This year in August our group Deventer Burgerscap will attend the Battle of Wisby event in Sweden, reenacting the famous battle that took place in front of the city walls in 1361. We have chosen this epic event to try and create a proper pike block as it might have looked around 1360-1370. We are gathering a great bunch of people to make this adventure happen, by now we will not only have Dutch such as the small group Baljuw van Heuclum in our ranks but also Germans such as More Majorum and the Blidenbauers and next to that even one or two Swedes. Therefore we need to have at least 20 pikes (but the more the merrier!).
As the text sources and extant pikes indicate that their average length was between 4,5 and 5 meters and their width around 30-35 mm, we bought ash pikeshafts of 30 mm thick and 5 meters in length. The weight of such a shaft is 2474 grams, which is similar to the 5 pounds that Müller-Hickler found in the original ones in the early 20th century. Here is a photo of me holding one of the new shafts, so you can compare it to the 1378 pikemen fresco from Padua (see the earlier blogpost on pikes). Of course the perspectives are somewhat different which influences how long they seem. At the least it is hard to call the Paduan sticks mere spears!
As the text sources and extant pikes indicate that their average length was between 4,5 and 5 meters and their width around 30-35 mm, we bought ash pikeshafts of 30 mm thick and 5 meters in length. The weight of such a shaft is 2474 grams, which is similar to the 5 pounds that Müller-Hickler found in the original ones in the early 20th century. Here is a photo of me holding one of the new shafts, so you can compare it to the 1378 pikemen fresco from Padua (see the earlier blogpost on pikes). Of course the perspectives are somewhat different which influences how long they seem. At the least it is hard to call the Paduan sticks mere spears!
We had great fun playing around with these pikeshafts last Saturday at a training organised by Foundation HEI, where we were first drilled by the sergeant and corporal of the early 17th century living history group MARS and then had the knights of HEI (of which I am one) galop around and through our ranks. It was also a moment for a few of us to try out some of our new mid-late 14th century gear. For me personally it was to see how the new lendenier (a girdle to suspend leg armour), leg armour and breastplate were working, while Marc was testing his new pair of plates and limb armour. Next time I hope to have finished my haubergeon, so I can test my arm harness. The aim is to go to Wisby with two mounted men-at-arms as well!
The next step will be to taper the shafts, at least at their tops, impregnate them, then make the pikeheads and lastly nail them on the shafts. We have decided to forge the pikeheads with the square cross section, because: 1. they are probably easier to make, 2. they will be more easy to transport on the roof of a car in a big tube, 3. they can be more elegantly turned into versions that are safe to do reenactment battles with: The requirement for these is that they have a rounded point of at least 8 mm thick. A major source of inspiration for our reconstructions are these extant 15th-16th century pikes that originally came from the arsenal of Luzern in Switzerland but were sold to someone in 2007 who then resold them.
We will keep you folks updated of our progress in making these pikes!
