The Armour Archive

Charles O'Connor

Forget the longbow. The Teutonic Knights tried it and the experiment failed. But the Germans developed the crossbow in this period so that a distinctive German/central Europe style emerged.

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Connor

The easy answer would be Byzantine influence. But there was a lot of contact between north and south Normans (to include, in many scholars' opinion, the use of Byzantine style horse transports for 1066 and all that).

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Connor

David Nicolle has a picture of the demon spanning a crossbow from a 1096 Cathedral of Sternin in Toulouse on page 79 of his Medieval Warfare Source Book Vol I: Warfare in Western Christendom.

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Connor

Actually, Nicolle has a photograph of the demon in one of his other books. I will have to pull it off the shelf tonight to give an exact citation. The image is from the church of Saint-Sernin in Toulouse dating to 1096

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Connor

Both Guy of Aimens and William of Potiers note the presence of crossbows at Hastings. Remember, the crossbow that Anna Comnena describes in the Alexid is only a few years later. There is a capital of a column in a church in Toulouse that shows a demon spanning a crossbow that dates from the short ti...

Charles O'Connor

I understand this is the Rule as hammered by the Council. But it is very much the clerics' rule as formed by Bernard of Clarvoux. My understanding is that the Order immediately used its right of revision to include all the military organization and practices. I am particularly interested in the prov...

Charles O'Connor

I have access to the De Re Militaria ssites' comentary on the mid 13th century Rule of the Order. I know the original Latin version from the Council of Troyes did not have much of the military rules. Does anyone know of a version of the Rules between 1128 and 1250?

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Connor

As a context, I am a PhD Historian (in the Public Sector rather Academia Ã¢â‚¬â€œmy publications are frequently classified), and a Laurel in Research, but my motivations are deeper than that. I feel that I have an obligation to seek and share the True, the Good, and the Beautiful. There are various ...

Charles O'Connor

What do you mean by "Muslim Empire"? There were several that would qualify stretching over many years with very different social situations. Even if you limit it to the major caliphates and sultanates there is great variety.

Charles O'Connor

You might try Barlow, F. ed., Carmen de Hastingae Proelo, Oxford, 1999. It should be available in inter library loan. It does have an English translation. There is a paper on it at the Kalamazoo International Medieval Congress in May.

Charles O'Connor

In Knight and the Blast Furnace, Williams concluded that mail was very effective against arrows but was susceptible to crossbow bolts. His treatment of armor was brilliant. His treatment of archery was perfunctory, and at times wrong. One needs to distinguish what bow and what crossbow (and pretty ...

Charles O'Connor

"1) Medieval swords were purposefully dull and they only damaged by crushing force as opposed to shearing force." Sharpness was usually dictated by available and affordable technology. There were a lot of dull swords that the users would have liked to have sharper. Ã¢â‚¬Å“2) Women in 15th cent. West...

Charles O'Connor

I am fascinated by your proposal. I am coming at the same topic from the opposite perspective. In the 12th century knights are increasingly distinguished from non knightly soldiers. But knights did and could use archery (many examples but Richard the Lionhearted at both Acre and Joffa are among the ...

Charles O'Connor

Mord was able to fill in the details on the citation and I accessed it through the Carnige Mellon University Library. It was their technical library, and the staff was not used to an historian looking something up there... Jones, Peter. "The Metalography and Relative Effectiveness of Arrowheads and ...

Charles O'Connor

I have been reading an interesting article by Peter N. Jones on Ã¢â‚¬Å“The Metallography and Relative Effectiveness of Arrowheads and Armor During the Middle Ages.Ã¢â‚¬Â

Charles O'Connor

On the ending date for the "Viking" period: Would Magnus (Olavsson) BerrfÃ‡Â¿tt (Barelegs) who was the grandson of Harald Hardarda and was King of Norway from 1093 to his death in 1103 be considered a Ã¢â‚¬Å“VikingÃ¢â‚¬Â

Charles O'Connor

I also read on line of an emissary from the Caliphate of Cordoba that visited the court of the King of Dublin. Unfortunately, the person citing it did not give a reference. It sounded like quite a story.

Charles O'Connor

My methodology it to see what is written first to provide context for other information. I would think the writings of Adam of Bremen (1060-1070) would be useful, and also Saxo Grammaticus though he wrote around 1200. I tend to trust their writings more than the sagas Ã¢â‚¬â€œ but always with a crit...

Charles O'Connor

Mord, you ask an interesting set of questions. The term Viking is useful when one has 50 minutes to cover an era in a Western Civilization class, but most historians I know want more precise terminology. As an historian myself, I study social change over time. Therefore the issues of where and when ...

Charles O'Connor

Mord, my friend, you left out a major source of information: Museums and their holdings. As I have come to find out that is a drasticly different world than the historical method. While some of the things in museums have been dug up, much has not. Museums attempt to identify and record the history o...

Charles O'Connor

I would consider it a major leap of faith to assume the logistics of the Byzantine Army resemble those of the current U.S. Army. (If anyone knows of a write up on their logistic system, I would be most interested.) But even if they did, the current practice is one of widespread getting around the la...

Charles O'Connor

So, what is the state of the current opion on what would have been worn at the Viking courts of Dublin or Yorvic?

Charles O'Connor

Gee, Mord I was about to ask you where I could get a hold of that journal. What I was looking for were a couple of articles on crossbows:

Harmuth, Egon, Ã¢â‚¬Å“Die Armbrustbilder des Haimo von Auxerre,Ã¢â‚¬Â

Charles O'Connor

Tim, at the Viking event, I found your pouch very interesting (much smaller than I thought). I was not the only one expressing an interest in your hat. I would be interested in details.

Charles O'Connor

Charles O'Connor

And Mord and I weren't fighting. Research wonks are just fond of discussing things in great detail.

Well then I plan to get Sir Mord discussing in great detail tomorrow when I hope to see him.....

Charles O'Connor

The Book of Armagh satchel probably never held either the Book of Armagh or its shrine (not the right size). The Treasures of Early Irish Art clearly identify it as 15th century. It has been marred by the later addition of a lock. There are other satchels with similar decoration. It was commonly car...

Charles O'Connor

Here is a picture of the Cross of Cong which is dated to 1125. It shows the incorporation of the intertwined zoomorphs. It was commissioned by Turlough OÃ¢â‚¬â„¢Connor. It was made to contain a splinter of the True Cross (brought back from Crusades).

Charles O'Connor

I have attended a mass in a private encampment and had one in my own encampment celebrated by a former protÃƒÂ©gÃƒÂ©. He is an ordained priest. The sense of appropriateness and even continuity was very strong. While this was at an SCA event, it was in a private encampment, and was not inflicted on a...

Charles O'Connor

Zoomorphs seem to actually predate band or line interlacing, extending back into the pre-Christian era. There is a clear Old Germanic use of zoomorphs that was shared between the early Anglo Sasons and the Scandinavians in pre Christian times. The distinctly Irish knot work evolved as it came into ...

Charles O'Connor

Off the top, there were knife scabbards found in the Wood Quay in Dublin (I think presently in the National Museum) and the book satchel for the Book of Ardah (sp). This took no time at all as those are fairly known examples. There is an ongoing discussion of where the knot work "originated." I woul...

Charles O'Connor

Last week I read: Nicholson, Helen, trans., Chronicle of the Third Crusade , Ashgate: Aldershot, 1997. It is a translation from the Latin of a contempory account (very pro Richard). I not only enjoyed it, but found it more readable than many of the modern works on the subject. Lots of good detail on...

Charles O'Connor

The twisty, loopy, knotty motifs that modern people associate with "Celts" did come into play around the 8th Century, but it came through the Norse Invasion. The Norse used twisting, gripping beasties and knots for a long time before that, but it was the dawn of the Viking Era that spread it around...

Charles O'Connor

I do know that as late as the 16th century the cultural links between Ireland and the Highlands still existed. Both Elizabeth I and James VI did their darnness to suppress both the bardic and Brehon schools. The scholarly language of both areas was the frozen 12th century Irish Gaelic even if the sp...

Charles O'Connor

IT was explained to me that the maltese cross is _NOT_ the "christian cross" and that the "christian cross" is what is not going to be passed like that. Then, unfortunately, it was explained to you wrong. The cross, any cross, is treated just as a charge by the College of Arms and can be registered....

Charles O'Connor

Are you the BaronBaron CharlesCharles, etc...?

Yes. I guess that might be me...

Mention to Asgeirr that one of my fondest memories was him as a young squire crawling around the floor after the Belly Dancer. Ask him if he remembers the night Alphea danced...

Templars' Rule

Effectiveness of archery

Re-examining Modern Viking Reenactor Beliefs