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The image of the medieval fighter that springs to mind is of a man covered from head to toe in mail armour and with a close helm with a nasal extension. This image is mainly correct; as far as a knight was concerned, they were indeed covered total with mail. The reason for this is because the whole body was a fair target, from head to toe, if there was an opening, they would make the blow. The mail was important (300170), but just as...

The sword (500020) was still the preferred weapon in the early medieval period and was used almost exclusively in tangent with a shield (801506). Two hand war swords were used as well (500794), and one could deliver heavy blows with one, but the user lost a great deal of protection that a shield provided, so unless you were the swinging justice of the headsman or breaking a pike line, you often times opted not to carry one with you....

The style of fighting with sword and shield varied little through out Europe and consisted mostly of cutting at the foe from behind the shield. With the sword drawn back it could be held out of sight of an opponent behind the shield so they could not see where a cut was coming from. This type of deception is why the quickest and most aggressive usually won an encounter- you had little warning where to move your shield to block a blow. It s...