High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The arming sword (also sometimes called a knight`s or knightly sword) is the single handed cruciform sword of the High Middle Ages, in common use between ca. 1000 and 1500, possibly remaining in rare use into the 16th century. Arming swords correspond to Oakeshott types XI, XII and XIII. The type is a development of the High Middle Ages, first apparent in the Norman swords of the 11th century. As such they are a continuation of the early medieval "Viking sword", which ultimately derive from the spatha of Late Antiquity and the Migration Period.