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The Renaissance is timed differently depending on the country, but generally saw similar advancements in warfare and weapons. The 1400's to 1500's saw military technology which both provided unheard of protections with the addition of plate mail to chain, but also saw ways to get passed those defenses. Hand-to-hand battles were beginning to be replaced with more remote and devastating technology which could do more damage from afar. Artillery an...

Swords in the Middle Ages and other historical periods were most likely just called "swords." There were no names given to them. Over time, however, historians began to associate the blades with specific names resulting in their present-day nomenclature. So, how many types of swords were there? It's difficult to answer that with any certainty. What we will do in this blog is differentiate popular European medieval and Renaissance swords in ter...

Medieval swords are regularly portrayed in the media as ungainly, cumbersome tools that are most effective in the hands of brawny men. But, was that the case in reality? Think about it. Why would soldiers carry weapons weighing upwards of 30 lbs when the speed of movement was paramount in the melee of the medieval battlefield? The wide, exaggerated sword swings depicted on the screen are exactly that - exaggerated. So, why the misconception...