In my opinion those parry hooks keep the opponent's polearm's shaft further away from the guard, because if the shaft is against the guard then the blade of the halberd is already cutting your hands. Please try that if you have the opportunity.
Warwick castle is pretty awesome. I got to see the Trebuchet Launch a Fireball at dusk when i went. One of the coolest things ive seen. As an American my trip there was my first opportunity to see medieval stuff in use. I never really thought about archery til we got to see a fella shoot a English Longbow. I was highly impressed.
Without wanting to draw attention away from Matt Easton's great channel, I can also highly recommend Matt Galas' channel on the side, as he has a few snippets of him doing some beautiful forms with the montante that are simply pleasing to watch :)
Not really related to the video, but: using a walking cane with a steel pommel for self defence, in what context would it be better to wield it with the pommel downwards (sword-like balance) and in which one with the pommel upwards (just like a mace with a long shaft)?
Thank you for the visit Matt! About the second "Motante"; if I remember correctly some technics from "Arte de Esgrima" by Domingo Luis Godinho, he was Portuguese BTW though the treaty was written in Spanish, I still cannot get how you can use this sword. So for me it's a Victorian reproduction, not a genuine one. Great "Milanese" Armour on the other hand! So the real question is why Scots liked floppy blades? :p Edit : I was wrong, review the technics and I don't see one where he uses the ricasso under the lugs to put one of his hands on, but TBH never read other treaties about this kind of sword.
On the two handed swords holding the blade with one hand behind the lugs (using them as a second set of quillons) and the other hand back at the pommel does make sense, especially if you end up fighting someone with a more nimble sword, because then you would have more control over the tip of your own sword. Equally it makes sense that since you might be fighting someone with a long weapon (such as a pole arm or another two handed sword) the lugs could simply be there as a guard to keep your opponent's weapon further away from not only your hands but also your face and body. It also stands to reason that they might have had more than one purpose. Even if the lugs were originally meant for one specific purpose it's still possible that it became common for people to use them other ways. People are always using tools contrary to the way they are designed out of necessity.
I was at warwick castle just a couple of days before this video. Had a good look at all these weapons. Genuinely said to a friend "there's a guy who does TH-cam vids and could talk for ages about everything in this room!" And sure enough Matt read my mind. Those halberds along the wall above the horses looked a bit flimsy!
Ngl the whole sharpening on building thing sounds very questionable, like one of those myths people say but isn't actually true. Wouldn't the stone blunten the weapon ? And don't u need a specific type of stone for sharpening? Idk would like to see some more sources on it.
Yer surely almost 'Cutting' the stone which is how these groves are shaped would mean the edge was perpendicular to the stone wall? Idk seems abit dodgy to me
alan B I thought so too. It's very odd that they all happened to sharpen their weapons at the same spot. That's what make me question it. As someone who shapens a lot of knives, I'd never do that. The groves in that stone aren't level, and that is going to ruin your edge something bad. Doing it like that would make your edge so brittle. And why on earth would you want a brittle edge on a sword?
Yeah, not buying that either. In germany, i got told, visiting knights had to blunten their swords there, before entering another knight´s castle. Wich is of course just as bullshit an idea. I would think those marks somehow are created during the construction of the castle. But i´m no mason, so i have no idea how exactly that would happen. But i´m with you. Sharpening anything that way would just not work.
Yer I thought maybe they were groves cut so you could insert hooks or simply to provide hand holds when moving the heavy stone idk just pure conjecture.
I was tolled that it was custom to blunten your weapons (more ritually than real) while entering a castle to show god manors. Tan the servants sharpened your weapons and they where handed back to you when you leave the wall protected area. These groves would fit that better. It would only work if you want to sharpen pints on pole arms but I doubt it.
It doesn't seem like you could get a very good edge with a random bit of building stone. Did they make those groves beforehand, use a certain kind of stone right there, or what? Or did people really just sharpen their blades on any old rock?
When you say "fake" - do you mean produced from scratch in a later period, or do you mean surviving period components reassembled in a non-functional way in a later era?
somethings just don't make sense. granted, this video could be "refined" a bit more but I just don't see how such a great iterestng video got so little views. this is probably one of those youtube shenanigans...
th-cam.com/video/Y8nDuVrbUto/w-d-xo.html Matt, for the off chance that you aren't familiar with video codecs, video bitrate, and TH-cam compression, make sure your videos are converted to MP4 before you upload. This will generally avoid youtube's over-compression as seen the above link. Also, make sure your bitrate is high enough. (8-12Mbps at 1080p) If you're already familiar with all this, ignore me. If you have questions, I'm happy to help.
Should I visit Britain, I will have no interest in #10 Downing St or anything modern. I only wish to see where the swords are, where heads were lopped off, armor, medieval stuff and HEMA stuff. Matt should consider organizing a tour.
In the thumbnail, Other Matt looked like John Malkovich. Shameful clickbait Mr. Easton! Also it sounded like Lilly was causing Lucy some headaches during the opening shot of the video :D
4:28 *PLEASE, MATT!!! STOP!* Seriously, stop. Please google how to say "Zweihänder" or stop saying it at all. If you google "leo online" you find an online dictionary where you can have a lady say the word for you over your speakers/headphones! The "Z" is supposed to sound like "Ts". And a rather sharp "Ts" at that. This weird, weak sounding abomination, that many english speakers inflict on the world with their strange "ssssswaihandah" hurts. It really sounds like utter dogshit. Since German names and words (sadly) come up far too often in the discussion of historical arms and armor, i wish people would put some effort into it. German has to sound rather harsh compared to many other languages or you are failing at it.
I don't mean to be rude, but majority of English castles seem pretty ugly to me, no romantic value in their looks compared to most castles from France, Germany, Czech Republic or Slovakia. Those have some fairy-tailish quality to them. Just my opinion, please stone me at will ;)
Hahah that is like saying that 'strangely younger women look better (they have perky breasts and smoother skin) than the grannies I see walking to and from the library every morning.
Greetings from Malbork /aka Marienburg. Can attest to the fairy tale makeover. Happened to our castle 2 times during XIX century (once as a "Romantic" one, once as "purely German Gothic"), and once more after WWII (Modern artillery, sigh) . We still have original medieval cellars, and about 2m² of floor on upper level of "Medium" castle though, so not totally fake. Oh, and lots of assorted rubble. If you hear names like Eugène Viollet-le-Duc or Conrad Steinbrecht associated with place, be very, very suspicious about contents.
Tolmalion "Romantic" you nailed it aka Eugène Viollet-le-Duc or Conrad Steinbrecht. I will not throw stones at them cause guys like them or, in France case Victor Hugo or Prosper Mérimée, may have save some places (castles, cathedrals etc.) from complete destruction but they utterly transformed those places cf. Carcassonne for example. On the other hand you still find some genuine castles or at least their remains, many still in renovation though, in S-W France for example - I worked in some of those places! - or the so-called "Cathar" castles in the East Pyrenees. And you have a complete different - and deeper IMO- feeling visiting them than their Romantic counterparts. Greetings from Bayonne Fr!
Castles were built for different reasons, some were made as residences for the high nobility, others for "combat-purposes" and sometimes for a mix of both. Putting all of a country's castles in one box is a bit absurd. In France, you'll have the fancy châteaux of Blois and Chambord, then right next to them you get those of Angers and the Fort de Salses, not at all the same beasts and they weren't very far away from one another time-wise (for Salses anyway). You have the château de Nantes, big walls designed with artillery in mind yet there's a fancy logis and well in the courtyard... I'm pretty sure every european countries has a mix bag of both types and more. Besides, as said before, fairy-tailish and romantic castles are generally part of a post-Versailles movement, either original or reinvented, plenty of it in Germany, Austria and France as well.
Always loved going Warwick Castle as a kid
This was awesome! Thank you for the video! I love history!
In my opinion those parry hooks keep the opponent's polearm's shaft further away from the guard, because if the shaft is against the guard then the blade of the halberd is already cutting your hands. Please try that if you have the opportunity.
When the tourist guide guy was talking on the mic I couldn't help but think "SHUT UP!! Matt Easton is talking!"
Warwick Castle?? This is where my family was from! :O This should be good!
Warwick castle is pretty awesome. I got to see the Trebuchet Launch a Fireball at dusk when i went. One of the coolest things ive seen. As an American my trip there was my first opportunity to see medieval stuff in use. I never really thought about archery til we got to see a fella shoot a English Longbow. I was highly impressed.
I wanted to go to Warwick castle, but had a budged and needed to save money, so i didnt go in. Ty for the tour :D
The weather looks incredibly British. Hope you had a great day!
Without wanting to draw attention away from Matt Easton's great channel, I can also highly recommend Matt Galas' channel on the side, as he has a few snippets of him doing some beautiful forms with the montante that are simply pleasing to watch :)
I love warwick. i went there as a kid.
Not really related to the video, but: using a walking cane with a steel pommel for self defence, in what context would it be better to wield it with the pommel downwards (sword-like balance) and in which one with the pommel upwards (just like a mace with a long shaft)?
So much new content! By the way I love all the how shall we call it... not-at-home videos.
05:10 is that a wavy bladed basket hilt in the background??
There's a club near me that'll be doing Spadone next year. Gonna need to get in contact with Regenyei before that, always wanted to learn it.
whereabouts is it?
I was there about two months ago!
FUCKIN HELL M8 THE BEEPING NOISE
Amazing
You should see if you could interview Guy Windsor now that he's moved to UK, he's made a cool card game based on Fiore and stuff.
Thank you for the visit Matt! About the second "Motante"; if I remember correctly some technics from "Arte de Esgrima" by Domingo Luis Godinho, he was Portuguese BTW though the treaty was written in Spanish, I still cannot get how you can use this sword. So for me it's a Victorian reproduction, not a genuine one. Great "Milanese" Armour on the other hand!
So the real question is why Scots liked floppy blades? :p
Edit : I was wrong, review the technics and I don't see one where he uses the ricasso under the lugs to put one of his hands on, but TBH never read other treaties about this kind of sword.
On the two handed swords holding the blade with one hand behind the lugs (using them as a second set of quillons) and the other hand back at the pommel does make sense, especially if you end up fighting someone with a more nimble sword, because then you would have more control over the tip of your own sword. Equally it makes sense that since you might be fighting someone with a long weapon (such as a pole arm or another two handed sword) the lugs could simply be there as a guard to keep your opponent's weapon further away from not only your hands but also your face and body. It also stands to reason that they might have had more than one purpose. Even if the lugs were originally meant for one specific purpose it's still possible that it became common for people to use them other ways. People are always using tools contrary to the way they are designed out of necessity.
did Matt get old?!! Oh... hmm guess that isn't him
And American.
Zetheros exactly what i thought.
I was at warwick castle just a couple of days before this video. Had a good look at all these weapons. Genuinely said to a friend "there's a guy who does TH-cam vids and could talk for ages about everything in this room!" And sure enough Matt read my mind. Those halberds along the wall above the horses looked a bit flimsy!
1:25 Left of frame; that guy looks like a more metal version of that guy from the show American Pickers
Sounds like the Warwick Castle staff has been watching a lot of Game of Thrones. Dramatic!
Big wheel keep on turnin'...Proud (queen) Mary keep on burnin'... rolling, rolling, rolling through the castle (walls).
What kind of ammunition do they launch with trebuchets there? Large hams?
That would make do with that loud narrator woudn't it?
Ngl the whole sharpening on building thing sounds very questionable, like one of those myths people say but isn't actually true. Wouldn't the stone blunten the weapon ? And don't u need a specific type of stone for sharpening? Idk would like to see some more sources on it.
Yer surely almost 'Cutting' the stone which is how these groves are shaped would mean the edge was perpendicular to the stone wall? Idk seems abit dodgy to me
alan B I thought so too. It's very odd that they all happened to sharpen their weapons at the same spot. That's what make me question it. As someone who shapens a lot of knives, I'd never do that. The groves in that stone aren't level, and that is going to ruin your edge something bad. Doing it like that would make your edge so brittle. And why on earth would you want a brittle edge on a sword?
Yeah, not buying that either. In germany, i got told, visiting knights had to blunten their swords there, before entering another knight´s castle. Wich is of course just as bullshit an idea.
I would think those marks somehow are created during the construction of the castle. But i´m no mason, so i have no idea how exactly that would happen.
But i´m with you. Sharpening anything that way would just not work.
Yer I thought maybe they were groves cut so you could insert hooks or simply to provide hand holds when moving the heavy stone idk just pure conjecture.
I was tolled that it was custom to blunten your weapons (more ritually than real) while entering a castle to show god manors. Tan the servants sharpened your weapons and they where handed back to you when you leave the wall protected area.
These groves would fit that better.
It would only work if you want to sharpen pints on pole arms but I doubt it.
I just took this castle in Crusader Kings 2!
Hmm, Matt wants to walk in a wheel. Hamster fetish confirmed
#MrCuddlyWhiskers
WTF HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA
Matt is a weirdo.That is good!
Jazza Bearedbjorn - I was thinking more #Lemmiwinks rather than #MrCuddlyWhiskers ... either one works, for different reasons ;)
It doesn't seem like you could get a very good edge with a random bit of building stone. Did they make those groves beforehand, use a certain kind of stone right there, or what? Or did people really just sharpen their blades on any old rock?
should add subtitles, specially for the parts inside the museum, there is too much background noise there
Other Matt looks kinda disappointed at usual Matt at the thumbnail...
I don't understand the color compression, evident in the beginning. It is not there when he films at home anyway
Pretty claymore. Pleasing shape.
Matt is setting up his own Round Table
When you say "fake" - do you mean produced from scratch in a later period, or do you mean surviving period components reassembled in a non-functional way in a later era?
Can be either! But in this case made new, later.
Hmm, wierd, when the stone launched by the trebuchet landed, it didn't explode! Probably should have used a pommel instead...
I'm lucky enough to live right next to a castle - Pembroke Castle. Castles are so damn cool
Why do the scotts like flappy blades?
somethings just don't make sense. granted, this video could be "refined" a bit more but I just don't see how such a great iterestng video got so little views. this is probably one of those youtube shenanigans...
th-cam.com/video/Y8nDuVrbUto/w-d-xo.html
Matt, for the off chance that you aren't familiar with video codecs, video bitrate, and TH-cam compression, make sure your videos are converted to MP4 before you upload. This will generally avoid youtube's over-compression as seen the above link.
Also, make sure your bitrate is high enough. (8-12Mbps at 1080p)
If you're already familiar with all this, ignore me. If you have questions, I'm happy to help.
When the video started I thought Matt had grown a beard and adopted an American accent within the span of a couple days...
so an american, a canadian and a englishmen meet at a castle....
recieved training from two out of three
Should I visit Britain, I will have no interest in #10 Downing St or anything modern. I only wish to see where the swords are, where heads were lopped off, armor, medieval stuff and HEMA stuff. Matt should consider organizing a tour.
But no flaming arrows?
Trebuchet memes incoming
Imagine a Treb throwing a bag full of pommels. Basically a medieval nuke HAHAHAHAHAHA... oh god know I hate myself.
Good to know Warwick Castle presentation is still cheesy AF.
I thought the kilt was a 19th c cultural overlay by the royals, nobility & elite.
you can't knock wazza castle
One of loudest videos ever uploaded by Matt, good watch though
Much prefer Kenilworth Castle (Hasn't been bought by Tussauds and turned into an over priced theme park).
In the thumbnail, Other Matt looked like John Malkovich. Shameful clickbait Mr. Easton!
Also it sounded like Lilly was causing Lucy some headaches during the opening shot of the video :D
4:28 *PLEASE, MATT!!! STOP!*
Seriously, stop. Please google how to say "Zweihänder" or stop saying it at all. If you google "leo online" you find an online dictionary where you can have a lady say the word for you over your speakers/headphones! The "Z" is supposed to sound like "Ts". And a rather sharp "Ts" at that.
This weird, weak sounding abomination, that many english speakers inflict on the world with their strange "ssssswaihandah" hurts. It really sounds like utter dogshit.
Since German names and words (sadly) come up far too often in the discussion of historical arms and armor, i wish people would put some effort into it. German has to sound rather harsh compared to many other languages or you are failing at it.
I don't mean to be rude, but majority of English castles seem pretty ugly to me, no romantic value in their looks compared to most castles from France, Germany, Czech Republic or Slovakia. Those have some fairy-tailish quality to them. Just my opinion, please stone me at will ;)
Most of them had 19th century fairy tale make-overs, that's why :-) Warwick Castle is what castles actually looked like in the 15th century.
Hahah that is like saying that 'strangely younger women look better (they have perky breasts and smoother skin) than the grannies I see walking to and from the library every morning.
Greetings from Malbork /aka Marienburg. Can attest to the fairy tale makeover. Happened to our castle 2 times during XIX century (once as a "Romantic" one, once as "purely German Gothic"), and once more after WWII (Modern artillery, sigh) . We still have original medieval cellars, and about 2m² of floor on upper level of "Medium" castle though, so not totally fake. Oh, and lots of assorted rubble. If you hear names like Eugène Viollet-le-Duc or Conrad Steinbrecht associated with place, be very, very suspicious about contents.
Tolmalion "Romantic" you nailed it aka Eugène Viollet-le-Duc or Conrad Steinbrecht. I will not throw stones at them cause guys like them or, in France case Victor Hugo or Prosper Mérimée, may have save some places (castles, cathedrals etc.) from complete destruction but they utterly transformed those places cf. Carcassonne for example.
On the other hand you still find some genuine castles or at least their remains, many still in renovation though, in S-W France for example - I worked in some of those places! - or the so-called "Cathar" castles in the East Pyrenees.
And you have a complete different - and deeper IMO- feeling visiting them than their Romantic counterparts. Greetings from Bayonne Fr!
Castles were built for different reasons, some were made as residences for the high nobility, others for "combat-purposes" and sometimes for a mix of both. Putting all of a country's castles in one box is a bit absurd.
In France, you'll have the fancy châteaux of Blois and Chambord, then right next to them you get those of Angers and the Fort de Salses, not at all the same beasts and they weren't very far away from one another time-wise (for Salses anyway). You have the château de Nantes, big walls designed with artillery in mind yet there's a fancy logis and well in the courtyard... I'm pretty sure every european countries has a mix bag of both types and more.
Besides, as said before, fairy-tailish and romantic castles are generally part of a post-Versailles movement, either original or reinvented, plenty of it in Germany, Austria and France as well.
You should also do a video o Greatswords from the Scottish Lowlands. A very diverse range with plenty of unique examples