Targe

Origins

Round shields were used across medieval Europe, and in the Gaelic world of the Scottish Highlands and Ireland they stayed in use long after plate armor and firearms had made shields rare elsewhere. The Scots word targe, like the English target, comes from an old French word for a light shield, and the Gaelic form is targaid. Highland warriors of the sixteenth century are described with bows, two-handed swords and targes, and during the seventeenth century the targe settled into its classic form alongside the new basket-hilted broadsword. By the time of the Jacobite Risings it was the characteristic shield of the Highland soldier.

Design & Construction

A targe was usually round and between about 45 and 55 cm in diameter. The body was made of two layers of wooden boards, often oak or pine, laid with their grain at right angles to each other and pegged or glued together to resist splitting. The front was covered with leather, commonly cowhide, which was tooled with circles and interlaced patterns and studded with rows of brass or iron nails arranged in concentric designs. Many targes had a central brass boss, and some had a socket in the boss into which a long steel spike could be screwed. The back was covered with hide or deerskin, sometimes over a padding of straw or cloth, and fitted with a loop for the forearm and a handgrip near the rim. A finished targe was heavy enough to stop a sword cut and, it was claimed, a spent musket ball, though not a well-aimed shot at close range. Many were made by local craftsmen, and a large number were made in haste for the Jacobite army in 1745.

Combat Use

The targe was carried on the left arm. In the Highland charge the clansmen would fire their muskets or pistols once at close range, throw them down and run in with the broadsword, known today as the Scottish Claymore. The targe was used to catch or turn the point of the enemy's bayonet, and the man could then strike over or around it with his sword. The Highland Dirk was often held in the same hand, with the blade projecting below the shield. Tactics like these won the Jacobites victories at Killiecrankie in 1689 and Prestonpans in 1745. The targe was carried by many men at the Battle of Culloden in 1746, although some accounts suggest that numbers of them were left behind during the exhausting night march before the battle. At Culloden the weight of government musketry and artillery meant that many Highlanders never reached the enemy line, and the shield did little against grapeshot. The Socket Bayonet of the government infantry was the weapon it was most often meant to defeat.

Legacy

The Disarming Act of 1746 banned Highland weapons, and the targe went out of use as a practical shield. Surviving examples, some finely decorated, are kept in the National Museum of Scotland, the West Highland Museum at Fort William and other collections, and some are said to have been carried by named Jacobites, though such traditions are hard to prove. The targe remains a symbol of Highland identity and of the Jacobite Risings, and it appears in Scottish heraldry, military badges and modern Highland dress displays.