Medieval Mondays: The Curious Weapons of Henry VIII

Henry VIII ruled England from 1509 to 1547 and was famous for overfondness for eating and bumping off wives. It's often forgotten that he was a capable military leader who turned the British navy into something that would be respected the world over for the next 500 years.

As a man of military interests, he collected a large variety of weapons and armor. Many of them are now in the Royal Armouries, including these two strange weapons.

The first is a what's called a Holy Water Sprinkler, basically a heavy spiked club. This one has an extra feature, though. Included in the head are three short pistols. You can see the touch hole for one of them in this photo.

Another example is this metal buckler with a pistol. Firearms were just coming into their own at this time, developing from the medieval handgonne to superior matchlock and wheellock weapons. The shield is richly engraved and like the Holy Water Sprinkler doesn't appear to ever have been used. In fact, there's no record of these combination weapons ever being issued to troops. They do look cool, though, and are tempting to add to a story sometime!

Estonian armor from the early Middle Ages

Travel writer and novelist Sean McLachlan sent in this interesting photo from his recent trip to Estonia. Sean writes:

"I spotted this reconstructed armor in Kiek in de Kök tower in the capital Tallinn. The city is one of the best-preserved medieval old towns in Europe, and this tower is now a museum. Before the medieval city, there was a hillfort at nearby Iru hill from the 6-11th century. Among the many finds from the excavation was this armor.

"It's what's called scale armor, an improvement on leather armor that added metal scales for extra protection. At this period, plate armor didn't exist, and even in more technologically advanced regions like France soldiers wore leather or chain mail."

Sean is the author of the Civil War novel A Fine Likeness, available in paperback and ebook. The ebook is only $2.99 at the moment.

Do you have any interesting photos to share of medieval or Renaissance subjects? Drop me a line!

Did the Battle of Hastings really happen where we're told it did?

The Battle of Hastings is perhaps the most famous fight in medieval history. When King Harold died with an arrow through the eye (the most popular theory, there are others) and William got his new nickname "the Conqueror" on that day in 1066, the history of England and Western Europe changed.

For centuries we've been told that the battle happened on Senlac Hill near the town of Hastings. Indeed, Battle Abbey, commissioned by WIlliam himself, stands atop it.

But now some historians doubt that story, and they have two different candidates for the battle site. One suggests that the battle happened a mile north on Caldbec Hill, while the other says it happened two miles south of town at Crowhurst.

The Caldbec Hill site is the most intriguing. It's a steeper hill than the gently sloping Senlac Hill, and contemporary accounts said the hill atop which Harold and his Saxons stood was as steep one. On the other hand, a thousand years of weathering could have mellowed out Senlac hill. More telling is the fact that no weapons or bones have ever been found on Senlac Hill and that it was cultivated at the time, while accounts of the battle said it happened on unploughed land.

Also, the Normans erected a cairn of stones called a "Mount-joie" on the battlefield to celebrate their victory. The summit of Caldbec Hill is still known as Mountjoy. There's also the account of John of Worcester who that the battle was fought nine miles from Hastings, the same distance as Caldbec Hill.

The Crowhurst site is supported by a historian who has made a close study of medieval documents and looked at the landscape shown on the Bayeaux Tapestry and said that Crowhurst is the best candidate.

The Battlefields Trust, which manages the site, says in a press release says that they still think the traditional place is the correct one. They stated there's insufficient evidence for the Crowhurst site to be considered, and that they're still analyzing the argument for Caldbec Hill.

I'll have more on this as this story develops. Stay tuned!

Top photo by Antonio Borillo. Bottom photo from Wikipedia.

Medieval Mondays: The Ahlspiess, a curious weapon of the Middle Ages

In this engraving we see two footmen accompanying a knight and carrying one of the lesser-known weapons of the Middle Ages. It's called tan ahlspiess, and was developed in Germany in the 15th century. It consisted of a long steel spike with a quadrangular profile, a bit like a giant leather punch or awl, from which it gets its name.

By the 15th century, armor had reached the peak of its design, and German armorers were some of the best. Thus it's not surprising that a weapon specifically designed to punch through thick metal plate was developed there. Like its namesake, the ahlspiess was a heavy spike with a sharp point, able to deliver the maximum force to a minimum of space. Surviving examples weighed up to 2.5 kilos (6.6 pounds) and wielded by a strong soldier could be formidable indeed.

As you can see, they were equipped with a small roundel between the metal spike and wooden handle in order to protect the hand. It seems to me that the roundel was a bit too small to be very effective, but I suppose a larger one would have made the weapon unwieldy. They were generally about 2.5 meters (7.5 feet) long.

The ahlspiess came almost too late. Medieval handgonnes were already becoming common on the battlefield, marking the beginning of the end of heavy armor. Leather armor had always been common as a cheaper substitute and soon grew in popularity as firearms became more effective. Soon there was no need for the ahlspeiss and it was discarded by the 17th century. 

All in all, an interesting weapon, although the flail remains my favorite medieval weapon!

Leather armor in the Middle Ages

In the first chapter of my fantasy novel Roots Run Deep, a team of goblinkin are preparing for a raid on a human city.
 
Like anyone who lived on the Reservation, Kip went armed at all times. Not that she had much. Her tattered leather jerkin gave scant protection, and for weapons she carried a flint knife and a tfaa, a traditional goblin fighting stick. A balanced, two foot-long rod carved from ironwood, the tfaa didn’t look like much, but in skilled hands it could disarm and cripple a swordsman. Prenta had gotten rid of her showy clothes and dressed in a more practical leather jerkin similar to Kip’s.

These impoverished goblinkin are wearing leather armor because they can't afford anything better and their human rulers forbid them from bearing metal weapons and armor. (This ban doesn't last, but that comes later in the story. . .) Leather armor is a staple of fantasy fiction and roleplaying games, yet many people don't realize just how common it was in medieval warfare. Even knights wore it.

Leather armor goes back to ancient times and continued in use through the Middle Ages and into the Renaissance. This picture shows the shoulder and upper arm portions of an elegant suit of leather dating to the Italian Renaissance, courtesy of the Schola Forum. As you can see, it looks much like regular metal armor, and many historians believe that it was worn as much as or even more than metal armor. A suit of plate was hot and heavy, so on the march or during a friendly tournament the knight may choose to weather cooler leather. The rank and file would also be fitted with leather and perhaps some portions of metal armor for vulnerable places such as the head and chest.

While leather was much cheaper, it provided pretty good protection. Regular soft leather wasn't much help, but combined with quilted padding provided some protection, especially against blunt weapons such as maces.

More effective was cuir bouilli--boiled leather. If you soak leather in water and then place it in boiling water, it becomes elastic and pliable. It soon begins to shrink, thicken, and harden. As it's hardening, the leather is hammered onto shaped blocks to create breastplates, greaves, vambraces, and anything else. A full suit of armor could be made in this way.

The 14th century French chronicler Jean Froissart claimed that it was "leather that no iron can pierce" and while that may be overstating the case, leather armor certainly gave good protection. Games such as D&D probably undervalue its effectiveness. Modern experiments show that the average sword blow wouldn't get through, although a good English longbow would make short work of a leather breastplate! This basic article (PDF) explains the technique. Also check out this thread from Schola Forum for some more insights and pictures.

The picture below from The Historians' History of the World shows some improvements on leather armor, with overlapping metal scales, discs, and rings. These were all cheaper yet pretty effective alternatives to full plate and variants of these were used from ancient times into the Renaissance.

Medieval Mondays: The Iron Arm of Götz von Berlich

"I will crush you."

The German knight Götz von Berlich (c.1480-1562) had a nasty reputation. The veteran of numerous battles, he estimated that he had fought 15 feuds in his own name and many others for friends. In 1525 joined the German Peasant's revolt and led the peasants against the Holy Roman Empire.

"The peasants are revolting, and I'm revolting too!"

Perhaps he got his bad attitude when he lost his right hand and forearm during the siege of Landshuf in 1504. A cannonball hit his sword, making it swipe down to cut off his own limb! That's enough to put anyone in a permanently bad mood.

Luckily, craftsmen in this period were skilled at making prosthetics for just such occasions. They made him an iron limb that could open and close it fingers, so it could still be used in battle. He became known at Götz of the Iron Hand. His hand was so well made it could even hold a pen. Perhaps he used it when he wrote his memoirs.

Just goes to show that the late Medieval/early Renaissance period was more sophisticated than we generally believe.

Images courtesy Wikipedia.

Medieval Mondays: Visiting Ukhaidher Castle, Iraq

Today, our sometimes guest blogger Sean McLachlan returns with an amazing story. He just got back from 17 days in Iraq. That's right, he actually visited Iraq as a tourist. Follow the link to read his fascinating series. Today he's talking to us about exploring an early medieval castle in the desert.

About 50 km (30 miles) southwest of Karbala, there's a mystery standing in the middle of the desert. It's called Ukhaidher ("small green place") Castle and is said to have been built in the 8th century, right at the beginning of the Abbasid dynasty. An oasis stands nearby, hence the name.

Beyond that, little is known about Ukhaidher Castle. Some believe it actually dates from before the Islamic era, to the time of a Christian Arab named Ukhaidher who was expelled from Arabia in 635 AD. Others say it was a Muslim hunting lodge, or a retirement palace for an aged prince.

Whether it has its origins in the pre-Islamic era or not, it was certainly used by the Abbasids and it certainly is impressive. Its walls stand 21 meters (69 ft.) high.

A very early mosque on the site created controversy when it was excavated. The miqrab, or niche that is supposed to face Mecca, appears to face Jerusalem instead. This isn't the only such mosque from the early days of Islam not to face Mecca. The Iraqi archaeologist who discovered this had his funding cancelled and never got to publish his findings. Unfortunately when I visited I didn't have a compass with me, so I can't say for sure where it points. I did get to climb the partially ruined minaret and take some shots from a good vantage point.

Like many archaeological sites, it was heavily restored during Saddam Hussein's rule, more with an eye for grandeur than historical accuracy. The castle was in good enough condition, however, that this particular reconstruction is better than most.

Readers into all things medieval might want to check out my post on exploring medieval Baghdad.

Thanks for having me, A.J.! Besides blogging for Gadling, I run Civil War Horror, dedicated to dark fiction, the American Civil War, and the Wild West. Guest bloggers are always welcome. I'm the author of numerous books including A Fine Likeness, a historical novel set in Civil War Missouri, and The Night the Nazis Came to Dinner, a collection of dark speculative fiction. The electronic editions are both on sale at the moment. You can also check me out on Twitter, Facebook, Goodreads, and my Amazon author's page.

 All photos copyright Sean McLachlan.

Medieval Mondays: Armor wasn't as cumbersome as commonly thought

One of the common misconceptions about medieval armor was that it was incredibly cumbersome. An oft-repeated tale was that knights had to use a crane to get themselves onto their horses. This seems to come from Henry VIII, who at his fattest could barely move himself, let alone a load of armor.

As this video briefly and clearly shows, armor had a lot more movement than generally thought.

In The Face of Battle, John Keegan points out that the load for the average infantryman stayed the same for much of history. The Tommies going "over the top" in World War One carried just as much weight as an armed and armored medieval knight. Both of these warriors could climb, get up from a prone position, and manage a lumbering run.

The real problem for knights was heat exhaustion. With the faceplate down and most of the body covered, medieval knights often passed out from their exertions. This was an especially serious issue when fighting the Crusades in the Middle East.

For more detailed coverage, check out this lecture by Dirk H. Breiding, Assistant Curator, Department of Arms and Armor, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Aleppo souk, one end of the Silk Road, destroyed in Syrian revolution

I was very sad to read today in the Irish Times that the medieval souk in Aleppo, Syria, was destroyed in the fighting between the dictatorship and antigovernment forces.

Called Al-Madina (the City), it was a cluster of covered markets connected to one another and built around the 13th century. Located close to the Mediterranean, Aleppo acted as the western end of the Silk Road. Think of all the cultures that must have mingled in these arched hallways and little shops! Hopefully the stonework has survived and they'll be able to rebuild this historic gathering place and UNESCO World Heritage Site.

The top photo comes from some guy calling himself farflungistan. The other one was taken by Zaid El-Hoiydi, who has a really cool website of photos about Syria.

Irish castle for sale: a bit of a fixer-upper but a bargain at €75,000

If you're like me, you've always dreamed of living in your own castle. Well, if you happen to have €75,000 ($97,850) you can! It's called Ballyfinboy Castle and it's an easy commute from Limerick, Ireland.

The castle was built around 1480. The first record of the castle was when it was captured in 1599. The owner, Phillip Kennedy, and men were all put to the sword and the castle was broken up enough that it could never be used again.

That's where YOU come in. Sure, it needs some work, but wouldn't it make a nice home? You even get two-and-a-half acres of land and a nice Sheela-na-gig, locally known as "the Dancer", positioned high up one of the walls. Hit the link to find out more about these interesting carvings. The castle is for sale from Premier Properties Ireland. You can see more photos on their website and also here.

Medieval Mondays: Qasr Kharana castle, Jordan

I was blanking on what to write about for this week's Medieval Mondays post until I saw this photo as the image of the day on Wikimedia Commons. It shows the desert castle of Qasr Kharana in Jordan.

This is one of the oldest Arab castles in the Middle East, having been built around 710, according to an inscription in one of the rooms. As any student of the Middle Ages knows, the Crusaders were impressed by Middle Eastern castles and were inspired to make thier own in Europe. There had been castles in Europe before the Crusades of course, but most were crude forts like the Motte and Bailey castles.

Qasr Kharana may be better called a fortified place rather than a castle. Some say it may have been a caravanserai or the stronghold of a local ruler. Nobody knows for sure.

The plan is simple: a square 115 feet to a side with a series of small round projecting towers. Some sixty rooms in two stories look onto an interior courtyard. This layout is similar to the typical caravanserai but Qasr Kharana isn't on any known early medieval trade route. On the other hand, many wealthy homes also had this layout.

Some researchers suggest that Qasr Kharana was only inhabited on a temporary basis. They point to the small cistern and the absence of a bath (de rigueur for wealhty medieval Arabs) as proof that it wasn't inhabited year-round. It may have been a governor's temporary abode while meeting with and collecting tribute from the Bedouin.

Medieval Mondays: What we stand to lose in Timbuktu

If you follow the international news, you've probably heard there's a civil war in Mali. The northern half of the country has broken away and formed the nation of Azawad.

This new nation is itself having a civil war, with part of the territory run by Tuareg tribesmen seeking a homeland, and part run by militant Islamists who want to create a hardline religious state. Many of them are mercenaries who fought for Gaddafi in the Libyan civil war and fled to Mali loaded with weapons and equipment.

Unfortunately, the Islamists' area of control includes Timbuktu, the fabled trading center near the River Niger and the edge of the Sahara. From the 12th century AD it was a center of learning with a large university, a flourishing book trade, and many resident scientists. It was the center of a tolerant brand of Sufi Islam that sought to learn from the world, not change it.

The fundamentalists, who called themselves Ansar Dine, have decided the many medieval shrines of Muslim saints are against Islam and are systematically destroying them. If that's not bad enough, the city is home to hundreds of thousands of medieval manuscripts, many of which have not been copied. If Ansar Dine decides these need to be burned, priceless documents of the past like this early astronomical treatise will disappear forever.

As usual with militant religious groups, Ansar Dine isn't exactly holy. UNICEF says they are forcing children to serve as soldiers and sex slaves. Why is it that religious control always ends up being about hurting kids? So far, world leaders have done nothing but wring their hands and say tsk tsk. Timbuktu doesn't have any oil, so like Syria, the people and their past will be decimated before anything is done.

BBC has a good slideshow of Timbuktu's endangered treasures here.


Photo courtesy Wikimedia Commons.

Medieval Mondays: Female rebels in the Middle Ages

Last week I talked about Hussite war wagons, which a couple of readers pointed out were essentially medieval tanks. Another curious aspect of the Hussite peasant army was that many of the fighters were women.

This is a cover shot of some Hussite figures distributed by Kingmaker Miniatures. It shows burly peasant women wielding flails. Normally used for threshing grain, they were just as effective at threshing skulls. Records show that women were involved in all aspects of the rebellion, although they were generally left out of pictorial depictions.

A recent BBC article also talks about the role of women in the 1381 Peasant's Revolt. It turns out some of the main leaders were women. This was not mentioned or downplayed by contemporary chroniclers and thus the fact was missed by later scholars. Now new studies of the trials of captured rebels show that a good number were women. Check out the link to learn more.

Women had a strong role in medieval peasant society and were treated by men as near equals in many areas. This was not the case between middle- and upper-class men and women.

Medieval Mondays: Hussite War Wagons

Warriors in the Middle Ages thought up all sorts of strange weapons. One of the strangest was the war wagon, developed during the Hussite Wars in Bohemia from 1419-1436.

The war started when Jan Hus led a protest movement against the sale of indulgences and other corrupt practices by the Catholic Church. He was assassinated in 1415 while attending negotiations with the Church, and his supporters rose up in revolt against the ruling Holy Roman Empire and the Church itself. They called themselves Hussites after their slain leader and rallied around Jan Zizka, a one-eyed knight. The religious revolt soon took up the banner of Czech independence.

Zizka knew the peasants wouldn’t stand a chance against knights, so he converted farm wagons into mobile forts by covering them with wooden planks and chaining them together. These wagons could be drawn into a square or circle called a wagenburg.

Each wagon was protected by wooden siding equipped with loopholes. They were crewed by handgonners, crossbowmen, and peasants armed with flails and halberds. The crossbowmen and handgonners fired from the loopholes while those with melee weapons protected the gaps between the wagons while themselves being protected by men holding large shields called pavises.

As you can see, most of the wagenburg equipment could be found or easily made in any peasant village. Flails were everyday items, and any blacksmith could make a halberd or simply adapt a farm implement and put it on the end of a pole. He could also make the simple handgonnes of the time.

The peasants could maintain devastating volleys or a continuous fire. The wagons even carried a supply of rocks so those not armed with a ranged weapon could toss the rocks while their comrades reloaded. Other wagons had cannons mounted on them. The enemy would attack and the heavy fire from the wagons would disorganize their ranks. Then part of the wagenburg would open up and the Hussites would counter-attack.

Enemy knights fell for this tactic again and again, convinced they could easily beat the “peasant rabble”. Eventually they began to learn and defeated some Hussite armies by luring them out of their protection with fake retreats or destroying wagons with artillery. Other armies began to adopt the wagenburg but newer, more mobile artillery eventually made the tactic obsolete.

For more on the Hussite Wars and early black powder weapons, see my friend and fellow blogger Sean McLachlan's book; Medieval Handgonnes: The First Black Powder Infantry Weapons.

Photos from Wikimedia Commons.

 

Medieval Mondays: Chinese repeating crossbow

While we tend to think of automatic weapons as a product of the nineteenth century, the Chinese had developed a multi-shot crossbow as early as the fourth century BC. This crossbow had a magazine that could hold up to ten bolts.

The mechanism was brilliant in its simplicity. A single lever pulled back the string while a bolt from the magazine dropped into place. Once fired, the lever simply had to be pulled back again to drop another bolt into place. A more detailed description of its construction can be read here.

The repeating crossbow was held at the hip or on a stand and was generally used to defend fortified areas. A second person could stand to the side feeding bolts into the magazine, allowing the crossbowman to fire continuously at a rate of about a shot every second to a range of perhaps 80 yards. Accuracy would have been poor since it wasn't fired from the shoulder like other crossbows, and it was somewhat weaker than regular crossbows. Still, a few dozen of these on a rampart firing at a mass of charging enemy soldiers must have had an incredible effect.

Such a useful weapon had a long life. They saw service as late as the 1894-1895 war with Japan. By then, however, their worth was somewhat limited. The Japanese had modern repeating rifles that were far deadlier at a longer range. The Japanese won that war.

Photo courtesy Wikipedia.

Medieval Mondays: Mass grave from the Battle of Lützen being excavated

Archaeologists are excavating a mass grave from the Battle of Lützen, a 1632 battle in Germany that was a turning point in the Thirty Years War.

The team has found an estimated 75 skeletons, all male and apparently stripped since no artifacts or traces of clothing have been found. The bones will be analyzed to find cause of death, health, and age. Isotope analysis will determine where they originated from. At the moment it is unknown which army the grave represents.

The Battle of Lützen was fought between the Protestant army of Sweden under the famous general Gustavus Adolphus and the Catholic army of the Holy Roman Empire. It was unusual in several ways, the first being that it was fought in November, when most Renaissance armies preferred to be in winter quarters.

It was also unusual in that the Protestants won the battle and lost in the long term. After a hard fight they broke the Catholic army, which fled in partial disorder. Gustavus Adolphus, however, was cut down by Catholic cavalry and with his genius for leadership and strategy gone, the Protestant cause lost much of the wind from its sails. Sweden lost its prime place in the Protestant coalition, although the war ended in the Protestants' favor.

Medieval Mondays: Reconstructions of Motte-and-Bailey castles

I've always been fond of motte-and-bailey castles. Perhaps that's because I've always been fascinated with the origins of things, like the world's oldest condom. Familiar to any student of the Middle Ages, these rough and ready fortifications provided a cheap and quick way to defend your territory.

For those who aren't as obsessed with castles as I am, a motte-and-bailey castle is an artificial mound (motte) with a keep and wall on top, and a lower enclosed area (bailey) surrounded by a wall. Both parts are surrounded by a ditch, the soil of which was used to make the Motte. An artist's rendering of one can been seen in the above photo courtesy Duncan Grey.

These castles had the advantage of being able to be built by unskilled labor in a matter of months or even weeks, as opposed to stone castles that required highly skilled artisans working for years. The most famous are those of the Normans, who needed lots of quick castles as they expanded through the British Isles.

Trolling through the Interwebs the other day I discovered that in at least two places there are reconstructions of motte-and-bailey castles. The one pictured above is Saint Sylvain d'Anjou dans le Maine et Loire, France. The photo is courtesy Wikipedia. The bottom one is from Turmhügelburg in Nienthal von Lütjenburg, northern Germany, and is also courtesy Wikipedia.

As you can see, neither has a very high motte. This was common, although we tend to think of them having very tall mottes, perhaps because the taller examples have survived better and were often maintained and had stone keeps built atop them at later periods. Windsor castle in England is the most famous example.

While they don't look like much, you must remember that the heyday for these castles was the late 10th through early 12th centuries AD. Siege technology was at a low ebb in Northern Europe, armies were small, and feudal levies wouldn't hang around long enough to commit to an extended siege. Thus the humble motte-and-bailey castle was a formidable defense.

Medieval weapons in the American Civil War

One of John Brown's pikes. Credit: Hugh Talman (Smithsonian Institution)

Today I'm proud to host the first stop on a book tour for A Fine Likeness, a historical fantasy novel set in the Civil War. It's written by Sean McLachlan, a historian who guest blogged here before about medieval handgonnes. Today he tells us how the American Civil War still saw the use of some very medieval-style weapons. Take it away Sean!

When the Civil War started in 1861, most Americans had no experience with warfare and were completely unprepared. This led them to use some weapons that wouldn't have looked out of place in the Middle Ages.

This started even before the war, when radical abolitionist John Brown raided the federal arsenal at Harper's Ferry in 1859. His wanted to steal the weapons to arm a planned slave insurrection. Before the raid, Brown had a blacksmith make 500 pikes like the one pictured above. They had a 9 ½ to 10-inch long double-edged blade of forged cast steel and a 4 ½ inch wide iron guard fitted onto a six-foot ash handle. Brown and his followers used these pikes (as well as some more effective guns) to take the armory, but were soon captured by troops commanded by Robert E. Lee (!) and the planned insurrection never happened.

Once the actual war started in 1861, volunteers showed up with whatever weapons they could get. A report from the Battle of Lexington, Missouri said one rebel carried a corn scythe. At the Battle of Athens, Missouri, that same year, the rebels had a cannon made from a hollowed out log. It blew up the first time it was fired.

Rebel with "knife" (Library of Congress)

Soldiers also carried swords and long knives that often saw use in hand-to-hand combat. Notorious rebel guerrilla Bloody Bill Anderson, who is a character in my novel, carried a tomahawk and a Bowie knife; the latter he used to scalp his victims. In the Indian Territory (modern Oklahoma) and the Far West, native Americans fought on both sides. They also operated independently, taking advantage of the war to raid white settlers. While many had guns, some still used tomahawks, spears, and bows and arrows.

The Civil War was a savage conflict, and the savagery of the medieval battlefield, with its fearsome weapons, was part of that grim reality.

A Fine Likeness is available as an ebook at Amazon, Amazon UK, Amazon DE, and Amazon FR and will soon be available in print and on Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. the back cover blurb is below:

A Confederate guerrilla and a Union captain discover there’s something more dangerous in the woods than each other.

Jimmy Rawlins is a teenaged bushwhacker who leads his friends on ambushes of Union patrols. They join infamous guerrilla leader Bloody Bill Anderson on a raid through Missouri, but Jimmy questions his commitment to the Cause when he discovers this madman plans to sacrifice a Union prisoner in a hellish ritual to raise the Confederate dead.

Richard Addison is an aging captain of a lackluster Union militia. Depressed over his son’s death in battle, a glimpse of Jimmy changes his life. Jimmy and his son look so much alike that Addison becomes obsessed with saving him from Bloody Bill. Captain Addison must wreck his reputation to win this war within a war, while Jimmy must decide whether to betray the Confederacy to stop the evil arising in the woods of Missouri.

 

Medieval Mondays: The kettle hat, humble helm of the medieval soldier

While movies and novels generally focus on the exploits of medieval knights, it was the simple footman who did most of the fighting in medieval battles. Clad in chainmail or leather armor, and armed with spears, axes, flails, and very few swords, they were the humble grunts who bore the brunt of battle.

But they weren't faceless. In fact, their faces could be clearly seen because they didn't wear the cumbersome and restricting closed helms of the knights. One of the most popular helmet types for the regular foot soldier was the kettle hat. You can see a few in the medieval manuscript illustration above. The most clear example is the fellow climbing the ladder to the right.

The kettle hat had a broad brim to protect from attacks from above, whether from horsemen or objects dropped from castle walls. This brim also helped protect the eyes from rain. You don't want water in your eyes when you're in hand-to-hand combat! Cheap and quick to make, the kettle hat was popular from the 11th century through the Middle Ages. It was even turned upside down and used as a cooking pot!

The kettle hat was revived in the First World War by several armies and used by the Commonwealth forces through World War Two. Below is a postcard from World War One showing a kettle hat not much different than the Medieval type.

 

Could clerics shed blood? The example of Bishop Odo

Anyone who played D&D in their youth knows that clerics aren't allowed to shed blood, and thus have to carry maces instead of swords. I always thought that was a ridiculous rule first because it wouldn't work--brain someone with a mace and see just how much blood you get--and second because I failed to see the historical connection. Medieval priests often fought, although technically they were not supposed to take up arms of any kind. So I always wondered where Gygax and Company got this idea.

Perhaps they got it from Bishop Odo, William the Conqueror's half brother. The Bayeux Tapestry, which Odo probably commissioned, shows him riding into battle flourishing a club with the caption, "Hic Odo Eps (Episcopus) Baculu(m) Tenens Confortat Pueros", in English "Here Odo the Bishop holding a club strengthens the boys".

So he may not even have used his club as a weapon, but rather as sort of a command staff like the later swagger stick. But another part of the tapestry shows William the Conqueror with a club. Also, in the age of chainmail a club wasn't such a bad weapon. Not as good as a flail (my personal favorite) and certainly not as good as the later medieval handgonnes, but not a bad choice for someone who has sworn never to take up a sword. Odo led troops in battle on numerous occasions, so he might have discovered how effective a club is firsthand.

The goblinkin in my fantasy novel Roots Run Deep are also saddled with primitive weapons. The ruling humans treat them as second-class citizens and, like any group of oppressors, fear those they oppress. Thus they ban goblins and hobgoblins from using metal weapons. Instead our green friends use mauls, quarterstaves, flint knives, clubs like good old Bishop Odo, and a special fighting stick called a tfaa.