The ensemble of knightly arms. ⚔️⚜️
#knight#lady knight#plate armour#fantasy designs#full plate#'armour'#armour concepts#chivalry#(I like how the artist was showcasing both and contrasting what practical armour looks like in fiction)#(I also have to say that the second 'armour' design is a hell of a fashion statement if not a protective one)
Golden Demon winner ‘Duel’, by Matteo Gallo
Anonymous asked:
Do you know good places to get a sword?
Several, depending on what your focus is. For sporting practise? I can recommend many. For cutting? I can recommend a few as well. For decoration? Your aesthetics matter more than my opinion there.
A recently completed scabbard for the Albion Principe sword.
I can confidently say nothing like this ever happened historically. Pikes are not 1v1 weapons. But it is fascinating.
You can see how easily the pikes get tired up with each other.
The reason why the pikes get tied is is that they are held high. This is a pretty standard thing in combat, because if your weapon is too low, it will get trapped pretty easily. You are a lot weaker on the upswing than you are on the downswing. And even with firearms, when stacking up, weapons will be held high rather than low.
You can also see a significant droop with the pike. If the pike was held towards the opponent’s centreline it would drop too low to be of much use. This is confounded by the fact that pikes don’t have a downstrike.
What this means is that the deadliness of the pikes is almost entirely dependant on perfect timing in dropping the pike as the formations are closing.
in !v! you also see a significant delay when trying to line up the tip.
I can confidently say nothing like this ever happened historically. Pikes are not 1v1 weapons. But it is fascinating.
This is a broad statement and one that I have to correct, because it falls into that trap that we in historical circles often are guilty of: absolute statements where regarding generalities.
We know that the pike, like most polearms, was used in mass formation. This is not a matter of debate.
Abstract from “Valor and Art: Two facets of the Technique of the Pike”, University of Helsinki:
The long infantry spear, the staple military weapon for centuries, also appears in the context of single combat and more civilian martial culture. The extant pragmatic literature elucidates the technical differences between these domains.
We would be wrong to say it was not a 1v1 weapon, and using it in such a context never happened historically. We can see this in instruction from various fencing masters, who speak both of use in small formations, and individual application. Indeed, the bulk of work explaining the use of the pike as a weapon specifically covers individual use, with others describing methods of handling the pike for the benefit of formation tactics as an addition or special focus. This goes even further in the use of the ‘half-pike’, which deals with a form of pike for individual use versus groups of opponents. Indeed, some of the most famous masters of fighting cover the use of the pike as an individual weapon against it’s own kind, rather than discussing it as a weapon of formation tactics. Indeed, possibly the best example of the use of a pike for individual combat comes from Meyer when speaking of the ‘langen Spieß’, that is, the pike:
Another, how you should invert before him, or give over, take out, and strike after.
In the approach place yourself in the said manner in the Middle Guard to the left side, and step with the left foot behind your right toward him, so that in the movement you turn your back to him. While you thus turn in front of him, he will quickly thrust to your face, meaning to overtake you; then in your backward stepping lift both your hands nimbly upward together with the butt of your staff, outstretched toward his left side, so that the point hangs toward the ground, and as you turn strike his oncoming thrust with your hanging staff from your right out toward your left side, and let the same move through a full swing around your head. While it thus moves through the swing, let go with your left hand (after you have given the staff a strong swing with the same) and strike with one hand a strong swift stroke to his left ear. This is a swift piece which goes well in the first attack; if you provoke his thrust with your turn, then you take his staff out in the time of the turn, and surely hit him, if he has thrust in earnest.
This action is not one easily performed in tight formation, requiring the pike to be swung and making use of the length of the weapon as a stave, which with other pikemen could end up disastrously colliding with other pikes. We also see from Meyer’s depictions of long spear fighting a variety of grips and individual plays of the pike in a context meant for individual or 1v1 scenarios (see background figures):
Additionally, Sir John Smythe advocated for a use of the pike that would force soldiers to enaged at a much closer range, while holding the pike in such a way that would force pikemen to make use of individual combat more than mere formation order would ordinarily necessitate. We also see an account by Blaise de Monluc describing the method of engaging more closely with the pikes, utilising a method drawn from single fighting style:
`Gentlemen, it may be that there are not many here who have been in battle before, and therefore let me tell you that if we take our pikes by the hinder end and fight at the length of the pike, we shall be defeated; for the Germans are more dexterous at that kind of fight than we are. But you must take your pikes in the middle as the Swiss do and run headlong to force and penetrate into the midst of them, and you shall see how confounded they will be.’
The Germans came up to us at a very round rate, insomuch that their battle being very great, they could not possibly follow, so that we saw great windows in their body and several ensigns a good way behind, and all on a sudden rushed in among them, a good many of us at least, for as well on their side as ours all the first ranks, either with the push of pikes or the shock at the encounter, were overturned, neither is it possible amongst foot to see greater fury. The second rank and the third were the cause of our victory, for the last so pushed them on that they fell in upon the heels of one another, and as ours pressed in the enemy was still driven back. I was never in my life so active and light as that day and it stood me well so to be, for above three times was beaten down to my knees.
[Blaise de Monluc, writing about the Battle of Cerisoles in 1544, The Hapsburg-Valois Wars and the French Wars of Religion (London; Longman Group Limted, 1971), 107-8.]
It must also be noted that a commonly compared matchup is the use of greatsword against pike, and much ink has been spilled over the claims that greatswords were used to cut off pike heads. The reality seems to be a bit different, but from this we also get insight into encounters of pikemen against greatsword users, that tells us of individual encounters between these weapons. indeed, Achille Marozzo specifically depicts a ‘guard against hafted weapons’ that is his advice for the use of the two-handed sword against pike weapons, and is entirely individualistic in nature:
As such, I must remind anyone when referencing the use of pikes or other weapons in a context of absolute statements that we must be cautious of this habit: history often enough will provide us with a general outline of how things were done, only to then grant us exceptions that, being common and constant enough, remind us that a general context does not make a rule. In this case, describing a pike as never existing in a 1-on-1 encounter is such a statement we must be wary of making.
Special mention must be made also to the (possibly apocryphal) tale of Georg von Frundsberg during the Battle of Bicocca, wherein he is attested to have slain a Swiss Reislaufer in a duel, the details of which mention Frundsberg having slain the Swiss mercenary captain with a thrust of his pike during the duel. This tale may be apocryphal, however notice must be given that this also suggests contemporary expectation that the pike as an individual weapon could be used to slay in single combat. (It could also suggest that this was a noteworthy feat because of the difficulty of using the pike for single combat, it must be noted).
Source: youtube.com