The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1904-02-07
HISTORY OF. THE SWORD
is HISTORY OF MANKIND

/, milan was married By proxy to Mary Of
| Burgundy.
when the sword and pair of scissors,
according to Gregory of Tours, was sent
to the Queen by the King Childebert and
| Lothaire. it was meant for her to choose
the fate of her sons. whether they should
be put to death, be deprived of their hair;
or enter convent.
Swords of Famous combatants.
1T was always the custome to preserve
the sword of famous comhatants. and
tAey were not i1ffrequently carried into
war. The Maid of Orleans used a battle
sword which she secured from the burial
vaults of an ancient church Charlie
magne,s sword, which he called Joyeuse,
Is still preserved in the church of St.
Danis. and was carried in front of the
professions at the coronation of the kings
of France. Nearly all heroic legends of
that age make mention of swords which
| bore special names. The Cid, for example
had the Tizona. When a hero died his
sword was carried at the funeral and de-
posted in the church. The sword of Cod
frey of Bouillon was kept at his burial
chapel in the church Of the Holy Sepul-
chre, where 1t remained as the only local
relic of the crusades
1.-THE Egyptians were probably The first
to conceive the sword and its use, one
of the Oldest specimens known being a
stone sword found in the ruins of Abydos,
Egypt Their swords were short, gen.
orally not more than ten or twelve inches
| long. About the longest Egyptian sword
ever found was twenty-five inches dug
up during the excavation for the Sues
Canal and was leaf shaped. There was
period when the Romans made their
swords of copper tempered by a process
supposed to have been great pressure
while the Greeks preferred hardened
bronze. These swords resembled the
knife of the present day. The Norsemen
also made their swords of bronze, and
some have been found in their graves of
intermediate period made with bronze
blade with iron edges. The early Roman
sword was thick and short, while those
of the Greeks were long and narrow
with a square guard and a short, thick
wooden grip, which was sometimes inlaid
with plates of gold, and the blades them
selves were often etched or engraved
Following the period of bronze for swords
was that of iron, when work in this ma
terial advanced to such an extent as Is
shown by the swords found in old graves
that weap ons wrought from 1t gave fame
their makers.
The Rapier Blade.
I'm Germany sword making from iron
German tribes. the vandals, whose sue
cess and dominion in Goul, Spain, and
Africa were marked with devastitation,
and the shape of the implement used by
them was maintained throughout the
middle ages.
AT the commencement of the sixteenth
century the sword was reduced In size
and received the form of the modern one
handed weapon Probably this change
1, II. ...ta1 A.. =
to the lighter one, took place in the reign
of Macmillan 1. when the whole system
of arms underwent a change.
About this time the greatest event in
the history of sword making took place,
when the humble peasant on the outskirts
of Toledo, Spain, designed the long, slend-
err rapier, which, after adoption by the
Duke of Grenada, attained world wide
fame. This slender blade made II possible
for one to make clean thrust through
the body, which could not have been ac-
complished with the short, thick blade Of
former periods.
Right here is where the era of fencing
began. Before that time the victory in
sword combats depended more upon the
strength of the antagonist than upon
actual skill. The broad sword. battle ak,
and javelin left little room for delicacy
of touch, and only such giants as Occur
TIC iSloh toulu flUpc 10 dcn1eVe great TeDu-
tation as swordsmen. The average To-
ledo blade was about one inch wide at the
hilt tapering down in length of about
three and a quarter feet into needle like
point. The French improved upon this
model. until. in the seventeenth century
the blade was a little larger than the
fencing foil of today and 1t was from this
slender weapon that the French were
called toad stickers' by their English
neighbors