Medieval shield size manual#

In this period, the buckler shield was in vogue. According to them, it was one of the most “fashionable” weapons of the Renaissance period in Italy. The Bolognese fencing treatises by Antonio Manciolino and Achille Marozzo at the start of the 16th century in Italy discuss the use of these shields. The Italian style of fencing, which also included the buckler combat method, acquired significant clout among the elite in the 16th century. The information in this book suggests that buckler combat was widely practiced throughout Europe at the time.

Medieval shield size manual#

It is the earliest known surviving European combat manual and is currently stored in the Royal Armouries at Leeds, United Kingdom.

The manuscript only contains fighting techniques with a one-handed sword and buckler and thus represents the most comprehensive single source on dealing with this shield. I.33 and it was written around 1300 in Latin in the Holy Roman Empire which corresponds to Franconia in southern Germany. This specific manuscript is Royal Armouries Ms. The oldest of the manuscripts from the 13th to mid-14th centuries on the art of sword fighting describes the “sword and buckler” approach. They were traditionally employed by Scottish highlanders and were even present at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, when they were mostly utilized by officers. Counter-attacking with the buckler shield against the mordhau technique. It was most widely used by Italy and Spain throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. The same shield spread to Germany and England in the 14th century. The bucklers were quite common in mid-13th-century Iceland during the Age of the Sturlungs. This era includes the first documented use of the term in French literature. The shield was widely used in Western Europe throughout the 12th and 13th centuries. Before that, the shield boss design was already used on Roman shields.īoth the Celts and the Franks reportedly used this small shield. The buckler shields first appeared in Europe around 1100 AD, and the Byzantines (the Eastern Romans) popularized them in the 13th century, after which they spread throughout the continent. Shields worn by the Arab cavalry were originally 24 inches (60 cm) in diameter but were eventually trimmed down. The Arabs were the first people to start using fist shields. Its modest weight and compact size made it the weapon of choice among civilians. The buckler gradually became less useful as other forms of weaponry improved, although it was nevertheless often shown in combat scenes alongside the rapier, sword, dagger, and knife until the 17th century. A 14th–16th centuries buckler shield, Art Institute of Chicago, public domain. However, their presumed historical usage period currently ranges from the High Middle Ages (1000–1300 AD) into the Renaissance (14th–17th centuries). The rest of the shield was made as small as possible so that its user could swing the shield boss around more easily.īoth mounted and foot soldiers frequently used the buckler along with the one-handed sword in the 13th and 14th centuries. This central piece (umbo) was so effective that it paved the way for the invention of a new shield: the buckler shield. The shield’s design allowed the fist to rest just under the umbo, or at the level of the weapon’s center of gravity, for the best possible balance. It is an iron sphere in the shield’s center that allows more effective deflecting of sword attacks. The name comes from the Old French term bocler which means “ shield with a boss” and it points to the ancient shield design called shield boss or umbo. One votive specimen is seen below: Origin of the Buckler Shield ( Flickr) The use of bucklers on medals throughout classical antiquity indicated public promises made to the gods for the protection of a ruler such shields were known as votive bucklers and were displayed in public places like temples and shrines. They were single-handed shields that the warrior held in his fist, thus the name “fist shields.” Buckler Shield A buckler supported a handle on its backside. The primary use of this cold weapon was to complement a sword or spear. Typically made of metal, a buckler shield (German: faustschild French: boce Italian: brochiero) is a tiny round shield measuring between 8 and 16 inches (20–40 cm) in diameter.