10 types of unusual weapons of the Middle Ages

Before the advent of computer games, people had little entertainment, except for killing each other with the help of all sorts of clever devices.

An Italian invention that so attracted the English king Henry VIII (a great lover of killing his wives) that now it is always mentioned in the same sentence with him. The shield with a diameter of half a meter, which was adopted by the bodyguards of the eccentric king, had a hole for a musket in the center. The charging mechanism is not entirely clear, because for this it was necessary to always have a fire source at hand.

Probably sold in the shops of gunsmiths with a sign "Three for the price of one!" Some not particularly scrupulous duelist could activate two additional blades by pressing the button on the hilt. And a particularly scrupulous duelist used it for noble purposes: for a "mercy strike" to finish off a wounded opponent.

The idea of tuning vehicles for transportation in The Middle Ages had a purely militaristic character. Long blades up to half a meter, inserted into the hub of the wheels of war chariots, worked flawlessly, solving problems with the enemy's infantry and light cavalry.

A throwing African dagger of a bizarre shape. Several blades provided the weapon with a smooth flight and hit targets within ten meters. The principle of action of the hung-mung is similar to the action of a boomerang, however, fortunately for the owner, the dagger did not return.

Spare parts of animal corpses and defeated enemies were used in many different ways: they could be fired at the enemy from trebuchets, poison water in a besieged city, used for psychological attack (although, of course, no one used this term). Well, in the end, it's just beautiful.

This is a hedgehog-the ancestor of anti-personnel hedgehogs. The caltrop was used to slow down the enemy's cavalry. It consisted of several connected star-shaped sharpened pins, often with notches. One pin was always pointed upwards, the rest formed a support. It was used against horses, camels and even war elephants.

The hammer — one of the most ancient types of weapons, was undeservedly displaced by swords, but with the advent of armor it became popular again. In various combinations, he had a beak or even an axe on the warhead for applying crushing, chopping and stabbing blows. He was particularly loved by medieval horsemen (and, according to Professor Tolkien, dwarves from Moria). The hammer could shatter the chain mail or deform the armor.

Long before the legalization of weed and same-sex marriage, the Dutch were very militant guys. A Dutch invention that was successfully used in the siege of Antwerp (1584-1585) in the Eighty Years ' War, the hell ship is considered one of the first types of weapons of mass destruction.

The English weapon with the biblical name "mancatcher" (mancatcher) was a hook impaled on a long shaft, often with spikes. It was used to pull a rider off a horse. It was successfully used to capture notable hostages.

The ancestor of the folding Swiss knife, was a shield with many knives and prongs and with a lantern suspended on a hook to blind the enemy at night. Despite its slightly ridiculous appearance, thanks to this very lantern, it was widely used in Italy during the Renaissance for duels.