Medieval Castle Myths DEBUNKED | Sword Fights DID NOT Happen On Staircases

[@hoegild1]

I remember visiting a castle at an age of 7, and being told the spiral myth. I tried it out (in my fantasy) and immediately thought "why didnt the just stab at the feet?" Anyway, anybody who has been on a medieval staircase understands, that you cant actually fight there! All the defender has to do, is to throw heavy objects down the stairs, and all the attacker has to do, is to light a big fire at the bottom..

[@mikebeazley969]

There's mention of the superiority of left handers in fencing in the early 20th century - that advantage still persists. There are far more left handers in Olympic level fencing today than the occurrence of left-handedness in the population would suggest.

[@CurtOntheRadio]

A local castle to me (Llansteffan) has a keep with two identical towers and one goes clockwise, the other goes anti-. It's an early instance of diversity sensitivity by employers - a tower each for left- and right-handed.

[@mikebeazley969]

it's to do with the ease of going up or down carrying something heavy or unwieldy. As in restaurants today, there's an up stair and a down stair for the servants to use.

[@CurtOntheRadio]

@@mikebeazley969 Ah, seems plausible. I had thought about it. It certainly seems to have a more pleasing aesthetic with the symmetry. And one really couldn't use a sword in either stairway, it's far too small to do much at all. Y, I think it was likely a one-way system as one couldn't pass on the stairs - one staircase up, the other down.

[@entropy2100]

70% of stair cases going one way seems more than just chance (you could do a statistical analysis to show this). Maybe the defender fighting was the reason? Because end of the day you need to pick one or the other

[@jraben1065]

"If you're fighting in the staircase you have already lost". Maybe not? 1) We could say the same thing about "fighting melee on the Battlements". Ideally battlements would be shooting arrows & dropping stones. But sometimes you can't stop the enemy at the moat, or wall's base, but you keep fighting. 2) Castles often had outer and inner walls, the loss of an outer-ring did not "conquer" the castle. 3) Resisting the enemy in the outer-towers inflicted attrition, and allowed other troops to retreat to the inner walls. 4) "R-handed" towers also impinge on attacker's thrusting attacks, and open up their shield facing.

[@stunitech]

Dr James was a good guest and the first time I've seen him. I'd imagine his lectures are very good. He's the absolute twin of Dave Myers the hairy biker that sadly passed away earlier this year 😂

[@jannarkiewicz633]

I don't care if Errol Flynn had a bad ticker and Basil was army fencing champ... Errol still ruled.

[@TheSharky555]

A castle isn't a fortress

[@mikebeazley969]

A fortress is a later term, applying mainly to artillery forts, that generally didn't have spiral staircases.

[@matthewnewton8812]

Of course there are no sword fights on spiral staircases. They’re designed to make that impossible…. ;) just kidding!….

[@greghenrikson952]

The ferocity with which people cling to this myth is astonishing. It doesn't matter what you show them, they won't budge. I have no idea why. There was even a a 350 pp+ dissertation on the topic. Doesn't matter, they just dig in.

[@MEATOGRE]

"If you are fighting on staircases, that means you've already lost" Ok but... hear me out... in order to fight, you would need to have different parties in the same place to engage in physical combat, which would lead any sane individual to assume that both parties would, in fact, be on the stairs. Do both parties lose? Do they melt once their swords make contact with feet on stair?

[@bbbabrock]

I was thinking the same thing, I think But that issue was dealt w latter on in the talk and all he meant was that the defenders had already lost by the time they had regressed to the stairs, since that meant the walls had been breached.

[@mikebeazley969]

The downhill fighter always has the advantage because he can hit the uphill defender's legs and at the same time keep out of range of the defender's weapon. Try it and see!

[@jraben1065]

@@mikebeazley969 The fighter at the top has a shield, and he mostly protects his legs. The fighter coming up the stairs has a shield and tries to mostly protect his head. Basically, each fighter has half of his body outside of the opponents easy reach. It's not easy for either side, but I would rather be thrusting downward.