The chief arm of the mounted knight was the lance, a weapon having a
long and often quite heavy wooden shaft and a steel point. Near the butt
its diameter was reduced to provide a comfortable hand grip, and just in
front of this grip there was applied a _vamplate_ or conical hand guard
of steel. Behind the grip there was attached a thick iron ring called a
_graper_, which, when the lance was in use, rested against the hook or
lance-rest projecting from the right side of the knight’s breastplate.
The graper thus served as a thrust bearing, and put directly behind the
point of the lance the entire momentum of horse and rider. When such a
projectile made a direct hit upon an opponent something had to give.
Either the opponent was knocked completely off his horse, or his back
was broken, or the lance was shattered.
Foot soldiers also employed arms with long wooden shafts, of which by
far the commonest was the _pike_, which had a very simple steel point
and butt ferrule respectively on the ends of a slender rod of wood about
fourteen feet long. This was the arm of the great bodies of mercenary
infantry which did so much of the fighting of the seventeenth century. A
company of such men, formed into a square or circle, the front rank
kneeling, the second standing, and both holding their pikes with the
butts against the ground and the points projecting outward, was almost
invulnerable to cavalry, whose horses would not charge against the
forest of pike-points. The one effective maneuver against them was for
some of the cavalry to dismount and attack swinging great two-handed
swords, which could beat down the pike points and allow the cavalry to
ride in.
Lance and pike were simple utilitarian tools; few have survived. But
there are other pole arms, from the fifteenth century on, which offered
more opportunity to individual taste in form and decoration; a number of
these are present in the Museum’s collection. Some (Fig. 33) were
developments of the simple spear point, as for example (1) the type
called an _ox-tongue_ or (2) a boar spear provided with a toggle to
prevent a wounded animal from charging right up the shaft of the weapon
which transfixed him. In (3), now a well-developed _partisan_, the
toggle has been replaced by a projecting spur at each side of the base.
In (4) these spurs have become large and ornamental, the weapon is
decorated with etching, and has become a ceremonial object rather than a
weapon for actual fighting. (5) is a partisan of the state guard of
Augustus the Strong, Elector of Saxony and King of Poland (1697-1733),
and is even more noticeably designed for display purposes only.
[Illustration: _Fig. 33. Spear-type pole arms, XV-XVII centuries.
Developing from a simple tool for stabbing to a decorated badge of
office._]
Other pole arms are developments of the axe. Military axes (Fig. 34 [1],
[2]) had handles somewhat shorter than those of pikes, spears or
partisans but longer than the short-handled axes used on horseback. They
were particularly popular for use in judicial combats or “trial by
battle”. Each contestant in a law suit would swear to the truth of his
claim, and call upon God to prove its truth. The two men, armed with
such axes, would fight until one was killed or driven out of the ring.
The victor was thus proven to have told the truth, while the
unsuccessful contestant, if still alive, was executed for perjury. Such
axes, capable of defending the right, were made with special care, and
were highly valued by their surviving owners.
[Illustration: _Fig. 34. Axe-type pole arms, XV-XVII centuries. The
earlier ones, at the left, were used in judicial duels, the later,
at the right, were held by warders of the doors of princes._]
Axes with longer shafts were known as _halberds_, and were usually
provided with a sharpened hook at the back of the axe blade to permit a
man on foot to catch and cut the bridle rein of an attacking horseman.
Like the partisans, halberds developed from plain functional military
types, (Fig. 34 [3], [4]) of the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries
respectively to highly decorated types carried as badges of authority by
the state guards of Christian II of Saxony (Fig. 34 [5]) and of the
Princes of Liechtenstein (Fig. 34 [6]) respectively.