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What was considered as “being armed” in France in the High Middle Ages? The king forbade the “carrying of weapons” from the mid-thirteenth century onwards so as to condemn feudal wars. This implies accurately defining what was considered as “being armed.” While, in theory, weapon carrying had been entirely forbidden since 1265, in practice the king’s men did have to make judgments, and in 1311 the Parliament defined the category of “armes notables et invasibles” (“remarkable and offensive weapons”), which were unusual and suitable for a deliberate attack. Weapons that were usually carried on a belt, such as swords and knives, were not forbidden, and could even represent the mark of a high social class, which would be pointed out when asking for the king’s forgiveness. For all other weapons, specific licenses were required: licenses had been issued by the king since 1265 for individuals such as nobles who were threatened, and merchants on travel. The knowledge and use of these licenses was an indicator of the reality of the weapon prohibition. The king needed to balance two opposite requirements: firstly, giving the population an incentive to bear arms so as to defend the kingdom, and secondly, making the roads safe by forbidding weapon carrying. By giving orders to his men who collected tolls from merchants (baillis des péages), the king gave precise instructions regarding the forbidden items. At the turn of the fourteenth-fifteenth century, the king’s men stopped taking “armed groups” into account as proof of illegal incidences of “weapon carrying,” and started referring to a category of “prohibited weapons.” The list of “prohibited weapons” included arms that were designed for war, sets of armor, protective gear, pole arms, and ranged weapons. Only the king’s men were allowed to carry them, with a monopoly on military equipment, which was explicitly written in a 1487 act. The “armes notables et invasibles” described in the fourteenth century became “prohibited weapons.” This legal term set a limit for what was accepted by law and by society. The “prohibited weapons” are a “missing link” between a situation where the king used to condemn wars between lords after armed fighting, and the modern vision of an unarmed society where handling war weapons is a state monopoly.