Halberd. A halberd is a two-handed polearm that came to prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. It is often depicted as a formidable weapon with a long, sturdy shaft and a bladed head. The halberd is frequently seen in the hands of soldiers or knights in battle scenes, symbolizing strength, power, and protection. It can also be depicted as a symbol of authority or a tool of justice. The halberd consists of an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It can have a hook or thorn on the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants and protecting allied soldiers, typically musketeers. The halberd was usually 1.5 to 1.8 metres long. The word halberd is cognate with the German word Hellebarde, deriving from Middle High German halm and barte joined to form helmbarte. Troops that used the weapon were called halberdiers. 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. Early-16th-century miniature depicting the Battle of Grandson, from the Lucerner Schilling. Swiss soldiers can be seen armed with earlier halberds. The halberd is first mentioned in a work by 13th-century German poet Konrad von Würzburg. John of Winterthur described it as a new weapon used by the Swiss at the Battle of Morgarten of 1315. 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 better deal with spears and pikes, as was the hook opposite the axe head, which could be used to pull horsemen to the ground. A Swiss peasant used a halberd to kill Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, at the Battle of Nancy, decisively ending the Burgundian Wars. A member of the Swiss Guard with a halberd in the Vatican The halberd was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Later, the Swiss added the pike to better repel knightly attacks and roll over enemy infantry formations, with the halberd, hand-and-a-half sword, or the dagger known as the Schweizerdolch used for closer combat. The German Landsknechte, who imitated Swiss warfare methods, also used the pike, supplemented by the halberd, but their side arm of choice was a short sword called the Katzbalger. As long as pikemen fought other pikemen, the halberd remained a useful supplemental weapon for push of pike, but when their position became more defensive, to protect the slow-loading arquebusiers and matchlock musketeers from sudden attacks by cavalry, the percentage of halberdiers in the pike units steadily decreased.
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