From a soldier who fought off dozens of enemies on his own, holding a a giant halberd in each hand, to the world’s most famous samurai who was so skilled it’s said he even had superpowers including teleportation, telekinesis, and the ability to see the future. There were countless bad asses from medieval times worth writing about but for this list I picked the most bad ass warriors from all over the globe including samurai, centurions, Vikings, and even monks. This is a list of the 9 most bad ass medieval warriors of all time.
Dian Wei
Dian Wei was famous for his exceptional brute strength, he even fought holding two pole arms at the same time, most people have to build up their strength to use one pole arm properly. Dian Wei was main guard to the warlord Cao Cao, and was always by his side. Cao Cao was subjected to a surprise attack in the night and had to escape with few soldiers, Dian Wei stayed behind to hold off the enemy soldiers. Dian Wei was hopelessly outnumbered however he kept fighting anyway, and with every swing he broke ten of the enemies spears, eventually as the battle raged on he had been heavily wounded, and had to resort to using short ranged weapons instead of his pole arm. Dian Wi grabbed two more enemies with his bare hands and killed them. The enemy soldiers were too afraid to go near him now, even so he ran towards them killing even more. The enemies stayed aeay waiting for him to die of his earlier wounds, before he died he continued to yell and curse at them until he finally died.
Sempronius Densus
Densus was a Roman centurion in the Praetorian Guard. He was one of many bodyguards to the deputy emperor in the 1st century. On January 16th in the year 69ad the deputy emperor was ambushed by a man named Marcus Otho. All the emperors guards either fled or turned on their emperor leaving him almost completely defenceless. The only man who stayed by his side was Densus. He single handedly fought the assassins, buying the emperor enough time time to escape. Densus died fighting but was always remembered as a brave and loyal soldier.
Lu Bu
Lu Bu is a well known video game character in the dynasty warriors series, but some may not know he was a actually a real warlord in the eastern han period of Chinese history. He was famous for his treachery, he first served under the warlord Ding Yuan, but then betrayed him to work for Dong Zhou. He killed Dong Zhou and then seeked refuge under Liu Bei before betraying him. Lu Bu’s exploits made him incredibly famous, and just as feared throughout the land. Lu Bu specialised in archery, and horse riding, but he was also proficient in hand to hand combat, because of this he was nicknamed “Flying General”. His horse was famously known as “Red Hare”.
The Viking at Stamford bridge
I suppose all Vikings were among the most badass medieval warriors. In 1066 the Vikings were suddenly ambushed by English forces out for blood. The battle went well for the English as the Vikings were taken completely by surprise and didn’t even manage to put their armour. They had almost won when it came down to a single Viking standing on a bridge that managed to halt the entire English army. He was so formidable they couldn’t get past him no matter what so they resorted to the cowardly tactic of hiding a soldier in a barrel and sending him downstream until he was underneath the Viking warrior, he then thrust his sword through the bridge and hit the Viking right in the sweet spot. This finally defeated the Viking at Stamford Bridge.
Guan Yu
Guan Yu was an ancient Chinese warlord who served under the warlord Liu Bei. He is one of the most famous figures in Chinese history, and even though he was a real person many religions worship him as a god. Guan Yu was sworn brothers with Lie Bei, and another officer called Shang Fei. The three of them fought many battles together, including the suppression of the yellow turban rebellion and the battle of Fancheng. Guan Yu attacked general Cao Ren who served Cao Cao, at the city of Fancheng. Guan Yu cleverly attacked the castle during autumn, the heavy rain flooded and destroyed the armies that came to support Cao Ren, securing Guan’s victory.
William Marshal
William Marshall was born in 1146 and was the best knight that ever live. Before he was even knight he was famous for his accomplishments at tournament fighting. Marshall was a loyal knight who served five different kings until he died at the age of 72. Marshall almost met an untimely end as a child when he was held hostage by King Stephen and threatened Marhshall’s father, saying that he would kill the child if he didn’t surrender. His father shouted back that he could always make more sons if he wanted and refused to surrender. The king then threatened to load he child into a catapult and fire him at the castle, his father still didn’t surrender, but luckily the king had a change of heart and didn’t fire him out of a catapult.
Tsutsui Jomyo Meishu
Meishu was a famous warrior from feudal Japan. Warrior monks would go through harsh training to become capable fighters. After climbing up to the mountains they would run for a thousand days, only sleeping three hours at night, and hen meditate for another thousand days, only sleeping three hours at night. Meishu is famous for his art in the Battle of Uji. Here is even a first hand account of the event by Heike Monogatari:
“And loosing off his twenty-four arrows like lightning flashes he slew twelve of the Heike soldiers and wounded eleven more. One arrow yet remained in his quiver, but flinging away his bow he stripped off his quiver and threw that after it, cast off his footwear and springing barefoot on to the beams of the bridge he strode across.”
“With his naginata he mows down five of the enemy, but with the sixth the naginata snaps asunder in the midst, and flinging it away, he draws his tachi, wielding it in the zig-zag style, the interlacing, cross, reversed dragonfly, waterwheel and eight-sides-at-once styles of swordfighting, thus cutting down eight men; but as he brought down the ninth with an exceedingly mighty blow on the helmet the blade snapped at the hilt and fell with a splash into the water beneath. Then, seizing his tantō, which was the only weapon he had left, he plied it as one in a death fury.”
Tokugawa Ieyasu
Tokugawa Ieyasu was a warlord who fought for control of Japan against many other warlords, eventually defeating all other clans, and starting a 200 year dynasty. Ieyasu attacked the Imagawa clan, and captured a fort at the border. Ieyasu defended the fort he took, and missed out on the battle of Okehazama where the head of the Imagawa clan,Yoshimoto Imagawa, was killed by the Od clan. After hearing of his death, Ieyasu allied with the Oda, because the Imagawa were holding his family hostage. Desperate to save his family, Ieyasu attacked Kaminojo castle, and captured the head of Kaminojo’s family. He exchanged his hostages for his family, and regained his wife and children.
Hattori Hanzo
Hattori Hanzo (1542 – 1596) of the Sengoku era. He was bodyguard to Tokugawa Leyasu, and helped him to become the ruler of all of Japan. Hanzo was so feared in battle that he gained the nickname Demon Hanzo. Hanzo experienced his first battle at the age of sixteen, participating in a night attack on Udo castle. Four years later he successfully rescued Tokugawa Ieyasu’s daughter from Kaminogo Castle. Hanzo was an expert spear fighter, and master tactician, who commanded over 200 samurai. He rescued Ieyasu’s family twice from perilous situations, and besieged many castles. His skill was so legendary that he was believed to have had supernatural abilities, like teleportation, telekinesis, and the ability to see the future. I realize a lot of these medieval warriors were Japanese. It was just a savage warrior culture.