Hello people.

Again and again i fall in the contradiccions of the world browser sharing its unfaithful knowledge.
It is clear that during XV century knights and men-at-arms carried hand and a half swords into mounted or dismounted battle, as well as foot soldiers and mercenaries. But then, What happened to the knightly hand and a half swords in XVI century? Were them only used by foot mercenaries?
In some sites i found that longswords were rarely used during XVI century, becaming an infantry-only weapon, while in others i found that bastard swords were used (During the first half of the century since i haven´t found many examples of later longswords) by both mounted and foot troops.
Kind people gave me their opinions about that swords and their usage, and their knowledge helped me to guess that hand and a half swords probably were used by heavy cavalry soldiers too. I mean, maybe they were a bit long for melees but a lot of them are perfectly fit for single handed use, weighting around 1.5-3.xx pounds (Like the Durer and the English longsword http://www.myArmoury.com/review_aa_els.html / http://www.arms-n-armor.com/sword195.html)

So, Do you know if hand and a half longswords were used by heavy cavalry (Gendarmes, Condottieri and maybe Reiters too) during the first half of the XVI century, or the ¨knightly art of the bastardsword¨ was left aside for the infantry men?

Thanks guys.

Rodolfo,

I assume that your mention of the title of David Lindholm's book was unintended and has nothing to do with this post? I just want to double check.

Not unintended at all, but i´m not refering to the book itself. I´m refering to the fact that the longsword was considered as a ¨knightly¨ weapon during XV century, but XV century men-at-arms used to fight on foot too, so, What happened then in XVI century with the heavy cavalry wich never or rarelly used to dismount?

Anyway, i should edit it to avoid confusion.

Yes, I find the English Longsword, Durer Bastard Sword, Black Prince and the Edward III Sword by Arms & Armorall function beautifully one handed or two handed. I have all of these, plus the German Bastard Sword and the Highland Claymore.

Is there such a thing as too many fine quality swords?

Bob

Rodalpho mentioned:

Kind people gave me their opinions about that swords and their usage, and their knowledge helped me to guess that hand and a half swords probably were used by heavy cavalry soldiers too. I mean, maybe they were a bit long for melees but a lot of them are perfectly fit for single handed use, weighting around 1.5-3.xx pounds (Like the Durer and the English longsword

This is what I was responding to in just a short message.

Bob

Rodalpho mentioned the Durer and the English Longsword, that's where I got side tracked.

Sorry about that. :)
Bob

Ok, finally i found a mounted armour of the period with a hand-and-a-half sword. I have a lot of XVI century armours photos wielding longswords but most of them were Landsknetchs and some men-at-arms (On foot, not mounted).
Anyway, thanks for you help.

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