Morning Star

The morning star is any of several medieval club-like weapons made of a shaft with an attached ball studded with spikes, combining blunt-force impact with puncture wounds to injure or kill an opponent. It came into widespread use around the beginning of the fourteenth century and remained in documented use into the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, becoming particularly associated with Germany, where it was known as the Morgenstern. The morning star is often confused with the military flail, but the two are distinct: a flail's head is connected to its shaft by a chain, while a morning star's spiked head is mounted directly on the shaft.