A development of the
club, a 'mace' consists of a strong, heavy wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, with a head made of stone, copper, bronze, iron or steel.
Flanged maces
The mace was the first
weapon made specifically for use against humans, rather than using hunting weapons to fight with.
[1]
The head is normally about the same or slightly thicker than the diameter of the shaft and can be shaped with flanges, or knobs to allow greater penetration of armour. The length of maces can vary considerably. The maces of foot soldiers were usually quite short (two or three feet). The maces of
cavalrymen were longer and better designed for blows from horseback. Two-handed maces ("
mauls") could be even larger. The
flail is often, though incorrectly, referred to as a mace.
Maces are rarely used today for actual combat, but a large number of government bodies (for instance
the U.S. Congress),
universities and other institutions have
ceremonial maces used as symbols of authority, in rituals and processions and for other purposes.
History of the mace
Prehistory
The mace was first developed around
12,000 BC and quickly became an important weapon. The usage of maces in warfare is described in the
Indian epics
Ramayana and
Mahabarata. These first wooden maces, studded with
flint or
obsidian, became less popular due to the development of
leather armour that could absorb the blows. Some maces had stone heads.
The discovery of
copper and
bronze made the first genuine metal maces possible. The Rajas, generals, and others that were high in command often had maces crafted of gold.
The ancient world
Many early cultures were unable to produce long, sharp and sturdy metal blades, which made the mace very popular. Archaeological evidence suggests that maces were used extensively in prehistory.
In the west, a beautifully-carved flint mace-head was one of the artifacts discovered in excavations of the
Neolithic mound of
Knowth in Ireland, and Bronze-age archaeology cites numerous finds of perforated mace-heads.
In ancient
Egypt, stone mace heads were first used nearly 6,000 years ago in the predynastic period. The earliest known are disc maces with odd but beautifully formed stones mounted perpendicularly to their handle.
Maces as a weapon were used extensively in Egypt and neighboring
Canaan. However, in regions where armor and helmets became commonly worn during combat, their use became limited.
The problem with early maces was that their stone heads shattered easily and it was difficult to fix the head to the wooden handle reliably. The Egyptians attempted to give them a disk shape in the predynastic period (about 3850-3650 BC) in order to increase their impact and even provide some cutting capabilities, but this seems to have been a short lived improvement.
A rounded pear form of mace head known as a "piriform" replaced the disc mace in the Naqada II period of pre-dynastic Upper Egypt (3600-3250 BC) and was used throughout the Naqada III period (3250-3100 BC). Similar mace heads were also used in Mesopotamia around 2450-1900 BC.
An important, later development in mace heads was the use of metal for their composition. With the advent of copper mace heads, they no longer shattered and a better fit could be made to the wooden club by giving the eye of the mace head the shape of a cone and using a tapered handle.
More than 1,500 years after the
Scorpion King was depicted upon an Egyptian mace head, we find inscribed on a Stela of Amadeh the 18th Dynasty King,
Amenhotep II, recording that:
"His Majesty returned in joy of heart to his father Amun; his hand had struck down seven chiefs with his mace himself, which were in the territory of Takhsi"
The ancient
Romans did not make wide use of maces, probably because of the influence of armour, and due to the nature of the Roman infantry fighting style which involved the
pilum (or spear) and the
gladius (short sword used in a stabbing fashion). The use of a heavy swinging-arc weapon in the well-disciplined tight formations of the Roman infantry would not have been practical.
Persians used a variety of maces. One simple explanation is the mode of Persian warfare. Unlike
Romans, Persians fielded large numbers of heavily armored and armed cavalry (see
cataphracts). For a heavily armed Persian
knight, a mace was as effective as a sword or battle axe. In fact,
Shahnameh has countless references to heavily armored knights facing each other using mace, axe, or swords.
The European Middle Ages
During the
Middle Ages metal armour and
chain mail protected against the blows of edged weapons and block arrows and other projectiles. Solid metal maces and
war hammers proved able to inflict damage on well armoured knights, as the force of a blow from a mace is large enough to cause damage without penetrating the armour.
One example of a mace capable of penetrating armor is the 'flanged mace'. What makes a flanged mace different from other maces is the
flanges, protruding edges of metal that allow it to dent or penetrate even the thickest
armor. This variation of the mace did not become popular until significantly after knobbed maces. Although there are some references to flanged maces as early as the Byzantine empire circa 1000, it is commonly accepted that the flanged mace did not become popular in
Europe until the 12th century. However, flanged mace heads were popular in the northern Muslim world even earlier, as some mace heads have been found into even ancient times.
Maces, being simple to make, cheap and straightforward in application, were quite common weapons.
Peasant rebels and cheap conscript armies often had little more than maces,
axes and pole arms. Few of these simple maces survive today. Most examples found in museums are of much better quality and often highly decorated. A mace type commonly used by the lower classes, called the ''Holy Water Sprinkler'', was basically a wooden handle, with a wooden or metal head and radiating spikes; the name most likely originates from the similarity to the church object.
It is popularly believed that maces were employed by the clergy in warfare to avoid shedding blood. The evidence for this is sparse and appears to derive almost entirely from the depiction of Bishop
Odo of Bayeux wielding a club-like mace at the
Battle of Hastings in the
Bayeux Tapestry, the idea being either that he did so to avoid shedding blood or bearing the arms of war. The fact that his brother Duke William carries a similar item suggests that, in this context, the mace may have been simply a symbol of authority.
[2] Certainly, other Bishops were depicted bearing the arms of a
knight without comment, such as
Archbishop Turpin who bears both a spear and a sword named "
Almace" in the
The Song of Roland or Bishop
Adhemar of Le Puy, who also appears to have fought as a knight during the
First Crusade, an expedition that Odo joined and died during.
Much of the popularity of this view can be attributed to the ''
Dungeons and Dragons'' game, which has had cause in the past to restrict its
cleric class to using bludgeoning weapons and was widely imitated.
Eastern Europe
Maces were very common in eastern Europe, especially medieval
Poland and
Russia. Eastern European maces often had pear shaped heads. These maces were also used by Hungarian king
Stephen the Great who used the mace in some of his wars. see -
Bulawa
Pre-Columbian America
The cultures of pre-Columbian America used clubs and maces extensively.
The warriors of the
Inca Empire used maces with bronze,
stone or copper heads and wooden shafts.
The
Aztecs used a type of wooden club with sharp
obsidian blades on the side (the
macuahuitl), which can be regarded as a cross between club and sword.
World War I maces
Mace-like weapons made a brief reappearance in the vicious
trench warfare of
World War I. Trench maces were hand-made and often crude weapons and used in the
hand-to-hand combat of
trench raiding operations.
Ceremonial Use
Parliamentary maces
Ceremonial maces are important in many
parliaments following the
Westminster system. They are carried in by the
sergeant-at-arms or some other mace-bearer and displayed on the clerks' table while parliament is in session to show that a parliament is fully constituted. They are removed when the session ends. The mace is also removed from the table when a new
speaker is being elected to show that parliament is not ready to conduct business.
The Scottish Parliament was presented with a mace by Her Majesty The Queen at the opening ceremony on
1 July 1999. It was designed and crafted by Michael Lloyd, a renowned silversmith who has a studio in south-west Scotland.
The mace is constructed of Scottish silver with an inlaid band of gold panned from Scottish rivers. The gold band is intended to symbolise the marriage of the Parliament, the land and the people.
The words "Wisdom, Justice, Compassion, Integrity" are woven into thistles at the head of the mace to represent the aspirations of the Scottish people for the Members of their Parliament. The head of the mace is surrounded by the words "There shall be a Scottish Parliament - Scotland Act 1998". Images are shown here
[5] and
[6].
Ecclesiastical maces
The term mace is also used for:
★ A short, richly ornamented staff, often made of silver, the upper part furnished with a knob or other head-piece and decorated with a coat of arms, usually borne before eminent ecclesiastical corporations, magistrates and academic bodies as a mark and symbol of jurisdiction.
★ More properly, the club-shaped beaten silver stick (''mazza'') carried by papal ''mazzieri'' (mace-bearers), Swiss Guards (church
vergers), in papal chapels, at the consecration of bishops, and by the
cursores apostolici (papal messengers); they carry their mace on the right shoulder, with its head upwards. Formerly cardinals had mace-bearers. Mazzieri, once called ''servientes armorum'', or
halberdiers, were the bodyguard of the pope, and ''mazze'' (maces, Latin ''clavae, virgae'') date back at least to the twelfth century (''virgarii'' in chapter 40 of the Ordo of Cencius).
Parade maces
A typical mace used by a drum major
Maces are also used as a parade item, rather than a tool of war, notably in military bands. Specific movements of the mace from the
Drum Major will signal specific orders to the band he leads. The mace can signal anything from a step-off to a halt, from the commencement of playing to the cut off. Many drum majors also add an element of showmanship with the mace, spinning it and tossing it in the air. (Some drum majors substitute a smaller baton known as a
military baton.)
University maces
University maces are employed in a manner similar to Parliamentary maces. They symbolize the authority and independence of a chartered university. They are typically carried in at the beginning of a convocation ceremony.
Heraldic use
Like many weapons, especially from feudal times, one heraldry originated as a military discipline, maces have been used in blazons, either as a charge on the shield or as external ornament(s).
Thus, in France:
★ the city of
Cognac (in the
Charente département): ''Argent on a horse sable harnessed or a man proper vested azure with a cloak gules holding a mace, on a chief France modern''
★ the city of
Colmar (in
Haut-Rhin): ''per pale gules and vert a mace per bend sinister or.'' Three maces, probably a canting device (''Kolben'' means mace in German, cfr. ''Columbaria'' the Latin name of the city) appear on a 1214 seal. The arms in a 15th c. stained-glass window show the mace per bend on argent.
★ the duke of
Retz (a
pairie created in 1581 for Albert de Gondy) had ''Or two maces or clubs per saltire sable, bound gules''
★ the
Garde des sceaux ('keeper of the seals', still the formal title of the French Republic's Minister of Justice) places behind the shield, two silver and gilded maces in saltire, and the achievement is surmounted by a
mortier (magistrate's hat)
Notes
1. [O'Connell, Robert L., "Ride of the Second Horseman: The Birth and Death of War", Oxford University Press, pp. 117
2. It is also possible that William was simply armed with a mace as was his brother Odo and other knights. See the following images of William, an unidentified companion and Odo carrying mace-like objects in the Bayeux Tapestry [1][2][3][4]
See also
★
Bulawa
External links
(incomplete)
★
★
The Hunt Museum (enter "Mace" in Keyword in Description)
★
Heraldica.org
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