Why were FLANGED MACES ACTUALLY USED by Medieval Knights?

the flanged mace in the age of plate armor was I completely wrong hi folks Mattis here scholar gladiatoria so this is a flanged mace that is it has flanges on it a fairly famous type of weapon if you go to museums like the Metropolitan Museum of Art or the wallet collection or the Tower of London you will see weapons like this from Mostly from the 15th and 16th centuries but the flange mace did actually come around in the well earlier in the 14th century really so I've made a lot of videos in the past talking about different types of weapons such as the flanged mace or indeed the famous Warhammer here which we might refer to later in this video and I have to say that you know you live and you learn and the fact is that um I made certain assumptions about flanged maces based on my limited experience with them I'm primarily a sword and poleaxe and Spear and Dagger instructor I haven't really used used maces very much in combat at all because they're not very safe to use but some people I know have one of those people who's kind of turned around some of my thinking around the place of maces in the age of plate armor so we're talking about 14th 15th 16th centuries here is decm the channel decm and I'll stick a link below down to his channel so Leonard over ATM has a lot of armored fighting experience and he has experimented with lots of weapons including these flashed Maes and I've had some interesting discussion with him um as well directly and um the fact is that I it has turned me around to looking at the place that flanged maces play in Warfare particularly in the 15th century cuz I think that some of the assumptions I had made were actually a little bit wrong so what I'm going to summarize here is some of my thoughts based on the latest research discussing with people like Decat and also looking at period artwork from the 15th century paintings manuscript things like this and also some written sources as well looking at where I think the role of the mace particularly the flanged mace is in the 15th century that is at the height of plate armor and the fully harnessed plate armored Knight so the very first piece of context I want to set out before going on is that indeed maces have been around since prehistory far far back into prehistory um and in fact if we look at developed Maes with where you've got a shaft of one material and ah head of another material they were famously used by the Egyptians for example um and they were issued to infantry but they were also used by um pharaoh and monics and stuff like this so maces either with a stone head or a metal head have been around since time in Memorial and definitely they are very effective weapons I don't want what I set out in this video to give you the impression that the mace is a useless weapon blah nobody should ever use it within certain contexts in certain periods it's extremely effective weapon but here's the headline it doesn't seem to have been a particularly popular or effective weapon in the era of full plate harness we'll go into why in a second but we'll also go into well why did the flange mace exist who used it and why so fundamentally those two things yes maces and clubs extremely popular through throughout human history and prehistory um but while they were around in the 15th century they do not seem to have been particularly common weapons and they don't seem to have been particularly effective and of course those two things go hand in hand so briefly why weren't they very effective in a nutshell deam has set this out very well on his channel and that is because flange Maes don't do an awful lot I'm not saying they don't do anything but they don't do an awful lot against a man who is in full plate harness and that is a very particular thing and that's a particular type of armor that only a particular type of person War so high-end men at arms and knights the really the richest people in society the top 1% um and it's they were only around for a relatively small amount of time so we're talking 14th 15th 16th century so during that period yes indeed maces were used but for the most part the onehanded mace is not especially effective against armor specifically full plate harness the next important thing really important thing to say about Maes in this period in the 15th century is they were not used instead of Swords per se and I think if you're used to the uh being exposed to something like maces in something like video games or role playing games even or perhaps even movies then you might think of the mace as an alternative to a sword but it wasn't the sword was usually present where Ace was present so pretty much if we look at Medieval art most people who had something like this 15th century flanged mace also had a sword therefore this is enough no sense a weapon which is supposed to supplant or replace a sword it is a weapon that's used in addition to a sword for reasons that we're going to look at here and at the same time I also want to make clear that the flanged mace was a high status expensive object it was something that would cost you as much money as a sword this isn't a low quality or a cheap easily obtainable wooden cudel or studded Club it is a very expensive difficult to make object and I know people like fabis ca who actually make flange Maes and they are a lot of work we should also be thinking about things in this context like the PX as well these are expensive and nightly weapons that cost a lot of money and make take a lot of time to make therefore I don't want you to think that the reason that someone might choose to use a mace is because they don't have access to a sword or because they can't afford a sword or a poleax or something like this that is not the case the kind of people that used flange Maes were the same people who owned multiple weapons full plate harness did own multiple swords in most cases and did own poleaxes as well they had these maces for another reason so as always when we talk about Maes one of the first things that comes up is the symbology and the status what they represent and we know if we go back all the way to um the Bay of tapestry the Battle of Hastings we look at Bishop Odo and he's carrying a wooden Club and we know throughout history going all the way back to the Roman and in fact going all the way back way beyond that that batons and maces are indeed a symbol of justice and kingly power or Pharaoh power in case of Egypt so yes they had a symbolic purpose and in fact so much so if we look at uh Britain's Parliament or England's Parliament today you will see they still carry maces with a symbolic purpose a lot of uh Mayors and people like this also have Mas it so uh generals also carry batons if you look at even World War II um any of the lead armies if you look at the German field Marshals for example They Carried Batton so batons um scepter maces these are all related objects and they are symbolic of power so yes absolutely sometimes in medieval art we see someone who is wearing a sword and carrying a mace and that doesn't mean that they've necessarily chosen to carry the mace because it's more effective than the sword it could could be that rather than carrying a normal generals baton they're very unlikely to get into combat and so they might be carrying a mace because you can use it for combat it's more effective than a baton but it's also a symbol of who you are that being said they can of course also be used as weapons and in fact some sources do talk about the use of Maes as weapons and we even see them fleetingly in some treatises as well particularly as we get into the 16th century interestingly and we'll come to that a little bit later in the video so um so mes absolutely could be used as Weapons of course they are still a bludgeoning instrument you can still smash someone in the helmet and it should be pointed out that head shot specifically seem to be what these and things that warhammers were mostly about um so yes absolutely it is still an effective striking weapon and in fact there are some specific peculiarities of the mace which are mentioned in some sources and in fact if we go outside Europe and look at Persian sources they even describe using the mace to break an opponent's sword okay so in some cases this can be used not necessarily because it's more effective of overcoming plate armor but because it's good at something else specific and I'd encourage you to think outside the box about what do you think maces would be particularly good at I know that uh deam for example has suggested they'd be very good at taking prisoners where you don't want to shank someone through the armpit for example cuz they'd obviously die uh instead you want to smash them in the helmet such that they are subdued or dazed and that you're able to Grapple them into submission and take them prisoner so in some cases yes absolutely this could be a weapon of submission and we know that law enforcement Ed these and they become modern police trunions incidentally in the modern world but think outside of that as well we know from Persian sources these can break swords and maybe some other things other specific uses as well that we haven't yet thought about but we are starting to get a picture that within armored fighting the sword is a more effective weapon in general than the maces while both can be used against noral opponent and you can win a fight with both weapons generally speaking the sword which is able to stab into gaps particularly remember we're talking about the era of full plate harness here able to stab into iets of visors or faces or into armpits and insides of elbows and around the back of the legs and places like that this thrusting weapon is generally speaking more effective at uh incapacitating or killing an armored opponent than the however bear in mind also what I said about the fact that the person who has one of these also has a sword and in fact we do also have some written documentary evidence for the fact that the sword was the preferred first weapon but this would be a good backup why would you need that you you might be asking well simply you've got to remember that within the 15th and 16th centuries and earlier than that of course swords didn't always stay in one piece and we have like colossal amounts of evidence of many evil swords breaking in use why would they break in use well first of all their steel wasn't as good as ours their heat treatment wasn't as scientific as ours but secondly they're smashing them against people in armor and if you're repeatedly taking it doesn't matter even if it's a modern great quality sharp sword and repeatedly smashing it into hardened steel or iron armor it's going to get it's going to get broken at some point it's going to get damaged at least and there's a good chance it will get broken so swords broken use if your sword braks what are you supposed to do have one these so um these were carried as backups to sword particularly in a Cavalry environment and of course sometimes you might even drop the sword so having a backup weapon is always useful and one of the great things about a mace is it's almost impossible to break so while a sword might be great cuz it's got edges in a point it's far easier to break than a ma is so as a last ditch weapon as a for a striking weapon anyway obviously you've got your dagger as well but as a last itch striking weapon a maaz is a pretty reli able last itch weapon even if it's not as good as a sword you know it's not going to break on you now I've mentioned Cavalry a few times and I want to be absolutely categorically clear with you on one thing in this video and that is that these maces seem to be almost if not 100% almost exclusively related to mounted use that is Cavalry so these were backup weapons for mounted men so indeed their first weapon would usually be a lance their second weapon would usually be a sword and their backup weapon or perhaps sometimes by choice for some specific reason might be a mace now these weren't universally carried by Cavalry there were some Cavalry who always had maces as backup the Turks often had maces the Polish copied them um uh so janisar had them in the Ottoman Empire also the mamlukes often carried maces the Persians often carried maces the Indians often carried maces later on so these were often backup weapons for cavalry after their primary or secondary weapons were expended or for specific purposes and we'll get into that in a second but I want you to remember that this short mace is almost entirely doesn't matter whether you're looking at the Islamic world or India or um Europe is almost exclusively seen as a Cavalry weapon much like incidentally the short Warhammer is as well in contrast if you're fighting on foot certainly if you're fighting in full plate harness then of course you'd have a weapon with greater l and greater reach like the POA so in many ways this is the infantryman's mace it does all of the things well it's everything really it's a spear it's an axe it's a hammer it's all of those things and it's got two ends as well so fighting on foot things like the poax and the glaive dominated the mace is really a Horseman's weapon but why is it a Horseman's weapon I hear you ask well so combining some of the points we've made here if this is your secondary weapon after the Lance is broken or stuck into an opponent then if this breaks or this gets knocked out of your gauntleted hand this is a useful thing to have as a backup moreover this is something that can hang via a ring on the side of your saddle bow on your horse if you're fighting on foot you can't easily carry one of these as a backup okay so we sometimes see people on foot holding these in their hand probably for symbolic reasons to represent who they are but generally speaking you'd have a poleax or a spear or a glaive in your hand and a sword at your side and a dagger on the other side you don't have any space to be walking around having a mace hanging off your belt and it's not a very convenient thing to walk around with so these are great hanging off a saddle bow the horse Takes the weight you don't have to worry about carrying it firstly secondly almost indestructible therefore if your sword breaks really good backup also the mace on Horseback being relatively short while you're holding the range of the horse is fairly easy to use you're less likely to hit your own horse with it but in addition to that in terms of the power it offers so you will notice of course that A A Mace is balanced towards the head okay so the point of balance is here unlike a sword which is balanced towards your hand that means it can hit with quite a lot of momentum but now consider you're sitting on a horse two important things about sitting on a horse as my friend Zach Evans will tell you firstly height if you are striking with a mace on an infantryman who's below you you have the additional momentum um of gravity behind here so if you're striking downwards especially if you stand up and then droping your saddle down you've got the additional Force as well as that mass and the balance of it and your arm you've got the additional force of gravity going down cuz you're above them but if you're striking another Cavalry man then you've got momentum of speed as well so mass times velocity if you're going along smack with a heavy object on the end of a short shaft that you can keep a good hand on handle on you can hit with an awful lot of forces with on these from horseback added to the speed of your horse which is not a factor that you have on foot on foot these are not particularly powerful weapons not particularly effective weapons against plate armor but on Horseback a lot of things change because of the power of the horse now specifically in the context of the 15th and 16th centuries you could say the 14th as well actually there's another thing to think about when you're fighting on Horseback and we've already established this is predominantly a Cavalry weapon not only is the opponent if you're just fighting oneon-one or you happen to be fighting one person in that moment not only is the opponent a valid Target but of course the horse is a valid Target as well and we see this for example in Fury or talhoffer particularly in Fury he pretty much one of his first lessons is to Target the horse instead of targeting the rider in that case it's with a lance but he also does it with a sword he doesn't show maces but absolutely you could use a mace now horses at this time weren't always armored but they were sometimes armored now I offer you you this against a large meaty muscly creature like a horse swords are designed to be extremely effective against humaniz targets they're not extremely effective against horse siiz Targets in fact we know obviously Spears of various kinds and lances are effective against horses Swords not so much so against a horse bearing in mind you're not necessarily aiming to kill a horse with one blow or anything like that but you're aiming to uh discombobulate the horse so to put it off fighting and to make make it hard to control for the rider in that context Perhaps Perhaps maces and I don't know any WR evidence for this perhaps maces smacked into a horse's head have more effect than a sword thrust or a sword cut would and of course if the horse is wearing a chandron and it's wearing other armor then perhaps the mace is more effective at putting the horse off the fight than a sword would it be so I hope all of this information comes together to give you a different way of looking at the makes particularly in the 15th century perhaps even 14th century as well then perhaps simply going oh well it's a top heavy weapon and you break armor with it and it it hurts the person through the armor it turns out it doesn't really most plate armor is is able to withstand the blows of maces really really very well and in fact you are at greater risk in full plate harness against someone with a sharp pointy sword jamming it in the gaps than you are from someone just bashing you with their mace the fact is that armor is designed to be bashed I mean you can do pox fighting it's designed to be bashed with really quite heavy objects and you to be more or less okay you might get some bruises you might be a bit battered around but fundamentally you'll survive the dagger or the sword stabbing between plates and into gaps and into the eyes and stuff like that is more of a mortal danger to you than being hit with a mace even on a helmet okay however taking all of the things I've just said about it being useful as a backup weapon it may be being effective uh more much more appropriate on Horseback and a good backup weapon on there potentially being able to break other people's blades potentially being uh useful against people's horses when they're riding and really being a Cavalry weapon remember on foot you're usually going to have something like a poleax or a longer weapon it doesn't suit really as a as a foot weapon at all um with these proportions however there's another factor I haven't mentioned so far and that is historical context so we see maces being used particularly in medieval and early Renaissance Art in areas where they were fighting opponents who weren't necessarily European Knights now if we just look around the world and see where else were Maes popular at this time we have the North African mamluks we have the uh Persians we have the ottoman Turks we have have Indians so these are people who were using many of the similar weapons to we were using in medieval Europe but they weren't wearing plate armor and here's the thing I'm coming to the conclusion that while this might have symbolic uh meaning in late medieval Europe and all sorts of other useful um sort of facets to its existence fundamentally if we look at the big picture the short Horseman's mace is really something was popular in areas where they didn't have plate armor or didn't have hardly any plate armor I'm not saying it didn't exist at all but very very little of it in other words the opponents were only wearing a helmet and male or sometimes lamala the mamuk use Maes as well incidentally um so if you have Lamela or male here's the thing if you strike a breastplate or a pauldron with a mace it doesn't do anything really at all however if if you strike someone who's wearing male or Lamela then the force transmits through that in a far more effective way than the bridge or Arch formed by hard plate armor so European plate harness perfectly adapted to receiving blows with a mace however if you are a German Knight and you might be fighting some tartars or you might be fighting some ottoman Turks then a mace might be really useful now because do you know what M armor and lamala is really good for protecting against it's really good for protecting against Cuts that's exactly what it was designed to do it's not fantastic against thrusts um but fundamentally one of the great things about a mace on someone wearing male or Lamela is you can smash them anywhere and you stand a pretty good chance of breaking their collarbone or their shoulder or their arm bone their forearm bone or their ribs you know whichever bit their sternum whichever bit of them you hit so long as they're only wearing male with a relatively thin historically layer of padding underneath um perhaps even just layers of clothing underneath or Lamar you stand a better chance of having a immediately disabling effect with a mace against one of those opponents than you do a European Knight and within Europe as well as we go into the 16th century thanks to gunpowder and artillery and various other things happening on the battlefield and large pipe blocks and things like this there are fewer people wearing heavy armor if we call it that so yes kn still existed yes heavy Cavalry was still a thing but the majority of infantry if you look at a standard L connect for example is wearing less armor in say 1520 1530 than most Billman were wearing in 1470 okay they they are wearing on average less armor a lot of soldiers Anyway by this point and therefore the mace starts to become popular and effective again and we do see a lot of Maes a lot of flanged Maes in museums are 16th century they're not 15th century the number of 15th century um flanged maces in art is really quite rare we start to see it more as we get towards the end of the 15th century and into the 16th century and specifically in certain parts of Europe where the battlefield conditions perhaps favored it and made it more appropriate for Cavalry remember not for foot soldiers so there we go I hope that's given you lots to think about thanks again to deem for all of his thoughts on this topic because I have to be honest I had accepted the standard narrative around maces in the past and I think what we're looking at now is a far more informed and nuanced and I have to say I think more realistic and believable narrative as to why the flanged mace existed and why some people chose to carry them even if they weren't ever hugely popular thanks a lot for watching I have been Matt Easton of course I will be again next time as well hopefully subscribed if you're not remember to click that button please give me a like if you've enjoyed this video and I really hope I'll see you back on the channel soon cheers folks thanks for watching we've got extra videos on patreon please give our Facebook a like And subscribe if you haven't already cheers folks

Channel: scholagladiatoria

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Length: 23min 45sec (1425 seconds)

Published: Mon Jun 03 2024