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The French estoc is a type of sword, also called a tuck in English, in use from the 14th to the 17th century.
It is characterized by a cruciform hilt with a grip for two-handed use and a straight, edgeless, but sharply pointed blade of around to in length. It is noted for its ability to pierce
mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...
armor.
Description
The estoc was a variation of the
longsword
A longsword (also spelled as long sword or long-sword) is a type of European sword characterized as having a cruciform hilt with a grip for primarily two-handed use (around ), a straight double-edged blade of around , and weighing approximate ...
designed for fighting against
mail armour
Chain mail (properly called mail or maille but usually called chain mail or chainmail) is a type of armour consisting of small metal rings linked together in a pattern to form a mesh. It was in common military use between the 3rd century BC and ...
or
plate armour.
It was long, straight and stiff with no cutting edge, just a point. Examples from Poland are more than long, with a blade of ; however, others show a more manageable , with a blade. Such swords average about four pounds (2 kg) with no specimen weighing more than six pounds.
Blade cross-sections can be triangular, square, rhomboid or flat hexagonal.
[ This geometry leaves hardly any cutting capability as a sharpened edge could simply not be ground, but allowed the weapon to be lengthy, stiff, and very acutely pointed.]
Early on, the estoc was hung from the saddle when on horseback and simply hung from the belt when a soldier took to the ground. As the weapon developed, however, infantrymen began to wear it in a scabbard
A scabbard is a sheath for holding a sword, knife, or other large blade. As well, rifles may be stored in a scabbard by horse riders. Military cavalry and cowboys had scabbards for their saddle ring carbine rifles and lever-action rifles on the ...
. Most varieties of estoc provide a long grip like that of a greatsword
The English language terminology used in the classification of swords is imprecise and has varied widely over time. There is no historical dictionary for the universal names, classification or terminology of swords; a sword was simply a double e ...
, though others mimic the ''zweihänder
The ''Zweihänder'' () (German 'two-hander'), also ''Doppelhänder'' ('double-hander'), ''Beidhänder'' ('both-hander'), ''Bihänder'' or ''Bidenhänder'', is a large two-handed sword primarily in use during the 16th century.
''Zweihänder'' s ...
'' in providing a long ricasso
A ricasso is an unsharpened length of blade just above the guard or handle on a knife, dagger, sword, or bayonet. Blades designed this way appear at many periods in history in many parts of the world and date back to at least the Bronze Age—ess ...
with a secondary guard of ''parrierhaken''.
As on the zweihänder, this extended grip gives the wielder the advantage of extra leverage with which more accurately and powerfully to thrust the long weapon. Some other forms provided finger rings, curved quillons, or other varieties of compound hilts.
History
As armour improved, so did the methods of attacking it. It was quickly realized that cutting weapons were losing their effectiveness, so crushing weapons such as maces and axes were utilized. Thrusting weapons that could split the rings of mail
The mail or post is a system for physically transporting postcards, letters, and parcels. A postal service can be private or public, though many governments place restrictions on private systems. Since the mid-19th century, national postal sys ...
, or find the joints and crevices of plate armour, were also employed. Long tapered swords could also be used as lances once an actual lance had splintered. Thus was the estoc developed. The French word ''estoc'' translates to ''thrust''.
While there is nothing to stop an estoc from being one-handed, most are two-handed, being used half-sword
Half-sword, in 14th- to 16th-century fencing with longswords, refers to the technique of gripping the central part of the sword blade with the left hand in order to execute more forceful thrusts against armoured and unarmoured opponents. The term ...
or two hands on the grip.
During the English Civil Wars, General George Monck recommended that foot soldiers carry "a good stiff tuck, not very long" because they often broke regular swords by using them to chop firewood.
In addition to being popular for use as a cavalry weapon, the estoc was frequently used during dismounted hand-to-hand combat at tournaments
A tournament is a competition involving at least three competitors, all participating in a sport or game. More specifically, the term may be used in either of two overlapping senses:
# One or more competitions held at a single venue and concentr ...
, its lack of a sharp edge reducing the risk of unintentional injury.
Hunting
It was also widely employed as a hunting sword
A hunting sword is a type of single-handed short sword that dates to the 12th Century but was used during hunting parties among Europeans from the 17th to the 19th centuries. A hunting sword usually has a straight, single-edged, pointed blade typi ...
in the late 15th century, usually for hunting wild boar, bear, and stag; typically from horseback. Although hunting with a sword is less ideal than using a lance or spear, the added element of danger added to the thrill of the hunt, since using a sword brought the hunter in closer proximity to dangerous animals, as well as bringing more glory. The estoc was useful for this purpose, being a long sword with a strong blade, able to take the shock of meeting with an animal without breaking, while also giving the necessary reach to attack from horseback. However, it also had a very thin, sharp point, designed for penetrating chain mail. This thin point had little immediate terminal wounding effect on a wild boar or bear, unless a vital organ was hit, requiring a second man to stand by with a spear to finish the wounded animal off. It was also very easy to over-penetrate, bringing the wielder into danger from the animal's claws and teeth. Around 1500 AD, a solution was reached by replacing the thin point of the estoc with a standard leaf-shaped boar-spear
A boar spear is a spear used for boar hunting. It is relatively short and heavy and has two " lugs" or "wings" on the spearsocket behind the blade, which act as a barrier to prevent the spear from penetrating too deeply into the quarry where it ...
head, in essence creating a one-handed short spear. To prevent the blade from over-penetrating, most were fitted with a cross-shaft above the blade. To allow the blade to fit into a scabbard, these were typically simple removable pegs of wood or bone, but some examples have spring-loaded shafts that automatically deploy when the blade is drawn. An early image of these "boar-spear swords" shows Emperor Maximilian I
Maximilian I (22 March 1459 – 12 January 1519) was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1508 until his death. He was never crowned by the pope, as the journey to Rome was blocked by the Venetians. He proclaimed himself Ele ...
in a triumphal procession
The ''Triumphal Procession'' (in German, ''Triumphzug'') or ''Triumphs of Maximilian'' is a monumental 16th-century series of woodcut prints by several artists, commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The composite image was pr ...
after a successful boar-hunt, the riders proudly carrying their spear-pointed swords upright. These weapons quickly became widely popular all over Europe, and examples can be found in numerous illustrations and descriptions of the time.
Bullfighting
''Estoc'' is also the name given for the sword used by a matador
A bullfighter (or matador) is a performer in the activity of bullfighting. ''Torero'' () or ''toureiro'' (), both from Latin ''taurarius'', are the Spanish and Portuguese words for bullfighter and describe all the performers in the activit ...
in the Spanish sport of bullfighting, also known as ''espada de matar toros'' ('sword for killing bulls'). The matador's estoc is typically a shorter (88 cm), one-handed sword used for thrusting.[see: Estoque de toreo (Spanish)]
See also
* Oakeshott types XV, XVII
*Koncerz
A koncerz with a conventional cutting edge
A koncerz () is a type of sword used by Polish-Lithuanian hussars in the Renaissance period. It is a narrow and long thrusting sword, generally used by a type of heavy cavalry ( husaria, the famed Polis ...
*Rapier
A rapier () or is a type of sword with a slender and sharply-pointed two-edged blade that was popular in Western Europe, both for civilian use (dueling and self-defense) and as a military side arm, throughout the 16th and 17th centuries.
Impo ...
*Gisèle d'Estoc
Gisèle d'Estoc, pseudonym of Marie-Paule Alice Courbe (27 March 1845 – 8 May1894), was a French writer, sculptor, and feminist. She was also a duellist and cross dresser. Madame Paule Parent Des Barres was either her married name or another p ...
(1845-1894), French writer, sculptor, feminist
Notes
References
{{Swords by region
Medieval European swords
Renaissance-era swords