publicmedievalist.com

rR8e0 TIL the spiked ball and chain was never an actually used in warfare; it is entirely a fantasy weapon invented by later peoples but attributed to the middle ages
gMpbA TIL that Bede (CE 673-735) referred to the Earth as an “orb” and wrote that “it is not merely circular like a shield or spread out like a wheel, but resembles more a ball.” This idea was repeated by philosophers, mathematicians, and astronomers throughout the Middle Ages.
R7Nv7 TIL it's very likely that military-style flails never existed. They are never described in medieval literature or chronicles. The original inventors were not weaponsmiths but illustrators. The smiths who made them from the 16th Century onward were just copying an idea rather than a thing.