Sword carrying laws of the medieval period: MEDIEVAL MISCONCEPTIONS

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below the auditors ratings I'm Chad and I want to talk a little bit about the legality of owning and carrying a sword in the medieval period there are a lot of ideas that are spread trying to address that question that it was illegal there was only illegal for the comparisons I read aloud the Knights were always allowed to carry them and and then there's the idea that specifics or illegal the longsword was legal but about the you know small hour yeah one-handed swords they were fine and a lot of these ideas when I look into them they're either based or they take it out of context or they are completely inaccurate and so this is the beginning of a new series that I'm watching my own channel called medieval misconception it comes out of a video I have recently published you know biggest misconceptions that medieval age in castles and life and stuff and you guys that really appreciate it and I love that you guys really got into it so we're gonna be doing more and I mentioned the legality of carrying a longsword versus or you know a regular one-handed sword that regular people weren't allowed to do that to myth that know there's many instances where regular people were allowed to carry two-handed swords and they particularly like they're all quite prominent and so I was saying that I actually think that whole thing is a myth I want to do a deeper dive on the broader context of that question about just carrying swords in general and so the first thing which I really need going to preface most of my videos in this medieval misconception series is the deep the greater kind of context that you need a look at that nuance right when addressing questions like this because the medieval period for me 500 years if you wanna take the broader context 1000 years but I look at from the year 1000 to the Year 1500 okay about 500 years right there is where I'm really going to be addressing most of my understanding and research for medieval misconceptions and that's still 500 years over a very large area that a medieval Europe from Britain France Spain Germany Bohemia and all the other places in between okay sorry if I miss bennet there's a lot and so you're never going to find a universal standard that of this is just how it was forbearing and like owning and carrying arms through this period in time and location but you can find a general rule of thumb and the conclusion that I've come to so I'll come to that conclusion that this is what seems to be the general case but there are specific points of difference here there and I'll try and go into it so the first thing the ability to police in the medieval period it was far more difficult okay the rulers okay the people in authority had far less resources and you have great technology there's stuff like that to police very large areas and so if you are a regular person kind of you have a farm yeah you got a ward and you have to pay a certain percentage of whatever produce and by the way you don't just live with the Lord okay anybody who owned land could have farmers into into a an arrangement like people will always default that well its fealty there you know farmers everything will go enter into a type of bondage I can't become your serfs no no no not all that not all the time actually far actually the whole service system I'm starting to get the impression was fast smaller instances over the broader thing of the whole medieval period because the idea of a serf is like one step above a slave and everything was restricted and maybe the I the term serf was actually a different definition in the time period and just going back to the thing about who owned land okay the church owned a lot of land as well and so you could have been a farmer regular person had the same type of arrangement with the local Abbey okay and you would have to give a certain percentage of reproduces what if you produce back then kind of taxes all right but you still have a decent amount of freedom and autonomy in what you wanted to do you need it enough food to live and the shelter and all that stuff but you didn't I know in fact anyway okay so in regards to policing very difficult to police everyone and so in most instances if someone wanted to own a sword and you just get a sword and they'll be fine and no one would come into their house and say that's illegal you're not allowed it it's only in specific areas where it was much easier to police of people and the easiest areas are in cities where everyone is in one location and you have a specific boundary that you know where the beginning and end is okay that is when more specific policing kind of happened but having said that there were aldermen but I think that's a more English thing and so I asked the specific type of policing methods for all different areas that's something that I haven't completed my research yet because it seems like in many instances people police themselves is first normal citizens saw someone doing bad well then they would go and intervene okay and then once they were taken and thrown into whatever type of prison they had and they weren't like dedicated prisons that prisons were just holding places ready for trial and then you would be given a fine fines were a big way of policing and stuff it was really bad just straight execution so anyway when you're going into these cities this is when more specific laws were instituted and as to how they were enforced it varied and this is where we see instances of restrictions in owning and bearing weapons specifically sorts I have found accounts in London where you weren't allowed to carry a sword in the open but this also needs to be understood and in context if you're entering the city you're allowed to carry it and if you're exiting the city you'll have to carry it as well so it seems like the idea that well we can't really enforce it outside of the city is confirmed by that fact and also that the general you know you're allowed to carry a sword when you're just really going about and travelling that seems to be the general understanding you couldn't really say people couldn't do it more enforce it if you did say it and that means for most of the medieval Europe in most areas you were perfectly allowed to carry a sword if you wanted except in specific cities if they had a law against it and the laws were generally defined by the length of blade in some instances are so short that you could only get away with a knife but in other instances I was easily long enough to allow for sword lengths but that restricted two-handed swords and this was where we might get into the idea that the longsword was outlawed for the common person and I actually didn't think it was that long swords were specifically outlawed and the calm person weren't allowed to earn them or carry them it that the restriction in length if the length restriction allowed one-handed swords but not 200 swords guess what type of sword the common area person is always going to carry well a one-handed sword in the city but again we have emphasized how exceptional it was when a city had a law against carrying arms I haven't found many instances like London and a couple of other notable cities in medieval England in Italy and two cities in late medieval Germany but the broader understanding is that that was perfectly fine for anyone to carry a sword and when those you know fixers were in place that you know Germany Italy and England and stuff in a lot of these instances certainly at night you're perfectly fine to carry a sword in the open at daytime but at nighttime you weren't because seeing someone walk around nighttime with a sword that's a bit dodgy as a [ __ ] I don't really trust that our why are you walking around on the sword but then again in other instances perfectly fine because there are many many cities where you were allowed to carry swords and then there are some instances where it was a legal requirement not only for you to own a sword but for you to carry it now that it seems to be completely contrary to the idea of weapon restrictions like if there's ever allure about weapons it was to restrict them not to enforce you owning them but 9 in some cases there was an actual legal requirement for you to own a sword and if you weren't properly armed respectably and honorably as the the language said you could be fined okay that's really interesting my specific reference that I have is for late medieval Germany and it comes from the Marshall ethic in early modern Germany civic duty and the right to bear arms and when it says early modern is referring to 1400 to 1700 about 1400 in the medieval period so that's why I say it gives us information of the late medieval period and here and actually the requirements why was it a legal requirement because when you have a kind of city-state that is more autonomous okay and is respected to fend for itself that means the defense force that it has or it's not official defense force but the militia the town militia is going to be manned by the citizenry of that town therefore the citizenry needs to have weapons to be to be our act as in part of the militia and so we can expect to find very similar laws in any city in which it functioned with a local town militia where most of the male citizens of that town or city were members just if you live in a city you're part of the militia blanket because you're living in our city we expect you to help defend ourselves if we get in trouble wouldn't stuff I also want to point out why are we talking about sword so much when we're talking about the weapons you carry for essentially self-defense if you're gonna go around okay and you want a weapon to defend yourself it's always swords swords are the ones that seem to be have the restrictions okay when they put the restrictions in as I said it was by length of blade not length of mace okay not length of Pole arm or spear as always bladed weapons well the answer is because swords are the sidearm in the medieval period if you want a weapon that is most convenient and most effective it's about between those two the sword has always been even now when we think about the sword it is the most the easiest option okay it's the easiest to carry but it's the most deadly for its ease of carry as well and it isn't restricted in one kind of damage type it's not just restricted in cutting or hacking like an axe because there are some armor types of situations where cutting isn't the best and you want to thrust but a sword isn't as good as cutting as an axe but it's a lot better than thrusting okay but still it's not as good as thrusting as a spear it's a lot better at cutting than a spear and sorry even though cutting not as good as an axe rusting not as good as a spear it is that kind of this mid-range weapon that does easily good enough really good not as good as the best but really good at all the type of you know attacks that you want and it's convenient and also looks really cool as well so swords that just by default is all what have always been the weapon for self-defense which is a weapon that you would carry when you're about your everyday and hence why we see the laws that restrict weapon carrying apply two bladed weapons almost universally I have not actually found any instances of laws restricting the carrying of a spear or a pole axe or a halberd or a billhook or anything or odd mace and stuff if you know the instances where there were restrictions for carrying different weapons outside of blade weapons I'd love to hear and I'll see them but to this I haven't come across any very interesting thing there it seems the instances where bearing arms was more restricted came when the whatever state authority there was King Lauder ever had his own you know Defense Force military and therefore whenever he wanted to exert his authority he didn't want the local was having the ability to fight against him and that's when restrictions kind of put in place but in the medieval period the like ahead Authority the main authority it was all decentralized okay and the more decentralized she get it seems like the more individual freedoms were kind of available depending on how much power these local authorities had but I mean said that that of course did not apply to whole thing because it seems like they were only really able to enforce restrictions on carrying arms in the areas where there had the ability to actually police okay which in cities when it comes to just the general countryside good luck so I can't really do anything you can carry whatever you want now I want to go back to that thought we had regarding the restriction of weapons okay when it came to length and if they'll if the restriction was long enough to allow for one-handed swords and not two-handed swords that said most commoners would be carrying one in swords sorry I want to just jump on that and emphasize well this really does seem to be where the idea of two years swords being restricted to the lower-class might have come from not that they couldn't have owned them okay and if they are leaving a city or going into a city you could carry a two-handed sword as it seems like or II and remember some of these apparently at night so it seems like when there are sutures in place they could still own the restricted I animals only restricted in certain circumstances of use you couldn't carry in open day when you're about you're a casual everyday business and this restriction in blade length was often indicated at one of the entry points to a city or large town or the town hall itself sometimes they'll actually be a wooden knife or blade showing the maximum length that was allowed in those instances where sword carrying was restricted whether I was at night or generally as I said before it was the Corrin practice that you're allowed to carry the sword into the city when you're entering and carry it when leaving what then do you do with the sword when you're not entering or leaving you're just growing about the city regularly well if you have a home in there of course you leave your weapon at your home but if you're a visitor to this you were expected to turn in your weapon at whatever in or establishment you were staying at kind of like a luggage check-in service but for weapons so that's an interesting tidbit for any of you medieval fantasy role players that you might want to institute adventurers got checking your weapons in here and some adventures have some really big weapons and so these established ins could have I don't know volts lock rooms where there's just a buttload of fancy enchanted weapons of stuff being held at bay and on top of that I could make for an interesting adventure scenario where if you're a thieving crew and you want to get access to really valuable high status enchanted weapons and stuff we'll just go to whatever in where the adventures are staying and go graphic where their weapons are being stored but that of course would only apply to those cities where weapon carrying was restricted anyway going back to the historical context now it would be really interesting to know what went into whatever governing body you had rule over the city what factors they took into consideration in determining maximum blade length especially when they felt that one-handed sword blade length was allowed but anything larger than that which of course reaches three handed sword lengths were disallowed but for the authorities of that town so if we're looking at the older men which are basically a police force and I would also say if you were a knight okay and perhaps even these restrictions applied to the lower-class of knights but if you were a notable Knight a lord you know Knight with a title or Lana something like that where you had enough clout to say sorry I'm gonna carry my sword anyway take it up with me because I have the authority I could fire you whatever you don't have the authority tell me what to do well I can go back carrying whatever sword they wanted and in this instance we can find a situation where two-handed swords were restricted not because the Triana sword was considered prestigious wonderful and that their you know peasant class weren't allowed it it was just that people with more authority power and knights kind of fall into that you know situation could ignore those restrictions when they were in place and remember even in a particular City that restricted anything above a one-handed sword that didn't mean that you couldn't own a two-handed sword you could still own one you either couldn't carry it at night and just that or carry it generally within the city's boundaries you could still leave the city with the sword and if you're traveling over a large distance where you wanted a weapon for self-defense even when two unit swords had some type of restriction based on length you could still earn that sword generally and carry it in that situation in for the most part okay because I've been focusing a lot on the stickers and the new ones here and there as best I can but for the most part okay the general practice for most of the medieval period is that you could carry a sword in cities and without there are some more specific situations when they were restricted and for the most part you're perfectly fine you could earn what episode you wanted carried it whatever you wanted as well and then you have those situations where you were legally required to as well and so to say that swords were restricted that you know peasants were not allowed to carry two-handed swords if they were around a farm if there is a just all peasants were allowed to carry Tianna swords is completely incorrect the total huge misconception it's false but also to say that it was legal requirement for everyone to only carry a sword is also false because remember going back to what I said near the beginning medical period long period of time really large place you're gonna find differences and so if you want to take these ideas these historical facts and apply them to a book you're writing a role-playing game you're doing or even if a game you're developing and stuff like that you can kind of look at the nuance and decide for yourself okay is this city run by people who want to have a bit more control and authority over it or is it a city state that needs to protect itself and wants to ensure that it's militia is going to be well armed so everyone needs to own a sword so a complete differences it's just really interesting okay because the medieval period is complex and sophisticated so you just can't say it was like this for everything and brush it off no there's always more to the picture there we go an in-depth video on the legalities are carrying swords in the medieval period I hope you've enjoyed thank you for watching and until next time [Music] you [Music]

Channel: Shadiversity

Views: 460,400

Keywords: sword, swords, laws, bear, bare, arms, armaments, armament, longsword, nobleman, nobility, medieval, middle ages, history, historical, greatsword, katana, knight, knight's, commoner, peasant, city, town, sheath, scabbard, wear, carry, carrying, world anvil, bearing, game of thrones, dungeons and dragons, dnd, d&d, lord of the rings, adventuring, adventurer, top 10, top ten, hema, historical european martial arts

Id: H36aXSdSIS4

Length: 19min 17sec (1157 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 30 2019