A typical European military flail, derived from the agricultural tool

The Military Flail or simply Flail is a weapon commonly attributed to the Middle-Ages but for which only a limited amount of historical evidence currently exists for most of this era. There is evidence for the long-handled flail as a weapon of war from Germany and Central Europe in the later Middle Ages. In the poem Le Chevalier Délibéré written by Olivier de la Marche and first published in 1486, there is an anonymous woodcut depicting a knight carrying a rather simple morning star with spikes mounted in an asymmetrical pattern, as well as a flail equipped with a single spiked ball^{[citation needed]}, known in German as a "Kettenmorgenstern" (literally chain-morningstar) which is technically a military flail.

In spite of the lack of frequent historial reference to use of flails, the weapon (sometimes called mace and chain or ball and chain) was a stock figure in Victorian Era Medievalist literature and thus has become entrenched in popular medieval fantasy and thus the neomedievalist imagination.

Typically, the weapon is depicted as one (or more) weights attached to a handle with a hinge or chain. Modern authors have used multiple conflicting names for this weapon: the "mace and chain" is the equivalent of the German "morningstar and chain" refered to above, but the latter term is rarely used in English. Additionally, the English terms "morning star" (a rigid haft topped with a spiked ball), and even "mace" (a bludgeoning weapon similar to a morning star), which properly refer to non-chained weapons, have also been used loosely (and incorrectly) to refer to the military flail.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] History

Throughout the Middle-Ages, agricultural flails were sometimes employed as an improvised weapon by peasant armies conscripted into military service or engaged in popular uprisings.

16th century peasant rebels

^{[citation needed]} The Hussites fielded large numbers of peasant soldiers with flails. ^[1][2]

Hussite troops with flails on the march

These weapons had studs or spikes embedded in the striking end, so are not simply agricultural tools snatched up in a hurry.

Modern reconstruction of the single-handed kettenmorgenstern type flail

The modified flail was also used in the German Peasants War in the early 16th. century. ^[3][4]

At a later date, the long-handled flail is found in use in India, possibly more as a symbol of status than a weapon. An example held in the Pitt Rivers Museum has a wooden ball-shaped head with iron spikes.^[5] Another in the Royal Armouries collection has two spiked iron balls attached by separate chains.^[6]

[edit] Variations

The agricultural flail was not just used as an improvised weapon in Europe. In southeast Asia, short agricultural flails originally employed in threshing rice were adapted into weapons such as the nunchaku or sansetsukonn. Flails could be easily modified. Many were customized to be used with one hand by shortening the handle and chain. Multiple heads could be attached to the chain, or multiple chains with individual heads could be mounted to the shaft.^{[citation needed]}

In modern history, improvised flails were also said to been used by members of organized crime during the Depression-era period of the United States; The flails were described to been made with a sock and a bar of soap and were swung with great force.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] See also

• Morning star
• Mace
• Flail (agriculture)

[edit] References

1. ^ Stephen Turnbull : The Hussite Wars 1419-36, Osprey MAA 409,2004
2. ^ media:344Wagenburg der Hussiten.jpg media:Hussites massacre.jpg
3. ^ Douglas Miller : Armies of the German Peasant's War 1524-26,Osprey MAA 384,2003
4. ^ media:German Peasants War.jpg
5. ^ Catalogue Reference 1884.14.1
6. ^ Catalogue Reference XXVIC.45