WARFARE OF THE MIDDLE AGES. 35 



and was much heavier, was of oak, fir, Hnden, sycamore, or ash wood, often 

 carved and richly decorated ; and where it was clamped under the arm, was 

 hollowed out {pi. 15, fg. 48). The head for war use was rather strong 

 and heavy than sharp ; sometimes twelve to fourteen inches long and eight 

 inches broad. Below the head was fastened a pennon, partly as insignia, 

 partly to frighten the enemy's horse. In later times, the knight-banneret 

 bore his banner on the lance. Over the hollow for the arm an iron guard 

 was sometimes fastened, and a funnel-shaped cap of tin plate, which, when 

 the lance was laid in rest, protected the breast and arm. At tournaments 

 and tiltings the lances had no heads, but only, as in Jig. 48, a kind of knob 

 with three short points, serving merely to prevent the lance from slipping 

 when it struck the mail plate. 



Besides the knightly lance, however, we must mention the spear or pike, 

 the main weapon of the footman ; from which, too, the hunting-spear (Jig. 

 19) must be distinguished, the head of which was leaf-shaped and orna- 

 mented, and decorated usually with a pair of woollen tassels. The war- 

 spear had a long and not too heavy shaft of tough wood, and a head which 

 was heavy, and of the most various forms. In the earliest times, only a 

 simple head was used, or at most a barb was added ; but in the later middle 

 ages the most various, and often the strangest forms made their appearance 

 (Jigs. 20-47). At first a hook only was added to the head, which could be 

 fixed in the meshes of the hauberk, and the foe thus pulled down ; but 

 afterwards the spear was so contrived as to afford a double weapon. The 

 spear had often two, three, or even more points, as Jigs. 31, 35, 43-47, of 

 which some were thrust forward by pressure of a spring. There were 

 lances of w^iich the head part was two or three feet long. Often, too, an 

 axe, or other weapon, was united with the spear. Such an arm was called 

 a hisarm or gisarm, and consisted of a point, with a curved blade for strik- 

 ing (Jigs. 20, 21, 23-28 and 47), or of one straightforward point, and several 

 others projecting at the sides (Jigs. 24, 30, 31, 32, 42, 45). As the knightly 

 lance disappeared, the spear also passed, in the fourteenth century, into the 

 partisan and halberd, and the oflnicers of infantry carried these even to 

 modern times. The shaft of the partisan (pi. 15, figs. 32, 49, and 50, a h) 

 was six to eight feet long, shod with iron ; the head consisted of a broad 

 two-edged blade, dagger-shaped, beneath which was a crescent-shaped axe 

 for striking, and on the opposite side a point or hook. 



A weapon of great importance in the middle ages was the sword, the 

 form of which had changed very little among the Germans since the ear- 

 liest times. The sword was then, that is to say the state sword, very short 

 and very broad, with a very short hilt. There belong, for example, the sword 

 of Childerick (see Division III., History, pi 22, fig. 33), and Charles the 

 Great's sword (pi. 15, fig. 59), the lower end of which is here wanting. The 

 later forms of the knight's sword are shown in figs. 51, 52, 53, and 56. The 

 hilt was very long, because, in consequence of the great weight of these 

 swords, it was necessary to use both hands in wielding them ; and the pom- 

 mel very heavy, not, however, to serve as a counterbalance to the blade, 

 for it was rather desired to make the sword heaviest at the point for the 



511 



