2091 Antique Sword

 A two-hand sword, by definition, is a sword designed to be used with two hands for maximum effectiveness. Styles of swords can vary by nationality (See page 279 in my book). Two-hand swords were widespread both in the field and in the lists from the mid-15th to the early 17th century. However, from the latter part of the 16th century, they increasingly tended to be employed in ceremonial and parade roles. Two-hand swords did not develop until about the same period as plate armor.

As furnaces grew larger in Medieval Europe, steel billets (solid blocks of steel) also increased in size accordingly. With bigger billets, swords could now be made with fewer (but larger) homogeneous steel billets, eventually reaching the peak of one billet per sword. Larger furnaces generally meant higher temperatures, which, combined with homogeneous billets, would result in better steel, steel strong enough to create bigger, stronger blades.

It has been suggested that the earliest references to the use of the two-hand sword are those found in a French copy of the Romance of Alexander of about 1180, which mentions a “bone espée a II espieus molus,” and in the chronicle of Guillaume Guiart, written in the period 1304-1307, which notes that the French, when fighting the Germans in 1264, had to adjust their tactics “Car les deux mains en haute levées/ Giètent d’unes longues espées.” More certain evidence of the use of the two-hand sword is provided by Jean Froissart (1337–1410), who, when writing his chronicles of the year 1358, noted that the Canon de Robesart “tenoit une espée a II mains, dont il donnoit les horions si grands que nul les osoit attendre,” while Bertrand du Guesclin (circa 1320- 1380) recorded in his chronicle that Oliver de Manny carried “d’une espée a II mains” (J. Hewitt, Ancient Armour and Weapons, Vol. II, London, 1855, p. 256).