Disc dagger
| Disc dagger | |
|---|---|
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| Information | |
| Weapon type: | dagger |
| Designations: | Disc dagger |
| Use: | weapon |
| Creation time: | around 14th century |
| Working time: | until about the 16th century |
| Region of origin / author: |
Europe , armory |
| Distribution: | Europe |
| Overall length: | about 50 cm |
| Lists on the subject | |
The disc dagger is a European dagger shape that occurs from the 14th to the 16th centuries . It was widespread among the population at the time: from merchants to knights , it was to be found in every social class.
description
Between the handle and the blade there was a plate-shaped disc that served as a guard . At the same time it served as a support for the hand in order to be able to exert more pressure during the stitch. Often there was another disk on the pommel. The blade was made of steel. The whole dagger could be up to 50 cm long.
The blade shapes varied widely; so there were both single-edged pieces (which are not actually daggers) and double-edged pieces. Thin armor-piercing blades were also very common because they could be used to pierce between the plates of armor from the 15th and 16th centuries, especially through the visor . The disc dagger was very popular with the aristocracy and mostly served a military purpose. However, there are also many indications that the disc dagger was worn by citizens and lower class members. It was a popular hand-to-hand combat weapon used together with a fist shield in one- on-one combat. The disc dagger was not suitable for piercing a plate armor, but the joints of a knight's armor. The latter was often the only way to kill a heavily armored knight in single combat.
The disc dagger was one of the most popular dagger forms of the late Middle Ages . It emerged in the 14th century from the knight's dagger of the 12th and 13th centuries as a result of the development of the plate armor. Until the 15th century it was the most common sidearm for knights, e.g. B. he was used in 1415 in the battle of Azincourt . The dagger was a knight's spare weapon in hand-to-hand combat and, as such, one of his last means of defense. In the 15th century, the weapon became popular among the emerging middle class. Their distribution area extended from England over Scandinavia, Central and Western Europe to Spain. The disc dagger is also the preferred dagger shape in the representations of fencing manuscripts of the 15th and 16th centuries.
literature
- André Schulze (Hrsg.): Medieval ways of fighting. Volume 3: Disc dagger and stabbing shield . Mainz am Rhein, Zabern, 2007. ISBN 978-3-8053-3750-2
- Heribert Seitz: Knives I . Braunschweig 1965
- Wendelin Boeheim, Handbook of Arms , Nachdr. D. Ed. Leipzig 1890, Fourier-Verlag, Wiesbaden 1985, page 297, ISBN 978-3-201-00257-8
