Mace, a legandary medieval weapon

Learn About the Medieval Mace

Capable of slamming its way through the most tough armor, a mace is a weapon of offense, made of steel, iron, or latten. The first ceremonial maces, which they later became known as, were made to protect the king. They were born by the sergeants- at- arms, who were royal bodyguards started in France by Phillip II, and also in England, most likely by Richard I. When the 14th century rolled around, there was a noticeable difference in maces, since now most of them were covered in precious metals. There is shown to be a civic mace in the 13th century, even though there are no known examples from the time period now in existence. Since the king’s sergeants were worthy of having civic maces that were encrusted with expensive metals, they were given ornamented civic maces because of this.

Silver coated maces were known to have been used at Exeter in 1387/8; by the time the 16th century rolled around, they were used just about everywhere. At the start of the 15th century, the head of the war mace, or flanged end, was borne uppermost, featuring small buttons with the royal arms in the base. These blade like flanges, that were made primarily for offense, turned into simple ornaments by the start of the Tudor period, and the area that was shown greatest regard, was the end that featured the royal arms, which were later enriched with a cresting, that resulted in the position being reversed. Carrying the flanged end upward, did not all at once die out. There were some maces that were designed to be carried either way.

With time, these flanges became smaller, and later in the 16th and early 17th century, they became beautiful and projected scroll brackets, and various other ornamentation, which remained popular until about 1640. The shaft’s next adornment was the reappearance of the little scroll brackets on the top, right under the head of the mace. In the last part of the 17th century, they are totally gone from the foot, and they can only be seen under the heads, or sometimes on a knob on the shaft. Usually the silver mace heads were ordinary, with a cresting of flowers or leaves in the 15th and 16th centuries. Since sergeant’s maces stopped in about 1650, larger maces came into general use, before the mayor or bailiffs.