Halberd illustrated in "Théâtre de tous les peuples et nations de la terre avec leurs habits et ornemens divers, tant anciens que modernes, diligemment depeints au naturel". Painted byLucas d'Heere in the second half of the 16th century. Manuscript preserved in theGhent University Library[1]
Ahalberd (also calledhalbard orhalbert) is a two-handedpolearm that was in prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. The halberd consists of anaxe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It may have a hook or thorn on the back of the axe blade for grapplingmounted combatants and protecting allied soldiers, typicallymusketeers.[2] The halberd was usually 1.5 to 1.8 metres (4.9 to 5.9 ft) long.[3]
The wordhalberd iscognate with the German wordHellebarde, deriving fromMiddle High Germanhalm (handle) andbarte (battleaxe) joined to formhelmbarte. Troops that used the weapon were calledhalberdiers orhalbardiers. The word has also been used to describe a weapon of the early Bronze Age in Western Europe. This consisted of a blade mounted on a pole at a right angle.[4][5]
Early-16th-century miniature depicting the Battle of Grandson, from theLucerner Schilling. Swiss soldiers can be seen armed with earlier halberds.
The halberd is first mentioned (ashallenbarte) in a work by 13th-century German poetKonrad von Würzburg.[6]John of Winterthur described it as a new weapon used by theSwiss at theBattle of Morgarten of 1315.[6] The halberd was inexpensive to produce and very versatile in battle. As the halberd was eventually refined, its point was more fully developed to allow it to deal better withspears andpikes (and make it able to push back approaching horsemen), as was the hook opposite the axe head, which could be used to pull horsemen to the ground.[7] A Swiss peasant used a halberd to killCharles the Bold,[8] theDuke of Burgundy, at theBattle of Nancy, decisively ending theBurgundian Wars.[9]
The halberd was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries.[7] Later the Swiss added thepike to better repelknightly attacks and roll over enemy infantry formations, with the halberd,hand-and-a-half sword, or thedagger known as theSchweizerdolch used for closer combat. The GermanLandsknechte, who imitated Swiss warfare methods, also used the pike, supplemented by the halberd—but theirside arm of choice was ashort sword called theKatzbalger.[10]
As long as pikemen fought other pikemen, the halberd remained a useful supplementary weapon forpush of pike, but when their position became more defensive, to protect the slow-loadingarquebusiers andmatchlock musketeers from sudden attacks bycavalry, the percentage of halberdiers in the pike units steadily decreased. By 1588, official Dutch infantry composition was down to 39% arquebuses, 34% pikes, 13% muskets, 9% halberds, and 2% one-handed swords. By 1600, troops armed exclusively with swords were no longer used and the halberd was only used by sergeants.[11]
Researchers suspected that a halberd or abill sliced through the back of KingRichard III's skull at theBattle of Bosworth Field on 22 August 1485, leaving his brain visible before killing him during the battle, and were later able to confirm that it was a halberd.[12][13]
While rarer than it had been from the late 15th to mid-16th centuries, the halberd was still used infrequently as an infantry weapon well into the mid-17th century. The armies of theCatholic League in 1625, for example, had halberdiers comprising 7% of infantry units, with musketeers comprising 58% and armored pikemen 35%. By 1627 this had changed to 65% muskets, 20% pikes, and 15% halberds.[14] A near-contemporary depiction of the 1665Battle of Montes Claros atPalace of the Marquises of Fronteira depicts a minority of the Portuguese and Spanish soldiers as armed with halberds.Antonio de Pereda's 1635 paintingEl Socorro a Génova depicting theRelief of Genoa has all the soldiers armed with halberds. The most consistent users of the halberd in theThirty Years' War were German sergeants who would carry one as a sign of rank. While they could use them in melee combat, more often they were used for dressing the ranks by grasping the shaft in both hands and pushing it against several men simultaneously. They could also be used to push pikes or muskets up or down, especially to stop overexcited musketeers from firing prematurely.[15] Halberds and other polearms remained useful during instances of close-in fighting such as during stormings of towns and forts. At theSiege of Lyme Regis in April 1644 during the English Civil War, halberdiers were among the troops that repelled the attackers after their cannons made breaches in the walls.[16]
Halberds of various shapes, sizes, and ages
The halberd has been used as a court bodyguard weapon for centuries, and is still theceremonial weapon of theSwiss Guard in theVatican[17] and theAlabarderos (Halberdiers) Company[18] of theSpanish Royal Guard.[19] The halberd was one of the polearms sometimes carried by lower-ranking officers in European infantry units in the 16th through 18th centuries. In the British army,sergeants continued to carry halberds until 1793, when they were replaced byspontoons.[20] The 18th-century halberd had, however, become simply a symbol of rank with no sharpened edge and insufficient strength to use as a weapon.[21] It served as an instrument for ensuring that infantrymen in ranks stood correctly aligned with each other and that their muskets were aimed at the correct level.[22]
A late-14th/early-15th-century Halberd fromFribourg
The wordhelmbarte or variations of it show up in German texts from the 13th century onwards. At that point, the halberd is not too distinct from other types of broad axes orbardiches used all over Europe. In the late 13th century the weapon starts to develop into a distinct weapon, with the top of the blade developing into a more acute thrusting point. This form of the halberd is erroneously sometimes called avoulge or aswiss voulge, but there is no evidence for the usage of these terms for this weapon historically.[23] There were variations of these weapons with spikes on the back, though also plenty without. In the early 15th century the construction changes to incorporate sockets into the blade, instead of hoops as the previous designs had. With this development back spikes are directly integrated into the blade construction and become a universal part of the halberd design.[24]
Lochaber axe, a Scottish weapon that had a heavy blade attached to a pole in a similar fashion to early halberds
Naginata, a Japanese weapon that had a 30-to-60-centimetre-long (12 to 24 in) blade attached by a sword guard to a wooden shaft
Partisan, a large double-bladed spearhead mounted on a long shaft that had protrusions on either side forparrying sword thrusts
Poleaxe, a type of polearm with anaxehead orhammerhead on the sides with either a spike orspearhead at the top and mounted on a long shaft. It was developed in the 14th century and remained in use until the 16th century to breach theplate armour worn by Europeanknights andmen-at-arms
Ranseur, a polearm consisting of a spearhead affixed with a cross hilt at its base derived from the earlierspetum
Spontoon, a 17th-century weapon that consisted of a large blade with two side blades mounted on a long 2 m (6 ft 7 in) pole, considered a more elaboratepike
Voulge, a crude single-edged blade bound to a wooden shaft
War scythe, an improvised weapon that consisted of a blade from ascythe attached vertically to a shaft
Welsh hook, similar to a halberd and thought to originate from a forest-bill
Woldo, A Koreanpolearm that had a crescent-shaped blade mounted on a long shaft, similar in construction to the Chineseguandao, and primarily served as a symbol of theRoyal Guard
Different sorts of halberds and halberd-like polearms in Switzerland
Citizens ofZürich on 1 May 1351 are read the Federal Charter as they swear allegiance to representatives of Uri, Schwyz, Unterwalden and Lucerne. One of the representatives carries a typical Swiss halberd of the period depicted (as opposed to the time the image was made, 1515).
Saint Wiborada is often (anachronistically) depicted with a halberd to indicate the means of her martyrdom.
Halberd-axe head with the head of amouflon. Late 2nd millennium–early 1st millennium BC. FromAmlash,Gilan, Iran
^Klaus Schelle,Charles le Téméraire (Arthème Fayard, 1979), p. 316
^Gilbert, Adrian (2003) [2002]."Medieval Warfare".The Encyclopedia of Warfare: From Earliest Times to the Present Day. Guildford, CT: The Lyons Press. p. 71.ISBN1-59228-027-7.At Nancy, it was a halberd that brought down Charles the Bold with a single blow that split his skull open.
^Guthrie, William. "The Later Thirty Years War: From the Battle of Wittstock to the Treaty of Westphalia." Praeger, Feb. 2003. Page 16.
^Wilson, Peter (2009). Europe's Tragedy: A History of the Thirty Years War. Allen Lane. Page 95.
^Kenyon, J.P. and Ohlmeyer, Jane H. (eds.). "The Civil Wars. A Military History of England, Scotland, and Ireland 1638–1660." Oxford University Press: 1998. Page 217.
^Duffy, Christopher (1998).The Military Experience in the Age of Reason. Wordsworth Editions. p. 123.ISBN1-85326-690-6.
^Waldman, John (2005).Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe The Evolution of European Staff Weapons between 1200 and 1650. Leiden. p. 17.ISBN978-90-474-0757-7.OCLC704633881.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
^Waldman, John (2005).Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe The Evolution of European Staff Weapons between 1200 and 1650. Leiden. pp. 17–98.ISBN978-90-474-0757-7.OCLC704633881.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
Brandtherm, Dirk & O'Flaherty, Ronan;Prodigal sons: two 'halberds' in the Hunt Museum, Limerick, from Cuenca, Spain and Beyrǔt, Syria, pp. 56–60,JRSAI Vol.131 (2001).
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