Mace Technique.

[Sam Nankivell]

Is there any evidence of "technique" being used with a mace as it was used with a sword? I know that literature on the polaxe is fairly common, but there seems to be no mention on how to use a mace in most combat manuals.

If the polaxe, as a blunt force weapon, is given a systematic and precise method just like the sword, why isn't the mace given the same treatment?

[Jeffrey Hull]

Well, it seems that the pollaxe was not a blunt-force weapon. Albeit the designs of pollaxe may vary, but you usually had faceted hammer or actual axe, accompanied by any of various beaks, points, butt-spike and the equivalent to a dagger-blade on top. So you had a variety of options involving not just battering but also thrusting and hooking, plus more length to the thing as well due to the shaft. The striking surfaces, and the weapon overall, were sufficiently wieldy to allow some nimble use. Which may be why the mace was not suited to a method as logical as pollaxe, as it was not really so lengthy, precise and varied of a weapon. The mace was a modified form of the club, really. I suppose the closest one may find to a method for training with a mace would be to try and apply the "peasant staff" techniques of PH Mair to the thing. All said, we do have some evidence of the ferrous mace for knightly duel besides the commonly known usage for battle. And of course the wooden mace paired with pavise was well-known as a less-than-noble class dueling weapon.

[LafayetteCCurtis]

Well, it depends. When it comes to simple maces, then Talhoffer seems to have some illustrations of judicial duels with this kind of weapon. For knightly maces, however, we don't seem to have many (if any) explicit sources of information--though perhaps the medieval instructors did not seem to consider it necessary since the use of a mace on horseback seems quite similar to the use of a relatively short sword against an unarmored opponent in the same situation, except that the preferred target areas would be different since the mace-wielding man-at-arms would naturally pick spots where the enemy's plate protection was thinnest and/or the suspension/padding system provided the least cushioning force against blunt force trauma.

[Shane Smith]

I've seen Fiore's cudgles and Talhoffer's club and dueling shield, but I can't think of any single instance of seeing a flanged mace used alone in a fully-developed, systematic way in the source-texts. It may simply be that as it was used as a club, everyone instinctively knew how to brain a guy or maybe the cudgel training was thought to have sufficient carry-over? I know that's not a great answer but none better one occurs to me right now