Hand and a half sword
| Hand and a half sword | |
|---|---|
.jpg) Replica of a hand and a half hand from the high Middle Ages (Type XIIIa) |
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| Information | |
| Weapon type: | sword |
| Designations: | Hand and a half sword, war sword, great sword |
| Use: | military and civil weapon |
| Creation time: | 13th Century |
| Region of origin / author: |
France |
| Distribution: | Europe |
| Overall length: | about 100 cm - 140 cm, variable |
| Blade length: | about 80 cm - 112 cm, variable |
| Blade width: | variable |
| Handle: | Wood, horn |
| Lists on the subject | |
Bastard (also Bastard Sword ) is a term for several types of late medieval union and renaissance temporal sword . It generally represents a transition stage between the European combat sword and the long sword , with the term "hand and a half sword " explicitly referring to the length of the hilt. That designation is by and large modern, the contemporary, historically correct designation for swords was sword or the long sword , whereby the difference between "long" and "one-handed" swords until the middle of the 15th century was more in the way the sword was wielded than the actual blade length.
description
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Hand-and-a-half swords are a further development of the one-handed sword that was common up until then. There was an increasing need to wield a larger and thus more effective sword that could do justice to the improved armament technology of the 13th century. These swords often reached a blade length of up to 90 cm and were characterized by a handle up to 30 cm long . This made it possible to grab the pommel, the extended handle or the blade with the second hand. They differ significantly from the two-handed sword , which in addition to the up to two meters long blade has a much longer handle. These early hand-and-a-half swords are usually referred to in contemporary literature as " great swords " or "war swords " ( epées de guerre , grete war swords ). The blades of this type of sword are mostly assigned to types XIIa and XIIIa (but also XV, XVI and XX at later times) according to the Oakeshott classification and differ only little from the sword weapons customary up to then, and their use is primarily one-handed in nature. The gray area between long swords and hand and a half swords is considerable, however, so that the usual classifications do not apply here. There could be several reasons for the extension of the handle, but above all it is a consequence of the longer blade.
From the middle of the 14th century a transition to full-fledged two-handed swords can be seen, which for the most part represent types XV to XX. The XVa type in particular is the first sword that, in contrast to "great swords", allows equal guidance with one or two hands. This type existed throughout the 14th and 15th centuries and, according to fencing books, was the primary fencing weapon of the Liechtenauer school . From a historical point of view, the term hand and a half sword is not identical with long sword ; the contemporary name for the first full-fledged two-handed swords (types XV – XXa), which at the same time allow one-handed operation, is “the long sword”. According to the length of the handle, a hand-and-a-half sword represents a basically one-handed type of sword with an extended handle, which can be grasped with the second hand if necessary. Primarily two-handed guidance is not possible here.
history
The development of weapons technology and war tactics, for example the mass introduction of the longbow or the mass deployment of foot soldiers with polearms, led to a change in protective weapons. The shield got smaller and smaller and the armor had to offer better protection. The armor, which until then mainly consisted of ring mesh, was increasingly reinforced with plates. This made the swords customary up to then less effective. To compensate for this, the weapons were also adjusted. Because of the superior protective effect of plate armor in combat, it was no longer necessary to wear a shield, so both hands could be used to wield the sword (hence the longer handle on long swords), which results in greater demands on the improvement of the art of fencing would have.
The reconstructing contemporary art of fencing is mainly concerned with the long sword ; this is always done with two hands and only one hand is removed from the handle for individual techniques. However, there were several techniques in which the sword was wielded with one hand on the handle and one on the blade, the so - called half sword technique . An even later development for breaking armor were specialized swords, which were intended for the half-sword technique mentioned above and were also suitable for a firm stab, the so-called drill swords . These had blunt blades, but specially reinforced tips and specially shaped blades and were also called Estoc.
Definition of terms
The hand and a half sword denotes the intermediate stage between the one-handed sword and the two-handed sword. This explains the name bastard sword , as it were as a cross or bastard between the two sword forms. The long sword is relatively often equated with the hand and a half sword or bastard sword , which historically does not apply. The long swords between 1350 and 1450 differed only insignificantly in terms of blade length. It was not until the middle of the 15th century that there was a significant increase in the total length of the "long" swords and the separation between "long sword" and "bastard sword". What was still called a "long sword" around 1400, took the place between very long "long swords" and one-handed sword weapons in the second half of the 15th century and was called a "bastard".
The reinterpretation of the term "the long sword" from two-handed guidance to actually long swords leads to misunderstandings, especially today. The one-handed swords with an extra extended handle "for one and a half hand" existed mainly between the 12th and 14th centuries. The long swords until the middle of the 15th century could often be used with one hand, but historically there is no primary use as one-handed. From 1450 until well into the 16th century, these long swords appear in the sources as a "bastard sword" to make the separation between even longer fencing weapons clear. Today the terms are used by experts in such a way that the "hand and a half sword" and "long sword" experience a strict separation, with "bastard sword" being regarded as a sub-form of the long sword .
In the sources, the hand and a half sword is usually not referred to as a "long sword" or "two-handed sword", but simply as a "sword". The origin of the term "hand and a half sword" seems to be in an Italian inventory from 1549 ( "spada da una mano et mezza" ) as well as in the fencing book by Giovani Antonio Lovino, which seems to mean rapiers or equestrian swords according to the era . The term “Zweihänder” ( “spada a due mani” ) is also equivalent to the German long sword . The term "hand and a half sword" for the swords of the 13th-15th centuries Century not historically verifiable.
literature
- Tilman Wanke: Hand-and-a-half sword - two-handed sword - long sword. In: weapons and costume studies. (Journal of the Society for Historical Arms and Costume Studies), vol. 51, vol. 2009, issue 2, older version online (PDF; 6.2 MB).
- George Cameron Stone , Donald J. LaRocca: A Glossary of the Construction, Decoration and Use of Arms and Armor: in All Countries and in All Times Verlag Courier Dover Publications, 1999, ISBN 978-0-486-40726-5 (Reprint) .
- Wendelin Boeheim : Handbook of the armory. Reprint d. Ed. Leipzig 1890, Fourier Verlag, Wiesbaden 1985, ISBN 978-3-201-00257-8 .
- Kurt Kamniker: The hand-and-a-half swords from the Steiermärkisches Landeszeughaus in Graz. In: drums and whistles, military tents, hand-and-a-half swords, Nuremberg weapons, arms trade and rifle production in Styria. (Publications of the Landeszeughaus Graz, 6) Graz, 1976, pp. 61–81.
- Eduard Wagner : cutting and stabbing weapons. 2nd edition, Verlag Werner Dausien, Hanau 1985, ISBN 978-3-7684-1598-9 , page 90.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ See Wanke p. 6.
- ↑ Wanke pp. 20–21.
- ↑ Wanke p. 13 ff.
- ↑ Wanke p. 14.
- ↑ ZEF 7, Hand and a Half Sword, around 1400, Oakeshott Type XVa
- ↑ Wanke p. 17 ff.
- ↑ Wanke p. 19.
- ↑ Type XVa
- ↑ Wanke p. 12.
- ↑ Thomas Laible: The sword - myth and reality. Wieland-Verlag, Bad Aibling 2006, ISBN 3-938711-05-1 .
- ↑ Wanke p. 21.
- ↑ Wanke pp. 32–33
- ↑ Wanke p. 7.