An experimental investigation of late medieval combat with the couched lance.
Alan Williams, David Edge, Tobias Capwell. An experimental investigation of late medieval combat with the couched lance // Journal of Arms and Armour society, vol. XXii, no.1, March 2016, p. 1 - 16.
Масса всего интересного. Для раннего (до середины 12 века) хвата копья авторы используют определение "semi-couched". При попытке перевести - поломался. =) "Полунаперевес". Потом меняется хват копья - его авторы уже полагают "couched", но уточняют, что таранить в полную силу латник все равно еще не мог.
Until perhaps the early fourteenth century, it was only the strength of the rider’s hand and arm which prevented the spear from being forced backwards upon impact.
В начале 14 века появляется "arrêt de la lance", который позволял перенести часть ударной нагрузки на нагрудник. В последней трети 14 века появляется фокр (arrêt de cuirasse, ‘lance-rest’).
То есть - панцирная конница латинского запада, "сделав ставку" на ближний бой, постоянно эволюционировала. Менялся хват, менялось снаряжение (ясельные седла и относительно тяжелые копья - это тоже только вторая половина 12 века). И шпоры, да. Колесцовые отмечаются где-то с середины 13 века. Появляется "ланс".
Результаты тестов.
Without an arret, the riders were able to impart an energy of 90 - 200 J to their target. Even without a saddle, 100 J was possible. Many of the comments previously made about the importance of stirrups and the drawbacks inferred by historians based on their absence in pre-medieval riding, especially military riding, may need to be rethought. Stirrups appear to play an insignificant role, if any at all, in determining the striking power of a horseman armed with a spear or lance.
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With an arret, over 200 J was regularly attained, and 250 J in some cases. It is quite possible that 300 J was being reached but this was breaking the lances and therefore not being registered by the target.
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The authors have found that while a typical battlefield armour might have a breastplate around 2 mm thick, armour for the joust of peace incorporate a breastplate and helm 6 or 7 mm thick at the front. If this was a typical medieval iron, or a low-carbon steel, then the energy required to defeat it when striking at an angle of 30º would have been much more than 600 J, without taking account of the additional precaution of the multi-pronged coronel. So it would seem that such armour offered a wide safety margin in jousts involving typical blows of around 300 J. However, this relates only to an ideal encounter in which both jousters strike the other. If one of the two misses, then his kinetic energy is added to the impact. Therefore 600 J might well be delivered in the event of a miss. The lance would probably break, and reduce the impact energy available (as happened in several of our experiments).
Еще статьи.
- Horsfall, I. et al. An Assessment of Human Performance in Stabbing // Volume 102, Issues 2-3, 28 June 1999, Pages 79-89
- Michael Harbinson. The Lance in the Fifteenth Century: How French Cavalry Overcame the English Defensive System in the Latter Part of the Hundred Years War // Journal of Medieval Military History. Volume XVII. 2019
- Dawson T.G. Cavalry transition. From Late Antiquity to the Middle Ages // Cavalry Warfare. From Ancient Times to Today. 2024
Another practitioner, Richard Alvarez, has, in proper Quixotic fashion, charged the entire stirrup-and-saddle doctrine head on. Writing on the basis having also tried many of the techniques in robust practice, Alvarez dismisses the entire dogma. He asserts that neither stirrups, nor a built up saddle, nor, indeed, any saddle at all, are necessary to the couched lance shock tactic, let alone any other mode of combat. They are both very helpful to a rider in that, he admits, and many other ways, certainly, but not essential.
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Richard Alvarez, ‘Saddle, Lance and Stirrup: An Examination of the Mechanics of Shock Combat and the Development of Shock Tactics’, originally published on line on Alvarez’ website (now defunct). Reproduced at https://www.seanpoage.com/stirrup-less-charges-shocking/ Accessed 2023-08-20. ‘Stirrup-less charges? Shocking! Part 2 of “Saddle, Lance and Stirrup”:The Irish/Roman Connection’, originally published on line on Alvarez’ website (now defunct). Reproduced at https://www.seanpoage.com/stirrup-less-charges-shocking/2/ Accessed 2023-08-20.