The Defensive Armour and the Weapons and Engines of War of Mediæval Times, and of the "Renaissance."

by R. Coltman Clephan

THE MORNING STAR.

This weapon is a spiked mace, and was greatly used in Germany and Switzerland. There are both long and short shafted kinds; the latter, made of iron, is mentioned in the eleventh century, and was much used by horsemen in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They were sometimes supplemented with hand-guns. This variety was called “Schiesspringel.” Several writers confound the “Morning Star” with the “Holy Water Sprinkler,” but the latter is a weapon of the flail family. The heads vary in shape, being round, square, and a half oval narrowing towards the shaft, and all are spiked.