Lord of Battles – Medieval Spiked Club

This spiked club is the sort of improvised weapon that a person of humbler means might have cobbled together in the medieval period, but despite its rustic appearance and crude design it is a plenty capable tool of self defense that is more effective than it may appear. Capped in iron the stout hardwood haft is a tough and hard hitting club on its own, but the addition of the thick top spike changes the whole dynamic of the club. In two hands a simple twist of the wrist rotation of the wrist changes the weapon from a concussive bludgeoning tool to a puncturing awl-like spike. Knocking a heavily armored foe to the ground and then finishing them with the thick quadrangular spike becomes a viable technique to the medieval commoner or traveler with this club in hand and even a heavily armored foe has something to fear from such a reinforced spike.

At the Battle of Golden Spurs, the Flemish guild and town militia bested a force of French knights and professional cavalrymen using a similar weapon to this club; the Goedendag. The Goedendag were typically larger than this spiked club, but very similar in design and all the same principles were the same – a weapon to bludgeon and batter armored foes to the ground and then end them with a spiked top.