this post was submitted on 04 Nov 2023
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As far as my understanding, it was. Long bowmen were far more valuable because the costs associated with losing a knight was high. Infantry were given various polearms, and cavalry (or knights on horses) were given lances and spears. The kinetic energy from horseback functioned as good or better than trying to wind up swings of a weapon. Also human mobility is less than that of a horse before even accounting for armor, so being demounted from your horse mean almost certain death.
Swords were a last resort. A "running away is better" type of option. Being good with your sword is like being good with martial arts today - better to have it even if you may not use it.
The point wasn’t that ranged attacks or siege or cavalry weapons are more important than melee weapons, though depending on the battle or the century, that may well be true.
The point was that when it comes to melee, the weapons used by your infantry was never swords. Swords are prestige weapons, expensive and heavy, wielded by wealthy knights and nobility for ceremonial purposes, duels, or tournaments. The king cannot afford to equip a thousand infantry with swords (the way you see in movies like Braveheart or LotR), and even if he could, the infantrymen have neither the skill nor strength to wield them for an extended duration.
Swords weren’t the weapon of last resort. They just weren’t included in the loadout at all, of the soldiers engaging in melee combat. So what did they use? Spears. That’s probably why the OP says spears are king.
But take it with a grain of salt cause I don’t actually know anything about medieval warfare. It’s just a thing I heard.
Actually there are swords that were in fact peasant level weapons, because they were farm equipment like machetes are
No, swords were mostly civilian self defense weapons and backup weapons as pistols are nowadays (and, mind you, even nowadays where governments have the money to equip every soldier with a rifle and a pistol, they don't).
The reason swords were not as widely used in battle as spears, axes, maces, polearms were is that these weapons are battlefield weapons and swords aren't. Why depends on the situation and time period. Sometimes because they're not as effective against armor, sometimes because they're too expensive, sometimes because they required more training than a pointy stick.
Btw, there was an empire that widely equipped it's armies with swords (through times) because it made sense with the rest of the kit, fighting style, enemies, etc. The roman legionnaires are most famously depicted with a gallius helmet, lorica segmentata, scutum pilum and gladius
[Citation needed]
Wow that’s a much more detailed reply than my un-coffeed brain can produce lol
Maybe I missed it but for long bows you said they delivery a lot of energy especially so on horse back but I remember reading archers would train for their entire life just because of the sheer upper body strength needed for the bow which I think is neat
An archer can hit a man 450-1000 feet away. What's a man clad in 200lbs armor gonna do? All he can do is take it. So the armor was sloped and thickened. Relying on horse speed to make them harder to hit.
I mean Ik I said they had lifelong training for that upper body strength but not 450-1k feet strength
This post is a great TIL :)