Post by Sir Cormac Riley on Apr 23, 2009 15:24:28 GMT -5
An advance on the club, a mace is a wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel. The head is normally about or slightly thicker than the diameter of the shaft, shaped with flanges, knobs or spikes to allow greater penetration of armour. The length of maces can vary considerably. The maces of foot soldiers were usually quite short (two or three feet). The maces of cavalrymen were longer and better designed for blows from horseback. Two-handed maces ("mauls") could be even larger. The flail is often incorrectly called a mace.
The mace was first developed around 12,000 BC and quickly became an important weapon. These first wooden maces, studded with flint or obsidian became less popular due to the development of leather armour that could absorb the blows. Some maces had stone heads.
The mace passed out of general use in the iron age, where swords, spears and axes became the dominant weapons. The ancient Romans did not use maces, probably because they had no need for a heavy, armor-smashing weapon, or more likely due to the nature of the Roman infantry fighting style which involved the pylum (or spear) and occasionally the gladius (short sword used in a stabbing fasion). The use of a swinging-arc weapon in the well-disciplined tight formations of the Roman infantry would not be practical. The mace would be more useful by individual skirmish fighters, not units.
During the Middle Ages metal armour and chainmail did much to blunt the blows of edged weapons and block arrows and other projectiles. Solid metal maces and war hammers proved able to inflict damage on well armoured knights, however, as the force of a blow from a mace would not need to puncture any armor.
Maces, being simple to make, cheap and straightforward in application, were quite common weapons. Peasant rebels and cheap conscript armies often had little more than maces, axes and pole arms. Few of these simple maces survive today. Most examples found in museums are of much better quality and often highly decorated.
Medieval bishops sometimes carried maces in battle instead of swords, so as to conform to the canonical rule which forbade priests to shed blood; unlike sword-strokes or thrusts from a spear, the blows from a mace could maim or kill without drawing blood. Bishop Odo of Bayeux appears on the Bayeux Tapestry wielding one at the Battle of Hastings (1066), but this practice does not appear to have been universal. Similarly, Archbishop Turpin wields one in The Song of Roland
(http://www.warriors-wizards.com/mace.htm)
Picture Link1: www.medieval-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/DX645Close.jpg
The mace was first developed around 12,000 BC and quickly became an important weapon. These first wooden maces, studded with flint or obsidian became less popular due to the development of leather armour that could absorb the blows. Some maces had stone heads.
The mace passed out of general use in the iron age, where swords, spears and axes became the dominant weapons. The ancient Romans did not use maces, probably because they had no need for a heavy, armor-smashing weapon, or more likely due to the nature of the Roman infantry fighting style which involved the pylum (or spear) and occasionally the gladius (short sword used in a stabbing fasion). The use of a swinging-arc weapon in the well-disciplined tight formations of the Roman infantry would not be practical. The mace would be more useful by individual skirmish fighters, not units.
During the Middle Ages metal armour and chainmail did much to blunt the blows of edged weapons and block arrows and other projectiles. Solid metal maces and war hammers proved able to inflict damage on well armoured knights, however, as the force of a blow from a mace would not need to puncture any armor.
Maces, being simple to make, cheap and straightforward in application, were quite common weapons. Peasant rebels and cheap conscript armies often had little more than maces, axes and pole arms. Few of these simple maces survive today. Most examples found in museums are of much better quality and often highly decorated.
Medieval bishops sometimes carried maces in battle instead of swords, so as to conform to the canonical rule which forbade priests to shed blood; unlike sword-strokes or thrusts from a spear, the blows from a mace could maim or kill without drawing blood. Bishop Odo of Bayeux appears on the Bayeux Tapestry wielding one at the Battle of Hastings (1066), but this practice does not appear to have been universal. Similarly, Archbishop Turpin wields one in The Song of Roland
(http://www.warriors-wizards.com/mace.htm)
Picture Link1: www.medieval-weaponry.co.uk/acatalog/DX645Close.jpg