The favorite weapons of the Germanic races, by which the ancient civilization of Rome was to a large extent overthrown, were the battle axe, the lance or dart, and the sword. Their defensive armor consisted almost exclusively of a shield made of plaited osier covered with leather and generally eight feet by two inches in size. Afterwards it was made round and bound with iron, and had several prominent bosses on its surface. The Frankish form of the German battle-axe was called francirca (francisque), and was the characteristic weapon of that tribe. It had a broad single-edged blade and a short haft, and was often used as a mis sile. The lance or dart of the Franks, called sngon, closely resembled and was used exactly in the same way as the Roman pilum. The sword among the Franks was only a horse man's weapon. The shield of the Franks was round. Hardly any body armor (scarcely even a helmet) was used by them until the Car lovingian days. Swords belonging to the early iron age in Scandinavia are frequently found in the marshes of Schleswig. They are long, straight, two-edged, and often richly dama scened. Shields belonging to the same district and epoch were made of wood, and were flat, round, and from 22% to 44 inches in diameter. They were bossed and otherwise mounted, gen erally in bronze, sometimes in iron. The com mon arms of the Anglo-Saxon infantry were a spear, and axe, and a scramasaxe (a heavy single-edged knife). With the Anglo-Saxons as with the Franks the sword was especially a horseman's weapon, being carried by none under the rank of thane. The sword carried by them was three feet long, broad in the blade, and round at the point. The Saxon shield was round or oval, made of wood covered with leather, and furnished with a high conical boss.
The arms and armor both of the Normans and Anglo-Saxons, but especially of the former, at the time of the Norman conquest of England are pretty fully illustrated by the Bayeux tapestry. On this work the horsemen appear armed with long lances as well as swords. The Normans are represented as well furnished with archers and cavalry, of which arms the Saxons do not seem to have had any. Maces, clubs, axes with shafts from four to five feet long, are seen in the hands of both. The shields are long, rounded above and taper ing to a point at the bottom. The body-armor consists of a long hauberk ringed or trellised. The helmet is conical and has a sort of tongue in front which comes down over the nose.
Chain armor of interlinked rings came into use at the time of the Crusades and continued in use till the beginning of the 14th century. From the latter date to early in the 15th cen tury mixed chains and plate armor was in use, and from about the year 1410 to the beginning of the next century the body armor was en tirely of plate, and complete suits of armor did not altogether go out of use for another century. Below the waist the body was protected by taces, a series of narrow over lapping plates attached to a lining of leather.
After the introduction of complete suits of plate armor the chief modifications consisted in the strengthening of the weakest parts, especially on the right side. By the end of the 15th century plate armor had attained its highest development, even the horses at that period being protected by plate armor every where except on the legs. By this time, in fact, the fabrication of armor had reached such a degree of perfection that it was scarcely pos sible for men-at-arms engaged in combat to find any spot where the armor of their an tagonist could be pierced. Combatants equipped in this manner aimed accordingly less at wounding than at unhorsing one another, for a man-at-arms unhorsed was at the mercy of his antagonist, who, if he could not find any weak point where he could pierce the armor of his fallen foe, might beat him to death with the heavy mace with which he was armed. Many savage encounters of this nature are recorded by the chroniclers of the time. Usually, how ever, a man-at-arms when unhorsed became the prisoner of his conqueror, and many battles were decided, especially in the wars between the states of Italy, carried on by means of mer cenaries, almost or altogether without the shed ding of blood either on the side of the van quisher or the vanquished. When body-armor had come to be manufactured with such perfec tion shields were almost entirely discarded. In England, indeed, no effigy has been found rep resenting a man-at-arms bearing a shield of later date than the last quarter of the 14th century, from which it would seem that that defense had gone out of use even before the adoption of complete suits of plate armor. Perhaps the most characteristic portion of the body-armor of the 15th century was that which protected the feet. The coverings for the feet during this period were laminated sollerets (as they were called), actually pointed or rounded off at the toes. In tile following century these were succeeded by sabbatons, cut off square at the toes. In this century the armor gradually became less rigid and cumbrous, and often consisted of small plates of metal quilted within linen or other tissues. As the century advanced the manufacture of body-armor de clined, and after the close of the century armor was worn as much for show as for real service. Metal cuirasses gave place, as a rule, to buff suits and jerkins, although the former armor is not entirely disused even at the present day. The principal weapons of the man-at-arms were the lance, sword, battle-axe, and mace, all of which were remarkable for their massiveness, as might be expected from the resistance they had to meet. The lance (see LANCE and TOURNAMENT) was the weapon which he used to unhorse his antagonist if he could not wound him with it. Two-handed swords were in common use in the 16th century. The sword breaker, consisting of a deeply notched blade about 15 inches in length, and intended to catch and break the sword of an antagonist, belongs to the same period.