One such weapon can be found in the Royal Armouries and has an all-steel head with six flanges forming three spikes each, reminiscent of a mace but with a short thick spike of square cross section extending from the top. The holy water sprinkler (from its resemblance to the aspergillum used in the Catholic Mass), was a morning star used by the English army in the sixteenth century and made in series by professional smiths. The third type was decorative in nature, usually short hafted and made of metal, one sixteenth century example being of steel and damascened with inlaid gold and silver, in the Wallace Collection of London. The shaft and head were usually of one piece but sometimes reinforced at the top with an iron band. The second and much simpler type would have been hand cut by peasant militia men, rather than turned on a lathe, from wood they had gathered themselves and fitted with nails and spikes by the local blacksmith. The first was the well crafted military type used by professional soldiers, made in series by expert weaponsmiths for stocking in town arsenals. There were three types in existence, all differing in quality of workmanship. Many surviving morning stars are of a longer two-handed form typically six feet in length, with some longer examples. The mace was a traditional knightly weapon that developed somewhat independently as the mace transitioned to being constructed entirely of metal, the morning star retained its characteristic wooden shaft. It was used by both infantry and cavalry the horseman's weapon had a shorter shaft. The spikes distinguish it from a mace, which uses flanges or knobs to penetrate plate armor. The morning star is a medieval weapon consisting of a spiked ball mounted on a shaft, resembling a mace, usually with a long spike extending straight from the top and many smaller spikes around the particle of the head. However, there are few depictions of such a ball-and-chain flail from the period, so the weapon of this type appears to have been uncommon. The term is often confused with the military flail ( fléau d'armes in French and Kriegsflegel in German), which typically consists of a wooden shaft joined by a length of chain to one or more iron-shod wooden bars (heavy sword pommels have also been used as weights). The morning star first came into widespread use around the beginning of the fourteenth century, particularly in Germany where it was known as Morgenstern. Each used, to varying degrees, a combination of blunt-force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy. Club-like weapons A morning star (middle) shown among other club designs Morning star (left), next to a ball-and-chain flail (right).Ī morning star ( German: Morgenstern) is any of several medieval club-like weapons consisting of a shaft with an attached ball adorned with one or more spikes.
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