Maces, War Hammers and Flails: The Medieval Weapons Built to Beat Armor

The sword gets the poetry. The mace got the job done. From about 1300 on, as plate armor spread across European battlefields, the knight's problem changed: a sharp edge does almost nothing against a curved steel plate, and a point needs a gap to find. The answer was to stop cutting and start hitting. Maces, war hammers and flails are the family of weapons built for that answer, and they are the reason the fully armored man was never as safe as he looked.

This is a guide to what they were, how they differ, what they weighed, and what to look for if you want one on a wall.

Why a club beat a sword

Armor works by spreading a blow across a surface. Mail turns edges; plate turns edges and points and spreads impact. What it cannot do is stop energy from passing through to the body underneath. A heavy head on a short haft delivers all of its force to a small area, and the man inside the armor takes the shock whether the plate dents or not. Broken bones, concussion, a crushed hand: the mace did not need to get through the armor to win.

That is the whole principle. Every weapon below is a variation on how to concentrate force, and the variations matter more than the family name.

The types

The knobbed or spiked mace

The oldest form and the one most people picture: a rounded or many-sided head studded with knobs or short spikes, on a haft of wood or steel. Heads were bronze in antiquity and iron or steel by the Middle Ages. The spikes are not there to pierce; they stop the head skidding off a curved surface and put the impact on a few points instead of the whole face.

The flanged mace

The refinement that made the mace a knight's weapon. Instead of knobs, the head carries a ring of vertical fins, usually six or seven. A flange concentrates the strike along an edge without being a blade, so it bites into plate and mail rather than glancing, and it does not get stuck the way a cutting edge would. Flanged maces are the ones that show up in the hands of men-at-arms and cavalry from the fourteenth century through the sixteenth, and they are the ones worth copying if you want the classic shape.

The morning star

A spiked ball on a rigid haft. The name gets used loosely for anything with a spiked head, including flails, but properly it is the rigid version: a mace whose spikes are long enough to matter. It was more a foot soldier's and militia weapon than a knight's, and larger two-handed versions were carried by infantry into the sixteenth century.

The flail

A head attached to the haft by a chain or hinge. The two-handed military flail, descended from the farm tool for threshing grain, is well attested: peasant levies and Hussite infantry used them, and they are simple, cheap and vicious. The one-handed knightly flail with a chain and a spiked ball is another matter. It appears in manuscript art, but surviving examples are rare and some historians doubt it was ever common in the field. It is hard to control, dangerous to the user, and useless in a shield wall. Own one because it looks the part, not because a knight carried one.

The war hammer

Where the mace hits, the hammer hits and then punches. A war hammer carries a small hammer face on one side of the head and a spike or curved beak on the other. The face delivers the blunt shock; the beak, swung after the plate has been dented, punches through it. Horsemen carried short one-handed versions, sometimes called a horseman's pick, and infantry carried the long two-handed form on a five-foot haft, the Lucerne hammer and the bec de corbin, which are really polearms. If the goal was to open a can of armor with a man inside, the hammer was the tool.

What they actually weighed

Less than people think. A one-handed mace of the fourteenth or fifteenth century ran roughly two to four pounds and about two feet long, near enough to a one-handed sword in weight. The head carried most of it, which is what made the swing hurt, but a mace you could not swing quickly was a mace that got you killed. Film props and fantasy art have inflated the type; a real one is a nasty, fast, compact thing. Two-handed flails and hammers ran heavier and longer, and they were infantry weapons used in formation.

Who carried them

Cavalry, who wanted a weapon that worked from horseback against armored men and did not stick in the target. Men-at-arms fighting on foot, as a sidearm when the lance or pollaxe was gone. Infantry, especially the flail and the two-handed hammer. And, in the popular story, clergy who were forbidden to shed blood and so hit people with maces instead. The evidence for that last one is thin; Bishop Odo on the Bayeux Tapestry carries a baton of command, not a weapon, and the rule was widely ignored anyway. It is a good story and you should treat it as one.

Choosing one for the wall

Four things decide whether a modern mace is worth the money.

• The head. Steel, and attached in a way you would trust if you swung it. A head that is glued or pinned to a wooden haft is a costume piece.
• The haft. Steel hafts are period-correct for many maces and do not split. Wood is lighter and more authentic for hammers and flails.
• Length and weight. A one-handed piece should sit around two to two and a half feet and a few pounds. If it is far heavier, it is a wall hanger pretending to be a weapon, which is fine as long as you know.
• Display. Maces hang badly on sword mounts. Plan for a hook, a pair of brackets or a stand before it arrives.

Our Medieval Spiked Mace, 29", $199.99, is the spiked form at a one-handed length, and it sits in the medieval weapons collection alongside the axes and polearms it fought next to. More types are coming as the range grows.

A note on the law

Owning a mace or war hammer is legal in most of the United States, but some states and cities restrict weapons they classify as bludgeons, and carrying one in public is a different question from hanging one at home. Check your state and city before you buy, and ship to a home address.

Where they sit in the medieval arsenal

For the rest of the family: the battle axe, the polearms the long hammers belong with, the deadliest medieval weapons ranked, and the medieval weapons buying guide by century.

Frequently asked questions

What is the difference between a mace and a morning star?
A morning star is a mace whose head carries long spikes on a rigid haft. The word is often misused for the chained flail; properly, the morning star has no chain.

What is the difference between a mace and a war hammer?
A mace hits with a flanged or spiked head all around. A war hammer has a hammer face on one side and a spike or beak on the other, so it can dent plate and then punch through the dent.

How much did a medieval mace weigh?
About two to four pounds for a one-handed mace, roughly two feet long. Far lighter than films suggest.

Did knights really use flails?
Two-handed infantry flails, yes. The one-handed knightly flail with a chain and ball appears in art but surviving examples are rare, and some historians doubt it was common in battle.

Why did maces replace swords against armor?
Because a blade cannot cut plate, but a heavy head transmits its force straight through the armor to the man inside. The mace did not need to get through the steel to win.