Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe
The publication of John Waldman’s study of medieval and early-modern hafted weaponry is of significance to military historians, art historians, curators and collectors. This splendidly produced book (printed on glossy heavy-gauge paper), a handsome volume from Brill’s History of Warfare series, contemplates the tools of war. Obviously, wars were often decided in battle, and battles (if decisive) were often determined by hand-to-hand combat. Now that “battle” has returned to historiography we can cast off dismissive jibes about antiquarianism. The implements of infantry warfare deserve a closer look.
Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe is most useful in understanding the mechanics of the Swiss art of war. Waldman explains the centrality of the Swiss in the ascendancy of staff weapons. His detailed descriptions of individual specimens of hafted arms provide specificity for generalizations about medieval and early-modern infantry weapons. If the sometimes arbitrary chronological parameters of the “military revolution” are to a large degree determined by what kinds of arms foot soldiers used (and the ensuing modification of tactical practices), then Waldman’s examples confound theories about abrupt breakthroughs in military technology. The author may be described as a gradualist. Pole weapons and hafted arms were the tools by which northern European “peasants” transformed themselves into a soldiery that toppled heavily armed horsemen. The resurgence of the infantryman, however, was not accomplished in a single engagement or even within a certain decade.
One cannot but be struck by the continuities in the use of hafted arms over the centuries. Waldman focuses primarily upon the halberd and its variants, from the thirteenth to seventeenth centuries. In turn, the author expounds upon glaives, bills, partizans, and other staff weapons. Typologies are set forth, practical usage is explained, smithing techniques are revealed, and the text is topped off with a practical manual for the conservation of hafted arms. The book is not intended to be encyclopedic. Rather those staff weapons that were widely employed and had the greatest impact upon the conduct of war receive treatment. The one hundred and sixty one illustrations (art works in color, and specimens in black and white) enable the reader to analyze in a fashion that one cannot in a museum with even the most complete colleciton. The author has cross-referenced some weapons to contemporary paintings, with useful results. Techniques for wielding hafted arms are sometimes depicted, so art is frequently a guide to the realities of infantry warfare.
Perhaps the most celebrated historical example of the efficacy of the halberd was the demise of Charles the Bold of Burgundy at Nancy in 1477 (p.99), whose grisly death convinced both contemporaries and historians that infantry bearing hafted weapons could be formidable opponents indeed. Halberdiers rarely fought alone, though on occasion they did, for example when a group separated themselves from the Swiss column in order to cut down Florange’s unprotected French arquebusiers at the battle of Novara (6 June 1513). Halberdiers depended upon combined support from infantry armed with such weapons as the longspear (p.55). The fifteenth century saw numerous actions in which hafted weapons played a significant, sometimes dominant role, but the tactical use of staff weapons was inextricably linked with the longspear’s evolution into the pike. Whilst halberdiers frequently amazed contemporaries by devastating an opponent, most (though perhaps not all) historians of medieval warfare reckon that the substantive contribution of halberdiers came in their supporting role while interspersed in the bristling Swiss phalanx of sturdy pikemen. Waldman, however, says surprisingly little about the tactical integration of halberdiers with their pike-toting comrades (pp.103-4). Halberdiers remained conspicuous on the battlefield as late as 1525, at Pavia, though clearly gunpowder weapons were thinning the ranks of Swiss infantry, literally and figuratively. By 1550 “the final phase” (p.62) of the halberd’s popularity had commenced, with the Germanys’ Landesknechtes and the Reislaufer of Switzerland (p.103) being the most visible and stalwart practitioners of that weapon.
While it is unfair to find fault with such a richly textured book, there is one area in which the author might have added a dimension. Waldman notes (p.4 n.3) that inventories of the hafted weapons kept in European arsenals (i.e. in Tyrolia, Vienna, Graz and Zurich) survive. Similar unpublished manuscripts can also be found in the English National Archives (formerly the Public Record Office). Waldman does not use such data, however, at least not in manuscript form. One can understand of course that considering the breadth and depth of the sources the author trots out, he has researched the topic masterfully. Still, one cannot help but wonder about the quantity (and quality) of hafted weapons salted away in late-medieval and early-modern arsenals and keeps, at least as compared to the examples that survive in museums.
Waldman's book devoted specificaly to Hafted Weapons in Medieval and Renaissance Europe now raises a number of questions: Fielding substantial armies of infantrymen has been cited as a significant factor in state formation. How did the adoption of hafted weapons (and the corresponding increase in the number of soldiers that carried them) contribute to the institutionalization of war? What levels of state expenditures did reliance upon hafted weapons necessitate? If hafted weapons were a more affordable “weapons system”, how did they enhance the military capabilities of city-states and their urban populations? Did increasing utilization of hafted weapons make possible the exploitation of human resources that other “weapons systems” could not tap? How and exactly where did the state’s purchasing agents procure their stores? What about the percentage of hafted arms as opposed to other sorts of habiliments of war? What were the protocols for inspection and quality control? Do the arsenal logbooks contain little-known marginalia or anecdotal evidence that reveal contemporary opinions (and uses) of such weaponry? Were there cases where the unavailability or availability of sufficient quantities of hafted weapons affected strategic options?
Further, how do inventories reflect the oft-cited “national” predilections for hafted weapons? Halberds and associated staff weapons did not enjoy universal popularity, of course (p.53). In the 1400s some “national” fighting forces had eschewed the halberd, for example most of the armies consisting of Italians, French, Spanish and Scandinavians, as well as the warriors of pre-Maximilian Burgundy (pp.62-3). The specialized nature of hafted weapons enabled the Swiss and Germans to prosper as mercenary companies, as is well known. Our understanding of infantry warfare must come to terms with regional variations and national styles of combat. So the international weapons traffic as reflected in account books, inventories, and state commercial transactions is of great interest.
While Waldman’s book does not squarely answer the above-mentioned questions, certainly the author has empowered subsequent generations of scholars to study in a particular and systematic way the hafted weapons that transformed both warfare and the world. The book will serve as a durable, portable, and indispensable reference work for years to come.