Weapons That Made Britain

The sword – a lethal hand weapon that exemplifies personal power, status and authority – has its origins in the Bronze Age some 4,000 years ago. Whatever its design, it is effectively a steel bar with a cutting edge and stabbing point. The 15th-century long sword has become an icon of the late medieval period. A powerful and versatile weapon, the 'hand-and-a-half' was graced with a broad double-edged blade that tapered to a fine point. Hard and flexible, this sword also had a counterweight pommel for balance. Using the long sword in combat could be likened to a skilled yet brutal choreographed dance.

The longbow appears to be the end result of the development of a Welsh design, the first appearing in the early 12th century. As with any bow, it is essentially a platform for launching arrows, a means of getting missiles to their target. But the longbow signifies much more than that – it empowered the peasant soldier and was a great leveller. Archers were used to great effect as lightly armed yet highly mobile forces; their arrow storms were almost always guaranteed to halt an enemy advance. In England, the cult of the archer ran deep. Ancient laws forced compulsory archery practice on all men, so that a trained force was always ready. In addition to the archers in the infantry, mounted archers had great reputations and status. Their common bond was a simple yet deadly weapon: the longbow.

From the earliest prehistoric use of the humble basic spear to the height of its medieval development as the powerful lance, this most simple and effective tool of war has been decisive in many important battles. The principle of the lance was to take the simple and effective spear and harness it with the full power and impact of a horse. The long, heavy and tapered shape of the lance made for a devastating weapon that turned the frightening medieval cavalry charge into an even more formidable component of the battlefield. Training in the lance would start in boys as young as seven, charging on foot towards a quintain – a shield and counterweight on opposing ends of a rotating pole. Once they had become accomplished at this, they would move on to the tilting cart (like a wooden horse) and practise aimed blows from a trundling simulated horseback ride. Finally the goal of locking together the lance, rider and a real horse would be achieved, and the well-known 'couched' position – with the lance clamped underarm – was witnessed in charges from tournaments to battlefields across Europe.

The shield is one of the most basic defensive weapons, a hand-held barrier to deflect blows and protect the user from assault. Depictions of shields go back through time to the red hoplite warrior designs on Greek pottery in the 6th and 5th centuries BC. In Britain, shields were certainly in regular use by the Iron Age (751 BC–AD 42), and their first co-ordinated and highly disciplined use by an army would have occurred during the Roman invasion of AD 43. The Roman shield, or scutum, was made by laminating wood into a curved rectangle. In training, the Roman infantry used wicker shields that were twice as heavy as regulation issue, which prepared the soldiers for the tiring prolonged use of shields in battle. The Romans also employed special shield formations such as the testudo, where shields were locked together to make an impenetrable mobile box of soldiers. These highly disciplined skills were lost as the Romans withdrew from Britain in the 5th century, but some concepts remained, most prominent among them being the shield wall. The Saxon shield wall that was developed subsequently involved rows of infantry interlocking their shields to create an instant barrier that, with rows in depth, could easily obstruct a cavalry charge. By the 11th century, the invading Normans had developed a teardrop-shaped 'kite' shield that protected their cavalry as they turned, enabling them to make repeated charges at a shield wall, such as at Hastings in 1066. In the 13th century, fashion dictated the tiny buckler, a small round shield held in the hand, while the pageantry and heraldic display of the 15th century led to the classic knight's shield. This became less popular as protective armour developed.

The knight in armour is a classic and enduring image of the late medieval period. The development of armour is inextricably linked to the development of weapons – an arms race in which measures and counter measures have been conceived, designed and produced, pushed ever forward by the threat of war. Although the Romans in their armadillo-like lorica segmentata proved that articulated metal plates provided exceptional protection, the later Saxon trend was towards maille, the woven iron fabric of individually riveted and interlinked rings. Maille was extremely flexible but relatively heavy, its weight generally carried by the shoulders. Its biggest drawback was its ineffectiveness against puncturing weapons such as spears, lances and arrows. During the 13th century, knights started to add metal plates for extra protection. The coat of plates that became fashionable was essentially a breastplate constructed of small steel sections riveted to a cloth covering. Then advances in iron working enabled larger pieces of sheet steel to be produced, and by the 14th century, knights appeared fully enclosed in harnesses of plate armour. The main centres of armour production were in Italy and Germany, each area producing different styles. By the 16th century, the Italians were making suits with smooth lines and fine decoration, whereas the Germans were constructing highly intricate harnesses that, like the highly fluted Maximilian style, were tantamount to wearable and working pieces of art, each set made to measure like a perfect suit.