Whether judicial trial by combat, a chivalric duel, or a deed of arms, the pollaxe was the primary weapon of choice between armoured men. By the fifteen century, the sword and dagger were considered secondary weapons, only capable of causing harm to an opponent by exploiting the small gaps in his plate armour. The pollaxe was essentially an axe, hammer, and spear affixed atop a sturdy shaft about the height of its wielder. Near the beginning of the fifteenth century, an anonymous Milanese fencing master in service to Philip II "the Bold" ...
What kind of armour would an English man-at-arms have worn about the time of the first battle of St. Albans in 1455? While question may sound simple and straight forward, the answer took more than 3 years to fully realize. The greatest obstacle was the fact that almost no armour of verifiably English manufacture has survived from the fifteenth century. I had to rely on one of the foremost experts on the subject: Dr. Tobias Capwell, curator of arms and armour at the Wallace Collection. Dr. Capwell has spent years studying monumental ...
Several months ago I made a fairly important resolution for 2017. This was not one of those half-hearted pledges to give up some enjoyably bad habit most people make on New Year’s Day only to succumb to temptation a few hours later. To be fair, like more than a few other resolutions I have previously made, there was not exactly a considerable amount of critical thinking involved. Nevertheless, it would require a major personal commitment to accomplish: I was going to the Days of Knights this year. Several months ago I made a decision ...
Although still several months away, I have already begun making preparations to attend the Days of Knights event in Oak Grove, Kentucky. I had an incredible time last year and learned quite a lot from long-time participants such as Ian LaSpina of Knyght Errant and Tom Biliter of Historically Patterned Mail. The Days of Knights is definitely one of the most anticipated events on my calendar. I intend to once again take part in the historical encampment as well as the Deed of Arms. Last year I set my pavilion up next to the renown La Belle Compagnie ...
In January 2015 I commissioned a new harness. I wanted to be as historically accurate as possible without having to pawn all of the wife’s heirlooms. I also hoped to find a complete harness rather than a composite one that had been assembled from multiple decades. That greatly reduced the number of options available. In the end I chose the harness once owned by Friedrich I, Kurfürst von der Pfalz, often referred to as Frederick the Victorious. Born in 1425 at ...
