Conquest

One of the quintessential images of medieval life, the tournament lasted well into Tudor times. Actor and fight master Peter Woodward investigates the purpose of these extraordinary and colorful events and how its many forms--the foot tourney, joust on horseback, the melee--developed from the ancient trial of combat. Our team experiments with weapons and armor designed for tournament, examines the rules of combat and the notion of chivalry, and joins a medieval tournament team for a joust on horseback! TV PG

Actor and fight master Peter Woodward searches museums and private collections for weird and unlikely weapons, then introduces them to our combat team to find out how they were used. We try out a Francisca, the throwing axe that gave the Franks their name; see how armored knights used a ball and chain; and learn the uses of the gruesome awl-pike, bizarre military fork, and the Guisarme, an extremely popular polearm. We also test strange axes like the Lochaber, Doloire, and Waggoner's Axe. TV PG

Actor and fight master Peter Woodward trains for the Orange County Fair's Demolition Derby, where he contends with the craziest drivers in California, all competing to have the last car running--and to take home $2,000 in prize money! For over 50 years, county fairs all over the country have been entertaining spectators with these pulverizing pile-ups, and we'll discover what it takes to put on these junkyard wars. TV PG

One of man's earliest effective hunting weapons, we learn why the bow and arrow became so dominant in history. Our combat team is sent to the woods to make their own as we study the craft of the bowyer and fletcher. We learn about Egyptian bows and try to fire accurately from an Egyptian chariot, and experiment with North American Indian bows--composite bows of horn and wood. And reenactors, using rubber-tipped arrows, recreate what it was actually like to be subjected to a ""cloud of arrows"". TV PG

Actor and fight master Peter Woodward guides viewers back to a time when knowing how to swing an ax meant the difference in life and death. Our experts practice with the Viking single- and double-headed types and learn that in the right hands these difficult and exhausting weapons had no equal. We also examine the berserker, an ax-wielding Viking warrior who worked himself into a state of concentrated fury. Finally, we look at the double-headed Saxon ax that was nearly the size of a man. TV PG

Actor and fight master Peter Woodward returns to the days of chivalry to find out why personal armor developed--from horn and linen to chain mail to full plate. We visit an armorer's workshop to see how it was made, and our expert team tries on various types, including the classic medieval plate armor, to assess their strengths and weaknesses, and tests fighting techniques with various knightly armor-piercing weapons. Then, we put the armored knight in his proper place--mounted on a charger! TV PG