Weapons that Made Britain

Weapons expert Mike Loades looks at the weapons that made Britain's history. The weapon perhaps most associated with the medieval period is the sword. Mike teaches a crash course in 15th-century fighting techniques using authentic techniques, observes the weeks-long Anglo Saxon technique of sword making, tests swords against the armour of the day, and tests different designs of swords.

Mike has a medieval longbow specially made for him, and takes it to Crecy to show just how British archers destroyed the cream of French chivalry in a devastating arrow attack. Mike also fires from horseback in order to understand the special tactics used by Edward III's army while fighting their way across France.

When Norman knights charged Harold's army at Hastings they hurled their spears from horseback. Less than a century later those spears were tucked under knights' arms and had become the ultimate heavy impact weapon: the cavalry charge with lances. It was to change warfare forever as armies had to find a way of stopping the thundering combination of men and horses.

In Anglo Saxon England, the shield-wall ruled the battlefield and no warrior was complete without his shield. Mike creates his own volunteer shield-wall and tests the battlefield tactics King Alfred the Great used to fight off the Vikings.

During the medieval arms race, advances in weapons technology were in constant competition with innovations in armour. Technological ingenuity and design culminate in the most enduring icon of the era: the fully armoured mounted knight, covered from head to toe in an exoskeleton of armour.