Military History 2015's video: MILITARY HISTORY : Medieval Swords and Tournaments

Uploaded by MILITARY HISTORY 2015. A look at the Military History of Medieval Swords and Tournaments starts with a brief history of the Medieval Broadsword and various combat techniques with it, both offensive and defensive. Then the show members face off to find who has best learned how to win with the Medieval Broadsword. Part 2 starts at 21:00 and focuses on one of the quintessential images of medieval life, the tournament lasted well into Tudor times. Investigates the purpose of these extraordinary and colorful events and how its many forms--the foot tourney, joust on horseback, the melee--developed from the ancient trial of combat. The show experiments with weapons and armor designed for tournament, examines the rules of combat and the notion of chivalry, and joins a medieval tournament team for a joust on horseback ! Much of what we know of ancient history is the history of militaries: their conquests, their movements, and their technological innovations. There are many reasons for this. Kingdoms and empires, the central units of control in the ancient world, could only be maintained through military force. Due to limited agricultural ability, there were relatively few areas that could support large communities, so fighting was common. Weapons and armor, designed to be sturdy, tended to last longer than other artifacts, and thus a great deal of surviving artifacts recovered tend to fall in this category as they are more likely to survive. Weapons and armor were also mass-produced to a scale that makes them quite plentiful throughout history, and thus more likely to be found in archaeological digs.