Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact

Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact

by Kelly DeVries &  Robert Smith
333 pages

This fascinating reference covers the weapons and armor used by warriors from the 4th to the 15th century and discusses how and why they evolved and changed over time. It was the time of the crossbow and the catapult, the flail and the mace, battering rams, siege towers, uncountable types of swords and knives, and increasingly more formidable armored protection for warriors.

It was the Middle Ages, when weapons were of such infinite variety that hardly any two soldiers faced off using the same weaponry. In the Middle Ages, the lack of standardized weapons meant that one warrior's arms were often quite different from another's, even when they were fighting on the same side. And with few major technological advances in that period, the evolution of those weapons over the centuries was incremental. But evolve they ultimately did, bringing arms, armor, and siege weapons to the threshold of the modern era.

From the fall of the Roman Empire to the beginnings of the Renaissance, "Medieval Weapons: An Illustrated History of Their Impact" covers the inexorable transformation from warrior in the mail shirt to fully armored knight, from the days of spears and swords to the large-scale adoption of the handgun. "Medieval Weapons" covers this fascinating expanse of centuries in chapters devoted to the early medieval, Carolingian, Crusade, and late medieval periods.

Within each period, the book details how weapons and armor were developed, what weapons were used for different types of battles, and how weapons and armor both influenced, and were influenced by, changing tactics in battles and sieges.