Halberd

The halberd was a two-handed polearm combining an axe blade, a piercing spike and a hook or beak on a long wooden shaft, typically five to seven feet in length, that became especially associated with Swiss and German infantry from the thirteenth through sixteenth centuries. Its combination of features let a halberdier chop, thrust or drag a mounted opponent from the saddle with the same weapon, and disciplined Swiss halberd formations proved devastatingly effective against armored cavalry and other infantry through the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, contributing to Switzerland's outsized military reputation across late medieval Europe. Swiss victories at battles such as Morgarten in 1315 and Sempach in 1386, won substantially with halberd-armed infantry, helped establish Swiss mercenary companies as some of the most sought-after soldiers in Europe for the following two centuries. The halberd gradually gave way on the battlefield to the longer pike, which offered better protection against cavalry charges in massed formation, though the halberd persisted afterward as a ceremonial and guard weapon, a role the Vatican's Swiss Guard still preserves today.