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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 (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]
Joachim Meyer (ca. 1537–1571) was a self-described Freifechter (literally, Free Fencer) living in the then Free Imperial City of Strasbourg in the 16th century and the author of a fechtbuch Gründtliche Beschreibung der Kunst des Fechtens (in English, Thorough Descriptions of the Art of Fencing) first published in 1570.
A voulge would usually have a narrow single-edged blade mounted with a socket on a shaft. The weapon could additionally feature shaft reinforcements called langets and rondel protection for the hands at the base of the blade. [3]
The English increasingly transitioned to pike and shot formations from the mid 16th century, but kept the billhook in use in the same capacity as other armies used greatswords and halberds. In 1588, the English Trained Bands consisted of 36% arquebusiers, 6% musketeers, 16% bowmen, 26% pikemen, and 16% billmen.
Paulus Hector Mair (1517–1579) was a German civil servant fencing master from Augsburg.He collected Fechtbücher and undertook to compile all knowledge of the art of fencing in a compendium surpassing all earlier books.
Ultimately a descendant of the medieval sparth axe or Dane axe, the bardiche proper appears around 1400, but there are numerous medieval manuscripts that depict very similar weapons beginning c. 1250. The bardiche differs from the halberd in having neither a hook at the back nor a spear point at the top. [1]
Janissaries who guarded the palace (Zülüflü Baltacılar) carried long-shafted axes and halberds. [citation needed] By the early 16th century, the Janissaries were equipped with and were skilled with muskets. [50] In particular, they used a massive "trench gun", firing an 80-millimetre (3.1 in) ball, which was "feared by their enemies". [50]
The term "Viking halberd" was used to describe a find in North America in the 1995 book Early Vikings of the New World, but it was later demonstrated to be a tobacco cutter. [18] There has currently been, in fact, no clearly identified Viking halberd or bill found. Spears are the only type of polearms found in Viking graves.