This will be short post on a kind of odd, shortish sword; in English, these were termed curtilace (or curtalaxe) (although by no means was this exclusively applied to them, as it is essentially a synonym for fauchion), at least by the late 16th century, probably from the French coutelas and the Italian cortelacio.
There's not a whole lot on the coustillier, both online and in modern sources, especially in English, so I will attempt to shed some light them. I have translated quite a few sources for this, so enjoy!
The Battle of Omdurman is particularly famed for a cavalry charge recorded by Winston Churchill (who was an officer who partook in the said charge). I have seen Churchill's recollection referred to frequently, yet only recently did I sit down to read it. It is quite enlightening, and confirms many of my suspicions. It is quite a famous account, and many of my conclusions are not at all hard to get to, but committing things to writing is good to form one's argument and knowledge, and I have seen opinions espoused that are contradicted by this account, so I will analyze it regardless, specifically to the end of understanding the Medieval and Early Modern cavalry charge better. You may read the full account of the battle here.
The miles wields the lance and shield in hand, and the sword and dagger girt at the waist. However, his person is not the only place he can keep his arms, for he is a horseman first and foremost, and, therefore, has a saddle. Saddle weapons, particularly hand weapons at the saddle, is not the most common knowledge (I've even seen it argued that it wasn't done!), and it is rarely depicted; however, there are plenty of primary sources that explicitly prove that hand weapons were carried at the saddle, and across a broad period of time.
The focus on this article will be on the saddle weapons of the knight (and man at arms); though light horsemen likewise carried weapons at their saddles as well (especially in the 16th century), for the sake of brevity and my sanity, I will be limiting the scope of said article to the armed cavalryman.
