European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial RevolutionThe story of arms in Western Europe from the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution. A treasury of information based on solid scholarship, anyone seeking a factual and vivid account of the story of arms from the Renaissance period to the Industrial Revolution will welcome this book. The author chooses as his starting-point the invasion of Italy by France in 1494, which sowed the dragon's teeth of all the successive European wars; the French invasion was to accelerate the trend towards new armaments and new methods of warfare. The authordescribes the development of the handgun and the pike, the use and style of staff-weapons, mace and axe and war-hammer, dagger and dirk and bayonet. He shows how armour attained its full Renaissance splendour and then suffered itssorry and inevitable decline, culminating in the Industrial Revolution, with its far-reaching effects on military armaments. Above all, he follows the long history of the sword, queen of weapons, to the late eighteenth century, when it finally ceased to form a part of a gentleman's every-day wear. Lavishly illustrated. EWART OAKESHOTT was one of the world's leading authorities on the arms and armour of medieval Europe. His other works on the subject include Records of the Medieval Sword and The Sword in the Age of Chivalry. |
Contents
List of Illustrations | ix |
Line Drawings | xi |
Abbreviations | xv |
Authors Acknowledgments | xvii |
Preface | 19 |
Introduction | 21 |
Chapter One The Developing Power of the Handgun | 29 |
Chapter Two StaffWeapons | 44 |
Chapter Nine Sword and Rapier in the Seventeenth Century | 158 |
Chapter Ten The Military Sword of the Seventeenth Century | 170 |
Chapter Eleven Armour in Decline | 192 |
Chapter Twelve Helmets in the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries | 214 |
15001650 | 225 |
Chapter Fourteen The Smallsword | 236 |
Conclusion | 255 |
Appendix One Tournament Armour | 262 |
Chapter Three Mace WarHammer and Horsemans Axe | 62 |
14001525 | 75 |
Chapter Five Helmets 14001525 | 109 |
Chapter Six Swords of the Sixteenth Century | 125 |
Chapter Seven The TwoHand Sword | 146 |
Chapter Eight The Curved and SingleEdged Swords of the Sixteenth Century | 151 |
Other editions - View all
European Weapons and Armour: From the Renaissance to the Industrial Revolution R. Ewart Oakeshott No preview available - 1980 |
Common terms and phrases
armet arms army arquebus Augsburg back-edged back-guard bascinet basket hilt bastard sword battle bevor blade breastplate burgonet called cavalry Charles close helmet cuirass curved dagger decorated early edge eighteenth England English Hilt etched Europe example fashion field armour fifteenth FIGURE flamberge flat fluting France François French front Full Hilt garniture German Gothic Gothic armour grip guards halberd hammer head Helmschmied Henry Illustration Italian armour Italy kind knuckle-guard Kunsthistorisches Museum landsknecht late later loop-guards mace Maximilian Milan military Musée de l'Armée Museum painted Pappenheimer pattern pauldrons period pieces pike Plate poleyns pommel portrait probably quillons rapier rear quillon reitschwert ricasso ring-guard sabatons sabre schiavona Scots Scottish seventeenth century shape shell shown shows side silver similar sixteenth century smallsword Spain Spanish steel style surviving Swiss tassets Tower of London vambraces Vienna visor Wallace Collection weapon wheel-lock worn