MACE, originally a club of metal, whence it derived its name of Mace or Iilacue, and whence its diminutive 31azuelle is also derived. In a more ornamental form It is used as an ensign of authority borne before magistrates. Of this last kind is the mace placed before the Speaker of the House of Commons whilst that officer presides at the sitting of the House. When any other member presides, as in a" Com mittee of the whole }louse; the mace is laid under the table. Cromwell's direction to " remove that bauble," when he dissolved the Long Parlia ment, is familiar to every one. It was until Lately commonly supposed, that the actual mace to which he referred, was that presented by Charles 11. to the Royal Society, to be placed before the President at the meetings of the society, and without which no meeting Is legal. Bat this has been shown to be an error by Mr. Weld, the secretary, in his ' Ifiatory of the !Loyal Society' (vol. i. p. 150, &c.). The mace pre sented to the Royal Society was a new one, made for the purpose. The old mace of the House of Commons appears to have been broken, melted, and sold by order of the House, August 9, 1049.
The mace as a military weapon was peculiarly appropriated to the cavalry, and in the Bayeux tapestry several are represented in the hands of the combatants. It is not clear when the fashion of sus pending them from the saddle-bow for occasional use was firet intro duced into Europe, but as it seems to have been borrowed from the Asiatics, we may perhaps assign it to the middle of the 13th century.
Muratori observes that in a close conflict of cavalry it was exceedingly difficult to overthrow or wound powerful men in armour sitting on horseback, for their persons, being enveloped in hauberks, helmets, and other iron coverings, eluded the power of swords, darts, arrows, and such like weapons. For this reason it was usual to strike men so defended with iron maces, or to turn the attack on the horses, that by making them fall they might seize the rider ; or if he tumbled on the ground, the weight of his armour might render him unable to contend with any effect.
Maces seem to have been much used from the time of Edward II., both in battles and tournaments. Meyrick says all the heavy cavalry were supplied with them in the 15th and 16th centuries, though they sometimes gave way to the short battle-axe and horseman's hammer. The invention of pistols in the reign of Henry VIII. occasioned their disuse in the time of Elizabeth.
Ellis, in his notes to the Fabliaux,' says the mace was a common weapon with ecclesiastics, who, in consequence of their tenures, fre quently took the field, but were by a canon of the church forbidden to wield the sword.
The word Mace is sometimes used by our old writers in the sense of a sceptre.