Mace
One of the simplest weapons of war the mace is a percussive weapon that has been used by nearly every culture in some form, being a direct descendent of the club possibly the earliest weapon known to man. Pictorial records such as the Bayeux tapestry show both horsemen and foot soldiers using maces with the horsemen’s weapon being an elongated pear shape while the footmen’s weapon had a trefoil shaped head. From the 14th century spiked clubs are seen in the pictorial records. By the 14th century the mace head had evolved to have longitudinal flanges sometimes forged but mostly copper soldered to a short socket. This form of the weapon had 6-8 flanges by the 15th century and the flanges were becoming more complex in shape. Maces were popular in areas that had Turkish influence and in the Baltic States. The mace has always had the advantage of being simple to use and being a fairly effective and cheap weapon for use against well-armoured foes using the weapons weight and force to crush armour plates rather than penetrate them.
How to cite this article:
Dugdale-Pointon, TDP. (19 April 2004 ), Mace, http://www.historyofwar.org/articles/weapons_mace.html