Mace
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- This article is about the personal weapon. For other uses of the word mace, see Mace (disambiguation).
An advance on the club, a mace is a strong, heavy wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel.
The head is normally about the same or slightly thicker than the diameter of the shaft, shaped with flanges, or knobs to allow greater penetration of armour. The length of maces can vary considerably. The maces of foot soldiers were usually quite short (two or three feet). The maces of cavalrymen were longer and better designed for blows from horseback. Two-handed maces ("mauls") could be even larger. The flail is often, though incorrectly, referred to as a mace.
Maces are rarely used today for actual combat, but a large number of government bodies (for instance the U.S. Congress), universities and other institutions have ceremonial maces used as symbols of authority, in rituals and processions and for other purposes.
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[edit] History of the Mace
[edit] Prehistory
The mace was first developed around 12,000 BC and quickly became an important weapon. It was the first weapon made specifically for use against people rather than using hunting weapons to fight with. The usage of maces in warfare is described in the Indian epics Ramayana and Mahabarata. These first wooden maces, studded with flint or obsidian, became less popular due to the development of leather armour that could absorb the blows. Some maces had stone heads.
The discovery of copper and bronze made the first genuine metal maces possible.
[edit] The ancient world
One of the earliest images of a mace- or club-like weapon is on the Narmer Palette. Maces were used extensively in the Bronze Age in the near east. Many early cultures were unable to produce long, sharp and sturdy metal blades, which made the mace very popular.
The mace passed out of general use in the Iron Age, when swords, spears and axes of iron became easier to make. The ancient Romans did not use maces, probably because they had no need for a heavy, armor-smashing weapon, or more likely due to the nature of the Roman infantry fighting style which involved the pilum (or spear) and the gladius (short sword used in a stabbing fashion). The use of a swinging-arc weapon in the well-disciplined tight formations of the Roman infantry would not be practical. The mace would be more useful to individual fighters, not units.
The armies of the Byzantine Empire used maces, especially from horseback.
[edit] The European Middle Ages
During the Middle Ages metal armour and chainmail protected against the blows of edged weapons and block arrows and other projectiles. Solid metal maces and war hammers proved able to inflict damage on well armoured knights, as the force of a blow from a mace is large enough to cause damage without penetrating the armour. One example of a mace capable of penetrating armor is the flanged mace. What makes a flanged mace different from other maces is the flanges, protruding edges of metal that allow it to dent or penetrate even the thickest armor. This variation of the mace did not become popular until significantly after knobbed maces. Although there are some references to flanged maces as early as the Byzantine empire circa 1000, it is commonly accepted that the flanged mace did not become popular in Europe until the 12th century. However, flanged mace heads were popular in the northern Muslim world even earlier, as some mace heads have been found into even ancient times.
Maces, being simple to make, cheap and straightforward in application, were quite common weapons. Peasant rebels and cheap conscript armies often had little more than maces, axes and pole arms. Few of these simple maces survive today. Most examples found in museums are of much better quality and often highly decorated. A mace type commonly used by the lower classes, called the Holy Water Sprinkler, was basically a wooden handle, with a wooden or metal head and radiating spikes; the name most likely originates from the similarity to the church object.
It is popularly believed that maces were employed by the clergy in warfare to avoid shedding blood. The evidence for this is sparse and appears to derive almost entirely from the depiction of Bishop Odo of Bayeux wielding one at the Battle of Hastings in the Bayeux Tapestry the idea being either that he did so to avoid shedding blood or bearing the arms of war. The fact that his brother Duke William carries a similar item suggests that, in this context, the mace may have been simply a symbol of authority.[1] Certainly, other Bishops were depicted bearing the arms of a knight without comment, such as Archbishop Turpin who bears both a spear and a sword named "Almace" in the The Song of Roland or Bishop Adhemar of Le Puy, who also appears to have fought as a knight during the First Crusade, an expedition that Odo joined and died during.
Much of the popularity of this view can be attributed to the Dungeons and Dragons game, which has had cause in the past to restrict its cleric class to using bludgeoning weapons and was widely imitated.
[edit] Eastern Europe
Maces were very common in eastern Europe, especially medieval Poland and Russia. Eastern European maces often had pear shaped heads. These maces were also used by Hungarian king Stephen the Great who used the mace in some of his wars. see - Bulawa
[edit] Parliamentary maces
Ceremonial maces are important in many parliaments following the Westminster system. They are carried in by the sergeant-at-arms or some other mace-bearer and displayed on the clerks' table while parliament is in session to show that a parliament is fully constituted. They are removed when the session ends. The mace is also removed from the table when a new speaker is being elected to show that parliament is not ready to conduct business.
The Scottish Parliament was presented with a mace by Her Majesty The Queen at the opening ceremony on 1 July 1999. It was designed and crafted by Michael Lloyd, a renowned silversmith who has a studio in south-west Scotland.
The mace is constructed of Scottish silver with an inlaid band of gold panned from Scottish rivers. The gold band is intended to symbolise the marriage of the Parliament, the land and the people.
The words "Wisdom, Justice, Compassion, Integrity" are woven into thistles at the head of the mace to represent the aspirations of the Scottish people for the Members of their Parliament. The head of the mace is surrounded by the words "There shall be a Scottish Parliament - Scotland Act 1998". Images are shown here [5] and [6].
[edit] Ecclesiastical maces
The term mace is also used for:
- A short, richly ornamented staff, often made of silver, the upper part furnished with a knob or other head-piece and decorated with a coat of arms, usually borne before eminent ecclesiastical corporations, magistrates and academic bodies as a mark and symbol of jurisdiction.
- More properly, the club-shaped beaten silver stick (mazza) carried by papal mazzieri (mace-bearers), Swiss Guards (church vergers), in papal chapels, at the consecration of bishops, and by the cursores apostolici (papal messengers); they carry their mace on the right shoulder, with its head upwards. Formerly cardinals had mace-bearers. Mazzieri, once called servientes armorum, or halberdiers, were the bodyguard of the pope, and mazze (maces, Latin clavae, virgae) date back at least to the twelfth century (virgarii in chapter 40 of the Ordo of Cencius).
[edit] Pre-Columbian America
The cultures of pre-Columbian America used clubs and maces extensively.
The warriors of the Inca Empire used maces with bronze, stone or copper heads and wooden shafts.
The Aztecs used a type of wooden club with sharp obsidian blades on the side (the macuahuitl), which can be regarded as a cross between club and sword.
[edit] Modern maces
Mace-like weapons made a brief reappearance in the vicious trench warfare of World War I. Trench maces were hand-made and often crude weapons and used in the hand-to-hand combat of trench raiding operations, not unlike the bayonet which, on the other hand, is anything but blunt.
[edit] Parade maces
Maces are also used as a parade item, rather than a tool of war, notably in military bands. Specific movements of the mace from the Drum Major will signal specific orders to the band he leads. The mace can signal anything from a step-off to a halt, from the commencement of playing to the cut off. Many drum majors also add an element of showmanship with the mace, spinning it and tossing it in the air. (Some drum majors substitute a smaller baton known as a military baton.)
[edit] Heraldic use
Like many weapons, especially from feudal times, one heraldry originated as a military discipline, maces have been used in blazons, either as a charge on the shield or as external ornament(s).
Thus, in France:
- the city of Cognac (in the Charente département): Argent on a horse sable harnessed or a man proper vested azure with a cloak gules holding a mace, on a chief France modern
- the city of Colmar (in Haut-Rhin): per pale gules and vert a mace per bend sinister or. Three maces, probably a canting device (Kolben means mace in German, cfr. Columbaria the Latin name of the city) appear on a 1214 seal. The arms in a 15th c. stained-glass window show the mace per bend on argent.
- the duke of Retz (a pairie created in 1581 for Albert de Gondy) had Or two maces or clubs per saltire sable, bound gules
- the Garde des sceaux ('keeper of the seals', still the formal title of the French Republic's Minister of Justice) places behind the shield, two silver and gilded maces in saltire, and the achievement is surmounted by a mortier (magistrate's hat)
[edit] Notes
- ^ See the following images of William, an unidentified companion and Odo carrying Mace like objects in the Bayeux Tapestry [1][2][3][4]
[edit] See also
[edit] Sources and External links
(incomplete)
- This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.
![[6]](http://scottish.parliament.uk/images/mace-det.gif){kind=link}