… and I fenced not badly, especially with the Scottish broadsword.
George Byron. From scattered thoughts. 1821
Weapons from museums. Probably, someone has already noticed that many "experts" who decorate the pages of "VO" with their presence are not very sympathetic to the drawings of various weapons of past eras, since the drawings are not very accurate, in their opinion. Well, the Russian Cossacks did not have sabers with crosshairs in 1799, they had Turkish fangs of the 16th century, and there is nothing to say about sabers with a guard - only a crosshair! The broadswords in the drawings are swords, in a word, everything is not right. What about that? "That" is most likely a photo. And, of course, not self-made, but from a museum, and with museum attribution, because specialists are working on it there. Well, since the buyer is always right, this material will contain only photographs, including those on which the drawings for the article about the 1812 weapon were made. And not so much from Western museums (after all, they always want to deceive us there, and there are still many gays there), as from the collection of the Hermitage, our oldest and very respectable museum, which has world fame and world authority. But there is not everything in it, and therefore we also use photos from the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Royal Arsenal in Leeds. Well, today we will talk about the broadsword - the main weapon of the cuirassiers, because the cuirassier could still do without a pike, pistols and a rifle. But without a broadsword - no way!
So what is a broadsword and where did it come from? The origin of the word is bilingual: on the one hand, the Turkish “pala” is a sword, on the other, the Hungarian word, meaning the same thing. It differed from sabers with a straight blade, and a long one, up to a meter, which had at first two-sided and then one-sided sharpening, and a complex hilt that reliably covers the entire hand, which, by the way, could well be used as a weapon.
Where were the oldest broadswords found on the Eurasian continent? In China, Japan and in the proto-Bulgarian necropolises of the beginning of the 5th century here, on the territory of the Northern Black Sea region. Moreover, the golden broadsword of Khan Kubrat, the ruler of Great Bulgaria, is especially famous. They were also used by the early Avars, Khazars, Alans and the same Volga Bulgars.
The handle of the later broadswords is straight, in the early ones it is often curved, which was traditional for the weapons of East and Central Asia; in particular, in the XIII-XIV centuries broadswords were widespread among … the Tatar-Mongols. And why this is, in general, understandable: a single-edged blade in equestrian combat has an advantage over a sword with a double-edged blade due to its lighter weight, besides, they are cheaper and easier to manufacture. The early swords of the Japanese samurai can also be attributed to broadswords: they were also straight and had a one-sided blade sharpening.
In the Middle Ages, broadswords became widespread in the Caucasus and in the countries of the Middle East. These broadswords did not have a developed guard. The most famous, Khevsurian broadswords (franguli), were decorated with metal in the traditional Caucasian style and, it happened, had ordinary dagger handles. Georgian broadswords, dating from the 18th-19th centuries, had checker handles.
In the north-east of India, broadswords called "kunda" were also used, with blades about 80 cm long, forged from damask steel, although not always. An interesting feature of them, which was not found anywhere else, was the extension to the tip. The metal handle of a very strange shape: barrel-shaped in the center and tapering at the edges with two guards connected by a wide bow. From the inside, these were covered with a cloth. Some broadswords had an elongated handle so that they could be used with both hands. Such broadswords were called "firangs". The scabbards of such broadswords were wider than European ones and were made of wood and had a fabric covering. Seleba broadswords were also used by Kazakh nomads.
As for Europe, broadswords existed there already in 1540. One such broadsword was found on the banks of the Thames under the Southwark Bridge in 1979. It is noteworthy that the remains of a sword with a very similar handle-basket were found among the wreckage of Henry VIII's warship "Mary Rose", which sank in 1545, which helped to date it. A similar hilt is depicted in a mid-16th century portrait attributed to Gerlach Flicka to William Palmer, depicting one of the retired gentlemen who were the bodyguards of King Henry VIII. Members of Henry's retinue in the painting "The Landing of Henry VIII at Dover", painted about 1545-1550, are also armed with similar broadswords with a handle in the form of a basket. That is, at this time, such a weapon was already in use.
The true heyday of the broadsword as a rider's weapon came, however, later, at the beginning of the 17th century, and then during the English Revolution and the execution of King Charles I. The fact is that, having lost their knightly helmets, the English cavalry in those years acquired metal hats with brim. they replaced them and made ineffective blows with the Walloon sword on the head.
Something heavier was required for both the felling and the prick, since, again, the riders' torso was covered by a cuirass, but the rest of the body was covered with durable leggings and pricks made of suede.
As for the blades, they were about the same size and weight, although, as always, there were some very original designs among them. Well, for example, the one shown in the next photo …
It is interesting that the English Revolution gave birth to such an original variety of broadswords as the "dead sword" (a sword in English is also called a fallen, distinctions are made in relation to the handle, for example, a "basket sword" is a broadsword with a handle with a developed basket guard!) This was the name of a heavy sword or the same broadsword called "haudegen", some specimens of which differed from others in that they had an image of … a human head on their guard. And so the English collectors of the XIX century for some reason decided that this head belongs to Charles I and that the royalists in such a strange way kept memory of him. Although this is not the case, since the head on the Haudegen guard appeared since 1635, if not earlier, while the king was executed only 14 years later. But the name "mortuary sword" stuck and is still used today.
By the way, Italy also had its own broadsword, called Schiavona, and from 1570 it spread to the German imperial army. The Schiavona also had a straight, but only a double-edged blade (which is why it is very often called a sword), which had a width of about four centimeters, the length of which was about 90 centimeters. It was widely used in the cavalry, and under Ferdinand II it became the official weapon of cuirassiers.
The Scots also had their own national broadsword, and already at the end of the 16th century. He had a fairly wide blade 75-90 cm long with one-sided or double-sided sharpening and weighing from 0.9 to 2.5 kg. The handle had a developed guard with the original name "basket with many branches", the inner surface of which was sometimes trimmed with leather or even red velvet! It is believed that the highlanders borrowed it from the Italians, while the Scottish broadsword, like the Schiavona, was used in battle along with a small round shield.
Also in the second half of the 16th century, a weapon with a straight blade attached to the saddle began to be used by the Hungarian hussars, who used this blade as an addition to the saber in cases where they had to fight with men at arms. True, the handle of these broadswords looked more like a saber and was somewhat bent.
In the 17th century, the process of unification of broadswords, used in the cavalry of all European armies, began. At first, uniform samples of weapons were adopted even for each regiment separately, then for each type of cavalry. Well, it all ended with the fact that they began to arm cuirassiers, dragoons, and … sailors with broadswords, who received them in case of boarding and as an addition to the ceremonial uniform.
In Russia broadswords appeared at the end of the 16th century, when they began to hire foreign officers for the Russian service, and they came to the country with their national weapons. For example, the same Scotsman could well have arrived with his usual broadsword. Well, then our masters began to make broadswords according to the model of the broadswords they saw.
The early Russian broadswords had inclined handles, the most convenient for a rider to cut from a horse, and they had a crosspiece either straight or with ends curved to the point.
One of these broadswords was the broadsword of Prince M. V. Skopin-Shuisky, which has been kept in the Solovetsky Monastery since 1647, and is now in the State Historical Museum in Moscow. His blade is straight, and double-edged. The handle is made inclined, with the cross-piece the ends of which are lowered to the point. The frame of the handle is made of silver, decorated with gold embossing, large turquoise, and a dark garnet at the top. The scabbard decoration is very rich: the mouth of the tip and four chased clips, made of silver and decorated with turquoise, like the handle itself. The scabbard is covered with scarlet velvet. That is, the style is clearly oriental, or it is a masterful local imitation of it. The total length of the broadsword is 99 cm, the blade is 86 cm long, its width at the handle is 4.3 cm.
As for Russia, here, as we can see, broadswords appeared a long time ago, but, most likely, they were not massively produced. Although who knows? We in Penza have an interesting document about the dating of the city's foundation, where the tsar's order of Alexei Mikhailovich of July 3, 1663 is written: “… send over the Lomovskaya line to the Penza river with Yury Kotransky (a native of the Vilna voivodeship, who switched to Russian service in 1655. - Author's note), where he was ordered to build a city … a hundred swords. In the order of the Grand Palace, Kiryushko Bishov took a hundred swords from the scabbard to send clerks to Yury Kotransky. But he arrived at the scene with a hundred Cossacks. This is well known. And … to the Cossacks - swords? Rather, broadswords, but today, of course, we will not know for sure.
Well, as a mass sample of weapons, produced in an industrial way, the broadsword appeared under Peter I, who armed his dragoons regiments with it in the quarter of the 18th century. But their own broadswords were not enough, so German ones were bought from the city of Solingen. And since the 1730s, it was the broadsword that also became the main weapon of the cuirassier regiments. Then horse grenadiers and carabinieri (from 1763) were added to the cuirassiers, and they all received broadswords, but the dragoons armed with them until 1817, and even horse artillery was with broadswords for some time. And it was also the weapon of the Life Guards Cavalry Regiment and the Life Company, and even part of the hussars (!), Which seems quite surprising, but no more than the swords of the Penza Cossacks!
Early Russian broadswords were double-edged, but by the middle of the 18th century they gradually became single-edged with a blunt butt. During the reign of Catherine the Great, her monogram "E II" (Catherine II) was engraved on broadswords under the imperial crown. The scabbard was made of wood and covered with leather. Only the mouth, washers with rings for a sword belt and a tip were metal. Sometimes the set covered almost the entire surface of the scabbard, and the skin was visible in the slots. Beginning in 1810, the scabbard for broadswords began to be made only of metal, and the leather scabbard remained only with the sea broadswords of the 1856 model.
In the same 18th century, broadswords in the Russian imperial army were distinguished into army and guards, officers and soldiers, as well as cuirassiers, dragoons and carabineros. At the same time, all had a wide blade, rather long and heavy, and all the differences concerned the shape of the hilt and the device of the scabbard. The handle was protected by a complex combination of curved arches, bars and shields, and the tops of the handle were round or in the form of an eagle's or a lion's head. It was only in the 19th century that the sword hilts were simplified and unified, like the metal scabbard.
At this time, the Russian Imperial Army was armed with: guard cuirassier broadswords, army cuirassier broadswords, dragoon broadswords (although dragoons in the Caucasus were armed with sabers). Broadswords were also weapons of cavalry guards and gendarmes (who wore them until 1826).
In the first third of the 19th century, the dragoon broadsword of the 1806 model, the cuirassier broadsword of the 1810 model and the 1826 model of the year were in use. In 1881, the cuirassier was renamed Dragoons, and broadswords became ceremonial weapons.
Broadswords were used for boarding. The sharpening of the blade could be one-sided or one-and-a-half. The length of the blade is up to 80 cm, the width is about 4 cm. The scabbard is wooden, covered with leather, since sea water was contraindicated in metal.
A broadsword as a weapon in the modern Russian army is worn by assistants at the banner in the Russian navy during parades.
