Mace
- This article is about the personal weapon and its ceremonial derivative, for other meanings of mace please see mace (disambiguation)
An advance on the club, a mace is a wooden, metal-reinforced, or metal shaft, usually three or more feet (a meter or more) long, with a head made of iron or steel adding another several inches to the length of the weapon. The head is normally about or slightly thicker than the diameter of the shaft, shaped with flanges, knobs or spikes to allow greater penetration of armour. The mace was first developed around 12,000 BC and quickly became an important weapon. These first wooden maces, studded with flint or obsidian became less popular due to the development of leather armour that could absorb the blows.
During the Middle Ages metal armour and chainmail did much to blunt the blows of edged weapons and block arrows and other projectiles. Solid metal maces and war hammers proved able to inflict damage on well armoured knights, however.
Maces, being simple to make, cheap and straightforward in application, were quite common weapons. Peasant rebels and cheap conscript armies often had little more that maces, axes and pole arms.
A variety of mace called the morning star had its spiked metal ball suspended from a chain attached to the handle, rather than being directly mounted.
Medieval bishops carried maces in battle (Odo of Bayeux appears on the Bayeux Tapestry wielding one) instead of swords, so as to conform to the canonical rule which forbade priests to shed blood. Maces could kill without drawing blood.
The mace as a real weapon went out of use with the disappearance of heavy armor. It gradually turned into the ceremonial mace, which was first a symbol of authority of military commanders. Ceremonial maces are still used to represent authority and prestige, as in the House of Commons in a Westminster System parliament. Processions often feature such maces: either on parliamentary or in formal university occasions. The ecclesiastical equivalent of the mace-bearer, the dodsman, appears in church contexts. Many modern ceremonial maces, such as those used by university chancellors, have been so reduced from a fearsome weapon that they more resemble the large pepper grinders such as are used by serving staff in restaurants.
