Traditional Weaponry

HANDHELD WEAPONRY

Medieval handheld weapons, improved by advances in metallurgy, continued to be used by soldiers during the first half of the Renaissance. The chief types of traditional weaponry were those with sharp edges, those with sharp points on a staff, and those that shot projectiles such as arrows, supplemented by projectiles hurled from a sling. Sharp-edged weapons for warfare included daggers and swords. The heavy medieval sword, wielded with two hands for cutting, metamorphosed into a lighter, narrower weapon that could be used to stab into the body where pieces of plate armor were joined. Cavalry most often used the lance, a steel-tipped staff 10 to 12 feet in length. Held by a seasoned knight charging at full tilt on an experienced horse, the lance was a formidable weapon. Foot soldiers used the halberd or pike, on a staff approximately six feet long. Swiss pikemen, who often stood their ground against a cavalry charge, were the most respected foot soldiers of the era. Archers used the crossbow or longbow; the English were renowned for their superiority in the latter. The longbow had one advantage over the crossbow in that its rate of fire was at least twice as fast. Loading the crossbow and winding the tension lost crucial seconds in the midst of battle.

ARTILLERY

During siege warfare, very large slings and catapults were used to bombard walls with stones in attempts to create a breach through which troops could attack. One of the most powerful of these was the trebuchet, originally operated by teams of men pulling on a rope to create the tension that, when released, would hurl projectiles. During the 12th century, counterweights replaced human force. Winches pulled the counterweight down, and a trigger released the heavy projectile with some degree of accuracy. By the 15th century, accuracy had been improved by the use of round projectiles, including iron spheres. Aggressive bombardment by a tre-buchet against a medieval wall was bound to cause significant damage. One disadvantage of this sort of mechanical siege machine, however, was that soldiers operating it were somewhat vulnerable to defensive firepower. Open space was required so that no one would be injured when the trigger was released.