attempt to establish
just how authentic Talhoffer's depiction of
the medieval age really was. Talhoffer's "Fight book" has lain dormant and Copenhagen's Royal
Library for over 200 years. But 500 years after it was written, the manuscript has
re-emerged in the public eye with martial arts students worldwide seeking its medieval fighting techniques. One fight master who
has dedicated his life to learning the fighting
styles of the middle ages is John Clements. Clemens is one of the
world's leading experts in the field of medieval martial arts. - We know very little
about Talhoffer as a man, about his life. So he's a mystery in that regard, but we do know he's a
master of the art of arms. That he's a knight, that he is a teacher and instructor of Knightly Fighting Arts. - [Narrator] Talhoffer
has dedicated nearly half the manuscript to medieval combat. And within these pages are numerous plates focusing on the violent
and mysterious world of judicial duels. They are clearly identifiable
by the marked area the combatants were forced to fight in. - Many of the images in this manuscript are concerned with fighting
in the judicial duel. Now the judicial deal
was a curious institution when somebody had accused
somebody of something and there were no witnesses,
there was no evidence. Then trial by combat was
the way you found out who was telling the truth. - [Narrator] On the eighth
plate of his "Fight book" Talhoffer describes why a
person will be called forth for judicial battle. Murder, treason, heresy,
disloyalty, betrayal, falsehood, or using a maiden or lady. Those that broke these
laws would often be forced to face each other in judicial combat. (swords clanking) Illustrated in Talhoffer's manuscript is a bloody portrayal of
the medieval population locked in these lawful battles. Violently dispatching their opponents with a deadly array of weaponry, including one traditionally
designed for defense that had been modified to kill. Aaron Pynenberg knows all too well the advantages of a
shield against an enemy. - I'm sword officer in Appleton Wisconsin. I carry a ballistic shield in front of me as my primary duties. That shield and this shield
share a lot of common traits in that it can
interfere with your vision, with your ability to see your enemy. If you can't see your
enemy, you can't kill him. So it's important that
when you use a shield, you understand that there
are times when you give up that protection or that
defensive capability to see your opponents. - [Narrator] This huge
spike shield or pavise from Talhoffer's manuscript is believed to have its origins in the 12th century where shields were regarded
as an acceptable weapon in dueling for the
common non noble classes. It's cruel spikes and
sideline hooks are used to devastating effect in
Talhoffer's manuscript. And John and Aaron will
test whether the shields could really be used as
the fight masters claimed. - We're gonna try these weapons out. We're gonna see how they
move, how they perform, how the plates from Talhoffer hold up to physically
reconstructing it and applying what we know of the fighting
arts that he displays. - [Narrator] To ensure
any chance of victory in a judicial shield battle, two techniques outlined
in Talhoffer's manuscript, hooking with the shield
to expose the opponent and planting their base
firmly in the ground to create a more effective barrier would have to be utilized. - I can see how that's
what you'd be doing. - And look at how quickly they lock up. - Yeah I saw that, I
thought I can lock and pull. - Planting that shield and
then working around it, using it as a barrier
between me and the enemy is incredibly fast. You see the holes because
the holes are created between the two junction of the shields. - [Narrator] Such was the
shield's effectiveness as an offensive weapon, that a sword was not even
required to dispatch an enemy and leave the judicial ring victorious. - I can say we clearly could see that the techniques from
Talhoffer's manuscript absolutely apply under
the over the displacing, the warding, the hooking, thrusting, all the footwork, all the
motions, they're all there. This is a vicious, ugly type of fighting. And I have a lot more respect for it. - [Narrator] Although unusual
to see combatants fighting merely with shields, it's not the strangest image
in Talhoffer's manuscript. Another set of plates
involving judicial fighting redefines the battle of the sexes. - Contained within this
section of the manuscript is a fight between a man and a woman. It's a type of duel, a dispute that has to be
settled by combat to the death. It's the first appearance
of man, woman dueling in a "Fight book". - [Narrator] This image
of a woman battling a man is a far cry from the
image of the medieval woman un-involved in the violent world of men. - Medieval women were much more powerful than they've been given credit for, and especially through the 14th century, they gained more power and
were able to run businesses and things like that. And it was only the
Renaissance when things started to go wrong and women were seen as more passive and inactive. - [Narrator] The evidence
in the manuscript suggests that in some cases, women were even able to fight
a man in a judicial duel. - This is a really, really
difficult image to decipher because certainly what
you do have at this time are very strong women. I mean, women are left to run castles while their men are off fighting. It's laid out as if this is
something that did happen, but you wonder what the
kind of legal reason for that would have been. - A man and a woman might
be forced to fight like this because of any number of disputes, it might involve property. It might involve inheritance. It might involve accusations. This is a ritual combat. It's a semi-religious affair. And they know that only one
of them can emerge alive. - [Narrator] Even more
disturbing than judicial battles often being fought to the death
is that some interpretations of the text imply that the combatants may have even been husband and wife. A recreation of the duel
could provide valuable insight into why the couple was forced to fight in such a bizarre manner. - It would be interesting to reconstruct one of these judicial combats as a living archeological experiment, to understand something
about the physical components of the fighting actions
and the techniques, and also something of the
mental and emotional component of the combatants. - [Narrator] The whole in the weapon fulfilled multiple functions. Firstly, they balanced out
the fighting inequality between the sexes. And secondly, just like
the judicial shields, the weapons were deemed
suitable for commoners. - They gave her a heavy
rock inside of her veil to use it like it's a flail. It's not a manly weapon,
it's not a war weapon. It's not a self-defense tool, but they're clearly saying
here, you can use this. It's gonna be lethal, bashes skull. - [Narrator] Bettany Hughes
will test the effectiveness of a rock in a veil against
the skull of a sheep. - When you look close at this gear, you realize this was
certainly not play-fighting. I mean, this thing is heavy in my hands. I imagined just one of these
is gonna be a killing blow. (skulls thudding) That is actually sickening
because if you can imagine that would have been a real man's head. He would never have
survived a blow like that. So if Talhoffer was depicting reality, rather than just some Siri, then this would have caused
a huge amount of suffering in the medieval world. - [Narrator] This 1542
image of a judicial duel between two knights suggest
that such violent justice was part of the medieval world. And in 1228, there is
even a case in Switzerland of a woman defeating a man
in the same violent manner, as depicted in Talhoffer's manuscript. The garments worn by the combatants, which they were literally sewn
into ensure that they could not conceal anything that
could be used in the fight. (stone thudding) It was also possible
they were made of leather and treated with oil to be made slippery. So non-fatal grappling
moves would be ineffective. Only a decisive killing blow would end the ritualized combat. - First off I'm sewn into this garment. I'm buried at basically
halfway up in a hole. I'm not going anywhere. I'm literally figuratively stuck here. I feel absolutely demeaned. Reach advantage, I thought
would be to the woman or to the person outside the hole. But in actuality, I'm
not having a problem. It's kind of like a strike
for a strike almost. - I'm learning that it's
hard to strike the head, at the same time as be aware of the club, you have to be very fast
in your feet to do both, but with a little practice,
I think it would be okay. - [Narrator] And practice was exactly what combatants could get. - This is a type of combat
that these participants would have entered knowing
when they're gonna fight, how they're gonna fight
and who they're gonna fight weeks in advance that has
to affect their psyche. And it has to affect their training. - [Narrator] A closer
examination of the manuscript reveals that Talhoffer
wasn't just depicting a generic image of the duels. Each plate contains specific moves that with specialized
training could be used to defeat their opponent. - I'm dumping her on her head and I'm bringing this
club down right after her. And I'm gonna probably
crush her, stab her. There's nothing she can do from here. - It is possible that Talhoffer included these specific
images in his "Fight book" to train the combatants
and earn an income. It is recorded that he
had the responsibility of being judge in judicial duels, a perfect vantage point to
learn the most effective death dealing techniques. Combatants could learn these
methods from Talhoffer, most likely for a fee to ensure victory in the eyes of both the law and God. - The conclusions that
we can reach tentatively about this kind of duel. It's let us understand it's brutal. It's set up to cause a decisive outcome. This is the world they lived in, a violent age, a violent world. - But Talhoffer's vision saw
beyond the restricting circle of the judicial duel, not satisfied with merely
recounting and bloody detail, his field of expertise. He turned his attention to
the machines born of war. The 16th plate of Talhoffer's manuscript depicts a siege engine used extensively throughout the medieval period. This is a great trebuchet
where with one may throw stones and break cities and forts. Talhoffer was a fight
master, not an engineer. So why would he include siege
engines in his manuscript? And where did he get the designs
for these machines of war? - Talhoffer was not the
only secret war book we have in the medieval period in Europe. When you look at all the manuscripts, you can see different machines copied in all the manuscripts. - [Narrator] These images
in Talhoffer's "Fight book" had been taken from Conrad
Kyeser's 1405 "Bellifortis", and Peter Vemming thinks he knows why Talhoffer included them
within his manuscript. - I see them more like a CV or something. This writer engineer
wanted to present his work to a king or whatever, to
get jobs, as simple as that. - [Narrator] Siege engines
could tip the power balance and would be vital for warring factions attacking castles and fortified towns that covered the medieval landscape. The machine from Talhoffer's manuscript could provide the key to ensuring victory in this war-torn land. It was in effect a medieval arms catalog. - Talhoffer lived in what was
called The Holy Roman Empire, which makes it sound like
it's one consolidated block. But actually these warring
tribes, warring kingdoms, where everybody was at each
other's throats the whole time, unlike the original Roman empire, where you had one
centralized military force, everybody had to fight for themselves. - [Narrator] And in these
battle scarred lands, men who claim knowledge of
the mightiest of siege engines would more likely be in demand from wealthy and powerful patrons. - This is a manuscript that's been very deeply researched. It must've been incredibly
expensive to produce and Talhoffer, you
imagine must've expected some kind of financial
kickback from all of his work. - [Narrator] Talhoffer didn't stop with merely claiming knowledge
of common siege engines. The fight masters
ambitions saw him present even bolder designs in his arms catalog. And no machine was too radical
for his visionary mind. - So many exciting machines in this book. And this one is one of the
more ambitious of the designs. - The Swabian text above the
image when translated reads, "One shall make two wagons of this foam as viewed from below." From there within the wagons
folk combat those outside, they fight with the guns and the lances. The lorication is all around them. In two dimensions, the machine
is difficult to comprehend, but once it is fully
realized in three dimensions, its mystery is revealed. (air whooshing) The design in Talhoffer' manuscript is almost unbelievably
depicting an armored tank. The reference to location in the text is a term describing plated armor, but how could such a heavy
protected vehicle ever be moved? - It's a tank it's
possibly the first tank. We have to interpret things. You can see how this
comes off the page here. Well, the text tells us
that there are two carriages that it's pushed by horses. So there are horses in here harnessed up. So it's going that way. This is a machine designed
to go into the enemy, but what to do when it gets there. Well, look, it's got one,
two, three, four, five cannon on each side. This is 1459, but gunpowder
has been around a while. These cannons are drawn with such detail. You can see the touch
hole on each of them. (chariot wheels creaking) - [Narrator] Driven by a team of horses and mounted with cannons. Such a war machine seems
improbable in medieval times, did this tank really exist? And how vital was the
heavy armor protecting it? (guns roaring) A replica of the medieval cannon similar to the design
in Talhoffer's manual has been built by historical
experts in Denmark. - By 1459, cast iron had
been invented in the west, but it was only really
used for cannonballs and they couldn't yet bore and
drill through a solid block. So they made it in the same way they made buckets and barrels. They made it with staves, single slates of iron that
are held together by hoops, just like they are on a barrel. And that is why it's
called the barrel of a gun. - [Narrator] By 1459, cannon
technology was available that would allow multiple
firing of the weapons from within the safety of the tank, a technology that is the distant ancestor seen on today's modern battlefield. - By around 1450, they had developed the
breech loading cannon that meant you could put the
cannon ball or the hail shot in at the breech end. And the secret to that
technology was this, the breech pot in here, you pre-prepared, you poured your gunpowder in there and that was sealed with a wooden tamper. - [Narrator] The breech loading technology could allow a gun crew to fire
two or three rounds a minute, but how much damage could these medieval
cannons really deliver? (cannon roaring) - Look at this, look at this. It's just smashed through these boards. It's made a great big hole. Here we go. Look there, it's gone right through that. A musket. This could have been a paper screen. So one thing that tells me is our tank would have to be an armored vehicle. If you're gonna take that
vehicle into the enemy, it's the horses behind them. The wedge in front look like you are, then you must be armored. 'Cause the enemy have got
cannon just like that. (gun cannon roaring) - [Narrator] It's hard to imagine such a sophisticated
machine in the medieval age, an age perceived as containing
only primitive technology, but other historical sources besides Talhoffer depict medieval tanks, suggesting that they were more
than just the fight master's imaginative, fancy. But not all objects in Talhoffer's manual has such evidence to support them. Alongside the tank is an object even more difficult to comprehend. - We always get very excited
about inventions of Greece and Egypt and Rome, but actually this book is packed with incredibly ingenious inventions. One of my favorites is a very weird thing, but it looks like something
out of a Sci-Fi movie. And we think it's called the crayfish. - [Narrator] This rig
is called the crayfish. It conducts itself upon
four-feeding wheels. It sheers front and behind. If one kindles munitions, then it shoots stones before it. Steel buckshot is a hail where with one smites load, the foes. Historical reproduction expert, Richard Windley would
attempt to decode the image of the crayfish and bring it to life. - Talhoffer's crayfish is
one of the most puzzling and enigmatic designs in his book. He tells us that it was made of iron. So that's helpful and that it
runs on four speeding wheels and there's some kind
of munitions inside it and frustratingly, he
says you make this rig as big or as small as you want, which really doesn't shed
too much light on it. So really it's trying to work
out what it could have been and more importantly, how
it could have been deployed. So bearing in mind, all the various clues that
we've got from the drawing, I've produced a design, which incorporates as many of
these elements as possible. - [Narrator] From the designs
in Talhoffer's manuscript, Richard will build the
model to get a true sense of the objects capabilities. Here, for possibly the
first time in 500 years, Talhoffer's crayfish is revealed. (upbeat music) - It's got all the main
features that we get in the Talhoffer illustration. We've got the big spikes at the front. We've got the cutting scimitar blades here and also the extensions on the wheel, which will cut and maim
if anyone gets in the way. - [Narrator] Richard has
proved that the crayfish is a realistic design, but its construction
doesn't answer the question as to why or where it
might have been used. In a medieval castle or fortified town, one of the most vulnerable
points was the gates and these would need to be protected from attacks at any cost. Mike Loades believes the crayfish could have been the
perfect defensive system. - How about if this, the crayfish was in a castle gateway or the gateway to a fortified town? Then you could see the ropes
that made it go to and fro were embedded in channels
in the flagstone floor. That would be very effective because you could have
a man inside the wall, working a windlass to
make it go to and fro. If there were four or five,
six of these going like this, who would ride a horse through that, who would dare to run through that? It would take you off at the ankles. And what is more the text tells
us it has explosive devices in it that would send out a hail of shots. - [Narrator] Richard has
incorporated this devastating, explosive weaponry in his
design of the crayfish. - There is a removable panel on here, which means we can get to
the fusing for the grenades. Now these are made to simulate cast iron and it would probably would have been full with metal fragments, something that's gonna cause debris to fly in all sorts of directions. It really want to do some damage with this and take out as many enemy
personnel as we possibly can. - [Narrator] Talhoffer
saw enough in the design to include the crayfish in his manuscript. By combining all the team's research, we can now visualize in computer graphics. What such a device may
have looked like in action, defending a stronghold. (stones thudding) In theory, the crayfish was
capable of repelling an enemy at the very threshold of a fortification, but for an attacking
force to get that close in the first place was never an easy task. Talhoffer again appears to have
the right tool for the job, but the question remains, did it work? - There are a number of ways you can take a castle or fortification. You can dig tunnels
underneath it, undermine it. You can do an escalate, which is taking ladders and siege towers up to the walls and piling over the top. Or you can simply try
and blow the gates off, but how do you get your bomb to the gates? Wow, one idea is to use Jamie here in his armor and say,
well, you're wearing armor, just walk up to it. But up there are gonna be arches. - [Narrator] The power of a war bow at short distance against a knight's armor could penetrate it at certain points. And if an archer was skilled enough, he could find the joins in the plate mail and kill the man inside. Risking knights like this
would have been far too a costly method to storm a city's gates, but Talhoffer's manual
seems to offer a solution. (upbeat music) Terry Jones, one of the famed members of the Monty Python team is renowned for more than just comedy. He's an expert in medieval history, but some of Talhoffer's depictions of siege warfare appear
strange even to him. - Talhoffer's manuscript shows
a lot of surprising images. I mean, there's one here. These people walking up to the castle under these sort of metal bells. I mean, how did they get
them off in the first place, very Python has to be, and here's this castle
that's being protected by two huge cushions outside
the front door, very odd. - [Narrator] The description
above this cryptic image gives little information away. See, they are going towards the fortress with the basket, they should lurch around. Within the shelter of the basket, they go. - We know that so much in Talhoffer works because things like trebuchets
have been built and tested. So we know that he's talking
about workable things, but when we come across
something like this, that's so bizarre, so weird,
you think, well, would it work? And of course, the only way to find out is try and replicate it using
the clues that are there. So let's build it. Let's build things against it and test it. - [Narrator] And this
is what the team thinks the medieval siege device
may have looked like. - We've had to guess at the material. Some people say it would
have been cast like a bell. Other say it would have
been plaid and plate armor. I think that would have
been far too heavy. - [Narrator] One material
used in medieval times could have provided the strength of iron without its excessive weight. - Hardened leather is tough. It's what armor was made
of during the middle ages. A lot of poor and knights
were clothed in cuir bouilli, boiled leather, hardened, tough leather. - [Narrator] So much importance is placed on what this device is made of because of what scholars believed the structure was used for. Getting men to the very walls of a castle under siege and surviving. As the siege bell drew near to its target, it would have to repel
attack from very close range, if the men inside where to survive. - So I'm gonna give this the ultimate test where an extreme close range, less than 10 yards and Ben
here is shooting a very, very powerful bow, 80 pounds, draw away with a heavy war
era, do your worst Ben. (suspense music) I expected that to punch right through. And it hasn't, it's penetrated, but it hasn't really penetrated that much. Certainly one of the
guys inside is bleeding, but he's not dead. That has remarkable stopping power. I think if we were to
double this thickness, we really would have something of genuine defensive capability. - [Narrator] A second layer of leather would reduce arrow
penetration significantly, and still allow the siege
bell to be carried by two men. It is feasible that such
a device could make it to the walls of a castle
with it's occupants alive. Perhaps for those looking through Talhoffer's armor's catalog
and desiring the siege bell, it is possible they could
acquire the information about its construction from
the fight master at a price. The satisfied warlord could
then deploy it in any way he saw fit, placing a bomb, delivering a letter of ultimatum or retrieving a fallen comrade
in the field of battle. But a castle under siege would have more than just arrows at its disposal. - When I look at that, it's designed for one thing
and that is to withstand an aerial shot. If you're coming up to my walls
and I've got broken masonry than I am gonna haul them on top of you. (stones thudding) That is got a good structural shape and even very big boulders. I think with that central
strut in the middle guys inside, their
heads are gonna be okay. - [Narrator] With the
correct military knowledge, these drawings in Talhoffer's manuscript have been transformed
into a two man siege bell. But it was the armor on a medieval knight that took this protection a step further by allowing the individual inside a far greater freedom of movement. The knights featured in
Talhoffer's 1459 "Fight Book," are primarily involved in
violent and bloody activities. Talhoffer was trained as a Knight and would know their ways intimately. (drumroll thudding) The nights of the middle
ages are far removed from the honorable
warriors that we perceive them to be today. They were more akin to
brigands some even robbing and killing rich merchants
that crossed their lands or battling each other in
violent and deadly duels. - Ah, we think of the middle ages as the knights in shining armor fighting under the laws of shivery. But of course the truth
was actually different. Shivery was an idea, but the
whole concept of knighthood, it was a cult of violence. It was violent, young
men killing each other or preferably killing innocent citizens. - [Narrator] Vulnerable
knights rescuing damsels in distress isn't the
only dubious portrayal of these medieval warriors. - It was Lawrence Olivia,
he was responsible for the misconception that
armor was terribly heavy. In his film, "Henry The Fifth," he showed Knights being lifted
onto the horses by cranes. But in fact, of course you couldn't fight if that was the case. (swords clanking) - [Narrator] With many
of Talhoffer's plates dedicated to knights, it suggests he was
targeting serious fighters to sell his services to. But more specifically, those with money, for a
knight's armor was expensive. - The Tampa on armor in the middle ages was like a harness and you
can see it's like a harness. It's all different bits that
go on and every single bit has to be tailor made for the body. Anything that's not quite
right will pinch and rub. This is probably about 60
pounds of metal on him, but it's evenly distributed
and it gets a lot of its strength from its shape. These are glancing surfaces, a sword will glance off them. So these curves give quite thin plates, remarkable tensile strength. - [Narrator] For it to be truly effective, the Knights armor had to
allow the freedom of movement to match the swiftness of
a lesser armored opponent on the battlefield. (upbeat music) And also let a knight climb
or mount a steed quickly. But the design couldn't compromise on its protective capabilities and it had to be able to
withstand what is perhaps the pinnacle of medieval
metrology, the long sword. In many of his depictions
of fighting techniques, Talhoffer reveals the
weapon's deadly efficiency. The craftsmanship that
went into these blades meant that they had the potential of being the most formidable weapons during the middle ages. - What I've got here is
a Talhoffer long sword. It's based on one of the
illustrations in his 1459 manual. This sword has a balance
point of about two inches in front of the guard, which means that the
blade can rotate easily about that point. The heat treatment on a
medieval long sword blade would have been incredibly sophisticated. They were making a blade
that would both hold an edge and would also flex during
use, it is quite amazing. Very, very sophisticated workmanship. The heat treating on a
sword is a two-part process, which is the quenching,
which makes the blade hard, but ever so slightly brittle. And then there's tempering, which is a lower temperature process of about 200 centigrade, which makes the blade flexible again. It's combining an awful lot of things. This has got devastating,
cutting power and fine balance. - [Narrator] But despite a
medieval sword blades technology, they still weren't able to
cleave through the heart and plate steel of a knight's armor. - With a sharp, historically accurate, robust blade designed for fighting armor. You're simply not going to get through to wound him with an edge blow. It doesn't matter how hard I
hit him or where I hit him. I can't cut through the
armor with edge blows. - [Narrator] But a single
plate in the "Fight Book" reveals a long sword
technique against that knight, almost forgotten by the modern world. An unarmored man might be forced to fight an armored opponent due to rules stated in a judicial duel or in the field of battle
or beyond the city walls, trying to escape from the robber nights. - Talhoffer gives us the
way of fighting a knight and beating him. And that is through the
techniques of half swording where we're gonna try and
get that point in his visor, underneath his helmet, into
his groin, behind his knee, under his arm, where
he would normally have a chain mail armor protecting him. But even then the point
is gonna penetrate. - [Narrator] This
technique of half swording just on unarmored opponents
and relied on the fact that some medieval blades were not sharp, their entire length and could be gripped when using specific fighting techniques. And one such move would
make an opponent's armor almost irrelevant. - The interesting
features about this sword are that not just the blade is
able to be used offensively, the guard and the pommel are both pointed. And if you wanted to, you could use those as an
active part of the weapon. - Talhoffer shows that besides the point, you also can use the hilt effectively to knock them about the head, to bash him with the pommel or the pommel may even be where the phrase,
"to pommel someone to death" comes from striking with a hilt like this is like smashing with a war hammer. It doesn't look very lethal, but the mass and the
weight on it is actually has a tremendous amount
of force behind it. And it will knock him senseless. - [Narrator] John Clements is going to try these half sword techniques against a knight in full armor
to test their effectiveness. (swords clanking) - I'm so dangerous and
potentially deadly in this thing that there's really not much I can do. Try and hold back at all. I mean, I'm committed. Once I'm committed, the sword has a weight and deadliness all to its own. - Fighting unarmored
against armored knight, such as Talhoffer shows in his plate. I felt obviously more agile and quicker, but it didn't make that
much of a difference. He wasn't so slow that I
can take advantage of it. I saw openings, but I can't get to them because
he's all over the place. But what I was able to
do is hit with that hilt. We know these techniques from
training these techniques to go all out and fully do
it and see that pommel smash and put a dent in his
armor and to see him pause because of that blow,
that was enlightening. (swords clanking) Are you good? (panting breaths) Well, what happened there, Alvin? - And honestly, I'm still feeling the effects of that pommel
strike from earlier, when he hit me with the rear of his sword, the pommel on the end
of it so much momentum occurring right through the armor. It's actually making me sick to my stomach and I'm having a hard
time catching my breath and staying in the fight
because I'm just sick. I felt it through my whole body. - The helmet he was wearing here, it's a historically accurate reproduction. It's the right thickness of metal, the right kind of metal and
the dents that were put on it. It's not easy to dent this kind of helmet, this kind of metal. And when I threw the blow,
I could see him react. I was frankly, pretty darn surprised
that I could get in there with that kind of force. We train hard. We train in these moves from Talhoffer and Talhoffer specifically
shows this technique in his image of an unarmored fighter against a armored fighter. He really does validate that technique. - [Narrator] Despite its
brutal imagery and title, Talhoffer's "Fight Book"
was not entirely focused with the martial arts and warfare. Contained within its pages
is material from many facets of life in the middle ages,
including this bizarre image. It's purpose like many in the
book is shrouded in mystery. - These illustrations are extraordinary. Here we've got frogman
people in diving suits. This is 1459. - [Narrator] The head is
covered with a hard helm. Be it that the water runs strongly. Then you should burden
yourself with weights so that you may submerge
and emerge again too. - Talhoffer tells us so
much in this manuscript, there is so much information, but there's also little key
bits of information missing. And this is a classic example. We've got a diving suit, but he doesn't actually explain
where the oxygen comes from. Perhaps he needs us to
go to him to pay him, to tell us what that missing
bit of information is. - [Narrator] But could a
diving suit actually exist over 500 years ago? At the Medieval Center in Denmark, historians have built a
diving suit from images taken from another 15th century source, but does this technology really work? - This helmet is slightly different to the one that we see in
the Talhoffer manuscript. What we see depicted
there is what's actually known as a frog mouth helmet, very appropriately for a frogman. It's a frog mouth helmet,
which is used for jousting. The point is you need a solid
helmet to put the air in it. Basically what's gonna
happen is this is gonna act like an air bell, a very
simple primary technology. The first of its kind. I'm very glad that he's
doing it and not me. - [Narrator] Although the secret to supplying air to a man
under water is not revealed. That likely technology required is contained within the manuscript. A set of bellows attached
to an air bladder. Historical engineers found
that getting this technology to work wasn't as easy as
they initially perceived. - When you have a big amount
of air and a big bellow that you need to compress
to get it down to the diver, you don't have enough force to press it into the horse and down to the diver. So we had to go back and
make three small bellows with very long leavers on. So you have a lot of
power to pump the air. It's a lot of hard work
to work the bellows. They need to be pumped
really hard and fast to get enough air down to the diver. But I think we about ready. Are you ready guys? - We're ready. - One.
- Two. - Three.
- One. - Two.
- Three. - One.
- Two. - Three. - One.
- Two. - Three. - One.
- Two. - Three. - We've got to buckle that front and back because as the air goes in,
that this would float off once it's in water, but already
the guys are pumping away. Here he goes down, we've got
to keep this pipe straight. There he is, he's in the water. Really get pumping, he is under water now. See the bubbles, it's working. This is fantastic. You can see this technology,
technology that was thought about probably before
1400 and it's working. That man is underwater and he's breathing and he's breathing through this pipe. There's guys pumping on those bellows. It's quite extraordinary. - [Narrator] The test you see
here is limited to 10 minutes, but in medieval times, a diver could stay under water for as long as there was a supply of
men to pump the bellows. - This is the technology
put men on the moon. The idea that mechanical contraptions can override our biological limitations. Good job. How was that? - Fine. - You're not, you're not wet there, the water is only wet to here. - No, no problem at all. - Your whole face is
dry, it's extraordinary. His whole face is dry. - [Narrator] The diving
suit is one of the medieval world's great achievements. And the version depicted
in Talhoffer's manuscript appears to be more advanced than the suit the team in Denmark has just tested. It is closer in design
to the closed air systems we have today and is more maneuverable and better fitted with
the air likely designed to escape from the sleeves
and not around the face. Talhoffer does not reveal
why the diving suit was used and possibly this and
all the other information the fight master excludes from
his manuscript is the answer to the image of him
holding a broken chain. Could it be that Talhoffer
was the missing link that made his 1459 "Fight Book" complete? Well, this manuscript offers
us a glimpse into the violent and complicated world that we're only just beginning to truly understand.
