The Weapons of Medieval Knights

A great portion of a knight's life was devoted to the mastery of a variety of weapons. Some of the factors that caused this change were improvements in metalworking and improvements in weapon design. Armor also improved over this period of time and it mandated improvements in weapons. This new type of armor caused changes in many of the knight's standard weapons. Slicing and bladed weapons were often accentuated or replaced by weapons that could pierce or apply a hammer-like blow. This articles looks at some of the more common weapons from this time period.

Before gunpowder rendered them obsolete there were basically two different types of weapons that knights used: single-handed, and polearm (two-handed). Of the single-handed weapons the sword is of course the most popular and best known. The flail was another standard weapon and it was short handled with a length of chain then a ball or flail head. Polearms were long handled weapons that knights often used in combat -particularly when mounted on horses. The lance was also a capable, and feared, weapon used for breaking up the foot ranks of enemy formations.

Other types of polearms were often variations of hand-held weapons mounted on the end of a long pole. While there were many weapons that knights used there also were a few weapons that they refused to use for various reasons. The use of weapons by knights over the course of the Middle Ages changed and evolved significantly based on many factors such as blacksmithing skills, engineering skills, improvements in armor, improvement in combat techniques, and even the code of chivalry.