Allow approximately 20 miles a day for horseback travel presuming the same people are riding the same horses day after day (i.e. no regular remounts). Yes sure a horse can cover way more than 20 miles a day, but if you want them to keep it up day after day you're going to have to pace them. You can maybe edge this up a bit if both the horses and riders are fit and the horses can be grain fed (grazing takes time). I've done 30 miles in a day but I couldn't have expected the same horses to do 30 miles the day after.
A pony express rider, of course, has a fresh horse every so many miles and so can do 100 + miles in a day, but I don't think you're talking about using a relay of horses.
Re the assassin weapons. I doubt that there's anything close to a recommended weapons list for medieval assassins. Your assassin - your choice - but it depends on your assassin's MO. A sword is a bit messy for close work and a bit loud for quiet work. Dagger, garrotte, poison, nearest blunt instrument - all depending on the circumstances. Even a bow and arrow if you're a good enough shot. Most assassins wouldn't want the victim to have time fight back.
Oh, okay, thanks for the stuff on the horses! Dang, that means I severely underestimated exactly how long it would take them to ride there. Changes are in order.
Have you decided on the geography? In real-life France there's the Massif Central in the middle, which means that a direct SE-NW route can't be taken, and countries that size do tend to have mountainous, or at least seriously hilly, areas in them at some point - even England has the Peak District and Pennines.
And I agree with birdsedge about the weapons. Unless you are working with a specific guild/sect/group, it would be purely opportunistic. One thing to remember, if it is anthing like real-life 11th/13th century society, there would always be a lot of people around the victim, if important enough to be worth assassinating; that was a major way in which their status would be displayed. Privacy was something that didn't happen much, and one of the reasons hermits were seen as weird was that they wanted to be alone.
Well, geography doesn't really affect them too much. It isn't based completely off France, the only thing that it really has any similarity to France is in its size....the direct path is made up mostly of relatively low hills and plains. The mountains are actually in the south, in this case.
Even low hills will affect distance covered; you get slowed going uphill and downhill. The North and South Downs are low hills, but they're a definite obstacle to travel, and even now the roads follow the river valleys that break through them, which can have very marshy surrounds.
Also, thieves were often poor - hence why they were thieves - and so would use whatever came to hand. Proper formal weapons were expensive (decent swords were especially so) and most commoners who had one had it because they were in some form of organised militia where the lord who organised it provided the weapons.
Things like cudgels, staves and small knives were more likely and the knives may not have been 'proper weapons' but craft knives or tools.
Hmm... a bit, maybe. It won't improve travelling time by very much, though, as it will still have to do the same miles whether ridden or led. It doubles your chances of one or the other mount going lame and holding you up, and it doubles the amount of fodder you will need to carry. It doubles your time in spent caring for your animals.
Changing horses at staging posts is the best way to increase your average speed.
On the other hand, it increases your options to 1. slightly rest a marginally lamed horse (for example, I suspect a horse that's not shod can still *walk* OK, they do in nature, they just may not be able to carry loads...) without stopping, 2. sell or simply leave behind a lamed or injured horse. And a horse that hasn't been carrying a rider all day will be less tired than one that has.
But you don't necessarily need a remount for *each* rider to get that benefit, and you can do some of that by using saddle-ready horses as pack animals (though that negates much of the "rest" aspect, just gives you greater options in the ditch-a-lamed-horse angle)
A pony express rider, of course, has a fresh horse every so many miles and so can do 100 + miles in a day, but I don't think you're talking about using a relay of horses.
Re the assassin weapons. I doubt that there's anything close to a recommended weapons list for medieval assassins. Your assassin - your choice - but it depends on your assassin's MO. A sword is a bit messy for close work and a bit loud for quiet work. Dagger, garrotte, poison, nearest blunt instrument - all depending on the circumstances. Even a bow and arrow if you're a good enough shot. Most assassins wouldn't want the victim to have time fight back.
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And I agree with birdsedge about the weapons. Unless you are working with a specific guild/sect/group, it would be purely opportunistic. One thing to remember, if it is anthing like real-life 11th/13th century society, there would always be a lot of people around the victim, if important enough to be worth assassinating; that was a major way in which their status would be displayed. Privacy was something that didn't happen much, and one of the reasons hermits were seen as weird was that they wanted to be alone.
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Things like cudgels, staves and small knives were more likely and the knives may not have been 'proper weapons' but craft knives or tools.
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OK, not curiosity. This place has an uncanny ability to provide an answer just when I have a question.
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Changing horses at staging posts is the best way to increase your average speed.
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But you don't necessarily need a remount for *each* rider to get that benefit, and you can do some of that by using saddle-ready horses as pack animals (though that negates much of the "rest" aspect, just gives you greater options in the ditch-a-lamed-horse angle)
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