Posted on 12/29/2010 5:00:36 PM PST by worst-case scenario
Medieval warfare was just as terrifying as you might imagine.
THE soldier now known as Towton 25 had survived battle before. A healed skull fracture points to previous engagements. He was old enoughsomewhere between 36 and 45 when he diedto have gained plenty of experience of fighting. But on March 29th 1461, his luck ran out.
Towton 25 suffered eight wounds to his head that day. The precise order can be worked out from the direction of fractures on his skull: when bone breaks, the cracks veer towards existing areas of weakness. The first five blows were delivered by a bladed weapon to the left-hand side of his head, presumably by a right-handed opponent standing in front of him. None is likely to have been lethal.
The next one almost certainly was. From behind him someone swung a blade towards his skull, carving a down-to-up trajectory through the air. The blow opened a huge horizontal gash into the back of his headpicture a slit you could post an envelope through. Fractures raced down to the base of his skull and around the sides of his head. Fragments of bone were forced in to Towton 25s brain, felling him.
(Excerpt) Read more at economist.com ...
ping
Sounds familar.
New information on the battle that put Edward IV on the throne.
Old bones ping
Yep,, its the one you don't see that gets you.......
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Whoops! And thanks La Lydia!
This article is a very interesting and very graphic discription of warfare some 500 years ago.
The bill - English version of Halberd was vicious weapon
Able to cut man in two with a single blow....
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_(weapon)
Thanks for the ping. Very interesting analysis.
Clear indications of the roaring rage in which defeated soldiers were killed.
yup
Interesting bit of history, thanks for posting it.
HALBERD
ENGLISH BIL
The expression “being poleaxed” comes to mind. It wasn’t only cattle that were dispatched that way.
[Minstrel]singing] Bravely bold Sir Robin rode forth from Camelot. He was not afraid to die, oh brave Sir Robin. He was not at all afraid to be killed in nasty ways, brave, brave, brave, brave Sir Robin. He was not in the least bit scared to be mashed into a pulp, or to have his eyes gouged out, and his elbows broken. To have his kneecaps split, and his body burned away, and his limbs all hacked and mangled, brave Sir Robin. His head smashed in and heart cut out, and his liver removed, and his bowels unplugged, and his nostrils raped and his bottom burned off and his penis...
Sir Robin: That’s, uh, that’s enough music for now, lads... looks like there’s dirty work afoot.
Picture is worth a thousand words, eh? He was probably dead from the blow to the back of the skull before this coup de grace was given. At least one hopes so.
What sort of bloodrage must one be in in order to inflict this sort of blow on another human?
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