page_title: Oakeshott typology
section_title: Type XIII
hierarchical_section_title: Oakeshott typology / Oakeshott types / Type XIII
caption_attribution_description: English: Image derived from digitized manuscript from the British Library http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=add_ms_24686_f002r#
context_page_description: The Oakeshott typology was created by historian and illustrator Ewart Oakeshott as a way to define and catalogue the medieval sword based on physical form. It categorises the swords of the European Middle Ages into 13 main types, labelled X through XXII. Oakeshott introduced it in his 1960 treatise The Archaeology of Weapons: Arms and Armour from Prehistory to the Age of Chivalry.
  The system is a continuation of Jan Petersen's typology of the Viking sword, which Petersen introduced in De Norske Vikingsverd in 1919. In 1927 the system was simplified by R.E.M. Wheeler to only seven types, labelled I through VII. Oakeshott slightly expanded the system with two transitional types, VIII and IX, and then he started work on his own typology.
  Among the many reasons for his typology, Oakeshott found date classification unreliable during his research. He wrote that the weapons' dates of manufacture, use, and retirement have been greatly obscured by trade, warfare, and other various exchanges combined with the weapons' own longevity.
context_section_description: This typifies the classic knightly sword that developed during the age of the Crusades. Typically, examples date to the second half of the 13th century. Type XIII swords feature as a defining characteristic a long, wide blade with parallel edges, ending in a rounded or spatulate tip. The blade cross section has the shape of a lens. The grips, longer than in the earlier types, typically some 15 cm (almost 6 inches), allow occasional two-handed use. The cross-guards are usually straight, and the pommels Brazil-nut or disk-shaped (Oakeshott pommel types D, E and I).
  Subtype XIIIa features longer blades and grips. They correspond to the knightly greatswords, or Grans espées d'Allemagne, appearing frequently in 14th century German, but also in Spanish and English art. Early examples of the type appear in the 12th century, and it remained popular until the 15th century. Subtype XIIIb describes smaller single-handed swords of similar shape.
  Very few examples of the parent type XIII exist, while more examples of the subtype XIIIa survive. A  depiction of two-handed use appears in the Tenison(Alphonso) psalter. Another depiction of the type appears in the Apocalypse of St. John manuscript of c. 1300.
  The "greatsword," within the context of the late medieval longsword, is a type of "outsize(d) specimen," specifically the type XIIIa. The weapons were referred to by a variety of names, as in grans espées d'Allemagne or "big swords of Germany".
  The larger subtype XIIIa sword has a grip approximately 6.5–9 in (17–23 cm) long.
caption: Depiction of Oakeshott Type XIII from the Tenison (Alphonso) psalter
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