I've been developing a tactical, somewhat-realistic RPG (role-playing game) combat system. While it's often necessary to sacrifice realism for fun, I like to at least know the history and consciously choose to alter or embellish as needed.
One of the real tricky parts about having "realism" in an RPG is that your system needs to be able to handle the anachronisms that will inevitably occur. At some point, you are going to have Hoplites fighting Crusaders or some other wacky combination, and you don't want the game to break. Would a Spartan spear have any chance of penetrating a good suit of maille? (Let's not actually get into an argument about this.) But this example highlights the importance of getting a good feel for the strengths and weaknesses of various weapon and armor systems, and modeling them in a way that straddles a fine line between realism and fun.
I've found a lot of good resources on the various bludgeons and spiked weapons used in the medieval period- mace, warhammer, morning star, etc. But the one fantasy trope I can't find much historical source for is the "Maul", which is usually depicted as looking like this.
I find the idea of such a weapon to be highly impractical. I used to do demolition work and swung sledgehammers all day long. A 6 or 8 lbs. sledge is about the heaviest that a mortal human can swing at a decent pace. That relatively small weight on a nice long shaft is absolutely devastating and I'm sure it could kill even the most heavily armored knight.
But even a relatively small sledge, which is probably a lot closer to a pole-hammer or bec-de-corbin, is horribly unwieldy and would leave the wielder open to counter-attack should he miss. The Maul, as it is usually pictured in fantasy, looks like it would be almost impossible to swing without spinning around like a hammer-throw, and even then the reduced speed might result in less impact force than a smaller weapon.
So that's my question: did "Mauls" exist as they typically are portrayed in fantasy, or was there really just smaller warhammers and polehammers?
In short : no.
Such weapons would have been incredibly unwieldy and easy to dodge for any experimented fighter (even in full plate armour a trained fighter would have still been quite mobile contrary to what one would be tempted to think).
The only hammer type weapons used were the bec-de-corbin types, with a quite light head. A successful blow with that was generally enough to shatter a bone or knock down an armoured target so anything bigger would be hard to wield and, frankly, overkill.
The mauls were generally a tool used for about anything : mounting camp etc... There were probably occurances of them being used in combat as a last resort but that was not its intended use.
