The sword is the par excellence symbol of the medieval knight.

Technically it can be defined as a cold weapon with a long double-edged blade, suitable for thrusting and cutting.

As the armour of the knights evolved during the Middle Ages, different types of sword were created, in order to develop sharper weapons with a greater capacity to pierce armours (fig. 1).

Fig. 1 - A) sabre; B) scimitar; C) single-handed sword; D) wide blade sword; E) pointed sword or rapier; F) long sword; G) hand-and-a-half or bastard sword; H) two-handed sword or claymore (from http://www.lamescaligere.it/pages/Ricerca%20storica/armi%20nel%20medievo.php).

In the fourteenth century, armours were made of sturdy metal plates which made the violent cutting blows of swords useless and the only way to hurt one’s opponent was to hit him in the junction points of the plates.

As a result we have the evolution of the sword and of fighting techniques. In addition to the "rapier", i.e. a shorter and very sharp sword, which was particularly suited for poking into the least protected parts of the joints, the "hand-and-a-half" sword was also created; this was about 120 cm long and could be handled with one hand and, if necessary, with two hands, in order to deliver additionally violent blows to the opponent so as to break up his armour.

The "two handed" sword will be developed from this and was so named because it comes with a handle long enough to allow a grip with both hands and is characterised by a metre and a half blade (figs. 2-3).

Foot soldiers and horseless warriors however used weapons such as axes, maces and hammers (figs. 4-5).

Fig. 2 - Fighting with "two-handed" swords (from VIOLLET LE DUC, Volume II, fig. 13, p. 303).

Fig. 3 - CFight between knights who wield their weapon "in a half sword technique", that is with a technique which consists in grasping the blade of the "two-handed" sword with the free hand where it is not sharp, in order to better control the strong blows against the opponent’s armour (from http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spada_a_due_mani#mediaviewer/File:Jagiellonian_Ms.Germ.Quart.16_(Gladiatoria)_09v_-_Longsword_in_armor.jpg).

Fig. 4 - Various types of spiked clubs (from http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stella_del_mattino_(arma)#mediaviewer/File:Boeheim_Morgenstern_01.jpg).

Fig. 5 - Morning star (from VIOLLET LE DUC 2002, fig. 2, page. 319).