Medieval falchions were not like battle axes
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 มี.ค. 2017
- Many people seem to assume that medieval falchions were heavy axe-like cleavers. They were not. Here we look at how they actually were historically and what they may have been intended for.
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I can just imagine the knightly review of this falchion already
"Performed remarkably well in the last peasant uprising. Penetrated gambeson of the ringleaders, and made short work of the conscripts. Had minor difficulty with the few wearing maille hauberks and helm, and had to resort to using my bollock dagger to bypass it when the blade was blunted. 7/10, would purchase again, but unlikely to see much more use due to specialization."
heheh
Fredzors52 underrated comment
the Knightly Review Magazine.
Fredzors52 the peasants are revolting!
@@bluesap7318 yeah, they stink on ice!
So... axes are for peasants who want to murder nobles and falchions are for nobles who want to murder peasants... sounds about right.
Eric Martin
Real men kill both with a xiphos.
@@mattaffenit9898 xiphos are really nice looking
Real men use a spear.
Seems bout right!
Well, a battle axe takes comparably little Material and a normal woodcutters axe only makes dents and armour is best fought with something that makes dents deep enough to kill.
Werewolves - No armour but you want really want to slice deep. They will shrug punctures off, but you cannot walk off tendon damage.
Fucking underrated comment. lmao
Hmmmm. Have to remember that for Hunter-the Vigil
D&D and White Wolf, both seal right back up for normal weaponry. IIRC, 5e only halves mundane damage, but there's no "tendon damage" anyway, and I don't know new CoD Urathu (vs old WoD Garou). Better off multiple spearmen trying to quickly turn them into pincushions then something more specialized like fire. If silver's a thing, arrows are all you needed to begin with. Fuck melee with an infectious manshredder sprinting and bounding about.
You sound like you're speaking from experience ;)
Ouch!! You are so right!
If Knights were more or less the equivilant of a tank - armor, hitting power, mobility, the Falchions strike me as the equivalent of a tank's coaxial machinegun. Not much use against another tank/knight but great for hitting the unarmored folks.
exactly
Plus the thing would function really well as a machete too, and i have often wondered if they may have been multipurpose in that extent because i do know clearing areas and setting up temporary fortifications may have relied on readily available tools. It would be effective and efficient to have another weapon that can do both i guess? I could also be entirely wrong and im okay with that
@@jeebusyaweirdo3733 That would be supported by the fact that there was a sword called a 'Hantak' which was a falchion used by Pioneers (who performed the role of clearing a path for the following army) . It had a toothed blade (like a saw) and was short in length, but it is possible as you suggest that it could have been used in a multi purpose way to deliver a chopping action (which I think is what you are suggesting). I like your observation.
@@whitesun264 thank you, I just try to look at it how I would set up an army. Obviously since we are discussing a military that didn’t have vehicles of any sort or planes, everything relied on being carried by foot and by horse. This being said, you already have a shit ton you gotta carry between armour, weapons, food, and ammunition alone. So if I were a general, I feel it would make more sense to equip my army with things that can also possibly function as tools, which would greatly decrease the amount of stuff needed to carry due to not needing extra tools and it would also cut down on war costs as well, as you wouldn’t have to have specific tools made. We know warriors had used battle axes to fell trees in the past despite not really being designed for that function, and we have also seen peasants bring wood axes into battle in the past despite not really being designed for that purpose.
@@whitesun264 plus your knights and commanders weren’t the ones who would be doing jobs like clearing and fortifications, that labor would be the foot soldiers. This is something to consider seeing as those equipped with the falchion were also the foot soldiers. We may be on to something here
I shall name my falchion "serf's-bane" in honor of this video lol
sef's-slayer would be a nice alliteration ... wait, maybe not.
Churl Chopper.
Rick Ansell Good one!
Peon Punisher
maggot musher
Falchions feel like better balanced machetes.
Machetes are typically quite thin.
survivor, it really depends on who made the machete and what it's for. Machetes made primarily for chopping through lighter stuff are much thinner and lighter because they need speed at the tip to work correctly. Those would probably handle much like a falchion. Machetes for chopping through brush and branches are thicker because they need to be stronger and heavier to get through tougher material, and those do handle more like axes.
@A survivor
You don't know much about machetes don't you. Most real machetes (i.e. not Cold Steel) are under 2.3mm at the handle and under 1.8mm at the tip. Some are as thin as 1.3mm at the tip. Yes, real machetes do have distal taper, even I wouldn't believe it until I actually measured. Here is a picture of a part of my collection, with blade length, weight, thickness at handle and at tip, and center of gravity:
img11.hostingpics.net/pics/208990machettes01.jpg
Cluny/Conyers type falchions are indeed improved machetes with a sword hilt, narrower but thicker at the guard for more stiffness, which is much needed (the long Yegua Tres Canales machete is quite floppy near the handle).
survivor, you sound like you have had very minimal experience with machetes. Likely the ones you used at work were cheapos bought for their price and with no thought given to their handling characteristics, and you've got something similar at home. But there are dozens of different kinds of machetes from probably hundreds of different makers, and they are not all built the same.
MadNumForce I don't know where everyone gets the idea that machetes should have full "utility" edges. No. That's bullshit. Granted, pretty much all of my machete experiences are with Tramontina, Imacasa, Bellotto and Bidor. Sharp, thin cutting tools. Some, and a small amount at that, are thicker. Usually African, or Jamaican.
Clearly, it is for fighting female warriors in their chainmail bikinis, and Spartans in their leather speedos.
hah
Lol
Yo what kinda history was this??
rotlf
@Holden Mcgroine Pretty sure the phalanx is moot if you don't actually dorm a phalanx lol ;)
"Time to slaughter the peasants. Hand me my falchion."
"Nobody knows!" C'mon Mat, you're over-mystifying it; most of sidearm swords throughout the history were slashers, almost all "viking" era swords, early bronze Chinese swords, katanas, sabers, even most of medieval arming swords ... not all people wore (or could afford) armor in all the times, and not all encounters were in battlefield, especially true for the sword you wear constantly.
Sword of repression
Like most swords then.
Especially if from a lake "Help! Help! I'm being repressed!"
But it's not a scimitar
Dragon50275 to "I say old lady"
Man.
Matt, in support of your theory, Skall did a video week before last in which he attacked some thin "gambeson" type material with various weapons. The material defeated most everything he used except a "clip" bladed falchion which cut through the material on the first try. I believe you are definitely on the tree here, if not on the target. Dante.
The sword that was used was a Albion "Soldat" Langmesser. These swords are similar to falchions but most of them are dated to the 15th century and they were used by the lower classes in germany
"It's not particularly quick," he says while nimbly twirling it around
"Help, help, I'm being oppressed!"
Do you see the violence inherent in the system?
"SHUT UP!!"
@@BigPuddin Comeandseetheviolenceinherentinthesystem!
is it from the king arther?
Great theory. This makes me think of the convention alluded to by other scholars, of portraying "bad guys" with falchions in medieval art. Could it be that a noble/knightly warrior specifically arming himself to fight his social lessers was looked down upon by society? "Knights should only fight other knights, so any knight who carries a falchion must be immoral or dishonorable.", kind of thinking. Just throwing it out there.
That actually sounds really plausible. Good thinking
i don't think so, codes of chivalry were diferent from lord to lord. I recomend you Shadiversity's vídeo "the truth about the code of chivalry" and also his series "The truth about the falchion and the messer" to further dig into the topic of this vídeo we are comenting on.
This sounds to me like the old myth of monks and friars going to war armed with blunt weaponry to not draw blood. In war (especially back then when there where no such thing as a Ginebra treatise) eficiency is the rule.
I'm talking about an artistic convention, not the practicalities of war.
Thisold Hatte oh, it's an interesting theory then.
+Kevin Lobos
Cringy when people cite Shadiversity as a source. He's an enthusiast, not a reliable source. Huge difference. Every single one of his videos has huge errors (yes I watch his content) which spread further misconceptions. You can enjoy his content, but always take it with a grain of salt.
I remember watching a program on the History Channel which described the falchion as being an axe-like sword. This is one of the reasons I stopped watching the History Channel! Thank you Matt for the awesome info.
That's seems like a reasonable assertion, Matt. If I had some lower status fighters, predominantly protected by heavy gambeson, to dispatch, after the loss or destruction of my primary weapons, that's what I might do - the extra cutting capacity would certainly be useful against heavy cloth armour. If you were up against an opponent who was one of the few amongst of commoner soldiers you were attacking who happened to be wearing maille - the symmetrical hilt would imply to me that you could easily flip it in hand. This would allow you to use that extra hitting capacity to strike at areas where bone is close to the surface, like the forearm/wrist or collar bone, with the spine, in the hope of landing a disabling blow, whilst not destroying your edge. It could just be an artefact of arming sword hilt construction though, obviously.
As I said: "It could just be an artefact of arming sword hilt construction though, obviously." And as Matt clearly states in the video, it's entirely possible to hurt someone through maille, but to use a falchion's cutting edge to do so would destroy the edge very quickly. I'm fully aware that it could just be custom, and said as much, but there are examples of single edged weapons from the time that time and earlier, than have a correspondingly asymmetrical hilt. I simply suggested that the retention of a symmetrical hilt may have been purposeful. Try reading my actual comment, and listening to the information in the video.
I'd love to hear more about the lower class soldier throughout the medieval period
Matt you need to do a video about how you would take down the mountain.
Interesting idea. How would Matt defeat Westero's greatest fighters?
with a basic knowledge of sword combat - which none of them seem to have
Of course. I mean them being the proficent fighters they're protrayed as in the books.
Nick Graham Well first he'd grab his spadroon...
he would have to keep his distance or he will end up like Obryen.
My wife is a Chef and she has fallen in love with Falchions and Messers. She says it does have rather a lot to do with her career.
I wonder what you people eat. Julienned mammoth?
We're from Nevada. Big Horn Sheep, Bear, Elk, Deer, Mustang, Cow, and Moose. Plus ya gotta fight off Wolverines, Wolves, Badgers, and the errant vicious Meth Head for them vittles.
Aspie Sean. eating mustang? Disgusting.
Don't mock it till you've tried it. =P
Not Pulverman, it's a rather shallow point of view to exclude just one animal from the list of meat that humans can eat just because of personal attachment; many different cultures have entirely different views on food animals. One specific breed of dog is bred as livestock in Korea, and it is blasphemy in Jewish culture to eat pork. Quite frankly, once an animal is dead, it isn't using the meat, and it's a waste of resources to *not* eat it. Sentimentality is a purely human emotion, the mustang would eat you if it were pressed for choice and you were dead.
Falchion aka the "NOOB SLAYER!!" :P
sixyears
*Zweihander*
Do you even praise the Sun, brah?
Agnarr Salventius pls estoc bestoc
@@cryoosprey6657 Please, neither can compare to glorious nippon steel...or just eastern steel I guess?
Peasant Cleaner
Gambesons. Not steel armour. They could cut through gambesons and their edge would not chip.
gambeson protect very well against cuts, they are still expensive to produce. against gambeson i would prefer a pointy sword.
@@tatayoyo337 Most tests I've seen show Gambesons doing better against a thrust than a cut.
@@Altonahk indeed weapons like Messer, Katana and sabers shread Gambeson, whereas longswords etc far less efficient in the cut and thrust. A famous HEMA guy did some tests on this, that where I got my info. Of course against maille or plate the longsword is much better.
@@Giagantus It really depends how well the sword is sharpened, but having more heft really does drive it in
Have you seen Shads videos on the falchion/ messer? He talks also talks about how they are specialized anti gambeson weapons too. Pair that with Skallagrims recent videos on cutting gambesons and you can see that the most effective weapons are the falchion and kopis (which has a very similar blade to your falchion). It makes sense since the best way to cut through gambesons are seemingly with "tip cuts", and as you can see with your falchion thats basically what they are built for... Centre of percussion almost at the top for tip cuts against padded armour.
I hit the like button at around 3:15 to 3:30 just for the insight on the mechanics of blunt replicas. I always learn something here besides your opinion, Maestro. Thanks again.
When I saw my first falchion many years ago, my thoughts on it's use was the same you used in your video. Thanks for this informative video. Have a great day.
scholagladiatoria: "Falchions were likely used for peasants"
me secretly to myself: "...and the napes of titans"
You can break a heart through mail, Matt. The sudden, even if inevitable, betrayal can break a heart.
Chivalry, honor, loyalty... all about tha feelz...
Excellent video and good points, that's how I've always seen falchions as well.
Thanks for doing a video on one of my favorite and unfortunately misunderstood weapons. A real beautiful sword.
It is basically a machete. And unfortunately recent African genocides give you reason : it is very effective against peasants.
@Admire Kashiri people getting hacked up in south africa and more in Zimbabwe and the congo therez loads of times in recent history were protesters and civilians were cut down by the humble machete
weird science also soldiers kill each other with machetes, they are brutal and untrained more like a gang than an army. Talking about most of the recent African wars.
@Admire Kashiri OP was probably referring to the Rwandan Genocide in '94, where large numbers of Hutus were equipped with Machetes to kill their Tutsi neighbors.
@@litkeys3497 i was indeed 👍
@@axelva2635 its shocking not too far back europebwas the same
Knightly Butcher's Sword of Peasant Slaying?
Yay! About time you did another falchion video :)
Very well spoken and put together, thank you for sharing.
Perhaps when there was some commotion happening in the city you send in a few knights armed with these to settle things.
This conjures a terrifying vision. Imagine being a peasant holding tight on his spear, shoulder to shoulder with his fellows, watching these death machines coming at them, the spear points glancing at their armours or pushed aside by their shield, and now the falchions are drawn. Nowhere to retreat, limbs severed, …
I can feel your messer review coming! :D
His satisfied look when he says "chopping up pesants". Nice.
Shad did great series of videos about falchions and messers with James Elmslie :)
Yeah Shad's series was great, especially the parts about how the messer might have been developed, oh and the whole typology thing.
Suggestion: Sharpened true edge for the peasent in stuffed linnen, Blunt false edge for the knight in Plate. You have a symmetrical handle, just turn it.
Hey Schola,
Thank you very much for the high level of detail and thought you give these videos, I'm not sure why I haven't previously subscribed, but this video has answered a number of questions I had regarding the use of falchions and messers, especially into the middle and late medieval period (given the use of more and more metal and less cloth armor).
You've more than earned a sub and a like! Keep up the hard work and best wishes for your future success. (I'd also recommend you add your patreon or other funding mechanisms to your previous video comments, as these are still being viewed by nerds like me.)
With Thanks,
Sam.
This probably gets asked a lot, but I'd love to see a little tour of your collection. Thanks for all of the great content!
The falchion does look like a great kind of sword for cutting through a gambesson or other padded armour. If watch the video of skallagrim doing cutting tests on a gambesson he finds that straight swords have a problem of skidding off the jacket. However, swords that have a forward curve (like a falchion does) have more traction and do more damage
More edge.
I'd love to see a chopping demonstration for that blade, although it might to tough to find a willing peasant in this day and age. :)
Use it on an unwilling peasant then. Jokes apart, you can only use it on pheasants.
100% agree with this assessment. Elmslie is doing great work.
Our club did a few tests with an Angus Trim falchion versus a gambeson type 6 made by Spes. It had virtually no trouble getting through the fabric, even light cuts got half way through it. Medium and heavy cuts went through the fabric and into the ballistics gel or the dowel beneath that.
I think people coming purely from a physical archaeological perspective tend to over focus on the traits of the weapon they are discussing while trying to figure out it's niche. In doing so they underestimate the importance of anthropological sources (such as scouts) on the battlefield while determining what weapon was selected for a given engagement.
People play this "If / Or" game of arms vs armor that doesn't really measure up to the way war was waged. If you know that your opponent is mostly men-at-arms armored with gambesons, and you have them, you employ the use of falchions. If they aren't. You don't.
People like to imagine that the adverse to having the appropriate tools is this "Uh oh" moment like "Shucks, we brought all these falchions and half their army is heavily armored gentry... Oh well, lets fight anyway."
That didn't happen so often, lol. In fact it happened so seldom that they really are benchmarks in history.
Very coherent and spot on. Thanks for accurate information well presented.
Where would they put the falchion after use? Would it go through a belt loop, or a specialised scabbard?
Meriadoc Gunson but would it not rattle because it's wider in the end
I saw the video you're talking about, but from what I remember he mentioned it was a more specialised or custom job. Plus his was a different shape to Matt's.
If you do tests could you do one thing? Have a slightly moving target? All the tests I've seen are totally stationary and I doubt anyone you are attacking will stand there politely saying please go ahead good sir!
Great video, thank you Matt. Maybe you should set up a Patreon or Kickstarter for your ideas for testing proper reproduction mail and things of that nature. I'm sure the community would leap at the opportunity to fund the materials costs and repay your time if it meant we could see a series of weapon and armour tests from someone we have confidence in. I don't know exactly how those crowd funding systems work but I'm sure you could set one up so that people can contribute directly towards the particular tests they want to see, and when a given experiment reaches its funding goal you could do that one. I'm sure it would bring a lot of traffic to your channel from outside of HEMA, too. Cheers.
Hi Matt, awesome to see the ol'falchion again and it would be really exciting to see a collaboration with Mr. Elsmlie! just a thought, or maybe an observation; based on your theory that cleaver style falchions would have primarily been used to hary and take out lesser armored and (mostly) conscripted soldiers could if be reasonable to see it fulfilling a role similar to much later Hussar style sabres? I have a decent enough replica falchion of a similar blade profile and holding it and moving it I can't quite get the 1796 Light Cav out my head.
people in the comments calling falchions horse choppers are off their rocker. falchions don't give you nearly enough range to safely dispatch a horseman.
Cole .S correct, and in situations where the horsemen is surrounded and cannot avoid a falchion, any weapon will be fine at taking down the horse.
It wouldn't be a bad weapon to use from horseback, but that would make it more of a foot soldier chopper.
It's to chop a limb off of a horse if your knightly opponent is still mounted, and you are not.
It's an equalizer.
If the aztecs cold cut horse head whith there wooden swords, i bet a knight could do this as well
lordjor96 Weren't those sticks tipped with obsidian though?
I have a theory that slashing weapons like Falchions were designed to defeat cloth gambesons. Most soldiers on a medieval battlefield are not going to be able to afford full plate or even mail armor. According to some sources, a mail hauberk cost as much as a house in those days so most fighters like archers or low-status footmen would only have cloth gambesons which a slashing blade can cut through very easily.
Actually a quilted gambeson is exceedingly cut resistant, and 15-20 layers might even stop some types of arrow shafts. (You can wiki ' gambeson ' since links put here tend to disappear) ON the other hand, if there was a sword that would be good at cutting into gambesons, or at least delivering punishing blows, bruising flesh you can't quite cut into... (or slashing out wrists or throats) I think this is a good choice!
Whenever I see those videos of people testing on super thick gambeson I always wonder just how hot the soldiers would get on a summer campaign and how many of them would suffer from heat exhaustion or heat stroke especially if fighting on a summer campaign during the medieval warm period in the desert.
I do wonder how accurate those super thick layers would be.
+loyalsausages you can get good penetration with tip cuts and interestingly enough the falchions seems optimised for cutting with the tip
I recently started HEMA and last week sparred for the first time in a thick quilted fencing jacket made from cotton over linen layers. Felt like I was going to die. It was unbelievably hot, so I don't doubt for a second heat stroke and exhaustion would have been a problem on the battlefield.
That is why I believe that the thickness of gambeson is somewhat exaggerated by a lot of weapon and armor tests. I sure that very thick gambesons are very effective but in a prolonged melee in the heat you wouldn't be able to fight very long.
I just love the look of your Falchion!!
Great subject, and based off my off my understanding of similar weapons your interpretation makes sense. I mostly train with traditional Chinese weapons, and the dao has very similar profile to many falchions. However, most dao have a clip point for improved thrusting but are primarily cleavers. The main targets are arms, legs, and neck. What thrusting we do is either to the face/throat or a reinforced thrust to the mid section at close range. This really only works because of the types of armor a Chinese soldier was likely to encounter. Anyway, thanks for another great video.
you've made one of my favorite historical blades into a grim,violent,savage weapon cheers! Do you think the grosse messer has the same intended purpose??
Pyrrhus Epirus gross Messer was a weapon for use by the peasants, mot by nobles.
The nobles just carried real swords, and only the peasants had to settle for "big knife..
It's all about the handle construction. Under medieval law in many places peasants could not own swords, but the definition of a sword came from the construction of the handle. A sword had a peened pommel and a tang going through full cored grip, a knife had scales and rivets. Size didn't factor into it.
Because of this legalese the German peasants simply constructed large "knives" for self-defense, some of them as long, elegant, and ornate as noble swords but still knives under law.
(You see messer means knife in German like Not Pulverman pointed out.)
So, they probably had the same purpose in that a messer would be used by a common man to chop up other commoners and bandits, but the falchion could not be owned by commoners because it was technically a sword.
To reiterate: the messer is the people's sword, the falchion is a real sword for nobles only.
@@EgoEroTergum There are almost no examples of peasants being restricted by law so that they couldn't own swords. Most simply couldn't afford it.
shadiversity did a series of vids on falcions, coming to the same conclusion.
Shad worked with James Elmslie, same with Matt as he mentions here, so they're both working from a very reliable source.
“...the best thing to go through armor is a point and its an interesting point…” -scholagladiatoria
Well said...
balance & handling in comparison to a heavy sabre / tuwar or the like? shorter i know but could you more or less use it the same? - the lack of a knuckle-guard?
Where did you get that axe, I love it?
Master Ha'satan axe from Peter Szabo, there is a review
Awesome thanks, I'll take a look.
Ha Satan - "The Avdersary", or "the Accuser"
Indeed, good to see someone recognizes my name.
Perhaps the peasant cleaver was its primary purpose, but if one encountered an armored opponent the user could flip to the blunt side and whomp them with percussive damage. Were the grips and guards always symmetrical like the one you were holding? Does it feel much different when you swing it back side forward?
How good would human bone be at stopping a cutting weapon like this? Would you have to slice up from the stomach or down from the neck/shoulder for an effective body blow, or could you slip through the ribcage with relative ease?
hi matt do you think is possible to use the back of the sword to hit someone's helmet can you use the falchion to cut down horses
So were they effective against dragons like in Fire Emblem?
IEnjoyBeingNaked asking the real questions.
Conclusion: Spam R1
Happy to see you wearing a CKDF shirt, I designed that banner lol.
Awesome! :-D
You've had those callipurs for quite some time, Matt. When will they turn into butterflies?
Good video, thanks for addressing the subject!
Maybe it's an anti horse weapon. A good way to take down a cavalry trooper is to take down the horse.
Makes sense that it went out of favour about the time horses started to get more armoured. It is somewhat backwards though - falchions seeing less use and then horses get more armour.
Ever seen a horse? I wouldn't want to fight a horse with a falchion, even without an armed knight on top. If you were holding a falchion you might take a swing, but it doesn't seem well designed for anti-cavalry. For anti-cavalry you want a formation of long spears. Or land mines.
Land mines? Dude, I don't think i would want anything less than a loosened pommel.
There's a reason the Chinese horse cutter blade is on the end of a nice long shaft.
Going against cavalry with a sword is suicide. The horse would crush you, or the rider would kill you.
any chance they were intended to cut pole arms shafts with the use of a shield it would really put of some spearmen since the pole arm would be there main defence just a guess though
same shape as some chinese weapons
A survivor yeah thanks i wrote this before watching the whole video and just thinking outloud
A survivor makes you wonder why theres so much hype over a katanas cutting abilitys when swords like this exist
oh god don't mention the katana! it never ends well xD
A survivor even tho it wont buckle it will roll the edge as the steel is too soft although i agree that with the steel available this is a great design its just not as good as a lot of other sword designs
I never tried anything like it, but I bet it's really hard to cut through a spear shaft with any kind of weapon under any normal combat circumstances. I can't think of a weapon that would be good at it. I bet it was never a thing.
If you put the pole arm in a vice, or some other unlikely situation, sure, you could break the shaft. A big mallet might be best.
Do you know if its more effective against gambesons then other common weapons and how good would it bee against pole shafts? I could certanly see a use in a weapon that is able to take out the stronger weapons of the enemy. It also could be intendet for the use on horseback. As far as I know moste pictures show them used while riding. Then comes decapitation or prisoner scenes. Also there are a few in wich they maybe use them against plantlife, but that could be overinterpretation due to its machete like design. The artwork at least doesn't indicate a use against commoners or non amoured targets, but that doesn't have to mean anything.
"so, if you like, this is sort of the styling of the Cluny falchion with the size and proportions and weight of the Conyers falchion." That sounds perfectly said. Really respect your videos, great to hear you speak. Thanks for uploading great content Matt.
Shad had a great series on this, coming to the same conclusions. I was making rpg rules for falchions that did well against heavy armor like axes, but since changed them to be the anti-light armor specialist.
Putting upity peasants in their place.
Great insight. Enjoyed the video.
I'll subscribe as well.
Would it work well for clearing land? I want to buy one & attack saplings with it.
The word you're looking for is hypothesis
No, he said historians were still debating and researching the topic heavily and they are not really sure of the answer. Sure it's a well thought out hypothesis, but nowhere near enough evidence to consider it a scientific theory.
Also hypotheses ARE, in fact, based on prior research and observation.
Actually, a theory is established fact through empiric evidence or in the case of the humanities established through multiple credible sources. It's in fact a (working) hypothesis. Although one built upon a good argument and some research.
I specifically like the contextualization with the changes in warfare and social makeup of armed forces of the specific time when this weapon was used. It's definitely a direction of thought that should be followed more thoroughly.
Thanks for sharing your insight with us, Matt.
I'm not sure I've even got as far as hypothesis yet, given its yet to go through peer-reviewed publication.
if it ever does reach theory point, I suspect it'll be because its posthumous, and I cant rewrite it any more.
(ok, I'm exaggerating. I'm 90% certain I'm not going to be rewriting the basic thrust of it all, unless I find a missing link in some backwater museum. Lets just hope its not the Piltdown Falchion...)
Someone should point out that Matt isn't a scientist, and meant theory in the colloquial meaning rather than the true scientific meaning. Anyone volunteer?
Kaen no Kage: The problem is that the guy we all replied to was a smart-ass bragging about what a scientific theory is or isn't, who now deleted his own reply (at least that's what I assume, because it's not here anymore). I'm pretty sure Matt knows the difference, he does have a BA in History and Archeology after all.
aren't you quite fucked up if you meet a nother knight than? I think in these days they would wear head to foot mail, and if you can't pierce it, you would have a hard time. Maybe you can have a spear as a primary weapon, but i don't know of scabbards for falchions, so they are probably "a pain in the butt" to carry around!?
Knights carried multiple weapons as Matt has stressed many times. Switch to whatever the situation requires. I'd guess they'd carry a Mace in a belt loop for the other knights or something similar! Plus if they have a steed... Well, attach your extra weapons to the horse.
It was common for a knight to have a sword (or in this case a falchion) at his side, a dagger (rondel or bollock for finding gaps in armour/poking the face during grappling) to his other side. a longsword to the sadle, a lance in his arm, a shield strapped to his arm and possible even extra weaponry.
Going for the longsword against other gendarmes (after discarding the lance) and falchion for rounding up fleeing lower classes (were there other classes than gendarmerie and fleeing people?).
Here is my take on this. A knight could kill maybe 10 peasants in the same amount of time it would take him to kill one knight, because you pretty much have to maneuver around close to him and try to hit a gap in his armor to kill a knight. So a knight in a battle might naturally go for weaker targets, to have as much impact as possible. So really, you don't need to be equipped to deal with other knights, if the enemy knights also want to target your peasants, you will both naturally avoid each other.
What the other guys said. Plus, people seem to forget that you can always just run away, go find your squire and get a different weapon. Sure, if you're on foot and he's on a horse, you're screwed, but let's imagine you're on equal grounds and you go "Fuck it, don't feel like dying today" and leg it towards your camp. What's he gonna do? Unless he has a massive speed advantage, by the time he catches up to you, you'll be near your troops and chances are one of them will have a weapon that CAN deal with a knight. Or they just overwhelm the fucker, knock him over and stab him in the face.
Cause battles often lasted for hours, sometimes the whole day. It makes sense to think that people, especially cavalry, would occasionally fall back to resupply. Cause what are you gonna do if your lance gets stuck in the first peasant you run through? Are you going to spend the rest of the day swinging a sword around, risking getting shish kebab'd by someone with a longer weapon or are you going to take 10 minutes to ride back to your squire, grab a new lance, maybe take a breather and then ride back out, rejoin your formation and stab some more peasants?
Falchion (nor any other sword, for the most part) wouldn't be a knight's primary weapon. It's as specialized as a mace.
Falchions did have scabbards.
How did you get the curve in your heater shaped shield you used in this video?
Hey Matt, great video! You should consider putting links in the description to where the weapons you feature in your videos can be found for those who want to pick one up ourselves
This was a custom piece for me and Paul is not taking orders unfortunately.
Oh dear.. Im a peasant :S
99% of us are.
Get an Goedendag then, the proper weapon against knights.
Early!
Aldito Hernandez Shadilay brother!
Hans Kekhoffer i really like how HEMA is getting slowly filled with memes and inside jokes/sexual innuendos
Captain Dickmann It's probably the best part now tbh
shadilay brothers
Captain Dickmann Warning... Do not drink and pommel!
This always struck me as a weapon specialized for raids and ambushes. They probably gave this sword and a shield to a small unit of men, and sent them in at the times when the enemy was most vulnerable. I'd imagine a night raid by a contingent of armored men wielding their falchions would be quite a terror for the frazzled enemy. The knights could enter the fray, hack as many defenseless opposition as possible, and remount and retreat.
Okay, that settles it, I´m getting a falchion and naming it "Peasant-cleaver"
My theory: Horse-choppers
to short
there is a reason horses stayed in use, and it's because a charging horse is something a human with a sword would not go near , I always used to think why do people use horses you could cut them down? , but they must have been extremely effective and scary , and as other people have mentioned before me horse offensive weapons where long .
viable
Agreed ... There's a big difference between a horse running past you and a horse running over you. ... Also, in battle a foot soldier would be surrounded by other foot soldiers, so even if he didn't panic and run, he could get trampled by his own side before getting trampled by a horse.
Seems likely to me, also the classic weapon carried by 15th century English archers alongside a buckler or "target". General purpose soldiers who were remarkably effective hand to hand vs horsemen and pikemen.
Hi Matt, great video! I would differ with you very slightly in that there is no particular need to specialize a sword for cutting unarmored flesh. Most of the swords of that time would have been more than effective enough. It becomes much harder to cut flesh covered in cloth. Even winter clothes could have made a significant difference. I speculate that falchions were designed to counter textile armor. In the example you gave countering common spearmen, the falchion is well suited to delivering effective cuts to arms even through multiple layers of cloth. The falchion seems to me to be a good tactical solution to textile armored spearmen.
A question I had pondered on for some time, the falchion falling from favor, peasant levies going out of favor, and changes in the composition of armies in general toward more professional career service. Had the Great Plague had much influence in these separate observations?
Hey Matt, perhaps a swiss saber review on the future?
could you tell us more about lamellar armour in comparison to mail and other types of armour in the same period of time? :)
Matt, how would the clip point falchions differ (if at all) in terms of balance and use?
Great video!
How common were falchions in the 14th century? I know you said that they were starting to get out of favour then, but were they maybe still used then but by commoners instead?
What about the ones with the point on the blunt side? Is that a historical inaccuracy, or did it serve some function?
Would you consider the greece kopis or Iberian Falcata more like an axe?
Hey Matt do you have videos on dussages? I searched for it in your channel but did not find any.
Is there any particular difference between falchions & messers beyond handle construction? The way they were wielded, what they were used for, etc.
@scholagladiatoria would they just use the blunt end as an impact instrument? The back side is thick!
I'm trying to do research on a sword in my family crest. It is basically the same shape as Bartholomew Robert's sword - but it's of welsh/pictish origin, not eastern. Mainly, i'm trying to find the designation of the sword. Scimitar and Falchion just seem a bit off. Any help would be appreciated.
would it be more useful for siege warfare? and/or for close confines fighting?
Hey Matt, I know his is an old video but do you mind doing a test on some gabinson? If it cuts through it easily then it might give more weight to your theory.
Hey so I would like to know were you got your shield
Awesome video Matt, wouldn't the ideal target for a falchion be an opponent in Gambesson? Lower class soldiers (From what I know, I am by no means an expert!) that aren't equipped with chain in the 13th century primarilly wore hemp, gambesson and cloth generally, I imagine that the impact behind a cut from a falchion would do a number on those sorts of armours?
Damn, you got around to my point before the video ended, my bad for not waiting till the end hahaha.
Having only 1 edge also allows sides to descend towards each other at a sharper angle, which enhances soft material cutting properties. Your theory makes perfect sense.
Could it be a weapon for use against gambesson? They seem like good cutters. Since it is a sidearm it would be comfortable to carry and useful against the peasantry. Gambesson is pretty tough at times.
Very interesting explanation that you gave here! Talking about falchions being in fashion only for knights or men-at-arms... when I think of the armies from this period that were implemented by the rich Communes of northern Italy such as Milan, the falchion seemed to be the main weapon of the first line of infantry formations (together with a big squared shield). I would therefore say it wasn't a prerogative of the knights to use it. What do you think?