Cut & Thrust Sword, Musket & Machine Gun: Britain's Armed History


Cut & Thrust

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This is the Vickers machine gun,

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arguably one of the most efficient

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and effective machines ever invented.

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It was once subjected to an extraordinary test.

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A team of gunners fired more than five million rounds out of a single

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Vickers gun over the course of a week.

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Soldiers worked in pairs to keep up the rate of fire, with a third man

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shovelling up the piles of spent brass.

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At the end of the test, despite the huge toll on this machine gun,

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it was inspected and found to be fit for service in every respect.

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Quite simply, the Vickers is a marvel of 20th-century engineering.

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It's up there with the aeroplane and the computer,

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and yet it has just one purpose - to maim and to kill.

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From the moment our earliest ancestors began

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to wield primitive tools against one another,

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we've devoted huge ingenuity

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to developing ever-more-powerful weapons.

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To settle scores...

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..enforce our laws...

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defend ourselves...

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and wage war against our enemies.

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In this series, I'm going to trace the evolution of weapons in Britain

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over the past 1,000 years,

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from the Anglo-Saxons to the First World War.

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I'll learn just how this game-changing technology worked -

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the design secrets of our most important weapons.

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Look at that!

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It's absolutely hammered through that, hasn't it?

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But the journey from the sword to the machine gun is not as

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straightforward as you might think.

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What was the range of this?

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50 yards, if you were lucky.

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-And accuracy?

-There wasn't any.

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And our weapons reveal much about our politics and society.

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As English people, we take in a hatred of crossbowmen.

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We take it in with our mothers' milk.

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They've decided the fate of nations and rulers.

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I think everybody who was in any position of power was fearful of

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assassination at the beginning of the 20th century.

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But they've also driven advances in science,

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technology and even medicine.

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It's impossible to ignore the bloody toll of weapons -

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the countless millions sent to their graves -

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but weapons also shaped our identity and defined our history.

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It's a cold evening in October 1916, on the front line at the Somme,

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and a young private is preparing to go out on a trench raid.

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These small-scale surprise attacks were a major feature

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of trench warfare during the First World War.

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They usually took place at night,

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with small groups venturing out into No Man's Land

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with the object of seizing papers and plans,

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knocking out a machine gun or even capturing German prisoners.

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But for these raids, which would involve fighting at close quarters,

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the soldiers wouldn't arm themselves with the standard-issue

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Lee Enfield rifle because, with or without a bayonet,

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they were simply too cumbersome for these narrow trenches.

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Instead, they would arm themselves with primitive,

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crude weapons known as trench clubs,

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weapons that seemed to have been recalled from our ancient history,

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as if by instinct.

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We know from testimonies of the Great War

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that these trench clubs saw action.

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One account, by a Private Harold Startin

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of the First Leicestershire Regiment, states that

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the first victim of his trench club was a sergeant

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in a Wurttemberg regiment.

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These are actual trench clubs

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made by regimental armourers behind the front lines.

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This is a trench mace.

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The head slides on and then is held in position

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by the action of wielding it.

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This is a wooden truncheon, embedded with studs from hobnail boots.

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And some trench clubs perhaps reflect the immediacy of war

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more than others, like this, a French fougue mace.

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This has been made by a desperate soldier in some haste.

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It's simply a hollowed-out grenade

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jammed onto the end of a spade handle.

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What these rudimentary combat tools emphasise is that,

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even in the midst of the most mechanised war of its day,

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men still relied on weaponry that was anything but modern.

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They are a stark reminder of how brutal,

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primal and personal hand-to-hand combat has always been.

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And if you think these trench clubs are anachronistic,

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take a look at this.

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This is a German flail,

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used in the latter stages of the First World War.

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It's particularly gruesome.

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The iron ball is incredibly heavy.

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Just one blow from this would have caused horrific injuries.

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It's a weapon that seems to have traversed history itself,

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as if it was lost or discarded on a medieval battlefield,

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only to be picked up again and brandished centuries later.

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But however crude this weaponry may seem to us today,

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its improvised design and effectiveness in close combat

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harked back to a remarkable period in the history of our weaponry,

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a period I'm now going to explore, when clubs, maces and flails

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were just three components of a medieval arms race.

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It was an age, quite literally, of cutting-edge technology.

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By the ninth century,

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weapons were not only helping us to defend ourselves,

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but also they were starting to actually define who we were.

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Our early tribes took their names from their chief weapons -

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the Angles from "angel", meaning a barb or a hook,

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and the Saxons from "seax", their trusty knife.

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In 878AD, the future of Anglo-Saxon England lay in the balance.

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Three of its four kingdoms - East Anglia, Mercia and Northumbria -

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had fallen to a large-scale Viking invasion.

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Only Wessex remained.

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But its ruler, King Alfred,

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had been routed from his winter fortress

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and had taken refuge in the Somerset marshlands.

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By Easter 878, Alfred's call to war

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had been answered by some 5,000 men from the fyrd,

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a militia drawn from commoners across Wessex,

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and he advanced to Ethandun in Wiltshire to face his enemy.

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The Vikings had overrun England with a fearsome arsenal.

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Once drawn to battle,

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they would first engage with volleys of these light spears

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and their sagas record instances of people throwing two at once.

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Then, to further distract the enemy,

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they'd hurl these things, franciscas,

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their throwing axes, before finally charging in,

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brandishing the most feared weapon of all - the great Dane axe.

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And what did the Anglo-Saxons have in response?

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Well, they had their seax, of course,

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but what they relied upon most in the face of a Danish attack

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was this - a shield.

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But their shield was not merely simple defensive armour.

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At its centre was a large metal boss,

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sometimes with a spike protruding,

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enabling the shield to be used as a weapon in its own right.

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And it was fashioned from two layers of linden wood,

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which made it light to carry and less inclined to split

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from the strike of a Viking axe.

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The battle at Ethandun was to last throughout the course of a day,

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with Alfred's select warriors - his thanes -

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withstanding repeated Viking surges,

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according to one contemporary scribe,

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"By forming a dense shield wall against the whole army of the pagans

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"and striving long and bravely".

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Brace!

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You could say that the future of England depended

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on the strength of their shield wall,

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because, once breached, defeat would have been inevitable.

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Everything depended on cohesion, endurance, stamina, discipline...

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..and a sounding horn guided each shield wall above the din of battle.

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DEEP HORN BLAST

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It would have been terrifying, trapped here,

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caught between these opposing forces,

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jabbing at unprotected faces and legs,

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seeking out necks and eyes.

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Gaah!

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The unbroken formation and huge momentum

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generated behind Alfred's shield wall

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rendered it into an overwhelming mass force,

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which drove the Vikings into retreat and ultimately surrender.

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Backed up with the cut and thrust of sharp blades,

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the shield wall demonstrated how defensive armour used en masse

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could be turned into an attacking weapon.

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Alfred may have repelled his pagan enemies and secured the future

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for his Anglecynn or English identity, but, soon,

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the steadfast Anglo-Saxon shield wall would be broken to pieces

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by man and beast combined.

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A new, unstoppable weapon -

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the mounted knight.

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The Anglo-Saxons had never fully developed the art of fighting on

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horseback, unlike the Normans, who, in 1066, under their leader William,

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Duke of Normandy,

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sought to pierce the Anglo-Saxon shield wall

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and challenge the English crown.

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For me, the great tapestry at Bayeux in Normandy,

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famous for its compelling depiction of the run-up

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to the Battle of Hastings,

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more than anything, serves as a roll of honour

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for these mounted warriors.

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The tapestry shows the very fabric of William's invasion force.

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Here, you've got trees being felled to build the hundreds of ships

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he'd need to cross the Channel.

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Then coats of mail being carried on poles,

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bundles of swords being carried on people's shoulders

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and carriages laden with helmets and spears.

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And as well as this enormous arsenal being assembled,

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the Normans' great contribution to medieval warfare

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is also here in abundance - the horse.

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Thousands of them packed tightly into their ships

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and their heads poking up just above the gunnels.

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Having landed his invasion force at Pevensey Bay on the Sussex coast,

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William advanced to face King Harold at Senlac Hill, outside Hastings.

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Harold's army consisted entirely of infantry,

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mainly housecarls, professional soldiers

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trained to handle a two-handed axe, which,

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if swung correctly, could cleave man and his horse in two.

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And here, towards the end of the tapestry, is the key scene -

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the point of impact between the two opposing sides,

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between the shield wall and the mounted, charging knight.

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The very moment in this transition in weaponry and warfare,

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caught for all time in a few strands of wool.

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Just as King Alfred's shield wall had held firm at Ethandun in 878,

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King Harold's now withstood repeated charges by the Norman cavalry,

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before William, curiously, ordered them back.

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Now, it's never been clear if this was a retreat or a ruse,

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but it worked.

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In a moment of over-confidence, the Anglo-Saxons,

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seeing the Normans retreat, broke their line and charged off downhill.

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But the Normans turned on their heel

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and ran the Anglo-Saxons into the ground.

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And then, from out of the sky, came that fabled arrow,

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said to have struck King Harold in the eye.

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Now, a close analysis of the linen shows that that arrow

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is in fact a later addition.

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So whether or not Harold was struck in the eye, we'll never know.

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His death certainly brought an end to the battle.

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This very long yarn remains a vivid record not only of medieval weaponry

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and its central role in the invasion and subsequent conquest of England,

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but also, as you can see from the lower frieze,

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it's a graphic catalogue of the horrific mutilations

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and injuries that these weapons could inflict.

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Many of these grim dismemberments on the field at Hastings were caused by

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a downward cutting blow delivered to the crown of the head -

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the favoured sword stroke of the Norman knight.

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But as William, now king, established control

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over all of England and consolidated the Anglo-Saxon infantry

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with his Norman knights,

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the might and martial skill of these mounted warriors

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started to trouble the Church.

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The Papacy began to consider how

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those who lived and died by the sword could be reconciled

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with the Christian faith.

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In 1095, Pope Urban II issued a call to arms

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to reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim control

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and thousands of warriors set out for the Holy Land

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as Militia Christi - Knights of Christ.

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The Pope's sanction of this first Crusade meant that, now,

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the mounted knight could achieve honour,

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piety and even spiritual merit by his sword.

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And these knights carried with them the very latest in sword technology.

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No longer for them the Saxon pattern-welded sword

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with its heavy, straight blade.

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But this, the arming sword...

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made using properly quenched, hardened and tempered steel.

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It's much longer, about 31 inches,

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but it's lighter because of this fuller, or groove,

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running down the centre of the blade.

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Now, although it's so much bigger, it's also so much easier to wield.

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In addition, the crossguard, or quillon -

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not present on the Saxon sword,

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but developed by the Normans to protect the hand,

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further rendered this weapon into a cruciform symbol,

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another reminder for the knights of their allegiance to God.

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As the sword developed and was modified,

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so too did the means and methods of wielding it.

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So, to try and get to grips with medieval swordsmanship,

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what better than a duel with my tutor-in-arms,

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Rupert Hamerton-Fraser?

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And he'll be teaching me from an original combat manual of the day.

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Rupert, tell me about this manuscript. What exactly is it?

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It's the Walpurgis Fechtbuch and it's the first

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extant example of medieval swordplay that we have in the world.

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Previously, it's all verbal descriptions

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or written descriptions.

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It's the first one where we've actually got pictures

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of the individual moves and how they can be countered.

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This, you can actually see how the sword is held and, from that,

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learn how to fight effectively.

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And the images here, it's not just that they're rare -

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they're also fascinating and very, very important.

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I mean, you clearly have someone who appears to be a monk and someone who

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appears to be really quite feminine.

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She does because she is, and that is because they are keying us into

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something in the cultural DNA of the time.

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The monk is seen as steadfast and upright,

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the woman represents cunning and strategy

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and the way they both use the blade refers back to this concept.

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Who would have actually used this manuscript?

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Who's it aimed at? Is it aimed at young adults,

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people who have suddenly been called up to fight?

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A mixture of both.

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But the depth in which it goes into the swordplay is ideal

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for training page to squire, squire to knight.

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Well, shall we recreate some of those positions

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-from that manuscript?

-Yes.

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Rupert, take me through what we've got here.

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Well, we've got a sword, an arming sword, and we've got our bucklers.

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So the grip is vitally important.

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Grip strongly with the thumb and forefinger and very, very

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little pressure with the last two fingers -

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this gives you the wield of the blade.

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-It makes it much more manoeuvrable.

-It does.

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-Whereas, if you grip, all you've got is the action of the arm.

-Yeah.

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So, if you put the sword and buckler forward like that...

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Brilliant.

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And then I will step forwards and bring the blade under my arm.

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Now, your blade needs to point at me.

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It's threatening.

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I'm ready to go from this guard

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to parry or deflect your blade and then attack.

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I'm actually physically stepping in, pushing your blade away.

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Now, I've got an option here.

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I can either disengage and cut to your head

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or, while I've got your blade busy,

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I can step forwards again and punch you in the face with the buckler.

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And this is where swashbuckling comes from.

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Your buckler hangs on your swash, or sword belt,

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and you have the sword, so it's swash and buckling.

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That's interesting. I don't like either of those options.

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I don't want you to cut me in the head or punch me with the shield.

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Well, this is where the manual will teach you a counter.

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So, if we go back to where we were,

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I've got the blade here.

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I step forwards.

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Now, you know I've got two options,

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so you need to disengage your blade and then, behind your head,

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and stepping forward onto your other foot,

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and then striking forward with the buckler. So I have to retreat.

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-So I can hit you in the face with it.

-Yes.

-That's much better.

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So, this counterplay, this dance,

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leads you through the positions you see in the manual.

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Instantly, we're in another position from the manual.

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Yeah, we saw that one, didn't we, defending each other?

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And that's completely natural,

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so the weapons lead you to these positions.

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You see how, even after a short period of using the manual, you,

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who've never used these weapons before, albeit slowly,

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-are beginning to be able to use them effectively.

-Yeah.

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During the course of the 12th century,

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the sword would be transformed from a versatile, close-combat weapon

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into one of mythic proportion

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and all because of the revival in literature

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of the most legendary sword of all.

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In 1136, a Welsh cleric named Geoffrey of Monmouth,

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whilst travelling through this part of South Wales,

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wrote a chronicle entitled Historia Regum Britanniae -

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The History Of The Kings Of Britain.

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Geoffrey's chronicle was a clever weave of historical fact

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and high-blown fantasy,

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and it did a great deal to reignite the legend of King Arthur and

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his Knights of the Round Table,

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a legend encapsulated and thought of today

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for its mythical weapon, Excalibur,

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or Caliburnus, as Geoffrey called it.

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A sword which he tells us was forged on the isle of Avalon

0:22:150:22:19

and would carve the souls from out of them with blood.

0:22:190:22:22

Given to Arthur by the Lady of the Lake,

0:22:260:22:28

thus granting him the divine right to rule,

0:22:280:22:31

Excalibur demonstrated just how highly

0:22:310:22:34

the English venerated their swords.

0:22:340:22:36

Other Western cultures had also bestowed their swords with names.

0:22:380:22:42

The Vikings called theirs fotbitr, meaning "the leg-biter".

0:22:420:22:47

Whilst the legendary sword of Charlemagne,

0:22:470:22:49

said to change colour 30 times a day,

0:22:490:22:53

was called Joyeuse, or "joyous".

0:22:530:22:56

But Excalibur seemed to be the weapon personified,

0:22:560:23:00

a sentient sword capable of its own actions,

0:23:000:23:03

even of controlling its owner.

0:23:030:23:05

The scores of medieval knights who read Geoffrey's chronicle

0:23:070:23:10

and turned it into what amounted to a medieval best-seller

0:23:100:23:14

identified strongly with the idea of a medieval knight

0:23:140:23:17

empowered with a sword by divine providence.

0:23:170:23:20

And none more so than William Marshal,

0:23:210:23:24

said to be the greatest knight who ever lived.

0:23:240:23:27

William Marshal was the true Lancelot of his age -

0:23:340:23:37

a master swordsman who, in the words of one eyewitness,

0:23:370:23:41

would hammer his weapon down on enemies like a blacksmith on iron.

0:23:410:23:46

Born in southern England around 1147,

0:23:480:23:51

Marshal was 12 or 13 when he was packed off

0:23:510:23:54

to the Chateau de Tancarville in northern Normandy

0:23:540:23:57

to be schooled in the art of war.

0:23:570:23:59

Over the six years that Marshal spent here at Tancarville,

0:24:010:24:05

he honed his military skills and outshone his rivals

0:24:050:24:08

to become a peerless chevalier, or armed horseman.

0:24:080:24:12

He'd also become a man of great honour,

0:24:120:24:15

a paragon of the knightly code to which all true chevaliers aspired -

0:24:150:24:20

known to us as chivalry.

0:24:200:24:22

But aside from his proficiency with the sword,

0:24:250:24:28

to fight effectively in the saddle,

0:24:280:24:30

Marshal's fortunes would be founded on his ability

0:24:300:24:33

to master a new weapon of engagement - the lance.

0:24:330:24:38

The lance evolved from the spear,

0:24:380:24:41

but unlike Marshal's forebears at the Battle of Hastings,

0:24:410:24:44

who would have held theirs aloft to throw,

0:24:440:24:47

the lance was held under the arm,

0:24:470:24:49

in what was known as the couch position,

0:24:490:24:51

an innovation which transferred all of the energy

0:24:510:24:54

of a galloping, charging horse through the rider

0:24:540:24:57

to his intended victim.

0:24:570:24:59

And the best training for the lance came in mock battles

0:25:030:25:06

on an impressive scale, called tourneys or tournaments,

0:25:060:25:10

a form of extreme sports in which William Marshal

0:25:100:25:14

secured his reputation.

0:25:140:25:15

Knights would assemble in their hundreds

0:25:220:25:24

here on the plains of Normandy,

0:25:240:25:26

at tournaments staged to prove their prowess.

0:25:260:25:29

They would line up in two long lines and then, at the sound of a horn,

0:25:290:25:32

they would charge at each other,

0:25:320:25:34

seeking first to unhorse their opponents with a lance

0:25:340:25:37

before attempting to secure their submission in the ensuing melee.

0:25:370:25:41

Fully armed, William Marshal launched into their ranks

0:25:440:25:48

like a lion amongst oxen.

0:25:480:25:51

Many said, "Who is this savage who so demolishes the men on our side?"

0:25:510:25:56

They put every effort they could into doing Marshal harm

0:25:560:25:59

and capturing him, but they dared not stand there and take his blows.

0:25:590:26:05

The church condemned these medieval war games as detestable revels

0:26:070:26:13

and, fearing that they were a persistent threat to public order,

0:26:130:26:16

Henry II actually banned them in England.

0:26:160:26:20

But here in Normandy, they weren't outlawed,

0:26:200:26:23

providing the knightly class with an essential training for war.

0:26:230:26:27

And we can still get a sense of the impact of a lance

0:26:350:26:39

in a cavalry charge from the later incarnation of the tournament,

0:26:390:26:43

the medieval joust.

0:26:430:26:44

Well, I'm glad I'm not on that horse.

0:26:510:26:52

But these are just for show.

0:26:520:26:55

Imagine what it was like with one of those things bearing down on you.

0:26:550:26:58

After the joust, I catch up with this knight in shining armour,

0:27:010:27:05

Sir Bryn ap Cwrw,

0:27:050:27:07

or Benedict Green, as he's normally known.

0:27:070:27:09

What sort of speed are you hitting each other with on these horses?

0:27:110:27:13

Or if you went back to warfare and you were imagining

0:27:130:27:16

charging at another guy on a horse with a lance?

0:27:160:27:18

A horse will go up to roughly 30mph,

0:27:180:27:20

so in a combined charge where both sides have committed,

0:27:200:27:23

you're looking at up to a 60mph impact.

0:27:230:27:27

The tournament lance is obviously designed to break more easily,

0:27:290:27:32

but the war lances would be a slightly slimmer version

0:27:320:27:35

with a triangulated or diamond cross section head

0:27:350:27:37

designed to penetrate plate steel.

0:27:370:27:39

How effective was this armour?

0:27:390:27:41

Is anything going to get through that at all?

0:27:410:27:44

-Are you safe?

-Totally safe.

0:27:440:27:45

I mean, the chronicles suggest that a full lance at 90 degrees

0:27:450:27:49

will go through it, and that arrows may penetrate it

0:27:490:27:52

up to half a centimetre to a centimetre,

0:27:520:27:54

but I'm not directly beneath it.

0:27:540:27:57

There's a good pocket of air that means,

0:27:570:27:58

that even if they do penetrate, they don't reach me.

0:27:580:28:01

The lance evolves as a military term to both describe

0:28:010:28:04

the military formation as well as the weapon,

0:28:040:28:07

but also a knight and his immediate retinue

0:28:070:28:10

that would fight in the early tournaments with William Marshal,

0:28:100:28:13

but later became a core component of all military structures.

0:28:130:28:17

Indeed, Marshal gains most of his fame fighting in his lance formation

0:28:190:28:24

throughout Europe in tournaments for various kings,

0:28:240:28:27

as did many other knights,

0:28:270:28:28

and that is where the term "freelance" originates,

0:28:280:28:31

this idea of knights whose arms and services

0:28:310:28:34

were available to, essentially, the highest bidder.

0:28:340:28:37

As a freelancer, Marshal would serve at the right hand

0:28:450:28:49

of no less than five English kings,

0:28:490:28:51

but his allegiance to one of them began on far from friendly terms.

0:28:510:28:57

In 1189, in the contested realm of Angevin in northern France,

0:28:570:29:03

Marshal's loyalty to Henry II led to a tense stand-off with Henry's

0:29:030:29:08

hostile son and heir, none other than Richard Coeur de Lion -

0:29:080:29:13

Richard the Lionheart.

0:29:130:29:14

These two formidable figures faced up to each other

0:29:170:29:20

outside the castle walls of Le Mans.

0:29:200:29:23

But, in his haste, Richard lacked the necessary weapons for combat.

0:29:230:29:28

The Lionheart did have his sword -

0:29:280:29:30

which he'd named Excalibur - but Marshal, by contrast,

0:29:300:29:34

had sword, shield and, most importantly, lance.

0:29:340:29:38

And when Marshal spurred his horse forward, Richard exclaimed,

0:29:380:29:42

"God's legs, Marshal, don't kill me!

0:29:420:29:45

"That would be a wicked thing, since you find me here unarmed."

0:29:450:29:49

Marshal realised this was no fair fight,

0:29:490:29:52

high on a knight's code of honour, and he shouted back,

0:29:520:29:56

"Indeed, I won't. Let the Devil kill you, I shall not do it."

0:29:560:30:01

And at the last minute, he lowered his lance

0:30:010:30:03

and drove it into Richard's mount.

0:30:030:30:06

A mere flick of the wrist would have changed English history.

0:30:060:30:10

The Lionheart would not forego his lance again in a hurry.

0:30:130:30:17

And, once crowned king, and perhaps swayed by Marshal's prowess,

0:30:170:30:22

Richard lifted the ban on tournaments in England.

0:30:220:30:24

However, the lance and other hand-to-hand combat weapons

0:30:260:30:30

would soon seem outdated in the face of a new form of medieval warfare.

0:30:300:30:35

As castles began to appear in greater numbers

0:30:350:30:38

and with increasingly heavier fortifications,

0:30:380:30:41

so did the scope and scale of warfare change

0:30:410:30:45

to now include castle sieges alongside pitched battles.

0:30:450:30:49

And the methods for breaching castle walls,

0:30:520:30:55

siege engines like the mangonel or the mighty trebuchet,

0:30:550:30:59

would usher in a new age of long-range missile weaponry.

0:30:590:31:03

But the weapon that really came to the fore

0:31:050:31:07

during this new age of siege warfare was a sniper's weapon

0:31:070:31:12

of great velocity and penetrative power - the crossbow.

0:31:120:31:16

This weapon allowed a more detached method of killing.

0:31:180:31:22

With a firing range of up to 300 yards,

0:31:220:31:25

you no longer needed to look your aggressor in the eye.

0:31:250:31:28

The crossbow comprised a bowed, horizontal lathe - or prod -

0:31:300:31:34

mounted at the end of a wooden tiller,

0:31:340:31:37

from which short, thick arrows,

0:31:370:31:39

called bolts or quarrels, were fired.

0:31:390:31:41

And to get a sense of this weapon's deadly effectiveness,

0:31:420:31:46

I've sought out crossbowman Robin Knight,

0:31:460:31:49

busy taking refuge in his castle bolthole.

0:31:490:31:52

Robin, why were crossbows so effective in sieges?

0:31:520:31:55

Because, as you can see, I'm standing in an embrasure.

0:31:550:31:59

In front of me is an arch window, not very big.

0:31:590:32:02

Outside of the embrasure,

0:32:020:32:04

I'll be susceptible to missiles of one form or another

0:32:040:32:08

coming over the top.

0:32:080:32:09

So you can stay hidden with one of these?

0:32:090:32:11

I'm safe, but I've got a whole field of fire out there.

0:32:110:32:16

The attackers have got to scale those earthworks

0:32:160:32:19

and there's me up here, shooting down,

0:32:190:32:22

munching on me chicken leg and killing them.

0:32:220:32:24

And what about the range? Can we easily hit something down there?

0:32:260:32:28

Well, I can hit the grass.

0:32:280:32:30

Let me have a go.

0:32:300:32:32

OK, pin down.

0:32:320:32:33

Drag the string back slowly.

0:32:350:32:37

Bring it up to the firing position.

0:32:400:32:42

-There we go.

-I'll put the bolt in.

-OK.

0:32:420:32:44

Not that I don't trust you.

0:32:440:32:46

Top half of the embrasure.

0:32:480:32:50

If you had a mirror, you'd be able to see the glint in your eye

0:32:580:33:00

that says you're seven years old.

0:33:000:33:01

It's amazing how something so simple can be so deadly.

0:33:030:33:05

That's terrifying enough. What about this one here?

0:33:060:33:09

That one is a lot more substantial.

0:33:090:33:11

Because of the heavier draw weight,

0:33:110:33:14

you have a more intricate method of spanning it.

0:33:140:33:17

Now, you need to get on your knees for this one.

0:33:170:33:20

Jam the trigger with your hand,

0:33:200:33:22

then wind it up.

0:33:220:33:23

Oh, there it goes. I see it moving up.

0:33:230:33:26

Oh, you can feel the tension of this thing building, can't you?

0:33:260:33:29

Well, at the moment, I'm doing it with two fingers,

0:33:290:33:31

but it's getting harder and harder.

0:33:310:33:34

It must have been difficult using these on the battlefield

0:33:340:33:36

cos they took so long to load.

0:33:360:33:38

That's why you had a little lad with you carrying a pavise,

0:33:380:33:41

which was a huge, great, wooden shield.

0:33:410:33:43

And he would place it in front of the crossbowman

0:33:430:33:46

when he was on his knees, like this, loading it.

0:33:460:33:48

There you can see the nut rolling back.

0:33:480:33:50

-LOUD CLUNK

-Hear the trigger go?

0:33:500:33:52

I did, I heard the click.

0:33:520:33:54

And then we take this off.

0:33:540:33:56

-And then you're ready to go?

-And you're ready to shoot.

0:33:580:34:00

Bring it up. Bolt's in, keep your thumb down.

0:34:020:34:04

-OK.

-Please.

0:34:040:34:06

-I need my thumbs.

-You do.

0:34:060:34:08

Wow!

0:34:100:34:12

That went miles, that one.

0:34:160:34:18

So, although it does take longer to load, it is immensely more powerful,

0:34:180:34:22

-isn't it?

-It's worth the effort.

0:34:220:34:23

However, during the 12th century,

0:34:250:34:27

the crossbow was increasingly seen as a highly divisive weapon -

0:34:270:34:32

a diabolical one, even,

0:34:320:34:34

when it was deemed an instrument of the Devil by the Pope,

0:34:340:34:38

who sought to ban its use against Christians.

0:34:380:34:42

Well, you can clearly see how effective the crossbow was,

0:34:420:34:45

so why was it such a controversial weapon back then?

0:34:450:34:48

It was acceptable to batter somebody to death with a sword,

0:34:480:34:52

but to kill a man with a crossbow? Not acceptable at all.

0:34:520:34:55

Was it sort of seen as cheating or something?

0:34:550:34:57

-What was wrong with it?

-I suppose it was seen as cheating, yeah.

0:34:570:35:01

Because, if I'm fighting you with a sword, we're four foot apart,

0:35:010:35:05

we're hacking hell out of each other,

0:35:050:35:07

and then some farmer's boy from wherever

0:35:070:35:10

shoots you or me from 100 yards away?

0:35:100:35:13

No, that's not chivalry.

0:35:130:35:17

As English people, we take in a hatred of crossbowmen or crossbows,

0:35:170:35:22

we take it in with our mothers' milk.

0:35:220:35:24

We take it in with our porridge at breakfast.

0:35:240:35:26

It's morally reprehensible.

0:35:260:35:29

Untroubled by such moral concerns, and ignoring the papal ban,

0:35:350:35:39

Richard the Lionheart employed large numbers of mercenary crossbowmen,

0:35:390:35:43

principally, the Balestrieri from Genoa, famed for their expertise.

0:35:430:35:49

And after returning from the third Crusade,

0:35:490:35:51

Richard set his sights on another traditional enemy.

0:35:510:35:55

To recover lost lands and seize new castles,

0:35:550:35:58

he waged war on Philip II of France.

0:35:580:36:02

In March 1199, Richard was three days into the siege of Chalus,

0:36:020:36:07

a diminutive and apparently insignificant castle in Limousin,

0:36:070:36:11

and it was on the point of collapse.

0:36:110:36:14

It's garrison had been heavily depleted by Richard's crossbowmen

0:36:140:36:17

and only one defender was visible on its walls,

0:36:170:36:21

a young man named Peter Basilius.

0:36:210:36:24

After supper one evening,

0:36:260:36:28

the King strode out from his tent to inspect the progress of the siege.

0:36:280:36:32

Richard was unarmoured and, more than anything,

0:36:330:36:36

was amused by this lone defender with the crossbow,

0:36:360:36:39

who had been seen using a saucepan as a shield.

0:36:390:36:42

But in the dying light, Peter Basilius took aim,

0:36:420:36:45

loosed a bolt towards the King, which, against all expectations,

0:36:450:36:50

found its mark and struck Richard in the left shoulder.

0:36:500:36:54

Richard tried to pull it out, but the shaft broke,

0:36:590:37:02

leaving the head embedded in his flesh.

0:37:020:37:05

A surgeon was summoned, who removed it,

0:37:050:37:07

but not without carelessly mangling the King's arm in the process.

0:37:070:37:12

In spite of herbs and dressing,

0:37:120:37:14

the wound deteriorated and gangrene set in.

0:37:140:37:18

When the castle fell, the lone crossbowman

0:37:190:37:21

was brought before the King, now on his deathbed.

0:37:210:37:25

But instead of ordering him to be killed, Richard said to him,

0:37:250:37:29

"Live on and, by my bounty, behold the light of day."

0:37:290:37:34

The greatest warrior-king of the Middle Ages,

0:37:340:37:37

the valiant Richard the Lionheart,

0:37:370:37:39

had been killed by the very weapon that he had championed.

0:37:390:37:43

Richard's untimely death demonstrated why crossbows

0:37:450:37:49

were so feared and revered.

0:37:490:37:51

It took only one bolt to kill a king.

0:37:510:37:54

And as for the pardoned crossbowman, well, chivalry only went so far,

0:37:560:38:00

for as soon as Richard was dead,

0:38:000:38:02

Peter Basilius was flayed alive and pulled apart by wild horses.

0:38:020:38:08

Richard's successor, his brother, King John,

0:38:210:38:24

spent most of his reign battling against his barons.

0:38:240:38:28

And, like his brother before him,

0:38:280:38:30

John too relied on foreign mercenary units of crossbowmen.

0:38:300:38:34

In 1215, the rebel barons presented King John with "the great charter",

0:38:360:38:42

the Magna Carta, to protect their rights

0:38:420:38:44

and to hold the king to account.

0:38:440:38:47

And within it, they called for the expulsion

0:38:470:38:49

of all mercenary captains and their crossbowmen from the country

0:38:490:38:54

in an attempt to deprive the King of his most reliable fighting force.

0:38:540:38:58

King John signed the charter,

0:38:590:39:01

but completely ignored the calls for the ban of crossbowmen.

0:39:010:39:04

And the following year, after his death, his son, Henry III,

0:39:040:39:08

not only continued to garrison his castles with large numbers of them,

0:39:080:39:13

but he also set in motion the greatest period

0:39:130:39:16

of weapons manufacture yet witnessed in England.

0:39:160:39:20

Two munitions factories were set up -

0:39:260:39:29

one inside the Tower of London and the other tucked away here

0:39:290:39:33

at St Briavels in the Forest of Dean

0:39:330:39:35

because of the large local deposits of iron ore,

0:39:350:39:39

which could be smelted and forged into crossbow bolts,

0:39:390:39:42

or quarrels, as they were technically known.

0:39:420:39:44

In 1228, King Henry's chief quarrel maker, John Malemort,

0:39:460:39:50

was sent here to begin work at a state-of-the-art forge

0:39:500:39:53

within the bailey.

0:39:530:39:55

"The King wills that quarrels shall be made with all speed

0:39:550:39:58

"and kept here for his own use,"

0:39:580:40:01

were his orders and Malemort set about making no fewer

0:40:010:40:04

than 100 quarrels a day.

0:40:040:40:06

Malemort's enormous stockpile of quarrels

0:40:090:40:12

was then carefully packed into barrels and sent in long carts

0:40:120:40:16

under armed guard to other strategically placed castles

0:40:160:40:20

throughout the kingdom.

0:40:200:40:21

This was weaponry on an industrial scale

0:40:250:40:28

and such was its military value that the King's Great Arsenal,

0:40:280:40:32

as St Briavels came to be known, was heavily fortified.

0:40:320:40:35

It was given a new defensive ditch, three iron portcullises

0:40:350:40:40

and this massive two-towered gatehouse behind me,

0:40:400:40:43

built with huge spurs to prevent undermining in a siege.

0:40:430:40:47

The forge at St Briavels may have long gone,

0:40:540:40:57

but John Malemort's skill has been kept alive

0:40:570:41:00

by master arrowsmiths like Hector Cole, who's giving me a glimpse

0:41:000:41:04

of how this medieval munitions factory would have operated.

0:41:040:41:07

That forge is roaring like a dragon.

0:41:110:41:13

Is this very similar to the process

0:41:210:41:23

-they would have used in the medieval period?

-Oh, yes.

0:41:230:41:26

Nothing has changed.

0:41:260:41:28

The metal they would have been using would have been,

0:41:280:41:31

more than likely, what we call phosphoric iron,

0:41:310:41:33

which gives a little bit of extra hardness to the head

0:41:330:41:36

when it's finished.

0:41:360:41:38

St Briavels, obviously,

0:41:410:41:43

was a specialist forge for making quarrels,

0:41:430:41:45

so there would have been arrowsmiths working there full-time

0:41:450:41:49

and there would have been a lot of them, at least 50 people.

0:41:490:41:52

How many do you think they'd be able to make in a day?

0:41:550:41:57

On the average, for a quarrelhead,

0:41:570:42:00

you're talking about six minutes,

0:42:000:42:03

if you're really going at it hammer and tongs, if you like.

0:42:030:42:06

If they're working 12 hours a day, which they would,

0:42:100:42:13

they were making thousands.

0:42:130:42:14

That's amazing.

0:42:200:42:21

One minute it was a big lump of solid iron and now it's...

0:42:210:42:24

-Now it's quite delicate, isn't it?

-Really, very much so.

0:42:240:42:28

When your metal goes in the fire, your mind goes in with it,

0:42:280:42:32

otherwise you're in serious trouble.

0:42:320:42:35

-So, you're my hammer man.

-Yes, I have my hammer.

0:42:370:42:39

And you're going to just do a little bit of tidying.

0:42:390:42:42

Let's give it a go.

0:42:420:42:44

Now, you're going to heat it up

0:42:460:42:47

-and you're going to hammer it on the far edge of the anvil again.

-Yep.

0:42:470:42:51

Every hammer blow that you make is important

0:42:530:42:56

because it will alter the shape of the head when it's finished.

0:42:560:43:00

The diamond shape will penetrate far better than the square shape

0:43:000:43:04

when it hits armour or anything like that.

0:43:040:43:07

Chainmail, will it go through chainmail?

0:43:070:43:08

It would burst chainmail, yes.

0:43:080:43:10

One reasonable quarrelhead.

0:43:140:43:16

It's better than reasonable!

0:43:160:43:17

There we go - a quarrel.

0:43:230:43:26

A steaming, deadly weapon.

0:43:260:43:30

John Malemort continued to supply the Crown

0:43:350:43:37

with huge quantities of ammunition.

0:43:370:43:40

In March 1277, the new king, Edward I,

0:43:410:43:45

ordered 200,000 quarrels from St Briavels

0:43:450:43:49

to equip crossbowmen for his first campaign

0:43:490:43:52

against the rebellious Prince of Wales, Llewelyn ap Gruffudd,

0:43:520:43:57

who had repeatedly refused to pay homage to him.

0:43:570:44:00

Edward I would overrun the Welsh and contain them with the

0:44:020:44:06

most powerful set of castles yet built in medieval Europe,

0:44:060:44:10

and yet it was in his campaigns against them

0:44:100:44:12

that he would witness the effectiveness

0:44:120:44:15

of the Welsh guerrilla fighters,

0:44:150:44:17

particularly the bowmen of Gwent in South Wales.

0:44:170:44:20

These archers were long known for their proficiency

0:44:210:44:24

with the heavy-draw-weight longbow,

0:44:240:44:26

much lighter to wield than the crossbow

0:44:260:44:29

and much quicker to reload, too.

0:44:290:44:31

On average, an archer could get off five arrows

0:44:310:44:34

for every single crossbow bolt.

0:44:340:44:37

The bow had long been used by hunters and foresters,

0:44:370:44:41

but, like the sword, it now began to be seen as a mythic weapon

0:44:410:44:45

through stories that abounded about the elusive outlaw Robin Hood.

0:44:450:44:50

Whatever their truth,

0:44:510:44:53

these stories fuelled the rising status of the archer.

0:44:530:44:57

King Edward immediately saw how the longbow,

0:44:570:44:59

particularly that with a heavy draw weight,

0:44:590:45:01

which enabled a far greater range,

0:45:010:45:04

could be used to create a lethal infantry missile weapon.

0:45:040:45:08

But his great innovation was to deploy not hundreds,

0:45:080:45:11

but thousands of these archers alongside his men-at-arms.

0:45:110:45:16

Archers had never been deployed in this way before by an English king.

0:45:160:45:21

One archer who seems to have stepped straight out of the medieval forest

0:45:240:45:29

is Mark Stretton.

0:45:290:45:30

He's among the very few people today capable of handling

0:45:300:45:33

a heavy-draw-weight longbow.

0:45:330:45:35

Mark, bows and arrows have been around for thousands of years.

0:45:420:45:46

Why was it in this period

0:45:460:45:47

that everything suddenly changed in relation to the bow?

0:45:470:45:50

Largely because, with this type of weapon,

0:45:500:45:54

you can shoot at close range

0:45:540:45:55

and you can shoot at long range very quickly.

0:45:550:45:59

If you take it into modern warfare terms,

0:45:590:46:01

you've got a sniper and you've got artillery.

0:46:010:46:03

So you could change very quickly

0:46:030:46:05

from having to shoot a knight advancing to you very close,

0:46:050:46:08

and you've got no choice but to shoot the man,

0:46:080:46:11

or you could shoot at long distance and almost, in a way,

0:46:110:46:14

change the way that the knights rode, so almost like a sheepdog,

0:46:140:46:18

you could hedge them in and bring them over to one side.

0:46:180:46:21

Just by shooting a volley of arrows,

0:46:210:46:23

you could change the whole course of the battle.

0:46:230:46:26

It's such a beautiful object as well as a weapon of war.

0:46:260:46:28

How are they made?

0:46:280:46:30

Well, this bow is made out of yew wood

0:46:300:46:33

and the reason this is so good is this is a natural lamination

0:46:330:46:36

of wood, because the sap wood resists tension very, very well

0:46:360:46:40

and the heart wood resists compression

0:46:400:46:42

and that is the beauty of why yew was used, because it has a very,

0:46:420:46:46

very good resistance to being pulled back. And when you let it go,

0:46:460:46:49

it springs back so quickly that that is where the real power is.

0:46:490:46:53

And so, the faster the string returns,

0:46:530:46:55

the faster the arrow flies.

0:46:550:46:56

You have quite a glint in your eye when you talk about bows.

0:46:590:47:01

-Can you train me to do it?

-We can have a go,

0:47:010:47:03

but whether we'll be successful or not's another story!

0:47:030:47:07

Well, this is an actual war bow.

0:47:110:47:13

This is 140lbs at 32 inches.

0:47:130:47:16

-That's 10st you're trying to drag back.

-Right.

0:47:160:47:18

-Put your hand up to that mark there.

-Yeah.

-Three fingers on the string,

0:47:180:47:22

and let's see what you can do.

0:47:220:47:23

And just simply pull it back towards my chin?

0:47:230:47:25

Yeah, see how far you can pull it.

0:47:250:47:27

Ooft!

0:47:270:47:28

-I can get it back that far.

-Well, perhaps we ought to try

0:47:280:47:30

something a little lighter, do you think?

0:47:300:47:32

OK, let's try something a little lighter.

0:47:320:47:35

Oh, we've got this one, which is half its weight.

0:47:350:47:37

This is 70lbs. Let's see what you can do with that.

0:47:370:47:40

Let's hopefully be able to do something with this one.

0:47:400:47:42

Oh, yeah, that's better, that's better.

0:47:420:47:45

There we go. I can do that one.

0:47:450:47:46

I think we'll try now with an arrow

0:47:460:47:47

and we'll try and shoot at the target.

0:47:470:47:50

OK, let's see what you can do.

0:47:500:47:51

Boom!

0:47:540:47:56

That's very good, actually.

0:47:560:47:57

Shall we see how it compares with a real war bow?

0:47:570:47:59

Yes, I can't wait.

0:47:590:48:00

Wahey!

0:48:100:48:11

-Let's go and have a look.

-Yeah.

0:48:110:48:13

We've actually gone through both sides with this one.

0:48:150:48:18

Look at that!

0:48:180:48:19

And that must have taken an enormous amount more energy

0:48:200:48:22

-to have done that.

-You can see how the mail is gripping the shaft.

0:48:220:48:25

You've still gone through that far.

0:48:250:48:27

But the real thing with the heavy war arrows,

0:48:280:48:30

it's gone through two thicknesses and through the target that we were

0:48:300:48:33

shooting at, which is quite a dense piece of material.

0:48:330:48:36

So, if I now pull this one out,

0:48:360:48:39

we've gone that far instead.

0:48:390:48:41

Yeah, rather than that.

0:48:410:48:42

So, it really is an extraordinary weapon, that, isn't it?

0:48:440:48:47

Yeah, but, of course, you've got to understand, this is at close range.

0:48:470:48:50

What we really want to see is what it's like when we shoot at long

0:48:500:48:53

distance because that's when this weapon really comes into its own.

0:48:530:48:56

With a lighter bow, you can probably do it with your arms,

0:49:020:49:05

but with something like this, a true war bow,

0:49:050:49:07

you've got to use your entire body.

0:49:070:49:09

For something like this, which is so heavy,

0:49:090:49:12

if you've not got a very strong skeletal frame,

0:49:120:49:15

you could actually destroy yourself with the forces acting upon you.

0:49:150:49:18

Right, so you've seen how far my arrow has gone

0:49:300:49:33

and it's gone a good 220 yards, we're way up that bank there.

0:49:330:49:36

And, of course, if you relate this to a battlefield situation,

0:49:360:49:39

you're engaging the enemy at a greater distance

0:49:390:49:41

and that gives you a huge advantage.

0:49:410:49:43

Yeah, and seeing just one arrow fly into the sky was an awesome sight.

0:49:430:49:46

It must have been extraordinary seeing hundreds, thousands of them.

0:49:460:49:49

Oh, yeah. If you get thousands of archers all losing one arrow

0:49:490:49:52

at once, you really would get a storm of arrows.

0:49:520:49:55

The sky would be full of arrows and then they'd come raining in.

0:49:550:49:57

It would really be like a rain of death hitting the knights

0:49:570:50:01

and there's just no way you're going to get away from that,

0:50:010:50:03

so that is why this was such a decisive weapon.

0:50:030:50:05

The arrow storm unleashed by longbowmen may have helped Edward I

0:50:120:50:16

to conquer the Welsh,

0:50:160:50:17

but this weapon would really come to the fore during

0:50:170:50:20

the wars of Scottish independence, around the turn of the 14th century.

0:50:200:50:25

At the Battle of Falkirk in 1298,

0:50:310:50:34

Edward's longbowmen picked off with relative ease

0:50:340:50:37

the once-invincible formations of Scottish spearmen,

0:50:370:50:41

called schiltrons.

0:50:410:50:42

The Scots' leader, William Wallace, managed to escape the arrow storm,

0:50:430:50:48

but was later captured and executed in London for treason.

0:50:480:50:51

Hanged, drawn and quartered,

0:50:530:50:55

his head was placed on London Bridge and his limbs sent north to Perth,

0:50:550:51:00

Stirling, Newcastle and Berwick-upon-Tweed.

0:51:000:51:03

It was here, on the old bridge over the River Tweed,

0:51:050:51:09

that Edward I ordered one of Wallace's quarters,

0:51:090:51:12

said to be his sword arm,

0:51:120:51:14

to be strung up as a warning against further rebellion, but to no avail.

0:51:140:51:19

For the next quarter of a century, Berwick,

0:51:190:51:22

the most economically and strategically significant port

0:51:220:51:24

in the Border wars, was fiercely contested

0:51:240:51:27

in a series of raids and sieges,

0:51:270:51:30

until it was eventually reclaimed by the Scots.

0:51:300:51:33

But then, in 1333,

0:51:330:51:35

it became the crucible for a decisive confrontation -

0:51:350:51:40

one in which the longbow would come of age.

0:51:400:51:43

In May of that year, the new King, Edward III,

0:51:460:51:50

came to lay siege to Berwick

0:51:500:51:51

and positioned himself just north of the town,

0:51:510:51:54

on a 600ft rise called Halidon Hill.

0:51:540:51:57

Here, I'm meeting Professor Matthew Strickland

0:51:590:52:02

to find out how this became the real testing ground for the longbow.

0:52:020:52:06

So, we've got Edward III up here, the Scots coming from the north.

0:52:080:52:12

Edward knows they're going to come from the north,

0:52:120:52:15

so they're really playing into his hands already.

0:52:150:52:17

It's a trap. He sets a trap.

0:52:170:52:18

Edward chose Halidon Hill because it dominated the approaches to Berwick.

0:52:180:52:23

He drew up his army in three divisions,

0:52:230:52:26

or battles, as they were known.

0:52:260:52:28

Now, the key thing about Halidon, and what makes it such an important

0:52:280:52:31

battle in the history of the longbow,

0:52:310:52:33

is that he dismounted his knights to fight on foot,

0:52:330:52:36

and each of his divisions was flanked by a wing of archers,

0:52:360:52:40

sloping inwards, so that the incoming Scots were caught

0:52:400:52:44

by enfilading shot from the longbowmen.

0:52:440:52:46

-And was this new formation effective?

-It was highly effective,

0:52:480:52:51

particularly because of the use of the terrain

0:52:510:52:53

because what happened was the Scots advanced down the slope.

0:52:530:52:57

As they came down the slope, they realised that the bottom

0:52:570:53:00

of the valley was marshy and boggy, so that broke up their progress.

0:53:000:53:03

They then had to struggle up the hill behind us, towards the English

0:53:030:53:07

positions, and this was something that Edward III was very good at.

0:53:070:53:10

He'd choose the ground so that the approach looked easier

0:53:100:53:13

than it actually was.

0:53:130:53:15

As they're struggling up the slope, they're being pounded with arrows.

0:53:160:53:19

Imagine these coming down in their thousands.

0:53:200:53:23

One chronicler says, "As the Scots were advancing,

0:53:230:53:26

"they turned their faces away as if walking into a storm of sleet,

0:53:260:53:30

"so dense were the arrows striking them."

0:53:300:53:32

By the time those who do reach the English men-at-arms get there,

0:53:370:53:41

they're winded, they're tired, they're probably wounded

0:53:410:53:43

and they're easily defeated by the English knights and men-at-arms.

0:53:430:53:47

So how did this battle influence

0:53:470:53:49

the bigger story of medieval warfare?

0:53:490:53:51

The longbow was a weapon that had existed for many centuries.

0:53:510:53:54

The weapon itself isn't new.

0:53:540:53:56

What Halidon sees is the use, en masse,

0:53:560:53:59

of this new tactical formation,

0:53:590:54:01

which sees dismounted knights flanked by wings of archers,

0:54:010:54:05

and the Scots are drawn in and destroyed.

0:54:050:54:08

And it's this tactic that the English will use again and again

0:54:080:54:11

in the Hundred Years' War.

0:54:110:54:12

Edward III may have won his spurs at Halidon Hill,

0:54:150:54:18

but he soon faced a new threat from King Philip VI of France.

0:54:180:54:22

Keen to test his winning longbow tactics,

0:54:230:54:26

Edward set sail for Normandy in July 1346

0:54:260:54:30

with an army of over 10,000 men.

0:54:300:54:33

Edward marched north, burning and pillaging everything in sight.

0:54:340:54:38

He sought to engineer an encounter on his terms

0:54:380:54:42

and on the terrain of his choosing.

0:54:420:54:44

And here, at Crecy in the Somme, he found it.

0:54:440:54:48

Taking command from a windmill,

0:54:530:54:54

exactly here, where this watchtower now stands,

0:54:540:54:58

Edward drew up his forces on this ridge behind me,

0:54:580:55:01

hemmed in between the villages of Crecy and Wadicourt,

0:55:010:55:04

with the intention of luring his enemy into a killing zone

0:55:040:55:08

in the basin below.

0:55:080:55:09

This would be the ultimate contest of rival weaponry,

0:55:110:55:15

pitting longbow against crossbow, archer against archer.

0:55:150:55:19

And so desperate was King Philip for victory

0:55:200:55:23

that he ordered his 2,000 Genoese crossbowmen forward immediately,

0:55:230:55:27

even though they were exhausted from a long march

0:55:270:55:30

and without their defensive pavise shields,

0:55:300:55:33

which had been left behind in the baggage train.

0:55:330:55:36

Regardless, the Genoese crossbowmen loosed their bolts,

0:55:360:55:39

but they fell inexplicably short.

0:55:390:55:41

Now, it's always been a matter of conjecture why this happened.

0:55:430:55:47

Some blame the wet weather,

0:55:470:55:48

but the Genoese were professional crossbowmen

0:55:480:55:50

and they would have kept their bowstrings waxed.

0:55:500:55:53

Others say they were dazzled, firing into the sun, and simply misfired.

0:55:530:55:58

But, for me, these explanations are all too simple.

0:55:580:56:02

The fact is that Philip pushed them into a battle

0:56:020:56:05

for which they were ill-prepared.

0:56:050:56:07

Those men unskewered by the subsequent English arrow storm

0:56:130:56:17

threw down their crossbows and fled,

0:56:170:56:20

only to be trampled to death under the hooves

0:56:200:56:22

of the advancing French cavalry.

0:56:220:56:25

But the relentless rain of arrows was not the only cause of panic

0:56:340:56:38

and confusion on this battlefield that day.

0:56:380:56:41

One Italian witness wrote of the fearful effect

0:56:410:56:45

of the fire that throws tiny balls to frighten and destroy horses.

0:56:450:56:51

This was Edward's secret weapon that he had brought to France,

0:56:510:56:55

concealed in carts - cannon -

0:56:550:56:58

and this was their first appearance in pitched battle.

0:56:580:57:02

Having mastered the deployment of the longbow,

0:57:060:57:09

and with it transformed England into a formidable military power,

0:57:090:57:13

Edward now sought to embrace new weapons technology

0:57:130:57:17

in the form of gunpowder.

0:57:170:57:19

The cannon may have been in its infancy at Crecy,

0:57:200:57:23

but its psychological effect on the battle was profound.

0:57:230:57:27

At Crecy, over the hiss of the English arrow storm

0:57:300:57:33

had been heard the thunder of guns - a resounding new weapon of war.

0:57:330:57:38

Edward's cannon gave birth to a new age of warfare,

0:57:410:57:44

one in which the skill of a swordsman

0:57:440:57:47

and the brute strength of an archer

0:57:470:57:49

gave way to the simple lighting of a fuse or the pull of a trigger,

0:57:490:57:53

and the whole business of killing became easier than ever before.

0:57:530:57:58

Next time, I'll find out how a new range of weaponry,

0:58:010:58:04

from cannons to muskets,

0:58:040:58:06

was devised to exploit the explosive force of gunpowder.

0:58:060:58:10

I'll explore the role it played at key moments in British history -

0:58:100:58:14

the Gunpowder Plot and the English Civil War -

0:58:140:58:17

and I'll tell the little-known story

0:58:170:58:19

of the first-ever political assassination by firearm.

0:58:190:58:23

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