Arms of Malta …
Sally Forth Into Pitched Battle
Tools and weapons teach their own lessons during a day spent at Malta’s Palace Armory
A magnificent display in The Palace Armoury showcases a collection of armor worn by the Knights of Malta in the 16th century.
By James Morgan Ayres
Steel remembers. I’m holding the grip of a 500-year-old rapier in my right hand. The Milanese steel blade lies across my left palm, and with that, visions flash before me—the heat and crush of battle, the Ottoman Turkish warrior slashes at my belly and misses as I draw back, then thrust the rapier’s point into his throat. Quickly I withdraw my blade and beat another Ottoman’s scimitar out of line, and as he comes through the breach in our wall, I slash his sword arm. The knight beside me, my comrade in arms, strikes him down with a blow of his mace. Yet more of the Turks pour through our breach, behind them an army of thousands press forward, and we drive them from the breach and sally forth into pitched battle.
Although my imagination traveled to the chaos of the Siege of Malta in 1565, a key battle in the defense of Europe, my physical being is in the curator’s workroom of the Palace Armory in Valetta, Malta. The rapier in my hand once belonged to a knight of the Sovereign Order of Saint John, also known as the Knights of Malta, and is marked with their symbol: the Maltese Cross. These knights, along with auxiliaries and Spanish reinforcements defeated the army of Suleiman the Magnificent when they attacked Malta.
The impressive close-up reveals a Maltese cross embossed on a 14th-century rapier.
This victory was a turning point in the centuries-long wars between East and West. Malta repelled the Turkish assault, thereby preventing Suleiman’s armies from capturing a strategic location from which to launch an invasion of Europe. Across Europe people celebrated their deliverance. Although it was not known then, this would be the last epic battle involving crusader knights.
The curator of the Palace Armory, Robert Cassar, and curator emeritus Michael Stroud generously allowed me to handle one of the many rapiers in their care. The 500-year-old weapon balanced perfectly as I moved to en garde*, then to other fencing positions: tierce, quarte, seconde, prime, and then brought my point back in line. I moved slowly out of respect for the antique sword, the close confines of the museum workroom and the sensibilities of my hosts. But the 48-inch, double-edged blade has a life of its own. It incites, and I have to hold myself back from a sharp balestra and a full power lunge.
The memory in the steel guides me. My movements bear only slight resemblance to modern sport fencing with its rules and protocols. The rapier’s grip is smooth and oval shaped, and it fits my hand comfortably, the blade only slightly pitted. The fine-grained steel blade retains a deadly cutting edge and point, and is to a modern sport fencing foil as a Colt .45 automatic is to a water pistol.
The rapier I handled was a work a day weapon, not a fine court sword that never saw battle, and is but one of dozens of rapiers in the museum, along with pole arms, scimitars, sabers, cutlasses, daggers, muskets, cannons, full suits of amour, everything but gunpowder needed to repel a medieval invasion.
Cassar and Stroud were generous with their time and knowledge, spending the better part of a day with my wife and me, and allowing us unlimited photographic access to the treasures in their charge. They were also heroically patient with my many, many questions.
The Palace Armory is unique in that while it’s a museum today, it is the actual building where many of these arms have been stored for centuries, the armory where the knights and other soldiers went to arm themselves for war. The two wings of the building contain an extraordinary collection of arms and armor—all manner of edged weapons, full plate and partial armor, crossbows, pole arms, firearms including handguns and muskets, and enormous canons weighing tons.
Grand Master Martino Garzes, Knight of Malta, wore the full suit of armor between 1595 and 1601. The Milanese-made armor, shown from the knees up, is circa 1590.
Decisive Siege of Malta
Sworn and consecrated knights came to Malta, a critical strategic point from all of Europe, to defend against the Ottoman Turks and Barbary Pirates. It was a long-running series of battles, skirmishes and wars that lasted for centuries and culminated in the decisive Siege of Malta. Most of the swords and other edged weapons came from the famed workshops in Milan, the most prominent weapons fabrication city in its day. Others were made in Solingen, Toledo and lesser-known centers.
Firearms were in common use in the 16th century, but were single-shot weapons and had not entirely replaced steel crossbows and edged weapons. Pole arms, with strong but flexible ash wood shafts, were a primary weapon of war. Swords of various kinds were the premier personal weapon, decisive in many battles and countless hand-to-hand combats.
A collection of pole-arms includes halberds, lances, short poles and stabbing spears.
Canons are housed in the left wing of The Palace Armoury.
In addition to an extensive collection of European arms, the Palace Armory also displays a large collection of Turkish weapons, many of them captured in battle. Prominent is the signature weapon of the East, the scimitar. There are dozens on display, some with ivory handles, and others of ebony and various hardwoods. Many of the blades appear to have been folded in their forging, some are engraved. The sword and the scimitar symbolize the cultural and religious differences between Christians and Muslims that led to centuries of warfare. These two weapons are also emblematic of differences in tactics.
The sword as typified by the rapier went through centuries of evolution. The rapier was slimmed down from the broadsword for speed. The guard evolved from a simple cross guard through various forms and into the later bell-shaped guard that provided full hand protection. Often described as a thrusting weapon, the rapier also had sharp double edges and was used as a cut-and-thrust weapon against unarmored or lightly armored opponents. When faced with an armored opponent, a swordsman used the rapier to thrust into joints and weak spots in the armor.
The scimitar, a Turkish sword, was primary a slashing weapon, although it did have an effective point. Turks and others from the East preferred the slash, or cut, for certain tactical reasons, including the perception that the slash was superior in a melee. The eastern methods of fighting were different from western fencing, and included a good deal of circular movement in which the slash was paramount. In addition, eastern amour, if any, was chain or leather and often a scimitar could cut through such light amour.
The tribes and nations of the East, similar to those of the West, fought each other as often as against the Christian knights. Only knights could afford full armor, and they were few in number. Most western soldiers were unarmored or lightly armored with a cuirass (chest amour) and helmet, which left them vulnerable to a slash that could and at times did literally “disarm.”
Robert Cassar, curator of The Palace Armoury, holds a 14th-century rapier.
*Fencing Terms:
Balestra: a forward hop or jump, typically followed by an attack such as a lunge or fleche.
Beat: an attempt to knock the opponent’s blade aside or out of line by using one’s foible or middle against the opponent’s foible.
Cut: an attack made with a chopping motion of the blade, landing with the edge or point.
En Garde, also on guard: the fencing position; the stance that fencers assume when preparing to fence.
Lunge: an attack made by extending the rear leg and landing on the bent front leg.
Prime: parry #1; blade down and to the inside, wrist pronated.
Quarte: parry #4; blade up and to the inside, wrist supinated.
Quinte: parry #5; blade up and to the inside, wrist pronated. In sabre, the blade is held above the head to protect from head cuts.
Rapier: a long, double-edged thrusting sword popular in the 16th and 17th centuries.
Seconde: parry #2; blade down and to the outside, wrist pronated
Thrust: an attack made by moving the sword parallel to its length and landing with the point.
Tierce: parry #3; blade up and to the outside, wrist pronated.
Scimitar: a backsword or sabre with a curved blade, originating in Southwest Asia (Middle East)
The full plate amour worn by the knights was virtually impervious to the slashing scimitar. Some of the armor and helmets in the Palace Armory bear dents from powerful slashes or musket balls in battle, and simple testing by the maker. One suit of armor I examined had eight dents from musket balls in the chest; only one would have been from testing. Obviously such protection provided an advantage, but not always a decisive one.
Famous Milanese swordsmith Antonio Piccinino, 1509-1589, reportedly made the rapiers.
The Palace Armoury has amassed a nice collection of steel crossbows.
No Light Knights
Fully armored knights were well protected in stationary combat, such as when they stood to defend a breach in the walls. But the weight of the plate armor hampered agility and led to fatigue even in the well-conditioned knights who had trained since childhood. Siege amour, used primarily in stationary defense, ran to 90 pounds. A full suit of battle armor, which was worn in changes and melees, weighed about 60 pounds and would wear down even a strong, well-conditioned knight in a short period of time. As firearms became more effective and more common, armor lost its utility. The Siege of Malta was one of the last major battles in which armor played an important tactical role.
Michael Stroud, curator emeritus of The Palace Armoury, fashioned the replicas of period daggers used in movies.
Many varieties of swords are on display here, but they all have certain things in common: they are light, quick in the hand, and the blades smooth and free of saw teeth or anything that would hang up clothing, armor or flesh. Ignore the ivory grips, the engraving, decorative touches, differences in design, and even the fine-grained, polished and lustrous steel. To the trained and discerning eye, their purpose is clear—these are weapons.
What about knives? This is, after all, the Knives annual book. Amidst all the war weaponry and daggers by the dozen, I spotted a simple knife with a single, dropped edge and a 14-inch blade accompanied by a leather sheath. To most it would appear to be an oversized chef’s knife. While there were dozens of rapiers, scimitars, sabers, yatagans, daggers and cutlasses, there was only one lonely knife in the entire museum. Why, I wondered? Were they uncommon, rare even? Robert and Michael explained that, to the contrary, knives like this were the most common edged implements in daily use during the 16th century and for centuries before and after because this was an all-purpose design.
Knives like this were used in the hunt, not only to dress game, but also to dispatch it, and for everything from woodwork to food preparation. It was also an everyman’s self-defense weapon. Swords were often restricted to the nobility and soldiers, and in any case were expensive single-purpose items. There are not many examples of these knives today simply because they were used so much in daily life—used, sharpened and used up.
Little has changed in terms of the utility of the big knife, even in today’s world. As I wrote in the book I authored for F&W Media, The Tactical Knife, “In every climatic zone on our planet where people live close to the earth, they use big knives as their daily tool: machete, bolo or parang in the tropics, the Leku or Sammi in the arctic. The big knife is also the preferred field blade at SERE (Survival, Escape, Resistance & Evasion) schools.”
I was unable to determine the exact composition of the various steels used in the swords, but clearly none of them were made of any kind of modern stainless steel. They are all high-carbon forged blades, and they are still in good condition, functional after centuries. Today highly educated curators and scientists care for these blades and use sophisticated preservation methods, including specially formulated varnishes. But these weapons did not have that level of care over the centuries. They were cleaned after use and simply wiped down with oil, usually olive oil.
Yet here they are, tangible artifacts from centuries past.
Much can be learned by spending a day in the Palace Armory and by carefully observing the blades on display, by considering the implications of design and use, by meditating on what our world would be like today if Malta had fallen and Europe had been conquered by the East. Tools and weapons teach their own lessons. For any aficionado of the blade, or anyone interested in how our world came to be what it is today, a trip to Malta will be well rewarded. The entire island is soaked in history. You may not experience an imaginary journey to the 16th century, but you will be entertained and enlightened by visiting this historical monument.