Tumblr Thread: Medieval Battle Tactics Were Wild

Author image for mattstaff
mattstaff
May 8, 2020 2:00 PM EDT

Get ready to soak up all this random knowledge about just how wild medieval battle tactics were. It's a true rollercoaster. 

Add as a preferred
source on Google
Advertisement
  • 01
    Text - did you know? Medieval castle stairs were often built to ascend in narrow, clockwise spirals so right-handed castle defenders could use their swords more easily. This design put those on the way up at a disadvantage (unless they were left-handed). The steps were also uneven to give defenders the advantage of anticipating each step's size while attackers tripped over them.
    via InAMellowTone
  • 02
    Text - Medieval castle stairs were often built to ascend in narrow, clockwise spirals so right- handed castle defenders could use their swords more easily. This design put those on the way up at a disadvantage (unless they were left-handed). The steps were also uneven to give defenders the advantage of anticipating each step's size while attackers tripped over them. Source Source 2 Source 3
    via InAMellowTone
  • 03
    Text - severalowls Not really the best illustration since it totally negates the effect by having a wide open space for those ascending. Castle tower staircases tended to look like this:
    via InAMellowTone
  • 04
    Text - Extremely tight quarters, with a central supporting pillar that is very, very thoroughly in the way of your right arm. Wider, less steep designs tend to come later once castles moved away from being fortresses to simply noble family homes with the advent of gunpowder. mumblytron Oh! Pre-gunpowder military tactics are my jam! I don't know why, but this is one of my favorite little details about defensive fortific- ations, because the majority handedness of attackers isn't usually something
    via InAMellowTone
  • 05
    Text - Pre-Columbian towns near the Mississippi and on the East coast did this too. They usually surrounded their towns with palisades, and they would build the entrance to the palisade wall in a zigzag - always with the wall to the right as you entered, to hinder attackers and give an advantage to the defender. Here's some gates with some examples of what l'm talking about:
    via InAMellowTone
  • 06
    Text - Simple Baffle Bent-Axis (Claviculum) Offset Oblique Crab Claw Serpentine Labrynthine Screened (Titulum) Inset - Outset Bastioned (Barbican) Chambered Chambered (with Guard Rooms)
    via InAMellowTone
  • 07
    Text - Notice that, with the exception of the last four (which are instead designed to congregate the attackers in a space so they can be picked off by archers, either in bastions or on the walls themselves) and the screened gate (which, in addition to being baffled, also forces the attackers to defend their flank) all of these gates are designed with central architectural idea that it's really hard to kill someone with a wall in your way. In every culture in the world, someone thought to themse
    via InAMellowTone
  • 08
    Technical drawing - O his-quietus-make Ooh, ooh, also: Bodiam Castle in Sussex used to have a right-angled bridge so any attacking forces would be exposed to archery fire from the north-west tower on their right side (ie: sword in the right hand, shield on the useless left side): E Barbican 2 Gatchouse
    via InAMellowTone
  • 09
    Text - petermorwood These tactics worked so well for so long because until quite recently lefties got short shrift and had it trained (if they were lucky) or beaten out of them. Use of sword and shield is a classic demonstration of how right-handedness predominated. There's historical mention of left-handed swordsmen (gladiators and Vikings), and what a problem they were for their opponents, but that only applies to single combat. A left-handed hoplite or housecarl simply couldn't fight as part
    via InAMellowTone
  • 10
    Text - Jousting, whether with or without an Italian-style tilt barrier, was run shield-side to shield-side with the lance at a slant (except for the Scharfrennen, a highly specialised style that's AFAIK unique.) Consequently left-handed knights were physically unable to joust. Fig. 13. How jousters run together
    via InAMellowTone
  • 11
    Text - There's a creditable theory (I first read it in “A Knight and His Horse", © Ewart Oakeshott 1962, 1998 and many other places since) that a knight's "destrier" horse - from dexter, "right" - was trained to lead with his right forefoot so that any instinctive swerve would be to the right, away from collision while letting the rider keep his shield between him and harm. (In flying, if a pilot hears "break!" with no other details, the default evasive direction is right.) The construction of p
    via InAMellowTone
  • 12
    Text - Even after shields and full armour were no longer an essential part of military equipment, right-hand use was still enforced until quite recently, and to important people as well as ordinary ones - it happened to George VI, father of the present Queen of England. Most swords with complex hilts, such as swept-hilt rapiers and some styles of basket-hilt broadsword, are assymetrical and constructed for right handers. Here's my schiavona...
    via InAMellowTone
  • 13
    Ancient history - The Chigi vase, found in an Etruscan tomb at Monte Aguzzo. It is the earliest representation of the Hoplite phalanx formation - circa 650 B.C.
    via InAMellowTone
  • 14
    Lacrosse stick
    via InAMellowTone
  • 15
    Ruler - 30 31 32 33 10 11 20 21 22 23 29 30 31 32 33 34
    via InAMellowTone
  • 16
    Text - It can be held left-handed, but using it with the proper thumb-ring grip, and getting maximum protection from the basket, is right-handed only. (More here.) Some historical examples of left-hand hilts do exist, but they're rare, and fencing masters had the same "learn to use your right hand" bias as tourney organisers, teachers and almost everyone else. Right-handers were dextrous, but left-handers were sinister, etc., etc. However, several predominantly left-handed families did turn thei
    via InAMellowTone
  • 17
    Text - This would seem to be a bad idea, since the attackers (coming upstairs) no longer have their right arms cramped against the centre pillar - however it worked in the Kerrs' favour because they were used to this mirror-image of reality while nobody else was, and the defender retreating up the spiral had that pillar guarding his right side, while the attacker had to reach out around it...
    via InAMellowTone
  • 18
    Text - For the most part Reiver swords weren't elaborate swept-hilt rapiers but workmanlike basket-hilts. Some from Continental Europe have the handedness of my schiavona with thumb-rings and assymmetrical baskets, but the native "British Baskethilt" is a variant of the Highland claymore* and like it seems completely symmetrical, without even a thumb-ring, which gives equal protection to whichever hand is using it.
    via InAMellowTone
  • 19
    Text - *l'm aware there are those who insist "claymore" refers only to two-handers, however the Gaelic term claidheamh-mòr - “big sword" - just refers to size, not to a specific type of sword in the way "schiavona" or “karabela" or even “katana" does. While the two-hander was the biggest sword in common use it was the claidheamh-mòr; after it dropped out of fashion and the basket-hilt became the biggest sword in common use, that became the claidheamh-mòr.
    via InAMellowTone
  • 20
    Text - When Highlanders in the 1745 Rebellion referred to their basket-hilts as claymores, they obviously gave no thought to the confusion they would create for later compilers of catalogues... chroniclesofrettek Also, muskets had their whole "Flint and steel and gunpowder" thing on the right side so if you tried firing it lefty you'd get a face full of fire. More recently, rifles eject their spent shell casings to the right, so if you're a lefty you get some hot metal in your eye.
    via InAMellowTone

Want More? Follow Us and Add Us as a Preferred Source on Google.

Tags

medieval history tumblr interesting information knowledge history memes trivia true facts
Scroll Down For The Next Article