Copyright 2006 T. Sheil & A. Sheil All Rights Reserved
Mankind’s first weapon was likely a heavy stick or stone used
to batter an adversary, be it human or animal. The simple club was as easy as grabbing
a hunk of wood. It still is. I remember the original Howard Beach
case in the 1980s, where assailants grabbed “tree limbs” to batter a
victim. There are refinements. The policeman’s nightstick, the riot
baton and the baseball bat are all simple clubs, turned on a lathe.
A wooden club can be used to beat a person. It rarely leads to fatalities. (This is why it is used in police work.) Primitive man solved the problem of lethality by attaching a stone weight to one end. A heavy stone of the right shape could crack a skull, killing the enemy. Whether he died slowly or quickly was not as important as putting him down quickly. The stone-enhanced club, known as a war club, did just that. It could shatter the cranium of a man and that of a mammoth.
There were two refinements of the war club. One was the use of a stone that had a sharp edge. This was the tomahawk and the hatchet. Rather than better, it cut deeply. The other was to use a stone whose shape concentrated force in a smaller area. An egg-shaped stone is one type that would do that. This collected all the force of a heavy blow into an area the size of a 25-cent piece (about 25mm). Modern scientists would measure this in “pounds per square inch” pressure. Crude stones might spread the damage over two or three inches, where the shaped stone tripled impact by placing it all in one.
As humanity advanced technologically, so did its clubs. The Egyptians developed a club head that
tapered, with the top being a tick disk shape. Impact would be concentrated by curve of
the disk. The unique shape not only
enhanced blows to the side and top of the head. It could be used to slam straight ahead,
hitting the face, sternum and ribs.
Maces were common in very ancient times. However, during the Hellenic and Roman era, they fell out of favor somewhat. The use of metal helmets and the partial nature of body armor made cutting weapons a better choice. Battering gave way to spear thrusts, sword slashes and hacking with axes.
The Middle Ages encouraged a return of the mace. Heavy armor necessitated powerful weapons that could break or batter through it. The Mace also allowed Christian clergy to fight, seeing as it battered rather than shed blood. Priests and bishops could not use swords or blood-letting instruments, but a loophole in Holy Writ gave them free reign to bash, smash and slam their way to victory. Yes indeed, good reader, here is a case where choice of weapons was not by battlefield necessity, but politics.
Improving armor meant improving maces. The mace came into its own due to its ability to break armor. The favored type was a flanged weapon, consisting of several vanes gathered on a stick. A flange concentrated force to a very small area, penetrating armor and whatever was inside it. The common type of spiked mace also appeared. In real maces, spikes could be very long for the same purpose of concentrating force. A mace also benefited from the increased impetus of a charging horse, making it a terrific close weapon for knightly cavalry. German footsoldiers mounted spiked maces on long pole for use against cavalry.
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One variant of the mace was the morningstar. This was essentially a handle with a
chain attached. At the end of the
chain was a spiked metal ball.
Flanged and other mace styles did not work be4cause they rely on a fixed
shaft. The ball mace used
centrifugal force for increased impact.
It was a dangerous weapon for both enemy and used. Without training and skill, the spinning
ball could be deflected back onto its owner with nasty results. Some footsoldiers mounted morningstars
on poles, but there were uncommon.
The morningstar was used mostly from horseback. It benefited from the added force of the
charging horse.
There are weapons whose device was from peasantry rather than soldiery. Such was a weapon similar in principle to the moningstar: the flail. A flail was a peasant tool used for threshing wheat. It would be used top beat a pile of wheat, knocking kernels from the stalk. Any resemblance to the Okinawan nunchaku and Chinese three-sectional staff are no coincidence. Nunchaku are Japanese rice flails, and the sectional staff was based on flails used in China.
Flails were initially used “as is” by peasants. It did not take long for some military thinker to replace one of the poles with a short, heavy, spiked head. The “war flail” was one of several club derivatives.
You may notice that some maces that they have a spike or knob on top. Many also have a knob or spike on the bottom of the handle. A knight could bash with either end, when the fighting got too close. The reason for a spike or knob atop maces and axes was a simple combat technique. A fighter would slam his weapon downward onto the arm or shield of an enemy, forcing it down. When he pushed down far enough to reveal the enemy behind it, the fighter would thrust forward. Another technique was to take a mace in two hands and ram forward or upward with the knob or spike on top. He doubled his impact, giving the Medieval equivalent of an uppercut to the armored jaw
Maces fell out of favor as the musket’s popularity grew. Rapiers, pikes and other polearms were favored against the partial armor of the 17th century. By 1650 c.e., the mace had all but disappeared from the battlefield.