Top 5 Famous and Deadly Swords, Owners and their current location……..
8 min readJun 1, 2021
There are many types of swords in human history. Some kings, queens, commanders, generals, and soldiers got famous because of their swords and some swords got famous because of their owners.
So today I’m going to tell you about 5 famous deadly swords, their owners their history and the sword’s current location.
#5 Napoleon’s Sword:
Napoléon Bonaparte was a French military and political leader who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led several successful campaigns during the Revolutionary Wars. He was the de facto leader of the French Republic as First Consul from 1799 to 1804. In 1799 when Napoleon Bonaparte became the military and political leader of France after staging a coup d’état. Five years later the French Senate proclaimed him emperor. In the first decade of the 19th century, Napoleon and the French Empire were engaged in conflict and war with every major European power. Historians regard Napoleon as a military genius and a man who made strong contributions to the operational art of war.
On the battlefield, Napoleon carried a pistol and a sword. He owned a large collection of arms and artillery. His weapons were one of a kind and included the best materials. In the early 1800s, Napoleon presented the sword used by him on many battlefields to his brother as a wedding gift. The sword was passed down from generation to generation, never leaving the Bonaparte family. In 1978, the sword was declared a national treasure in France, and the winner of the auction was not identified. In the summer of 2007, a gold-encrusted sword that once belonged to Napoleon was auctioned off in France for more than $6.4 million dollars. The sword was used by Napoleon in battle.
#4 The Sword of Mercy:
The Sword of Mercy belongs to King Edward the Confessor, He was one of the last Anglo-Saxon kings of England. Usually considered the last king of the House of Wessex. Edward was known for his religious faith (he is known as ‘the Confessor’ because his life was characterized by piety and religious belief).
When Edward became king of England. His wife, Edith, was the daughter of Godwin of Wessex, the most important nobleman in England. They had no children as Edward had taken a vow of celibacy. Edward was forced to submit to his banishment, and the humiliation may have caused a series of strokes that led to his death. Edward probably entrusted the kingdom to Harold and Edith shortly before he died on 5 January 1066. On 6 January he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and Harold was crowned on the same day. He ruled from 1042 to 1066.
The Sword of Mercy, or Edward the Confessor’s Sword, is a symbolically broken sword that is part of the Crown Jewels of the United Kingdom. The sword has a blade cut off short and square, indicating thereby the quality of the mercy of the sovereign; according to the mythological history of the sword, its tip was broken off by an angel to prevent a wrongful killing.
It is one of five swords used during the coronation of the British monarch. It is carried in the coronation procession between the Sword of Temporal Justice and the Sword of Spiritual Justice. These three swords are believed to have been made for the coronation of Charles I of England and were among the few items of the crown jewels to escape being melted down by Oliver Cromwell. The sword is also wielded during the ceremony at which the monarch bestows knighthood upon the recipient of the honor.
The sword of mercy, the current location is the Tower of London Earl of Chester. When not in use, the sword is on display with the other Crown Jewels in the Jewel House at the Tower of London.
#3 Honjo Masamune:
The sword Honjo Masamune Masamune was forged and owned by Japanese famous and greatest Japanese blacksmith named Masamune. Masamune is also known as Gorō Nyūdō Masamune. He was a medieval Japanese blacksmith who is widely recognized as Japan’s greatest swordsmith. He created swords and daggers, known in Japanese as tachi and tantō. The exact dates for Masamune’s life are unknown, but it is believed that he worked from 1288–1328. Masamune’s weapons have reached legendary status over the centuries. The swords of Masamune have a strong reputation for superior beauty and quality. He rarely signed his works, so it can be hard to positively identify all his weapons. An award for swordsmiths called the Masamune Prize is awarded at the Japanese Sword Making Competition. Although not awarded every year, it is presented to a swordsmith who has created an exceptional work.
The Masamune’s greatest and most famous sword was Honjo Masamune. The “Honjo Masamune”, a symbol of the Tokugawa shogunate and passed down from shōgun to shōgun, is perhaps the best known Masamune sword.
The Honjo Masamune is the ultimate samurai sword. A thing of beauty shaped by fire and born of water, forged centuries ago. Proven in the battle for centuries, legend tells of a just blade, discerning and honorable.
The sword was passed down from one Shogun to another for generations. In 1939 the weapon was named a national treasure in Japan but remained in the Kii branch of the Tokugawa family. The last known owner of Honjo Masamune was Tokugawa Yamasa. Apparently, Tokugawa Iemasa gave the weapon and 14 other words to a police station in Mejiro, Japan, in December of 1945.
In January 1946, the Mejiro police gave the swords to Sgt. Cody Binmore (U.S. 7th Cavalry). Since that time, the Honjo Masamune has gone missing and the whereabouts of the sword remains a mystery. Honjo Masamune is one of the most important historical artifacts to disappear at the end of World War II.
#2 Joyeuse:
Joyeuse was, in medieval legend, the sword wielded by Charlemagne as his personal weapon. Charlemagne or Charles the Great; from the Latin Carolus Magnus, numbered Charles I, was King of the Franks from 768, King of the Lombards from 774, and Emperor of the Romans from 800. During the Early Middle Ages, they united the majority of western and central Europe. He founded the Holy Roman Empire, stimulated European economic and political life, and fostered the cultural revival known as the Carolingian Renaissance. He wanted to unite all of western Europe under his power, and he wanted to convert all the Germanic people to Christianity. Charlemagne is regarded as the founding father of both the French and German monarchies, as well as the father of Europe. Charlemagne died in 814 and was laid to rest in Aachen Cathedral in his imperial capital city of Aachen. He married at least four times and had three legitimate ones.
Some legends claim Joyeuse was forged to contain the Lance of Longinus within its pommel. The blade may have been smithed from the same materials as Roland’s Durendal and Ogier’s Curtana, The thing Charlemagne ever carried in his belt and that was Joyeuse, the Sword Jewellous, which contained in a hilt of gold and gems the head of the lance that pierced our Saviour’s side. And thereto he wore a pilgrim’s pouch — ‘against my faring to Jerusalem, or, if that may not be, to remind me that our life is but a pilgrim’s way, and our joy but a pilgrim’s rest, and our hope a palm, Some seven hundred years later, Charlemagne using Joyeuse to behead the Saracen commander Corsuble as well as to knight his comrade Ogier the Dane. The town of Joyeuse, in Ardèche, is supposedly named after the sword: Joyeuse was allegedly lost in a battle and retrieved by one of the knights of Charlemagne; to thank him, Charlemagne granted him an appanage named Joyeuse.
The sword was used in French royal coronation ceremonies since the 13th century and is now kept at the Louvre museum.
#1 Zulfiqar:
