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Todays burning question...

• PaulTon 10,731 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 10:58 AM

  The Three Musketeers; Aramis, Athos and Porthos.  These dudes...

  

  

  Those guys ^^^ The finest swordsmen in France...

   

   

  ...hang on there, they are Musketeers, where the feck are their muskets?!

  Why are they pi$$ing around with swords?

• alosso 21,059 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 12:21 PM

  Read Wikipedia (I didn't bother until your question).

  They came up in the 16th century, fighting with heavy guns. d’Artagnan is an invention of about 1700, fitting well into the scenario.

  Their weapon of short range defense was the épée (Degen (heavy sword) in German).

• lonniescott711 4,204 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 12:23 PM

  During that time muskets were bulky and combersome . You didnt want to carry one around with you every where that you went . Swords daggers and pistols were the usual weapons that were carried and used the most for close quarters and handling personal conflicts . Muskets were used for battlefields and open areas of distance .

• BMX123 631 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 12:57 PM

  x

• PaulTon 10,731 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 1:05 PM

  lonniescott711:

  During that time muskets were bulky and combersome . You didnt want to carry one around with you every where that you went . Swords daggers and pistols were the usual weapons that were carried and used the most for close quarters and handling personal conflicts . Muskets were used for battlefields and open areas of distance .

  Thanks Lonnie makes perfect sense.

  And there we have it, close the thread.

   

• fatdan 3,379 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 1:23 PM

  I have no idea why this is so interesting lmao

  Why were the Three Musketeers called musketeers when they spent all their time using swords?

  • THE French word mousquetaire originally referred to an infantryman with a musket. Over time, the word changed its meaning, lost the connection with the weapon, and referred to a much grander person. A mousquetaire was a gentleman in one of the two companies of the royal household cavalry in pre-revolutionary France. The companies were distinguished by the colour of the horses they rode - either grey or black. Thus there were mousquetaires gris and mousquetaires noirs. Cavalry have no use for clumsy muskets, which are difficult to reload at the best of times. The problem we have is an over-literal translation of the French which loses the context.
    
    Derek Roberts, Mitcham, Surrey.

  Some have asked why the Musketeers in Dumas' writings did not carry muskets (a logical question). The answer lies in the strict code of ethics and honor that these men lived by. The king's Musketeers were personal bodyguards, and were held to be the noblest and most renown fighters of their day, and for them to use a firearm instead of a blade would have been unthinkable, leaving the lesser ranks of Musketeers to kill their enemies from a distance.
  

• PaulTon 10,731 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 1:29 PM

  Excellent Dan, thanks.

• fatdan 3,379 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 1:38 PM

  A more important tidbit of info is, "DO NOT buy a Samuri Sword from the Home Shopping network!

  LMFAO

• WGTShamWow 921 Posts

  Wed, Aug 3 2016 5:32 PM

  BMX123:

  [

  I remember reading something a while ago where apparently the samurai sword is inherently a bad design but because whoever was ruling at the time liked the look of it, it was kept. The forging and metal used was great but the swept design wasn't as good as your standard broad sword or *** sword. 

  Also

  WGTShamWow