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Guisarme
A guisarme (sometimes gisarme, giserne or bisarme) is a pole weapon used in Europe primarily between 1000 and 1400. Its origin is likely Germanic, from the Old High German , literally "weeding iron". Like many medieval polearms, the exact early form of the weapon is hard to define from literary references, and the identification of surviving weapons can be speculative. Possible interpretations of form Two main modern schools of thought exist: # Like most polearms the guisarme was developed by peasants by combining hand tools with long poles: in this case by putting a pruning hook onto a spear shaft. According to Sir Guy Francis Laking, among the polearms, the guisarme was second only to the spear in importance for the medieval soldier class. In fact, it was so effective by the 13th century there was active support for its banishment from the battlefield. While early designs were simply a hook on the end of a long pole, later designs implemented a small reverse spike on the back ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pole Weapon
A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for both thrusting and throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When warfare would break out and the belligerents had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, leaders would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively minimal, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favored weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over. Polearms can be divided into three broad categories: those ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Polearms
A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, thereby extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for both thrusting and throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When warfare would break out and the belligerents had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, leaders would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively minimal, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favored weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over. Polearms can be divided into three broad categories: those ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sir Gawain And The Green Knight
''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel; it draws on Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations. The story describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and a day. Gawai ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
George Shipway
George Shipway (25 May 1908–1982) was a British author best known for his historical novels, but he also tried his hand at political satire in his book ''The Chilian Club''. Military career George Frederick Morgan Shipway was born on 25 May 1908 at Allahbad in India and was educated at Clifton. He then attended the Royal Military College, Sandhurst and was commissioned on to the Unattached List for the Indian Army on 30 August 1928. He arrived in India on 5 October 1928 and was attached to a British regiment: the 2nd Battalion The Prince of Wales's Volunteers (South Lancashire), for one year from 14 October 1928. This was a standard practice, intended to enable junior officers on the Unattached List to gain practical military experience in an Indian environment before joining their regiments. After his year Shipway was posted to the 13th Duke of Connaught's Own Lancers on 20 November 1929. Shipway was later to wryly claim that his motive in joining an Indian cavalry regiment w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Olivier De La Marche
Olivier de la Marche (1425–1502) was a courtier, soldier, chronicler and poet in the last decades of the independent Duchy of Burgundy. He was close to Charles the Bold, and after his death held the important position of maître d'hotel to his daughter Mary of Burgundy, and her husband, and was sent on a mission as ambassador to France. He saw at close hand the dispute over Flanders between the kingdom of France and the dynasty of the Habsburgs after Charles' death. The area then held a central place in the Empire over which Charles V and his successors wanted hegemony Hegemony (, , ) is the political, economic, and military predominance of one State (polity), state over other states. In Ancient Greece (8th BC – AD 6th ), hegemony denoted the politico-military dominance of the ''hegemon'' city-state over oth .... His best-known work is his memoirs, which were published in 1562. References External links * * 1425 births 1502 deaths Duchy of Burgundy 15th-cen ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
John Mandeville
Sir John Mandeville is the supposed author of ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'', a travel memoir which first circulated between 1357 and 1371. The earliest-surviving text is in French. By aid of translations into many other languages, the work acquired extraordinary popularity. Despite the extremely unreliable and often fantastical nature of the travels it describes, it was used as a work of reference: Christopher Columbus, for example, was heavily influenced by both this work and Marco Polo's earlier '' Travels''. Identity of the author In his preface, the compiler calls himself a knight, and states that he was born and bred in England, in the town of St Albans. Although the book is real, it is widely believed that "Sir John Mandeville" himself was not. Common theories point to a Frenchman by the name of Jehan à la Barbe. Other possibilities are discussed below. Some recent scholars have suggested that ''The Travels of Sir John Mandeville'' was most likely written by ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Romaunt Of The Rose
''The Romaunt of the Rose'' (''The Romaunt'') is a partial translation into Middle English of the French allegorical poem, ''Le Roman de la Rose'' (''Le Roman''). Originally believed to be the work of Chaucer, ''the Romaunt'' inspired controversy among 19th-century scholars when parts of the text were found to differ in style from Chaucer's other works. Also the text was found to contain three distinct fragments of translation. Together, the fragments—A, B, and C—provide a translation of approximately one-third of ''Le Roman''. There is little doubt that Chaucer did translate ''Le Roman de la Rose'' under the title ''The Romaunt of the Rose'': in ''The Legend of Good Women'', the narrator, Chaucer, states as much. The question is whether the surviving text is the same one that Chaucer wrote. The authorship question has been a topic of research and controversy. As such, scholarly discussion of the ''Romaunt ''has tended toward linguistic rather than literary analysis. Schol ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Geoffrey Chaucer
Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for ''The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He was the first writer to be buried in what has since come to be called Poets' Corner, in Westminster Abbey. Chaucer also gained fame as a philosopher and astronomer, composing the scientific ''A Treatise on the Astrolabe'' for his 10-year-old son Lewis. He maintained a career in the civil service as a bureaucrat, courtier, diplomat, and member of parliament. Among Chaucer's many other works are ''The Book of the Duchess'', ''The House of Fame'', ''The Legend of Good Women'', and ''Troilus and Criseyde''. He is seen as crucial in legitimising the literary use of Middle English when the dominant literary languages in England were still Anglo-Norman French and Latin. Chaucer's contemporary Thomas Hoccleve hailed him as "the firste fyndere of our ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Glaive
A glaive (or glave) is a European polearm, consisting of a single-edged blade on the end of a pole. It is similar to the Japanese naginata, the Chinese guandao, the Korean woldo, and the Russian sovnya. Overview Typically, the blade is around long, on the end of a pole long, and the blade is affixed in a socket-shaft configuration similar to an axe head, rather than having a tang like a sword or naginata. Occasionally, glaive blades were forged with a small hook on the reverse side to better catch riders. Such blades are called glaive-guisarmes. According to the 1599 treatise ''Paradoxes of Defence'' by the English gentleman George Silver, the glaive is used in the same general manner as the quarterstaff, half pike, bill, halberd, voulge, or partisan. Silver rated this class of polearms above all other individual hand-to-hand combat weapons. The Maciejowski Bible (Morgan Bible) depicts an example of a two-handed glaive used on horseback. The contemporary term for this ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ewart Oakeshott
Ronald Ewart Oakeshott (25 May 1916 – 30 September 2002) was a British illustrator, collector, and amateur historian who wrote prodigiously on medieval arms and armour. He was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries, a Founder Member of the Arms and Armour Society, and the Founder of the Oakeshott Institute. He created a classification system of the medieval sword, the Oakeshott typology, a systematic organization of medieval weaponry. Biography Ronald Ewart Oakeshott was born in 1916. His uncle Jeffery Farnol wrote romance novels and swashbucklers and also had a collection of antique swords, through which the young Oakeshott became interested in swords. After leaving Dulwich College, Oakeshott studied at the Central School of Art in London. He worked at Carlton Studios and at A.E. Johnson Ltd as a commercial artist, while still being interested in collecting arms and armour. During the 1930s and 1940s, antique swords could still be acquired relatively cheaply and Oakeshott be ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gawain And The Green Knight
''Sir Gawain and the Green Knight'' is a late 14th-century chivalric romance in Middle English. The author is unknown; the title was given centuries later. It is one of the best-known Arthurian stories, with its plot combining two types of folk motifs: the beheading game, and the exchange of winnings. Written in stanzas of alliterative verse, each of which ends in a rhyming bob and wheel; it draws on Welsh people, Welsh, Irish, and English stories, as well as the French chivalric tradition. It is an important example of a chivalric romance, which typically involves a hero who goes on a quest which tests his prowess. It remains popular in modern English renderings from J. R. R. Tolkien, Simon Armitage, and others, as well as through film and stage adaptations. The story describes how Sir Gawain, a knight of King Arthur's Round Table, accepts a challenge from a mysterious "Green Knight" who dares any knight to strike him with his axe if he will take a return blow in a year and ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
