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Long iron sword with a long handle and a wide cross guard. This is an example of a two-handed sword with "scent-stopper" pommel and long straight quillons. Long swords were designed to be held using both hands. They first became fashionable in the early 1400s. In 1510 King Henry VIII himself fought in a tournament with a two-handed sword. This one was found in the Thames near Kew, and probably dates to around 1450. It is very similar to one, now in the Royal Armouries, found with a number of other weapons in the river Dordogne in France, close to the site of the Battle of Castillon of 1453. In this, the last great battle of the Hundred Years' War, the English army was heavily defeated by the French – it is possible that captured English weapons were thrown into the Dordogne.
Date
1400 AD - 1450 AD
Image Number
000091
