The Norman Knight
The Weapons and Armor of the Norman heavy Cavalry
William the Conqueror's best troops at the battle of Hastings were his heavily armoured Norman Knights.
By the time that William, Duke of Normandy launched his invasion of England, his Norman warriors were only three generations removed from their Viking ancestors, but in that time a number of major changes had been made to their arms and armour.
The main weapon of a Norman knight in 1066 was his sword. Unlike the broadswords of the later Middle Ages that were little more than metal clubs, the sword of the Norman knight was double bladed and razor-sharp. It was designed for slicing through flesh and light armor and possessed a sharp point for stabbing. Swords were usually about 30 to 31 inches in length but could be longer. They were swung one-handed and used in conjunction with a shield.
The other common weapon of the Norman knight was the lance. Despite the name, this weapon was really a long wooden spear with a metal tip. In battle it would be couched under the arm during a cavalry charge in order to transmit the strength of the charging horse into the impact of the weapon. Once a melee was joined, a knight would reverse his grip on the lance and hold it above his head to strike down at enemies. The lance could also be thrown.
Some knights may have carried a mace instead of or in-addition to the sword. The mace consisted of a short wooden handle topped by a spiked metal ball. In the Bayeux tapestry, William is seen to be carrying a type of crude wood club. Although this may have been a weapon, it was more likely to be a badge of office to make William easier to identify on the battlefield.
The main armor of the Normans was the hauberk, a long chain-mail tunic that reached down to the knees and covered the arms to the elbows. Slits were cut in the front and back to facilitate riding on a horse. In some cases, the hauberk may have included a mail hood and an extra piece to cover the neck and face. On top of this, every knight would have worn a conical helmet that covered the top of the head. Most were also equipped with a nose-guard.
On his off-arm, the knight would have carried a wooden “kite-shield”. This type of shield was a relatively new invention which took the old round shield design and stretched out the bottom half to a point, much like a rounded kite. This style of shield benefited cavalry as the extra coverage at the bottom could be used to defend the rider’s legs and the horse’s flanks.
At the time of Hastings, the Norman knight was one of the best-armed and armored soldiers the world had ever seen, and a massed cavalry charge was the most devastating assault on the battlefield. The Saxon army had no equivalent to this fighting force, and it was only the terrain that kept them from being quickly overwhelmed.
