Montante
An Iberian two-handed sword, 15th-17th centuries, a type between the longsword and the zweihänder; masters used it to end duels, its teaching set down by Figueyredo in 1651.
Quick Facts
About the weapon
The montante is a two-handed sword used mainly in Spain and Portugal from the 15th to the 17th centuries. It developed from the longswords of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance and stands, as a type, between the ordinary European longsword and the German zweihänder, with which it developed in parallel. We have not been able to establish its dimensions and weight from the sources we used. The montante was widely used on battlefields, but gradually disappeared from them with the rise of the tercios. Weapons masters, bodyguards and, occasionally, people defending themselves went on using it. Masters used it to signal the end of a duel or of pupils' practice bout; hence the Spanish saying meter el montante. Diogo Gomes de Figueyredo, a field marshal and weapons master who taught fencing to Prince Teodósio, wrote the Memorial da Prattica do Montante in 1651. It contains sixteen simple and sixteen compound rules built on the cuts talhos and revezes and on thrusts. An earlier work on the montante was left by Luis Díaz de Viedma in 1639. Weapons masters wore a red patch in the shape of a montante on the right side of the doublet as a mark of their standing.
Related weapons
- Evolved from: Longsword