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HALBERT, HALBERD
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See also:HALBERT, HALBERD Or HALBARD, a weapon consisting of an See also:axe-blade balanced by a pick and having an elongated See also:pike-See also:head at the end of the See also:staff, which was usually about 5 or 6 ft. in length. The utility of such a weapon in the See also:wars of the later See also:middle ages See also:lay in this, that it gave the See also:foot soldier the means of dealing with an armoured See also:man on horseback. The pike could do no more than keep the horseman at a distance. This ensured See also:security for the foot soldier but did not enable him to strike a mortal See also:blow, for which firstly a See also:long-handled and secondly a powerful weapon, capable of striking a heavy cleaving blow, was required. Several different forms of weapon responding to these requirements are described and illustrated below; it will be noticed that the thrusting pike is almost always combined with the cutting-See also:bill See also:hook or axe-head, so that the individual billman or halberdier should not be at a disadvantage if caught alone by a mounted opponent, or if his first descending blow missed its See also:object. It will be noticed further that, concurrently with the disuse of See also:complete See also:armour and the development of firearms, the pike or thrusting See also:element gradually displaces the axe or cleaving element in these weapons, till at last we arrive at the See also:court halberts and partizans of the See also:late 16th and See also:early 17th centuries and the so-called " halbert " of the See also:infantry officer and sergeant in the 18th, which can scarcely be classed even as partizans. See also:Figs. 1-6 represent types of these long cutting, cut and thrust weapons of the middle ages, details being omitted for the See also:sake of clearness. The most See also:primitive is the voulge (fig. I), which is simply a heavy cleaver on a See also:pole, with a point added. The next See also:form, the gisarme or guisarme (fig. 2), appears in See also:infinite variety but is always distinguished from voulges, &c. by the hook, which was used to pull down mounted men, and generally resembles the agricultural bill-hook of to-See also:day. The glaive (fig. 3 is late See also:German) is a broad, heavy, slightly curved See also:sword-blade on a stave; it is often combined with the hooked gisarme as a glaive-gisarme (fig. 4, Burgundian, about 1480). A gisarmevoulge is shown in fig. 5 (Swiss, 14th See also:century). The weapon best known to Englishmen is the bill, which was originally a sort of See also:scythe-blade, See also:sharp on the See also:concave See also:side (whereas the glaive has the cutting edge on the See also:convex side), but in its best-known form it should be called a bill-gisarme (fig. 6) . The partizans, ranseurs and halberts proper See also:developed naturally from the earlier types. The feature See also:common to all, as has been said, is the See also:combination of See also:spear and axe. In the halberts the axe predominates, as the examples (fig. 1o, Swiss, early 15th century; fig. r1, Swiss, middle 16th century; and fig. 12, German court halbert of the same See also:period as fig. II) show. In the partizan the pike is the more important, the axe-heads being reduced to little more than an ornamental feature. A See also:south German specimen (fig. 9, 1615) shows how this was compensated by the broadening of the spear-head, the edges of which in such weapons were sharpened. Fig. 8, a service weapon of See also:simple form, merely has projections on either side, and from this developed-the ranseur (fig. 7), a partizan with a very long and narrow point, like the blade of a See also:rapier, and with See also:fork-like projections intended to See also:act as " sword-breakers," instead of the atrophied axe-heads of the partizan proper.
The halbert played almost as conspicuous a See also:part in the military See also:history of Middle See also:Europe during the 15th and early 16th centuries as the pike. But,
even in a form distinguishable from the voulge and the glaive, it See also:dates from the early part of the 13th century, and for many generations thereafter it was the See also:special weapon of the
Swiss. See also:Fauchet, in his Origines See also:des dignitez, printed in 'boo, states that See also: It is still retained as the See also:symbol of authority See also:borne before the magistrates on public occasions in some of the burghs of See also:Scotland. The See also:Lochaber axe may be called a See also:species of halbert furnished with a hook on the end of the staff at the back of the blade. The godendag (Fr. godendart) is the Flemish name of the halbert in its original form. The derivation of the word is as follows. The O. Fr. hallebarde, of which the See also:English " halberd," " halbert," is an See also:adaptation, was itself adapted from the M.H.G. helmbarde, mod. Hellebarde; the second part is the O.H.G. barta or parta, broad-axe, probably the same word as See also:Bart, See also:beard, and so called from its shape; the first part is either helm, handle, cf. " helm," tiller of a See also:ship, the word meaning " hafted axe," or else helm, See also:helmet, an axe for smiting the helmet. A common derivation was to take the word as representing a Ger. halb-barde, half-axe; the early German form shows this to be an erroneous guess. Additional information and CommentsThe Halberd is a weapon of its own. It may look a bit like a partizan, but it is not, nor is it a guisarme. This is all I have to say, and as a bladed weapons collecter, I should know.
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