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The poleaxe (also pollaxe, pole-axe, pole axe, poleax, polax) is a European polearm that was used by medieval infantry.
| | This article needs additional citations for verification .(March 2014) |
The poleaxe (also pollaxe, pole-axe, pole axe, poleax, polax) is a European polearm that was used by medieval infantry.
Most etymological authorities consider the poll- prefix historically unrelated to "pole", instead meaning "head". [1] [2] However, some etymologists, including Eric Partridge, believe that the word is derived from "pole". [3]
The poleaxe design arose from the need to breach the plate armour of men at arms during the 14th and 15th centuries. Generally, the form consisted of a wooden haft some 1.5–2 m (4.9–6.6 ft) long, mounted with a steel head. It seems most schools of combat suggested a haft length comparable to the height of the wielder, but in some cases hafts appear to have been created up to 2.5 m (8.2 ft) in length.
The design of the head varied greatly with a variety of interchangeable parts and rivets. Generally, the head bore an axe head or hammer head mounted on ash or other hard-wood shafts from 4–6 ft in length, with a spike, hammer, or fluke on the reverse. [4] In addition, there was a spike or spear head projecting from the end of the haft which was often square in cross section, sometimes referred to as the "dague dessous". [4] The head was attached to the squared-off wooden pole by long flat strips of metal, called langets, which were riveted in place on either two or four of its sides to reinforce the pole against being chopped through in combat. [5] A round hilt-like disc called a rondelle was placed just below the head. They also appear to have borne one or two rings along the pole's length as places to prevent hands from slipping. Also of note is that the butt end of the staff, opposite the weapon's head, bore a spike or shoe.
On quick glance, the poleaxe is often confused with the similar-looking halberd. While they may have both been designed for hacking and piercing through armor plates, the axe blade on a poleaxe seems to have been consistently smaller than that of a halberd. A smaller head concentrates the kinetic energy of the blow on a smaller area, enabling the impact to defeat armour, while broader halberd heads are better against opponents with less mail or plate armour. Furthermore, many halberds had their heads forged as a single piece, while the poleaxe was typically modular in design. [6]
The poleaxe was used by knights and other men-at-arms (both noble and non-noble) in chivalric duels for prestige, to settle disputes in judicial duels, and of course on the battlefield. [7] It was a close range weapon that required ones full body strength and both hands to wield effectively. [4] [8] [7] The poleaxe has a sophisticated fighting technique, which is based on quarterstaff fighting. The blade of the poleaxe can be used, not only for simply hacking down the opponent, but also for tripping him, disarming him and blocking his blows. Both the head spike and butt spike can be used for thrusting attacks. The shaft itself is also a central part of the weapon, able to block the enemy's blows (the langets helping to reinforce the shaft), hit and push with the shaft held in both hands, or trip the opponent. The poleaxe's devastating efficiency is the origin of the term “to be poleaxed”, which dates from the 15th century when captives were often slain using poleaxe-blows to the head, and is now used to describe one being attacked or beat down in a brutal way, as if with a poleaxe. [9] [4]
Many treatises on poleaxe fighting survive from the 15th and 16th centuries. Poleaxe fighting techniques have been rediscovered with the increasing interest in historical European martial arts.
Today the poleaxe is a weapon of choice of many medieval re-enactors. Rubber poleaxe heads designed for safe combat are available commercially.
As a noun: [10]
As a transitive verb: [11]
A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee weapons, with a subclass of spear-like designs fit for thrusting and/or throwing. Because many polearms were adapted from agricultural implements or other fairly abundant tools, and contained relatively little metal, they were cheap to make and readily available. When belligerents in warfare had a poorer class who could not pay for dedicated military weapons, they would often appropriate tools as cheap weapons. The cost of training was comparatively low, since these conscripted farmers had spent most of their lives using these "weapons" in the fields. This made polearms the favoured weapon of peasant levies and peasant rebellions the world over.
A spear is a polearm consisting of a shaft, usually of wood, with a pointed head. The head may be simply the sharpened end of the shaft itself, as is the case with fire hardened spears, or it may be made of a more durable material fastened to the shaft, such as bone, flint, obsidian, copper, bronze, iron, or steel. The most common design for hunting and/or warfare, since ancient times has incorporated a metal spearhead shaped like a triangle, diamond, or leaf. The heads of fishing spears usually feature multiple sharp points, with or without barbs.
A war hammer is a weapon that was used by both foot soldiers and cavalry. It is a very old weapon and gave its name, owing to its constant use, to Judah Maccabee, a 2nd-century BC Jewish rebel, and to Charles Martel, one of the rulers of France. In the 15th and 16th centuries, the war hammer became an elaborately decorated and handsome weapon.
A halberd is a two-handed polearm that came to prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. 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.
A morning star is any of several medieval club-like weapons consisting of a shaft with an attached ball adorned with one or more spikes, each used, to varying degrees, with a combination of blunt-force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy.
The ahlspiess was a thrusting spear developed and used primarily in Germany and Austria from the 15th to 16th centuries. The ahlspiess consisted of a long thin spike of square cross section measuring up to about a metre in length, mounted on a round wooden shaft and sometimes secured with a pair of langets extending from the socket. The length of the shaft ranged from 1.6 to 1.8 m., and located at the base of the spike was a rondel guard to protect the hands. Large numbers of these weapons have survived and are kept in the arsenal and museums of Vienna as well as the Metropolitan Museum of Art.
A glaive, sometimes spelled as glave, is a type of pole weapon, with a single edged blade on the end, known for its distinctive design and versatile combat applications. There are many similar polearms such as the war scythe, the Japanese naginata, the Chinese guandao (yanyuedao), the Korean woldo, and the Russian sovnya.
A guisarme is a polearm used in Europe primarily between 1000 and 1400. Its origin is likely Germanic, from the Old High German getīsarn, literally "weeding iron". Like many medieval polearms, the exact early form of the weapon is hard to define from literary references, and the identification of surviving weapons can be speculative.
A bardiche, berdiche, bardische, bardeche, or berdish is a type of polearm used from the 14th to 17th centuries in Europe. 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. The use of bardiches started in early 14th-century Austria.
A voulge is a type of polearm that existed in medieval Europe, primarily in 15th century France.
The Lochaber axe is a type of poleaxe that was used almost exclusively in Scotland. It was usually mounted on a staff about five feet long.
The Dane axe or long axe is a type of European early medieval period two-handed battle axe with a very long shaft, around 0.9–1.2 metres at the low end to 1.5–1.7 metres or more at the long end. Sometimes called a broadaxe, the blade was broad and thin, intended to give a long powerful cut when swung, effective against cavalry, shields and unarmored opponents.
The Lucerne hammer is a type of polearm which was popular in Swiss armies during the 15th to 17th centuries. It was a combination of the bec de corbin and a pronged war hammer.
A battle axe is an axe specifically designed for combat. Battle axes were designed differently to utility axes, with blades more akin to cleavers than to wood axes. Many were suitable for use in one hand, while others were larger and were deployed two-handed.
The ji was a Chinese polearm, sometimes translated into English as spear or halberd, though they are conceptually different weapons. They were used in one form or another for over 3000 years, from at least as early as the Zhou dynasty, until the end of the Qing dynasty. They are still used for training in many Chinese martial arts.
The doloire or wagoner's axe was a tool and weapon used during the Middle Ages and Renaissance. The axe had a wooden shaft measuring approximately 1.5 metres (5 feet) in length and a head that was pointed at the top and rounded at the bottom, resembling either a teardrop or an isosceles triangle. The top of the shaft was fitted with a metal eye or socket that was welded to the head of the axe near the base of the blade. The upper part of the blade extended above the eye, while the opposite side of the socket featured a small blunt hammer head. The head of the axe itself measured approximately 44 cm. (17 inches) in length, was sharpened on the back and flattened bottom edges, and was uniformly decorated with punched and incised abstract floral patterns.
An axe is an implement that has been used for millennia to shape, split, and cut wood, to harvest timber, as a weapon, and as a ceremonial or heraldic symbol. The axe has many forms and specialised uses but generally consists of an axe head with a handle, also called a haft or a helve.
The term "halberd" has been used to translate several Old Norse words relating to polearms in the context of Viking Age arms and armour, and in scientific literature about the Viking Age. In referring to the Viking Age weapon, the term "halberd" is not to be taken as referring to the classical Swiss halberd of the 15th century, but rather in its literal sense of "axe-on-a-pole", describing a weapon of the more general glaive type.
Many of the polearms used in Scotland up to the beginning of the 16th century were similar to those used in other parts of the world; however, a number of distinct forms did evolve. The nomenclature of Scottish axes, in particular, is confusing, and the text below follows the classification scheme proposed by David H. Caldwell in his 1980 paper "Some Notes on Scottish Axes and Long Shafted Weapons".
Notes
Further reading
