Knightly sword

In the European High Middle Ages, the typical sword (sometimes academically categorized as the knightly sword, arming sword, or in full, knightly arming sword) was a straight, double-edged weapon with a single-handed, cruciform (i.e., cross-shaped) hilt and a blade length of about 70 to 80 centimetres (28 to 31 in). This type is frequently depicted in period artwork, and numerous examples have been preserved archaeologically.

The high medieval sword of the Romanesque period (10th to 13th centuries) developed gradually from the Carolingian sword of the 9th century. In the Late Medieval period (14th and 15th centuries), late forms of these swords continued to be used, but often as a sidearm, at that point called "arming swords" and contrasting with the two-handed, heavier longswords.

Though the majority of late-medieval arming swords kept their blade properties from previous centuries, there are also surviving specimens from the 15th century that took the form of a late-medieval estoc, specialised for use against more heavily armoured opponents. After the end of the medieval period, the arming sword developed into several forms of the early modern one-handed straight swords, such as the side-sword, the rapier, the cavalry-focused Reiterschwert and certain types of broadsword.

The term "arming sword" (espées d'armes) is first used in the 15th century to refer to the single-handed type of sword after it had ceased to serve as the main weapon and was on its way to being used as a side-sword. "Arming sword" in late medieval usage specifically refers to the estoc when worn as a side-arm, but as a modern term it may also refer to any single-handed sword in a late medieval context. The terms "knight's sword" or "knightly sword" are modern terms to specify the sword of the high medieval period.

Period terminology for swords is somewhat fluid. Mostly, the common type of sword in any given period would simply be referred to as "sword" (English swerde, French espée, Latin gladius etc.). During the high medieval period, references to swords as "great sword" (grete swerd, grant espée) or "small" or "short sword" (espée courte, parvus ensis) do not necessarily indicate their morphology, but simply their relative size. Oakeshott (1964) notes that this changes in the late medieval period, beginning towards the end of the 13th century, when the "bastard sword" appeared as an early type of what developed into the 15th-century longsword.

The term "romanesque sword" does not see significant use in English, but it is more current in French (epée romane), German (romanisches Schwert), and especially in Slavic languages (such as Czech románský meč), identifying the swords as being contemporary with the corresponding Romanesque period in art history (roughly 1000 to 1300).

The knightly sword developed in the 10th century from the Carolingian sword. The most evident morphological development is the appearance of the crossguard. The transitional swords of the 10th and 11th centuries are also known as Norman swords. Already in the 10th century, some of the "finest and most elegant" of the Ulfberht type of "Viking" (actually Carolingian/Frankish) swords began to exhibit a more slender blade geometry, moving the center of mass closer to the hilt to improve wieldability.

The one-handed sword of the high medieval period was typically used with a shield or buckler. In the late medieval period, when the longsword came to predominate, the single-handed sword was retained as a common sidearm, especially of the estoc type, and came to be referred to as an "arming sword", later evolving into the cut and thrust swords of the Renaissance.