Ge or dagger-axe, a Chinese weapon in use from the Shang dynasty (est.

Bill, similar to a halberd but with a hooked blade form.

Bardiche, a type of two-handed battle axe known in the 16th and 17th centuries in Eastern Europe.It served as an instrument for ensuring that infantrymen in ranks stood correctly aligned with each other and that their muskets were aimed at the correct level. The 18th century halberd had, however, become simply a symbol of rank with no sharpened edge and insufficient strength to use as a weapon. In the British army, sergeants continued to carry halberds until 1793, when they were replaced by spontoons. The halberd was one of the polearms sometimes carried by lower-ranking officers in European infantry units in the 16th through 18th centuries. 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 and the Alabarderos (Halberdiers) Company They could also be used to push pikes or muskets up or down, especially to stop overexcited musketeers from firing prematurely. While they could use them in melee combat, more often they were used for dressing the ranks by grasping the shaft in both hands and pushing it against several men simultaneously. The most consistent users of the halberd in the Thirty Years War were German sergeants who would carry one as a sign of rank. Antonio de Pereda's 1635 painting El Socorro a Génova depicting the Relief of Genoa has all the soldiers armed with halberds. A near-contemporary depiction of the 1665 Battle of Montes Claros at Palace of the Marquises of Fronteira depicts a minority of the Portuguese and Spanish soldiers as armed with halberds. By 1627 this had changed to 65% muskets, 20% pikes, and 15% halberds. The armies of the Catholic League in 1625, for example, had halberdiers comprising 7% of infantry units, with musketeers comprising 58% and armored pikemen 35%. While rarer than it had been from the late 15th to mid 16th centuries, the halberd was still used infrequently as an infantry weapon well into the mid 17th century. By 1600, troops armed exclusively with swords were no longer used and the halberd was only used by sergeants. By 1588, official Dutch infantry composition was down to 39% arquebuses, 34% pikes, 13% muskets, 9% halberds, and 2% one-handed swords. Īs 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 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. Later, the Swiss added the pike to better repel knightly 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 halberd was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries. A member of the Swiss Guard with a halberd in the Vatican.

Medieval manuscripts dual blade