civilian weapons

[cborran]

hi wondered if anyone would know what weapons would be available to low class society in late tudor England mainly the civilian population rather than soldiers.

[Merlon.]

Given that possession of swords and firearms were regulated by law.
Probably clubs, domestic and work related tools and implements.

[Alan E]

According to Terry Brown ('English Martial Arts' 1997 p15) the chronicler Holinshed, in 1536 wrote:
"Seldom shall you see one of my countrymen above eighteen or twenty yeares old to go without a dagger at least at his backe or his side, although they are aged burgesses or magistrates of a citie, who in appearance are most exempt from brabbling and contention. Our nobilitie wear commonly swords or rapiers with these daggers, as doth everie common serving man that followeth his Lord and master...
Finallie no man traveleth by the waie without his sword or somesuch weapon except the minister, who commonly weareth none at all unlesse it were a dagger or hanger at his side"

And the French ecclesiastic Stephen Perlin, published notes (Paris 1558) containing:
"...and it is to be noted, that the servants carry pointed bucklers, even those of bishops and prelates, and the men commonly exercise themselves with the bow. The husbandmen, when they till the ground, leave their bucklers and swords, or sometimes their bows in the corner of the field, so that in this land every body bears arms;..."

Laws are made to tell people to stop doing things, rather than to record what they are not doing.

[Merlon.]

Weapons carrying was distinctly limited according to social status and income

Burgesses and Nobility are not lower class people, which the OP was asking about.

Servants operate under the auspices of their masters and carry weapons according their masters status.

[SpudUk]

Seldom shall you see one of my countrymen above eighteen or twenty yeares old to go without a dagger at least at his backe or his side"

Interesting! Any idea of style/design of daggers for lower classes? I'm sure that the typical Three Musketeers style dagger would have been very much out of reach. Would this simple be a knife?