Tea at Trianon: Medieval Weapons

John Wilson Croker on Marie-Antoinette

"We have followed the history of Marie Antoinette with the greatest diligence and scrupulosity. We have lived in those times. We have talked with some of her friends and some of her enemies; we have read, certainly not all, but hundreds of the libels written against her; and we have, in short, examined her life with– if we may be allowed to say so of ourselves– something of the accuracy of contemporaries, the diligence of inquirers, and the impartiality of historians, all combined; and we feel it our duty to declare, in as a solemn a manner as literature admits of, our well-matured opinion that every reproach against the morals of the queen was a gross calumny– that she was, as we have said, one of the purest of human beings."

~from History of the Guillotine by John Wilson Croker, 1844

Edmund Burke on Marie-Antoinette

"It is now sixteen or seventeen years since I saw the queen of France, then dauphiness, at Versailles; and surely there never lighted on this orb, which she hardly seemed to touch, a more delightful vision. I saw her just above the horizon, decorating and cheering the elevated sphere she had just begun to move in, glittering like a morning star full of life and splendor and joy. Oh, what a revolution....Little did I dream that I should have lived to see such disasters fall upon her, in a nation of gallant men, in a nation of men of honor and of cavaliers! I thought ten thousand swords must have leaped from their scabbards, to avenge even a look which threatened her with insult. But the age of chivalry is gone; that of sophisters, economists, and calculators has succeeded...."

~Edmund Burke, October 1790

Wednesday, June 16, 2021

Medieval Weapons

From The Archive:

In Europe, the Middle Ages lasted from the fifth through the end of the 15th century, and much of that time was shaped by conflict. Germanic tribes clashed with the soldiers of the Roman Empire, eventually leading to the fall of the Western Roman Empire, leaving only Byzantium in the east. The Crusades were fought to reclaim the Holy Land from what the Byzantines and other Europeans saw as Muslim invaders, and the Hundred Years War was waged between France and England, to name just a few of the conflicts that rocked the west. To the east, China suffered upheavals of its own as the Tang Dynasty, which had ruled for nearly 300 years, gave way to the fractious Five Dynasties and Ten Kingdoms period.
During these many conflicts, new ways of waging war were developed across fronts ranging from China to England and beyond. Many of these new weapons not only help to turn the tide of battle, but changed the way that warfare was fought, in many cases forever. Here are eight of the most significant new weapons developed during the medieval period, and how they changed the face of battle for centuries to come. (Read more.)