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A Museum quality Medieval Knight's sword excavated in Germany and dating to the second half of the11th Century AD - the time of the First Crusade.
Weapons such as this with a secure provenance are very hard to find on the Art Market and this is one of the finest Knight's swords we have seen. The long battle sword is of traditional form, with double-edged slightly fullered blade, rounded iron crossbar, thin tang (the iron support for the original wooden grip) and mushroom-shaped pommel. The blade preserved across its length.
Swords such as this can be dated stylistically to the second half of the 11th Century AD and were used to fight in the First Crusade. The First Crusade was a Christian endorsed military incursion into the Holy Land and other areas controlled by the emerging Seljuk Turks, who invaded the eastern half of the Byzantine empire in the late 11th Century. The Muslim threat to Christendom, combined with the Papal instruction that Milites Christi, or Soldiers of Christ, would be pardoned for their sins, encouraged the plentiful European warrior-class to join together and recapture "Christian" territory. During the Crusades several "Kingdoms" were created, such as the Kingdom of Jerusalem, created during the First Crusade. These were essentially protectorates, where the Knights ruled over and subjugated the local population.
Length of Sword: 34 1/2 inches.
Length of hilt: 5 inches.
Condition: The blade preserved completely along its length. Crossbar blade and pommel all belonging and not restored. Tang repaired in the 1930's after excavation with a metal plate, reinforced with iron pins. The weapon originally mounted on an old custom molded, linen-covered wooden board, which can be provided to the buyer on request.
Provenance: Excavated in Central Germany in the early 20th Century. Subsequently part of a German Private Collection with original catalogue number, 152. Passed to a Munich private collection in the 1970's - old collection label cataloging the piece as "no. 33 Kreuzfahrer Schwert 12 Jahren" - "Crusader's Sword, 12th Century". Subsequently part of an English private collection.
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