The arrival of practical firearms sidelined heavy armor, removing the raison d'être for heavy lances.
However, lances would largely disappear from European battlefields by the 1650s (although they remaining popular for sporting). From the Late 14th century onwards, lances were up to 13th feet long and were so heavy they needed to be rested on a hook on the breastplate (which also helped the knight take the shock of the impact).
Lances were a good fit for the dominant men and methods of European warfare at the time: heavily-armored men on heavy horses charging into battle against other armored men.Īs armor technology improved lances got correspondingly longer and heavier. The first burst of popularity was from the 11th to the 16th centuries. In the last millenia or so, cavalry lances became popular twice and extinct twice, for different reasons in both cases.
