This family of weapons is somewhat extensive, and of very great antiquity. The earliest forms were often used as missiles, and have been briefly alluded to in the introductory remarks. We have the authority of Procopius that the Frankish darts had barbed iron heads, and were used for both cutting and thrusting. Agathias refers to double axes and argones (spears). The Anglo-Saxon spear was a narrow, long-bladed weapon, while their javelin differed from that of the Normans in being shorter. The Bayeux tapestry shows Anglo-Saxons with bundles of barbed javelins in their hands. The Norman cavalry was armed with long lances, as well as swords, at the battle of Hastings.
Up to the end of the eleventh century, the lance continued of a comparatively uniform thickness about twelve feet in length, and the knight’s pennon waved from it, as shown on the Bayeux tapestry, while the head was lozenge- or leaf-shape, and sometimes barbed—all these forms appear on the tapestry. The Daubernoun brass (1277) furnishes a good example of a thirteenth century lance; it is five feet long, and bears an emblazoned pennon.
The tilting-lance was from twelve to fifteen feet in its extreme length, first of uniform girth, but later thicker at the base, gradually tapering towards the point, and the swell at the grip does not occur before the fourteenth century. Ash was preferred for the shaft. The early tournament lance was required to be blunted, but owing to the many evasions of this rule an ordinance of the fourteenth century enjoined that the head be furnished with a tip in the form of a coronal.
The length of the lance was often much reduced in the fourteenth century, and was then sometimes used as a dart, but this was considered so dangerous to the king’s peace that its use in this manner was forbidden by statute. The tilting-lance of late in the fourteenth and during the fifteenth century was often made hollow, so that it was more apt to shiver at the moment of impact, and the shaft was grooved; it differs at this time in form and bulk for the different courses. Those that were used with a view to “unhorsing” were stronger, heavier, and thicker in the stem than those made with the object of being splintered; the former were provided with a pointed head, while the latter often bore a coronal. The lance used for running at the ring was shorter and much lighter than the two first-named, and was tipped with a cone; there are specimens of most of these varieties at the Tower. Froissart mentions a spear with a hook or spur at the base of the blade, used for the purpose of dragging an adversary from his saddle, but this feature might refer to one of the other weapons otherwise enumerated. A good example of the lance of the second half of the fifteenth century may be seen on “The Tapestry of Berne.”
It was common for knights fighting on foot, or those dismounted by any accident, to cut down the lance to a length of five feet, for use as a spear; this was done at the battle of Poitiers.
The vamplate, a steel plate for keeping the lance in position, began as a small rondelle, but attained larger dimensions in the fourteenth century, becoming very large in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries; the German tilting vamplate covered the shoulder and half of the arm.
The importance of the lance in battle became greatly reduced in the sixteenth century, and even earlier.
The mace is a very ancient weapon in its simple form, its use and shape having been evidently suggested by the club, and it was probably a sceptre before it became a fighting club of metal.
The type of the Bayeux tapestry, which was only used by the Saxons, is elementary and club-like, and the shape did not alter much before the beginning of the fifteenth century, when we have round, oval, cog-wheel, and dentated forms; it was sometimes provided with a short spear, welded into the top, but this was rather a French than an English form. The mace and battle-axe were the great weapons of the Plantagenets. The mace (temp. Edward I.) assumed the form of a slightly projecting cog-wheel, which became somewhat more pronounced in the next reign, as may be seen on one of the sleeping figures in Lincoln Cathedral; and the weapon was sometimes made of lead. The shape did not alter much before the beginning of the fifteenth century, when we have the round, oval, cog-wheel, and dentated forms much more pronounced than under Edward I.
Asiatic specimens are generally round in the knob, and are much lighter than European weapons. The mace hung at the saddle-bow, being passed through a socket which was attached to the saddle, and the weapon was used in the lists as well as in battle.
It survived as the weapon of the sergeant-at-arms, and fell into disuse as a weapon of war in the reign of Queen Elizabeth; after which it became a processional emblem, and was made of silver or copper-gilt, and ornamented with a crown, globe, and cross.
The small variety of mace was termed the “mazuelle.” The baston (German streitkolben) is a heavy mace of hard wood, bluntly pointed, polygonal in form, thickening towards the head, while the pommel is round, and it was used in tournaments.
The martel-de-fer or pole-hammer is of ancient origin. That it was in use in the eighth century is shown by the sobriquet “Charles Martel.” It was a popular weapon in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries for both horse and foot. The Lucerne hammer is only another name for the same weapon; it is both long and short handled, while the head is either a simple war-hammer, or has a small halbard-shaped blade with a plain or dentated hammer at the opposite side, and a longer or shorter spear at the extremity.
The battle-axe or francisca was a leading weapon of the Franks during the Merovingian period, and it was then often used as a missile. The francisca of Childeric (457–481) was found in his tomb at Tournay, and is now in the Louvre. Procopius refers to the francisca of the sixth century as having a broad blade, sometimes double-edged, with a short haft. Roughly, the battle-axe is short in the handle, while the pole-axe, as its name implies, is long in the shaft. The former is a knightly weapon, while the latter was wielded by footmen only.
The battle-axe was greatly used by the Normans of the twelfth century. It is a weapon of the Bayeux tapestry; indeed, William the Conqueror was armed with it at Hastings—the form of the blade resembled that of an ordinary hatchet, with a curved blade.
The Anglo-Saxons used an axe, narrow-bladed and single-edged, from four to five feet long in the shaft, with great success in the battle. They first darted their javelins, and then attacked the foe with the deadly battle-axe.
The blade assumes later a great variety of forms—cleaver, cusped, etc., and the top was sometimes garnished with a hook or spear.
The pole-axe was a favourite weapon of the fifteenth century, and one of the varieties of the period combines a hatchet, a pike, and a serrated hammer: this weapon is first cousin to the halbard, and often classified as such.
The Jeddart staff is a long-shafted axe with a half-circular blade and a side spike. It is more a halbard than an axe.
The Lochaber axe, used with such telling effect at the battle of Culloden, is long-shafted; the blade and setting closely resemble that of a voulge, with its hook at the head of the staff. This hook, however, is generally absent in the voulge used in the field, and this is sometimes the case with the Jeddart staff also. There are two fine specimens of the Lochaber axe in the collection in the Castle of Newcastle-upon-Tyne.44
The pole-axe, called the bardiche, is a Russian and Scandinavian weapon with a long, narrow, crescent-formed blade attached to the top of a pole by a ringed haft, while the lower end of the blade is fastened on to the pole farther down.
The addition of a wheel-lock pistol was a feature of the pole-axe early in the reign of James I. The battle-axe, according to George Silver in his Paradoxes of Defence, was at the end of the sixteenth century from five to six feet long.
The late Mr. John Hewitt, in one of his contributions to the History of Mediæval Weapons and Military Appliances in Europe, refers to the goedendag as being a foot soldier’s weapon of the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries; and he gives a drawing of a foot soldier armed with a long-shafted weapon thickening towards the head, which is surmounted by a short iron spear, firmly and thickly socketed on to the extremity.
This figure, with others, is stated by M. Felix de Vigne, in his Recherches Historiques sur les Costumes des Gildes, etc., published in 1846, to have been reproduced on a drawing by himself from a fresco that had long been plastered over on a wall in an old building in Ghent, since pulled down. The soldier wears a bassinet, with camail of banded-mail overlying the surcoat, and the general aspect of the figure is that of an armed member of one of the Flemish guilds of the beginning of the fourteenth century or thereabouts. M. de Vigne claims to have established the form of the true goedendag in the weapon carried by the soldier.
The late Mr. Hermann Van Duyse in his brochure, Le Goedendag arme Flamande sa Légende et son Histoire, refers to the old building in which the fresco was found as by tradition a chapel of the guild of the weavers of Ghent, known as the “Leugemiete.” The town records and archives of the Abbaye of St. Bavon both afford confirmatory evidence that a chapel was built very early in the fourteenth century on or near the site where the “Leugemiete” stood.
The figure mentioned by Hewitt formed one of a troop preceded by crossbowmen. The leader wears a visored bassinet, and bears a standard emblazoned with two triangular shields and five crosses argent. His sword is long and broad, with quillons curving towards the blade. The details of the drawing point clearly to the end of the thirteenth or beginning of the fourteenth century. M. Viollet le Duc, in his Dictionnaire du Mobilier, defines the weapon as a variety of the voulge or fauchard, while M. Van Malderghem considers it to be a ploughshare mounted on a staff, or a sort of bill.
In a poem by W. Guiart, written in the French of the period, in the Branche des Royaux Leguages, descriptive of the battle of “Haringues” in 1297, the goedendag mentioned affords many points of resemblance to the staff weapon shown on the De Vigne fresco; indeed, it can be no other.
The goedendag, whatever its form, was used with great effect at the battle of Courtray in 1302, and is called “goudendar” and “godendar” in an account of the battle in the Grandes Chroniques. Guiart mentions the goedendag as having been used in this battle in concert with the lance and guisarme, and the weapon is mentioned in French chronicles late in the thirteenth century.
Tradition says that the goedendag is the weapon of the fresco and poem, but garnished with spikes over the thicker portion of the staff towards the head; and there are several such weapons surviving, though this is probably a rather later variety of the weapon than that shown on the fresco, the only difference being the addition of the side spikes. Froissart mentions the weapon as being used at the battle of “Rosebecque” in 1383. Probably the true form of the goedendag is that of the poem and fresco, with or without side spikes. As to the etymology of the word itself, that is given in Guiart’s poem, where it says that it means “good day.”45 The name doubtless took its rise from a brutal jest, as in the case of the holy-water sprinkler. The goedendag in the author’s possession has a staff seventy-five inches long, with a spike a little over seven inches at the end, and twelve short spikes dispersed in four rows round the head, projecting about one and a quarter inches from the staff, which bears the brand Z. I. In the Rotunda, Woolwich, are four similar goedendags, classed in the catalogues as “morgensterns” or “holy-water sprinklers”!
This class of weapons is often confounded with the gisarme, because they sometimes have a spur at the base. All have their prototype in the scythe of agriculture.
The bill occurs in the poem of Beowulf as part of the armament of a ship of war, and it is often mentioned in Anglo-Saxon chronicles, but it must be borne in mind that old chronicles used the phrase “bills and bows” in the sense that the former word applies generally to all long-shafted weapons. According to Silver, the bill ought not to exceed six feet in length.
Bills were in general use by footmen in the eleventh century, and indeed continued to be so until the advent of the pike. This class of weapons was largely superseded in the fifteenth century by halbards, partizans, and pikes, but the bill survived long in England. There are some particulars of this weapon in the Brief Discourse on Warre, written by Sir Roger Williams in 1590, in which the proper proportion of bills to pikes in battle-array is set forth as one to five. The length of the bill-shaft should not exceed six feet.
The glaive has a much larger blade than the bill. It has its edge on the outside curve, and has side branches of various sizes. The term “glaive” was often applied to the lance, and in France “le fer de glaive” denoted the sword of chivalry, as well as the headman’s blade.
The pageant glaive is a large, heavy, and usually highly decorated weapon, doubtless greatly used in processions.
This class of weapon, like several others, had its inception among the implements of husbandry; and it owes its name, like the goedendag, doubtless to a brutal jest. It is stated by Whitacre that the agricultural flail was introduced into Italy about the time of the Roman conquest of Britain. The Anglo-Saxons called it “Therscol,” or thrasher. This terrible weapon consists of a shaft of wood, garnished with iron, attached to which is a flail of iron, moving on a ring; or a chain or chains connecting the head of the shaft with a wooden or iron ball or balls at the extremity. The balls are usually garnished with iron spikes, but this is not always the case. The holy-water sprinkler is often confounded with the “morning star,” which is a spiked mace, described under that heading.
It would appear from the Tower Survey of 1547, that the “Holy Water Sprinkler” was at that time in two varieties, viz., with long and short shafts. The above record catalogues “Holly Water Sprincles with gonnes in th’ ende. Little holly water sprincles.” Perhaps what was called the long variety was the goedendag. The author has two with short shafts, and chains at the ends, to which are attached spiked wooden balls. The MS. of Matthew Paris at Benet College, Cambridge, furnishes us with an example of the simple form.
This weapon is a spiked mace, and was greatly used in Germany and Switzerland. There are both long and short shafted kinds; the latter, made of iron, is mentioned in the eleventh century, and was much used by horsemen in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. They were sometimes supplemented with hand-guns. This variety was called “Schiesspringel.” Several writers confound the “Morning Star” with the “Holy Water Sprinkler,” but the latter is a weapon of the flail family. The heads vary in shape, being round, square, and a half oval narrowing towards the shaft, and all are spiked.
The gisarme is a scythe-shaped weapon, fixed on a long shaft. It is double-edged, and provided with a hook and spurs. It is often mentioned in early chronicles of the thirteenth century, and is specially alluded to by Froissart in the next century. The voulge has a broad blade, pointed at the head, and is generally square at the edge. It was usually forged with two strong iron rings, through which the head of a pole is passed. This weapon was often carried by archers. The pageant voulge is shaped very like a Lochaber axe, with its curved, pointed, hook-like spear at the head of the shaft.
These forked, trident-like weapons, of prongs of unequal length, are mentioned in records of the eleventh century. They were much used in the fourteenth century. The weapon appears in the Sloane MS., No. 346.
The first mention of this weapon occurs in the fourteenth century. It was used by footmen only, and is somewhat varied in form. It usually has a somewhat square or crescent-shaped blade, with a sharp hook-like projection or forks on the back, and sometimes a spike from the face, but always a spear at the top. In the fifteenth century the nearly straight form prevailed, with a spur behind, while the crescent-shaped blade appeared early in the sixteenth; and the hinder spur became broader and more blade-like, and with a downward curve, while the spear at the point became much longer.
Double-bladed halbards were not uncommon.
The length at the end of the sixteenth century was about five feet, and being shorter than the pike was better adapted for hand-to-hand fighting. Silver says the length ought not to exceed five or six feet.
The halbardiers had charge of the standard.
The halbard and the partizan were the great infantry weapons before the pike came into general use. They were still to the fore in the reign of George I.
The pageant halbard is usually perforated, engraved, and otherwise ornamented.
Hewitt gives a figure, from Holbein’s “Costumes Suisses,” of a Swiss halbardier of the first half of the sixteenth century.
The pike is a footman’s weapon used greatly in conjunction with the halbard and harquebus; and these three were pre-eminently the weapons of the infantry of the later “middle ages” and the “renaissance.”
It was probably introduced into England in the reign of Edward III., being mentioned by Froissart, anno 1342, and did not fall into disuse much before the time of Charles II., when a writer in 1703 refers to it as a weapon “formerly” in use, the bayonet having superseded it. Viscount Dillon states in Archæologia, vol. li., p. 221, that “In 1515, Pasqualigo, the Venetian, writes that he had seen in the Tower pikes for 40,000 infantry, and that they have a like store at Calais, a place near Scotland!” The pike has a narrow lance-formed head, to which long strips of iron four feet in length are attached, which are screwed down the sides of a long wooden pole, the end of which is shod with iron, for fixing into the ground, to resist a charge of horsemen. There is a tassel along the shaft for easing the shoulder when the weapon is carried at the “port,” and also for preventing the rain from running down the shaft.
The earlier length of the pike was ten feet, but Sutcliffe, in his Practice of Arms, speaks of it as up to twenty-two feet in length. A statute of 1662 fixes the length at sixteen feet. During Elizabeth’s reign the cost of a pike was three shillings and eightpence, and it was “fifteene foote long besides the head.” The usual length, however, was about ten feet.
It was the bayonet that deposed the pike.
The partizan, like the pike, was introduced in the reign of Edward III. The blade is long, broad, and double-edged, with hatchet-like or pointed branches at the base. It was greatly used as a pageant weapon, and much skill and taste were expended in chasing it and inlaying it with gold. The spetum is narrower and lighter, a long spear at the point, and narrow curved side branches.
The ranseur is very similar to the partizan, with a long broad blade in the centre, and projecting shorter blades on each side. It was much used in the reign of Edward IV.
The spontoon is a half pike, or something between the pike and partizan, and was carried by infantry officers.
A selection of staff and club weapons are represented in Fig. 49, and most of the weapons referred to are there given.