What weapons were used in the Middle Ages?

Spears and polearms above all, then bows and crossbows, then swords, axes, maces, war hammers and daggers as close arms. Sieges added trebuchets, mangonels and ballistae. Shields and bucklers were carried alongside nearly all of them.

What was the deadliest medieval weapon?

By numbers killed, the longbow and crossbow at range and the spear in formation. Against an armoured man at arm's length, the poleaxe and the rondel dagger were the most reliably lethal.

What was the most common weapon in the Middle Ages?

The spear. It was cheap to make, quick to learn, effective in formation and useful against cavalry. Swords were sidearms carried by those who could afford them, not the primary battlefield weapon.

What weapons were used against plate armour?

Blunt and pointed weapons rather than cutting ones — poleaxes, maces, war hammers, and stiff thrusting blades such as the estoc, along with rondel daggers driven into the gaps at the visor, armpit and groin.

What is the difference between an arming sword and a longsword?

An arming sword is single-handed, roughly 28 to 32 inches of blade, and was carried with a shield. A longsword is used in two hands with a 35 to 43 inch blade and appears from the 14th century onward.

Can you buy real medieval weapons today?

Genuine medieval originals are museum property and rarely lawfully tradeable. What you can buy are functional reproductions forged to the same patterns in modern carbon steels, which are legal to own in most of the United States as ordinary edged tools.

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Medieval Weapons: Every Type, Ranked by What It Did

A plain field guide to the arms of the Middle Ages — and which of them you can still own.

The honest picture

Films give the Middle Ages to the sword. The battlefield gave it to the spear. For a thousand years the overwhelming majority of armed men on any European field carried a shafted weapon — spear, bill, glaive or pike — because a spear is cheap, is learned in weeks, and keeps a mounted man at arm's length.

The sword was the sidearm of the man who could afford one. That is exactly why it carries the status it still carries: it was the visible proof that its bearer was somebody. It was drawn when the spear broke, when the line collapsed, or when the fight became personal.

Understanding that ordering — shaft first, edge second, everything else third — makes the whole arsenal make sense.

The swords

Arming sword: single-handed, roughly 28 to 32 inches of blade, cruciform hilt, carried with a shield from roughly the 11th to the 14th century. The default knightly sidearm of the high Middle Ages.

Longsword: two hands on a 35 to 43 inch blade, from the 14th century onward. The most technically documented weapon in European history — there are surviving fencing manuals for it, which is why modern HEMA practice centres on it.

Falchion and messer: heavy single-edged cleaving blades carried widely by infantry and townsmen. Cheaper to make, brutally effective against unarmoured targets.

Estoc and tuck: stiff, narrow, often edgeless blades made to punch through the gaps in plate. A late-period answer to a late-period problem.

Greatsword and zweihänder: the 16th-century two-hander, up to six feet overall, used to break pike formations. Not a battlefield sidearm — a specialist tool.

The shafted arms

Spear: the weapon of the age. Cheap head, cheap shaft, lethal reach, effective in ranks.

Poleaxe: axe head, hammer poll, top spike, on a five-foot haft. The armoured man's answer to another armoured man — it does not need to cut, only to crush and to find gaps.

Halberd and bill: hooks for pulling riders down, a spike for the thrust, a blade for the cut. The Swiss and the English infantry weapons respectively.

Pike: eighteen feet of ash and a small head, useless alone and devastating in a block of five hundred.

The impact arms

Mace: flanged iron on a short haft. Against mail and plate, a cutting edge often does very little; concentrated blunt force transmits straight through the armour into the body beneath it.

War hammer: a hammer face on one side, a spike on the other. The same logic as the mace, with a point for the joints.

Axe: the Dane axe on a long haft was a fearsome two-handed cleaver; the hand axe was the common man's arm because every household already owned one.

The daggers

Rondel: a stiff spike between two disc guards, made for driving through the gaps at the visor, armpit and groin. The last argument on a battlefield.

Bollock and baselard: everyday belt daggers, worn by nearly everyone as tool, table knife and weapon of last resort.

What to look for when you buy one

Full tang, always, in anything you intend to swing. A blade pinned to a thin rod is a display object and should be treated as one.

Carbon or spring steel for functional pieces: 1060, 1075, 1095, 5160 and 9260 are the working steels. Stainless in long blades is a display material and should never be swung.

Look for a stated point of balance. A seller who publishes weight, blade length, overall length and point of balance is a seller who has actually handled the piece.

Decide honestly whether you want a wall piece or a working piece before you shop. Both are legitimate; buying one while expecting the other is how people are disappointed.

A list of medieval weapons, by kind

Swords: arming sword, longsword, greatsword, falchion, messer, estoc, claymore, sabre.

Daggers: rondel, bollock, baselard, quillon dagger, misericorde.

Axes: bearded axe, Dane axe, horseman's axe, poleaxe.

Blunt arms: mace, war hammer, flanged mace, morning star, flail, club.

Polearms: spear, pike, halberd, bill, glaive, guisarme, partisan, war scythe.

Missile arms: shortbow, longbow, crossbow, sling, javelin.

Siege engines: trebuchet, mangonel, ballista, battering ram.

Defensive gear counted with the arms: shield, buckler, kite shield, heater shield, pavise.

Asked of the house

What weapons were used in the Middle Ages?: Spears and polearms above all, then bows and crossbows, then swords, axes, maces, war hammers and daggers as close arms. Sieges added trebuchets, mangonels and ballistae. Shields and bucklers were carried alongside nearly all of them.
What was the deadliest medieval weapon?: By numbers killed, the longbow and crossbow at range and the spear in formation. Against an armoured man at arm's length, the poleaxe and the rondel dagger were the most reliably lethal.
What was the most common weapon in the Middle Ages?: The spear. It was cheap to make, quick to learn, effective in formation and useful against cavalry. Swords were sidearms carried by those who could afford them, not the primary battlefield weapon.
What weapons were used against plate armour?: Blunt and pointed weapons rather than cutting ones — poleaxes, maces, war hammers, and stiff thrusting blades such as the estoc, along with rondel daggers driven into the gaps at the visor, armpit and groin.
What is the difference between an arming sword and a longsword?: An arming sword is single-handed, roughly 28 to 32 inches of blade, and was carried with a shield. A longsword is used in two hands with a 35 to 43 inch blade and appears from the 14th century onward.
Can you buy real medieval weapons today?: Genuine medieval originals are museum property and rarely lawfully tradeable. What you can buy are functional reproductions forged to the same patterns in modern carbon steels, which are legal to own in most of the United States as ordinary edged tools.

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