During the medieval time period, the 5th to 15th century, weapons and armor became widely adopted and began to become perfect for the art of warfare. The longbow and crossbow played major roles in the victories at many battles. The perfection and adoption of armor changed the fate of many soldiers and started a new type of warfare. The development of new weapons, such as forged swords and speciality weapons, lead to an advanced warring society. The improvement of new armor and new weapons went hand in hand, due to the fact that they had opposing roles in the battlefield. During this time period, it was either improve technology or fall back and face the ultimate consequence, death.
The crossbow and longbow revolutionized medieval warfare.…show more content… During the early centuries one handed swords were the only swords used by fighting soldiers, it wasn't until the mid 13th century that two handed swords came about. The Germans were the first to use the two handed sword. They used a long, heavy weighted sword, which was 37-40 inches long with a 6 inch hilt, which allowed for the use of one or two handed action. These swords were deadly and could easily damage chainmail. The French suffered major casualties at the battle of Benevento in Italy, and the use of these new swords “paved the way for real two handed swords”(McPeak). Along with the steady increase of length of swords, new metal processed were also beginning to form. A prime example of this is the use of damaskeene blades. These blades were alloyed steel made by a process of fusing metals together to create a sharp and hard blade. These blades were “strong enough to cut through iron”(Kottenkamp 46). Along with this process, swords also began to be sharpened with tapered points. This was to combat the advances in the armor. The sharper points allowed for powerful thrust to pierce armor in the weak spots. Another major advance in bladed weaponry, was flamberge. This was the creation of a wavy blade to inflict a nastier wound, prevent the travel of an opponent's weapon down the blade, and to send vibrations up the opponent’s weapon to make it easier to deal a terminated…show more content… It seemed it was a losing battle until, the Romans started to defeat the Barbarians. The only difference was their armor, and as soon as the Barbarians followed suit the battles were evened. This presence of armor added a new player to the battle. It promoted the art of defense and was challenged in every possible way. The Barbarians adopted a mix between the breastplate of the legionary soldiers and complete suit of the equestrian soldiers. This started the development of the armor know today that defines the Medieval time period. “There are no dates for development of particular styles of armor until the late 15th century”(Jones 30). It all started with the development of simple armor to offer minimal protection of soldiers. The first armor was thought to have been originated around the “10th century and was composed of rings”(KottenKamp 85). This armor can be considered the base design for the full perfection of chainmail. Later in about the 11th century, “knights were protected by a suit of mail and body armor”(Barter 26). The armor consisted of links twisted together with some iron plating. The iron could easily be shaped into armor. Even Though it was weaker than steel, at the time it was the best a knight could wear. The biggest advance in armor technology came around the 13th century with the use of plate armor used by armies. Unlike chainmail, this armor could resist directs hits from arrows,
