The sword used in the foot tournament was heavier and shorter than that for war.
The two-handed sword was introduced late in the fourteenth or early in the fifteenth century, and became a favourite weapon in the sixteenth, after which it was greatly superseded by the rapier. This long and very heavy two-handed weapon is a footman’s sword, and was much used by the hardy mountaineers of Switzerland in battle, while the less robust Germans and Burgundians applied it more in the defence of fortified places. It was introduced into England early in the sixteenth century, when it was a favourite weapon of Henry VIII., and continued much prized there up to its close, when the rapier came into vogue. The handle is very long for both hands to grasp the hilt. The total length of the sword is up to five feet eight inches, and even more. This sword is the true espadon. Two-handed swords were usually worn without scabbard, but had a piece of leather permanently fixed on the blade above the quillons; they were rarely met with after the close of the sixteenth century. A variety with a wavy blade is called “flamberge.” An example from the Meyrick collection is in the author’s possession, and shown somewhat incongruously in [Fig. 23]. This being a footman’s weapon, ought not to be in the hands of a man-at-arms. Great strength of arms and supple wrists were necessary for cutting with these weapons; the point was rarely used. The true claymore is a two-handed sword. Some fine examples of two-handed swords and flamberges are given in [Fig. 42]. The thumb-ring appears in the fifteenth century, possibly a little earlier, and it was common in the sixteenth.
Fig. 42.—Two-handed Swords, Flamberges, and Daggers.
The anelace was a very common weapon of the fifteenth century. It is a short, broad sword or dagger, tapering to a point. The blade is usually about twenty inches long, by four broad, and double-edged. The weapon, called in Italy the cinquedea, is of Verona origin, and was styled oxenzunge by the Germans, and braquamart or épée de passot by the French. It is a very similar weapon to that carried by the ancient Greeks and Romans on the left side, called the parazonium, a late specimen of which was found at Sesto-Calende, and is now at Milan.
The dusack is a sword of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, with a blade like that of the curved sabre, while the hilt consists either of a hole in the rounded base of the blade for the hand to grip, or is a rounded continuation of the blade at the shoulder, forming a circular hole. The length is about 39 inches. The swordsman wore an iron or leather gauntlet reaching to the elbow.
Swords tended to become more ornate as the fifteenth century advanced, and towards the end and early in the sixteenth both pommels and quillons varied greatly in form and in size, the former being round, square, cusped, truncated, crescent-shaped, etc., while the latter tended both downwards and upwards, sometimes counter-curved, and curled at the extremities, but this feature became more pronounced later. The play of sword and buckler is very ancient, and was displaced in England by the rapier and dagger in the second half of the sixteenth century. The sword was of medium size and double-edged, while the buckler was about fourteen inches in diameter.
The usual form of the sword up to the middle of the sixteenth century is still cruciform, with or without the pas d’ane guard, a broad two-edged blade about three feet and a half long, and a large and frequently circular pommel; the quillons straight or slightly bent towards the blade, which tends to become narrower and lighter. There are, however, many examples of a greater elaboration of guards at an earlier period, when the guard formed like the letter S was not uncommon. An example of a sword by Ambrosius Gemlich, about 1530, is given in [Fig. 44]. There is a calendar on the blade. The simple cross-guard disappears with the commencement of the second half of the century, and the pas d’ane guard becomes common. The sword-hand now becomes adequately guarded, and you get the counter-guard, which later becomes amplified into one or more branches for encircling the back of the hand, while the quillons more generally assume curved forms and eventually merge into the knuckle-bow or finger-guard; and it was during the second half of the sixteenth century that the rapier hilt became completely developed. It was no longer the rule to wear the steel gauntlet; such guards had therefore become more necessary, and they were gradually evolved by reason of new developments in fencing strokes. Swordsmanship had now reached the point when the weapon, besides being for attack, was used more in a defensive sense. The term “shield” is applied to the flat piece of steel sometimes found at the base of the hilt, while the “shell” refers to a semicircular hilt. The growth of what are but inadequately described as counter-guards consists in a more or less complex system of perpendicular and horizontally curved and interlacing bars and hoops gradually evolving the S guard, cross and side ring, cross and finger loop, cross finger loop and half ring at the side, double branches, etc., which crystallised, so to speak, in certain classes of swords into the basket-hilt and the shell or cup. The practice and progress of the art of fencing had induced upward cuts and other movements that necessitated additional protection for the hand and wrist.
Fig. 44.—Sword of the Emperor Charles V., about 1530.