The Armour Archive

I am a producer working on a documentary and need some help. We will be re-creating a scene (see picture below) and need help identifying the weapons. Although the re-enactment is more about the piece of art than it is the subject of the art we want to be as true as possible to history. The picture was drawn somewhere between 1550 and early 1600s. The artist was from either Italy or France. We don't know whether this scene depicts a fictional scene or something that actually happened but regardless we could use your help.

What is the main horseman holding? Is the axe being used for execution a battle axe? Would it have a wood handle? What about the sword? Is there anything you can tell us about what would have been used?

I have also posted on the Historical forum inquiring about the armour and origin of the horsemen, so if you know anything maybe you could visit that post.

Thanks for your help and I will let this board know when this piece will air.

It's a baton. It's a symbol of leadership.

The axe seems to be a military axe.

-Ken the insomniac medieval history Ph.D student

roadstump wrote:I am a producer working on a documentary and need some help. We will be re-creating a scene (see picture below) and need help identifying the weapons. Although the re-enactment is more about the piece of art than it is the subject of the art we want to be as true as possible to history. The picture was drawn somewhere between 1550 and early 1600s. The artist was from either Italy or France. We don't know whether this scene depicts a fictional scene or something that actually happened but regardless we could use your help.

What is the main horseman holding? Is the axe being used for execution a battle axe? Would it have a wood handle? What about the sword? Is there anything you can tell us about what would have been used?

I have also posted on the Historical forum inquiring about the armour and origin of the horsemen, so if you know anything maybe you could visit that post.

Thanks for your help and I will let this board know when this piece will air.

As Ken said, that's a baton, symbol of authority.

Looks like a battle axe, yes it would have had a wooden handle. The sword is hard to define beyond saying it's a standard cruciform (cross shaped) European sword. Something like this http://www.armor.com/sword086.html would do.

As to the weapons I agree with the above. As to historical time and place it would seem that the painting is telling the story of the Moorish conquering the Iberian pennisula, based upon the stylized helmets of the horsemen as well as the "skin color" of the captives vs the conquerers in the painting. Not many people realize that the Moors in Europe essentially used the same types of weapons and armor as the Europeans. Helmet design however gives a clue due to the "eastern" flavor of the fluted helm.

Thorald

The shape of the axe blade isn't just some medieval notion of pleasing form and style: each bit of it is there for a purpose. The lengthy curving edge is there to shear more efficiently by presenting a lot of cutting edge, and the curve will bite on foemen from more different angles than a modern woodcutters' axe would present. The blade has a point forward and another rearward. The forward point allows an effectual thrust forward and the rearward point allows a hooking motion such as to displace a shield or buckler, or derange the reins of an enemy horseman. The shield displacement trick can be deadly efficient: hook the edge or top of the shield with the rear point, interfering with the shield's defensive motions, pinning the shield for a brief moment -- just long enough to thrust the forward point at the foe's face.

Axe blades of this time, and earlier, were flatter than the modern axe's wedgelike cross section, which gives great strength and efficiency at cutting trees and splitting wood, but is comparatively slow to wield. A battleaxe needs to be a lighter, quite nimble weapon -- the Danish and the Viking axes, a few centuries prior to the axe in question above, were rather surprisingly delicate in appearance.

There are numerous different shapes of blade and a great many assortments of differing thrusting spikes, picks, and hammers built into battle axes.

If I had to try and type the sword as depicted, I should guess it to be a Type XV in the Oakeshott typology (see Oakeshott, The Archaeology of Weapons, and typology sites online. This type emerged in the latter half of the thirteenth century, characterized by tapering straight to a sharp point, a longish straight crossguard, and very often the wheel pommel. The sword in the picture may have a more elaborately shaped one, but it would likely not be nearly as ornate as fifteenth- and sixteenth-century pommels.

http://www.algonet.se/~enda/oakeshott_eng.htm

You guys are good!