Halberd/Origin

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 (also able to push back approaching horsemen), as was the hook opposite the axe head, which could be used to pull horsemen to the

ground.[3]  Additionally, halberds were reinforced with metal rims over the shaft, thus making effective weapons for blocking other weapons such as swords. This capability increased its effectiveness in battle, and expert halberdiers were as deadly as any other weapon masters.[citation needed]  A Swiss peasant used a halberd[4]  to kill Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy—decisively ending the Burgundian Wars, literally in a single stroke.[5]  Researchers suspect that a halberd or a bill sliced through the back of King Richard III's skull at the battle of Bosworth.[6]

The halberd was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries.[3]  Later, the Swiss added the pike to better repelknightly 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.[citation needed]

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. The halberd all but disappeared as a rank-and-file weapon in th

ese formations by the middle of the sixteenth century.

The halberd has been used as a court bodyguard weapon for centuries, and is still the ceremonial weapon of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican. The halberd was one of the polearms sometimes carried by lower-ranking officers in European infantry units in the 16th through 18th centuries. In the British army, sergeants continued to carry halberds until 1793, when they were replaced by pikes with cross bars.[8]  The 18th century halberd had, however, become simply a symbol of rank with no sharpened edge and insufficient strength to use as a weapon. It did, however, ensure that infantrymen drawn up in ranks stood correctly aligned with each other.