@@ericaugust1501 They are shorter, but very powerful anti-armor weapons. They show up a little later than these weapons do. Poleaxes can essentially do the same kind of things, hammer, chop, stab, spike and hook. A typical polaxe is maybe 1.5m - 1.6m long whereas the halberd, glaive and bill are 2m - 2.3m long. The polaxe was probably not quite as good at cutting as the others, but it was still nasty. In the end if you got whacked by one of these weapons and were not wearing armor it would ruin your life. If you were wearing armor it could still ruin your life, but might just ruin your day instead. Of course all that depends on where you got hit, how hard and a whole host of variables. Basically a wound from any of these 4 weapons is going to be about the same and would tend to be pretty devastating due to the amount of leverage they have.
@@manfredconnor3194 thanks for the thoughts. but you didn't answer about the battlefield category. i'd guess the shorter weapon (poleaxe) i'd imagine would be more for close-in infantry fighting. Whereas those longer polearms might have been intended for unit formations to be able to fulfill both of support and offense function, perhaps also less armoured? i guess i'm asking do you think the halberd for example would have been interchangeable with a poleaxe from a soldiers point of view? or would they choose one for job X, and the other for job Y, a best tool for the job type decision.
Plus it is absolutely devastating against both shrubbery and adversaries. I used a lot of knives, hatches, machetes and axes on different kinds of wood, and I once got a billhook on a ~1m stick to clear out some copse, and holy diver did that thing perform way above my expectations. Pieces that would need several blows with a hatchet or machete, I could cleanly cut 2-3 of them in one movement.
@@lostalone9320 yup. And all the more so if it was a farming tool implemented for military use, as it already had probably centuries of scrutiny for practicality for that exact job. The difference in working between a good and a bad tool is very obvious, and especially when you are using it every day for your livelihood, you will converge towards an optimal design fairly quickly. The beauty and sophistication in this design is not in its gadgetry, but in its "simple", optimised shape.
first job i had was to clear overgrown fields with a long bilhook....what a lovely summer that was, genuinely. Swing, hew , repeat, very satisfying, nothing stood in my way and and all fell before me scything or lopping. Having a rest I could view what I had accomplished. My arms and torso muscled up nicely. Wonderful !
Having used the Billhook against Pikes in ECWS reenactment melee, I can confirm there is nothing quite as upsetting to a closely packed rank of longstabbity bois as when you use the hook to push their shafts up and away to tangle each other up with their own second rank. Then you slide the head turned blade edge first down towards their hands and that really upsets them.
I'd imagined a glaive was great for 1 person to crowd control against many un-armoured/lightly armoured assailants in a town/city guard. Bill and halberd for battlefield formation fighting
The Halberd is absolutely devastating as crowd control. It works very well in that role (look Swiss Guards). Due to the many projections on the head, guards can link them to a kind of moveable fence to push crowds away, and turn into savage carnage mode in a heartbeat.
yeah glaive for unarmored/light armor no doubt lighter thinner weapon in general, easier to use cutting blade is larger. There is a reason its a design of polearm seen all over the world
Id rather have a heavier slasher in a Haldberd for crowd control. Glaive seems more like a lighter weight everyday carry but with some sacrifices when slashing
🎩hi from my days in the forestry we would always use a bill for de-limbing as the curved blade gives you a longer cutting edge, and if you got your range slightly wrong the bill is much more forgiving. Cutting say a 2” diameter branch at head height in one stroke is so much easier with the bill, because it traps it.
I think there should be a similar argument for the glaive which wasn't discussed in the video. The longer edge makes it more forgiving as a cutting weapon. In combat where the opponent is moving themselves around so that you can't always get a clean hit, a more forgiving cutting edge should make it more effective as a cutting weapon.
The more complicated question to answer is how do you determine the destinctions between a guisarme, a bill, a fauchard, a glaive... Shit even some voulges fit the bill (pun intended). I'm pretty sure Oakeshott basically describes guisarmes as being axe like pole weapons often with a hook of some kind. Like I'm becoming pretty certain that all the varieties in naming are just localized terms to refer any weaponised arborial pruning tool on a stick.
Yeah, I would guess so. The middle ages are not known to me for a standardised nomenclature for hardware. Or clothing, for that. That came , my guess, only in the 19th century, when historians tried to catalogue museum collections and make sense of the mess. Every region made them a little different, and named a foreign item either what it reminded them of, or what name it came with, or whatever. I could imagine one item being forged and sold in one city as a "guisarme", sold to some other army, and catalogued and used there as a "fauchard", together with the fauchards they had bought locally...and so on. There simply was no contract specification for "250 pieces 'M101A3 polearm, bladed, multi-purpose' " Lindybeige made an entertaining video on the differences between warhammer, crow´s beak, and Bec de corbin, concluding with "Come on, it´s a hammer..."
Honestly I usually stick to these three, Glaive, Halberd and Bill (and spear/pike/lance) and anything that doesn't look like these I just refer to as a polearm, keeps it simple and it works fine.
I think for the most part it is a localization issue compounded by centuries of languages in different places changing. On top of the fact history wasn't exactly written by military men in the past, and they probably didn't always care about categorizing everything perfectly. I mean I've seen even Hollywood name weapons wrong. You got people today thinking any rifle is an assault rifle that fires 1,000rpm, and will suck your lungs out. . I've seen people call a scimitar a katana or a Falcata a machete.
This is the kind of thing I really appreciate about Matt's channel. Detailed looks at edged weapons and all the whys and wherefores that are possible to know. Thanks Matt!
It depends on the specific halbert and the specific bill. There is a huge grey area between both of them and at some point it would be hard to tell, if it is a halbert with a slightly curved axe blade or a bill with the bill hook a little less pronounced and quite near to an axe blade. I am quite sure, if a German and an Englishman in the renaissance would meet on a market in Constantinople and see this weapon in the middle, the German would call it halbert and the Englishman bill. And the ottoman seller would agree with whover pays more for this specific piece of equipment.
The relative handiness of glaive-type weapons may explain why they were also used by cavalry, e.g. the Japanese naginata and Muscovite sovnya. Another informative video from Matt!
yup the curved blade acts saber like on a charge does not get stuck as easy like a strait lance/sword. The heavy curved polearm cuts on the charge, its lighter then glaves and bills also
It´s more of a cutting vs a chopping blade. I can imagine you would move it differently to make use of the length. I could also imagine you can absolutely devastate textile armor like gambesons with it.
@@paavobergmann4920 Yeah, textile armours aren't exactly good against cuts. Well, they still help since you still have to cut through a lot of material, but a pole weapon has a lot of force behind it.
@@AnotherDuck Yes I thought dragging it across the fabric would do more damage than pushing it with force against it. I think we are imagening the same thing
You can do all that with bills, but bills can hook your opponents off their feet while your pals stick 'em with the pointy bits. Source: was a re-enactor.
I've always wondered about these weapons, specifically how the English used the Bill against the pike (and the scots) at the battle of Flodden. Matt, could you do a video of live drills with another person. Id love to see how these are used.
@@AllenCrawford3 Yes, it was a bit of a disaster for the Scots, but I was thinking of it from more of an objective standpoint. As in, how do you break the pike down with a bill. It would take some serious strength to split the pike ouright, and even more endurance to wear it down before splitting it. The omens were not good for James IV and that poor man's fate even worse.
@@mrmegachonks3581 It occurs to me that pikes and bills face to face, the bill can stab and if it misses can pull a man off balance on the recovery stroke opening him to the guy next to you, or pull a pike down till it can be trodden on stamped, on or the shaft hacked at. the pike can only really be effective in a forward motion, the polearms are dangerous in any direction. I do have to say that you would have to be phenomenally fit and strong to fight with one of these things for any length of time.
It's pointless trying to chop off a pike head unless you have a perfect set of conditions to do it. The trick is to halt and break into the formation between the shafts, (easier said than done). That's where the shorter, handier pole weapons come into their own. Once you are past the points then they have to use secondary weapons and you can outreach them. The Scot's lost the impetus of their charge due to the terrain and couldn't use momentum to burst through the English line. Where the terrain was more favourable on the left flank, they did a lot of damage by doing just that.
@@peterthompson640 We have various references to cutting off pike heads in period manuals & accounts. A lot of them involve single-handed swords, but other refer to polearms or two-handed swords. Giacomo di Grassi gave a specific technique for chopping pikes with the partizan. The sources for Flodden 1513 aren't clear but one can be read as saying that English bills chopped up Scottish pikes.
Great video! I've been looking for an in-depth explanation and comparison of these that isn't just "But 'glaive' is meaningless!" for a while and this is just what I needed. Very thorough. #glaivesarethesexiestpolearm
In a blatant over generalisation, Bills look more suited to face cavalry where the curved blade is much more forgiving against a fast moving target and you can combine both chopping and hooking in the same strike. Halberds seem suited for use against infantry (pikes especially) where the target is considerably more stable and slow. I always thought glaives where a Chinese weapon for use on targets that didn't use plate armour. I learn something new every day.
For use on targets that didn't use plate armor is likely fairly accurate I imagine, but given that a glaive is essentially a choppy single-edged sword on a long haft, it's a basic weapon type that appears in multiple times and places, often even without likely cultural cross pollination. An example of that is the Guandao, what you were thinking of.
@@cyrilgigee4630 Curiously, from my point of view anyway, the Glaive/Guandao is the only one of the three that doesn't originate from an agricultural tool. I've used a billhook (the tool) and seen an axe head on a pole used but the glaive doesn't fit a farming role I can think of.
England being a maritime nation, people tend to forget the boatsmans-hook/boarding-hook. A lot of "hooked bills" are NOT agricultural tools, they are tools for dragging floating logs, boat, flotsam, et.c. towards your watercraft or pier. The pike is used to push away, and the spike opposing the hook is used to impale stuff to pick it up. A lot of such tools were sharpened for use in war or just gang-fights and people misstake them for martial weapons. Also there is the woodsplitters-hook, which is used to pick up a piece of firewood from the ground to put them on the splitting-stump, so if you find an old rusty metal head with a 2 foot long piece of handle, it might not be a broken billhook, but rather a woodsmans-tool. Naturally, theese could also be sharpened, and put on a longer handle to use in war if your were to poor for a sword and didn't own a hunting-spear.
Lindybeige did a great video on the spadone a few months ago, and he talked about it in the context of being used as a guard's weapon. You mentioned that the glaive usually tends to be lighter or nimbler than a comparable halberd, and it's got the longer cutting edge like a sword, so it makes sense that the glaive would be seen more often in use by guards. I guess the sword would be quicker, but the glaive would have more reach? Comparing the two for use by guards and law enforcement in crowd control could be a cool video topic!
I have always seen the Glaive as the odd man out in the Polearm community, and this video didn't change my mind. :D But you have given me a new appreciation for the Billhook. I always like the halberd, and by showing how a Billhook is essentially a halberd in different form, I finally understand and like the Billhook as a Pole weapon.
Thanks for another great video! This channel's given me a much greater appreciation for the power and historical importance of pole weapons in general, so I always like to see these. One thing that I'd quite like to hear more about though, when you cover future topics, is the historical distribution and context of weapons, and your (or other scholars) thoughts on why these occurred. I didn't know that halberds were more associated with the Germanic areas of Europe, for example. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on comparisons of European glaives and halberds to ones that appear in Asia, for example!
In formation we found halbards to work best as a piercing and draw cut weapon . In the treatises there are a lot of big movements, chops and swings. But those are maybe omey for one on one or loose formations fights . And there is definitely a lot of hooking done too.
I've been following (and watching) this channel for quite some time now - and regularly giving it the "thumbs up" - but this video is so good, so informative that I just had to write a comment, in fact, had to say how excellent ti is. In fact, the whole channel is realy, realy good, I dare say, the best of its kind on youtube, in my opinion. You're doing magnificent work, Mr. Easton. Congrats!
A dwnside of the bill that i have noticed while using a billhook (the tool) is that the hook at the end sometimes gets in the way of cutting. This makes sense since the curved end in the tool is meant to stop the blade from hitting a rock but sometimes it may hit something unitentional like another branch before the blade can make contact, i imagine the weapon version would have the same problem.
You can hit with the end, the tip of the curved blade. I think the swiss used one handled billhook for against helmets. See serpe suisse, swiss billhook.
I'm currently in the process of writing a novel which has one of the main protagonists using a glaive as his weapon, and this seems to be the best (only) video that has any sort of analysis of the weapon, so thank you very much!
I'm getting into small-scale farming, and I got an auction lot of rusty old farm tools recently. One is a bill hook that I would say was only ever meant for single hand use. Sharpened main edge (hook, about 20-25 degree curve) and sharpened false edge (proud of the spine to the extent of the bevel) I'd estimate that the blade is .8-.9kg, and that's very crudely welded onto a collar (probably mild steel) and hafted on a ~5ft probably ash handle. Symmetrical elliptical profile, equally flared at the butt, I'd guess a pick haft originally. It was rusted to hell, I brought it back to bright steel and sharpened it decently, but I have no idea what use whoever created it intended it for. It's ridiculously unwieldy, I had great fun swinging at errant bush and tree limbs (heaven forbid the neighbours would see me) which it breezed through, but the heft of it carried me along with it so that it took me a full half second to reset for another 'strike'. If I wanted to reach a thick high limb I'd climb up and use a hand saw, and if I wanted to set hedges I'd use the head of the 'frankenbill' on its own. I've seen long bills for pruning apple trees but they're very light, like slightly curved reaping hooks on broom handles, probably 1.5kg in total at most. I reckon the auction lot was from a poor auld lad on a farm that croaked, so I'll probably never understand its purpose. This has very little to do with the video, but some may enjoy the anecdote.
At 17:31 I really have always thought that the distinction between these was unnecessary, but I think that's technically a voulge and not a glaive? It's only a difference in how they're mounted, I think, with glaives being on an encompassing socket while a voulge is mounted on loop sockets to the side. Useless pedantry, and I imagine someone else has mentioned it already too.
Great video, Matt! The discussion of straight vs. hooked back spikes re: penetration reminds me of discussions about stabbing with straight vs. curved sword blades. Edit: On the topic of polearms, is there any chance of you reviewing LK Chen's Han Sha? From their website, it looks like the Han Chinese version of a sword-staff.
I think the Halberd and Bill might just slightly beat the Glaive, which fits with my impression that the Glaive was maybe slightly less common than the Bill and especially the Halberd, however aesthetically the bigger, choppier Glaives might be my favorite of the 3.
Glaives seem more common than bills in the 15th century. They're by far the most popular polearm in France/Flanders (not counting simple spears), they show up in Italy a decent amount as well and in English sources they seem to be about as common as bills. However they seem to fall out of use towards the beginning of the 16th century in most places. Halberds before the late 1400s are mainly found in the HRE with the occasional example in Italy and Flanders/France. However in the late 1400s they start appearing a lot more commonly in many places. In france they most likely were adopted from the Swiss especially after the Confederacy's victory against Charles, and in England they seem to have come in with the Tudors and their trading links to germany.
I would guess it depends on where you are and what enemies you will most likely face. In general multipurpose role, or f I expect armored men at arms, I would favour the billhook or halberd. Against lightly armored spearmen, the glaive.
Very well said! I really liked having this comparison especially since I can never remember the difference between the weapons. Furthermore, the pros and cons of each is very thrilling to learn.
Hello Matt. As someone who works retail, I really appreciate the topic of best staff weapon. Could you please make a video on the best customer weapon next? Many thanks.
I love the look of the bill, but that big hook makes the blade much more difficult to land IMO. The glaive on the other hand, it'll land blade first regardless of how much the spacing changes from the start of the swing until the strike.
Very VERY short plot of the video! Matt: They are a bit different and may perform a bit differently, with more pronounced chopping or hooking dynamics, depending on the polearm, although they fill the same role on the battlefield. People: So, which is the best? Matt: Yes, certainly so! (Disclaimer: I really like Matt's stand on things, because for me that's what makes most sense. Different things for different purposes and preferences, so there's actually not one better than the other.)
Forward pointing back spikes occur on a few patterns of agricultural bills including Shifnal and Aberaeron types, as well as an as yet unidentified French pattern.
Of the 3 i'd go for the Bill just for the versatility advantage it has over the Halberd. Given it can both chop and hook on the same side it makes it easier to do either on the fly as and when the opportunity appeared, and also allowed the back spike to specialise as an anti-armour device. For the Halberd the need to spin the weapon around to access its secondary function (i know Matt says you could use the bottom of the axe as a hook, but that looks like a much shorter range and poorer option than a dedicated hook) makes it slightly more cumbersome at a time when speed counts, and the fact you have to choose between a hook and a spike limits your options to only one of them whilst the Bill has both. The glaive is the worst of the 3 for battlefields for me since it is worse in both cut and thrust against armour than the other two. Against the lightly armoured its speed would be a big advantage though.
There are currently 3 copies of that book on Amazon, available for the low low price of $768.57. I thought I was getting hit hard when I paid $140 for it a few months ago...
We could find someone who has it and kill them with a halberd and then steal their book . . . what? Not moral you say? Not very sporting? But Margret he's had the damned book for awhile, he ought to have known to carry a self-defence halberd. What's that? A Katzbalger you say? Oh, Nevermind. In sufferable she is! The wife says that it wouldn't be sporting. Sorry mate. Can't help you afterall.
If you don't care about a little plagiarism you can always put the pages online to help us poor peasants who can't afford to pay over $700 dollars for a single book.
@@shanewebb3341 especially since I doubt the author is getting any money from those Amazon sales. There's really no rational argument *against* piracy in this case.
Tell me about it... I'm still looking for a copy of "British Warships in the Age of Sail", the 1600-1700 version, and every copy is crazy expensive... Just wish the publisher would print another run..
Thanks for making this video. I collect original polearm examples from European auction houses and the polearm topic is rarely expanded upon. I will say that Italian bills are much more massive than people realize, dwarfing their English bill counterparts. It’s certainly fair to put English bills in the same usage as most halberds, but the Italian bill feels like a whole different animal in the hand.
Hello, I loved this video. These weapons are my most favourite kind. If I had a choice in battle weapon I would choose a sturdy bill with a thick spike on the top to penetrate armour. A sturdy hook for horsemen and a sturdy and quite long back spike. Fantastic examples in this video. Much respect. 🇬🇧🗡️
I hope one day you will compare and contrast Asian and European pole arms. Chinese polearms in particular have some extremely interesting, and aesthetically pleasing designs.
@@mortache of course. I have no problem with that. Just meant, that at this point everybody knows them and knows its a shit game, yet the still pay all the creators.
@@niveaulimbo6101 It only takes a relatively small number of whales to support a shitty mobile game. If an $1000 sponsorship can gain them a single $100 per month whale, it pays for itself in less than a year.
@@Desparil dayum people it was a joke. I know, that they do not run a charity and would have stopped if it would not be worth their while sponsoring people.
Other important factors which should be taken into account: Which weapon is easiest to mass produce and is the cheapest. Which of the weapon doesn't require much training. Which weapon is the most durable, easiest to maintain, and easiest to repair. Which weapon is easiest to transport
As far as easiest/quickest/cheapest goes, that's clearly the "technically bills" with barely a curved hook to them at all. And on the opposite end of the spectrum should be halberds with pronounced axe blades. Simpler halberds, glaives (both slim and broad types), and proper bills ought to fall between them (and probably in this order), but my memory about how each of these is forged is a bit fuzzy.
All three weapons seem to start off as simple designs. Early halberds are just large axe blades on poles, the type one might consider 'bardiche'. However in the late 1300s it gets more complex with the introduction of langets and the transition from hoop mounts to socket mounts. Bills also vary in complexity. Late 15th centurry Italian ones get rather complex but the english designs seem to still be quite crude and simple. Glaives are more or less the same. Though as with halberds some designs, mainly the slimmer ones (which waldman calls Voulges) get more complex with the addition of langets to reinforce the haft.
Thank you for the very informative video. I've always wondered about whether there were any major differences. Your video answered all my questions. :)
Interesting video. It is perfectly possible to have two or more approaches to the same problem without one being best. Also, context is always important. Looking at the blades, I see the halberd as "chopping", the bill as "hacking" and the glaive as "cutting". Difference of emphasis, but basically the same.
I have a roleplay character who started her fighting career as a bodyguard, her weapon of choice is a glaive. I feel very validated! :D thank you for the informative video
Reminds me of the idea of personal defense weapons in firearms. You also see almost identical weapons used by so called executive guards. Among firearms they occupy the gap between pistols and rifles, similarly the polearms you discussed fill a gap between closeup and ranged weapons.
But should not gamers with long memories speak of the glaive-guisarme-voulge? Actually, I’m surprised that we haven’t had Scots posters on here promoting the claims of the lochaber axe. But honestly, I reckon this stuff was 85% national tradition and regional fashion.
It is rather interesting that you use a rather systematic approach to staff weapons, defining all their types by the arrangement of blades, hooks, and spikes, but speaking of your own specialty, swords, you became a poet, not interested in such trinkets, as the shape of blade or hilt or both are determining the kind of weapon.
Glaive because it's sexy. PS perpendicular spike won't penetrate better than at a slight angle because the weapon head moves in an arc. It will be more or less pronounced depending on the length of the lever.
The precursor to the Halberd was called a "Rossschinder" from 'Ross' (or "warhorse") and 'Schinder' (or "flayer"). So the original precursor of the halberd was a warhorse flayer.
I've very little experience of using polarms, and only really short spears. I was thinking, though, as I looked at them that preference might be related to how close the formation one wanted one's troops to deploy in was. A bill looks a bit more suited to a close formation, especially one where you want the second or even third rank to be striking/hooking/thrusting or defending/blocking with the shaft, a glaive more suited to one where you have room to swing due to its superior slashing/cutting and inferior percussive abilities, and defense is more about armour and footwork. The halberd feels like a compromise between the two. I wonder if anyone knows if this hypothesis has any weight at all, I certainly don't ptretend to be doing anything other than giving first impressions.
I remember watching, on one of these channels, test cutting with halberds and bills. The ones that had a spike weather diamond cross-section or square caught on the tatami mats. But the ones with blade shaped top spike cut rite through, once they sharpened the spear like top point.
I wonder how much of the design was about hurting the other guy vs. whittling down the shaft of the other guy’s polearm? I would imagine that durability over a longer battle in dense formations would be a significant factor when comparing the differences.
I think one slight advantage of the bill over the halberd is the fact that the former can chop AND hook at the same time, basically. It's an easy wham-yank motion. Whereas with the halberd, you generally have to decide first which motion to commit to (unless you chop and overshoot and can react quickly with a follow-up hook). And of course, with the glaive, to hook--if your weapon is suited to that at all--you have to turn the weapon around so the hook presents to the target. Just a bit of nuance to add to this excellent overview of these three popular pole arms!
They do receive training on them, though. And I always thought that the halberd is the ideal tool for robust crowd control. Nothing says " You are not getting in here" like a guard with a halberd in a tight corridor, and nothing says " You are to clear this yard ASAP" like 20 guard with halberds
Top spike length affects blocking and catching swings much more than the argument for wound size, assuming you'd prepare the appropriate kind depending on enemy armor. If you were to block an overhead, you could raise your shield at an angle and catch the top spike, this plays into the durability argument much better because you cause a leverage point between the shield and the main head, which can cause it to become unusable in combat. Or if you're brave enough you could argue that a thin rod can be grabbed more easily post block than a knife-like spike.
Wait a minute, are you telling us that a glaive is not actually a curved starfish looking thing with pop-out blades? Damn it, Hollywood has fooled me again!
Hello Matt, may I suggest using an arbitrary scale for comparing these weapons? For example Thrust against soft targets: Halberd(10), Glaive(10), Bill(10), against maille: Halberd(10), Bill(8), Glaive(7), blunt force damage: Halberd(10), glaive(8), Bill(9) etc. This would allow for a more complex comparison in certain scenarios.
The Chinese had hook swords (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_sword), but AFAIK no other culture did, so I suspect on the whole they weren't great. On the other hand, one of advantages of axes is supposed to be their ability to hook onto opponents, so maybe!
from a hook standpoint it would be basically a sickle. which the kama or kusarigama in Japanese/Okinawan would function the same. They don't have the spike for stabbing, but originated similarly from a farming tool.
Bills are hookier and halberds choppier. Ethnic preferences owe perhaps more to cultural than technical factors. Both have advantages and disadvantages against cavalry or pike armed infantry, but ultimately it's about a wash. Look at the whole system. English and Italian bills were used in conjunction with longbowmen or crossbowmen, while halberds were more a part of the Germanic pike block system, with lesser reliance on missile weapons in combined arms formations.
Yup, same as how some NATO armies favoured the assault rifle and some the battle rifle. German tank grendiers are always six to a group with one MG, instead of 2x4, some have DM embedded in the platoon, some have sharpshooters working independently, etc.pp.
@@paavobergmann4920 In mechanized infantry, the vehicle can also function as a fire team, more so if it’s an infantry fighting vehicle rather than an armored personnel carrier.
16th Italian Bill/Roncone, specifically A930 from the Wallace Collection like Arms & Armor copied is the best. It basically has 2 halberds worth of cutting area below a well-defined hook with a chisel point, a nasty sharpened back spike, and a serious 14in long, 1/2-thick square spike. The thing is a work of art and as close as a Jack-of-All-Trades gets to being a Master of All imo.
Why there are so much similitudes between italian and english weapons (take the baselard or the bill)? Those are areas with very less in common politically and geographically speaking(they are not in proximity between each other and there are not invasions,wars and such that put these two places face to face). Could it be that mercenaries movements influenced the "fashion" of weapons in use? I know for example that during the hundred years war genoese crossbowmen and milanese knights were hired (usually by the french) and after that lots of english mercenaries went in Italy hired by the various states frequently in war between themselves. And if mercenaries could be the cause of convergency in weapon choice and style between England and Italy, in which way this influence would go? Were Italians to influence english or the contrary?
While it went in both directions to some degree, Italy first, then Germany and France second set the stage for a lot of technology and culture during the Medieval Period, especially for Western Europe. Idk how much that applies to armament tendencies, though.
one thing that occurs to me about the bill hook: if you try to chop someone's arm off and it doesn't go all the way through, your hook is now behind their arm, meaning that to withdraw your weapon, you have to rip it straight back towards you or swing it out of the wound before retracting. In the former case, the pull wouldn't have much power and risks getting stuck. In the latter case, changing the direction of the weapon when your arms are probably already extended from the strike takes time and more effort. This is not a problem with the halberd or glaive; if your swing doesn't go through something, you can immediately retract it and try again.
One of the major differences between bills, halberds and glaives is how glaive-like weapons were often used from horseback especially in Asia to injure the opponents horse or perform hit and run slashes at infantry whereas bills and halberds tended to be used exclusively by infantrymen in infantry skirmishes or defense against mounted opponents. The "fork" at the back of the blade was probably very handy in siege combat allowing the defenders to push off ladders and slice at attackers climbing the walls. In that setting due to limited range of motion the glaive functioned more like a tool than a weapon allowing to cut/saw and safely push and pull at a reach.
There's an opinion that glaives, including guan dao, naginata and maybe even berdiche was mostly constructed for dealing with horses. Long cutting and chopping blade for an unarmored flesh. Video in russian: ruclips.net/video/5G4Z5Vu505k/видео.html
Sir John Smythe specifically complained about long top spikes on halberd & about longer halberds in general for fighting in formation. He wanted short halberds of no more than 6ft in total length for regular halberdiers, who wore considerable armor & fought in formation. However, for his irregular halbediers, who wore lighter armor & accompanied the shot, he wanted longer & lighter halberds of 7.5+ft. These irregular halberdiers typically had more space to use their weapons & often had to fight when outnumbered, so Smythe thought a longer halberd made sense to them. George Silver likewise thought heavy polearms like the black bill should be 5-6ft in total length. SIr Roger Williams & Humphrey Barwick had more respect for longer thrusting halberds, at least if they were made well. Williams wrote that many bills & halberds were forged from low-quality metal. Giacomo di Grassi considered the bill the best of the polearms he covered: "Where I gather, that the Bill is the most perfect weapon of all others, because it strikes and hurts in every of these six motions, and his defenses both cut and prick." The bill pictured in the Italian version of di Grassi's manual has the classical form of an Italian bill, & he wrote that it could chop. Specifically, the hook was sharp & could contribute to a blow. Of course, it was also comparing that version of the bill with the later form of the halberd, which he thought too light & weak. Earlier, in 1548, Raimond de Fourquevaux had similar issues with Italian halberds: "The Halbards are armes newly inuented as I thinke by the Switzers, which are very good, so that they be strong and sharpe, and not light, as those that the Italians do carry, more to make a faire shewe (as I thinke) then for any goodnesse that is in them, because they are too weake" (from the 1589 English translation).
I noticed at least one of those glaives you showed with the significant hook at the back (Glaive of the Bodyguard of Saxony if I'm not mistaken, around 17:26) looked a whole lot like a Lochaber axe. Now I'm wondering if you'd place that more in the Glaive family or the Halberd family? I think traditionally it's be considered a type of crescent blade Halberd. It certainly seems there's some weapons that fall into sort of a grey area where two types of weapon converge.
It looks like through the centuries there's been so many variations, we can have a full spectrum of designs that can be named either or neither of those categories while being very similar in function and training (thrust motion, pull motion, downwards motion). Also having hafts of different lengths might change the application more than the actual shape of the head.
Even though the voulge is in most respects a less developed form of the glaive, there’s something about the stand-off blade that’s very aesthetically appealing to me.
I wouldn't call it less developed, it seems to possibly have different origins. While the thicker form of glaives can be seen in for example the Morgan bible in the mid-1200s already the depictions are rather short and not full-length polearms. This changes overtime and in the late 1300s the common form has pretty much developed and is found in both France and Italy. That being said the 'voulge' (though the names were interchangeable) seems to have its origin in single-bladed lances. These are _also_ depicted in the Mogan bible alongside the other more beefy glaives though by this point still used as a cavalry lance as well as on foot. You see them continually crop up in french art now and again throughout the 1300s and by the mid-1400s they seem to have developed into what you see in the video. While I by no means have proved this development beyond a reasonable doubt it's what I suspect happens.
@scholagladiatoria: Is it useful to talk about a "front end" and a "back end" on these kinds of weapons? The glaive seems kind of obvious, I guess, but the halberd and bill less so. Even though the "axe end" and "bill end" are more prominent on the halberd and bill respectively, do we know for sure these parts dictated the use of these weapons? Is it possible that the "back spike" on a bill was in fact used as the primary business end of that weapon when fighting certain opponents or during certain periods of time (e.g. if fighting primarily dismounted knights or at the time plate armour became more common)? If so, the halberd, bill and their variants are perhaps more alike than they would appear, and their differences more a matter of culture and tradition rather than deliberately choosing one attribute over another. This is purely speculation in my part, however, and I would love to hear your thoughts (and references, as I haven't found any good ones).
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't mention that there are two fundamentally different basic types of halberd: Type I: it's an axe with a spike on top. It's pretty much as you've described it in the video, but the spike is more for armor-piercing than slashing or making wide wounds. Some are even without a blade and square or triangular in crosssection. This makes it very similar to the poleaxe, which has a blade optimized for cutting soft targets and the spike and hammerhead are clearly for the armored targets... Type II: the crescent axe blade has shrunken and become more like a double-spike. The axe- _blade_ is blunt(!) and intended to bite into armor and potentially entangle enough with an enemy to pull him off a horse. As compensation, many of these halberds have a spearhead, meaning that the thrusting bit can also be used for slashing to some degree. However, there are also inverse combinations, for example, a small blunt axehead and a long triangular spike... In general, glaives tend to distribute the impact the most, followed by bills and finally halberds, who can have very small axeblades, though there are also billberts as seen in 6:19. PS: if I had to design a polearm for universal use, I'd probably make a glave with a blade similar to a tanto or wakizashi and add sturdy hooks at the base that can be used to smash helmets, pull or push (probably the blade sided hook would be for pushing and the one on the blunt for hooking). Those hooks would look similar to rose-thorns.
3:48 There is exactly one available on abebooks for $127. I usually go to that sire to find cheaper used books. But you were not kidding about availability and price.
I think it is easier to mount a kitchen knife on a pole and make a simple glaive that is a serviceable military weapon. Likewise you can put a long handle on a bill or an ax and haul it into combat, but they have to be modified to give you a spear point. And as we all know, the spear is the king of weapons. And if your goal is a spear that can cut, then a kitchen knife on a pole gives you that ability. Hooks and spikes all have to be added which makes more work for the smiths. So if you were throwing together a levy of peasants, simple glaives might be the best weapon you could quickly and cheaply arm them with.
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Have they got Katzbalgers?
Oink!
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Does the poleaxe compare with these three. or are they too short usually to fall in the same category of battlefield role?
@@ericaugust1501 They are shorter, but very powerful anti-armor weapons. They show up a little later than these weapons do. Poleaxes can essentially do the same kind of things, hammer, chop, stab, spike and hook. A typical polaxe is maybe 1.5m - 1.6m long whereas the halberd, glaive and bill are 2m - 2.3m long. The polaxe was probably not quite as good at cutting as the others, but it was still nasty.
In the end if you got whacked by one of these weapons and were not wearing armor it would ruin your life. If you were wearing armor it could still ruin your life, but might just ruin your day instead. Of course all that depends on where you got hit, how hard and a whole host of variables.
Basically a wound from any of these 4 weapons is going to be about the same and would tend to be pretty devastating due to the amount of leverage they have.
@@manfredconnor3194 thanks for the thoughts. but you didn't answer about the battlefield category. i'd guess the shorter weapon (poleaxe) i'd imagine would be more for close-in infantry fighting. Whereas those longer polearms might have been intended for unit formations to be able to fulfill both of support and offense function, perhaps also less armoured?
i guess i'm asking do you think the halberd for example would have been interchangeable with a poleaxe from a soldiers point of view? or would they choose one for job X, and the other for job Y, a best tool for the job type decision.
Can you Cover Pole arms from Around the World. Like China and Japan?
You shouldn't let others decide what polearm to carry. Never give in to spear pressure.
Lol great pun
Muh-HAA, myess.
You dont get it, just use the billhook, thrust me
Terrible! You're fired!😂😂😂
Underrated comment.
I like the bill because it's basically a farming tool and it embodies the "that silly sod thinks he's safe on that horse" lol
It is crap ton of function for little cost and can function has a farming tool, what is not to love?
Plus it is absolutely devastating against both shrubbery and adversaries. I used a lot of knives, hatches, machetes and axes on different kinds of wood, and I once got a billhook on a ~1m stick to clear out some copse, and holy diver did that thing perform way above my expectations.
Pieces that would need several blows with a hatchet or machete, I could cleanly cut 2-3 of them in one movement.
@@lostalone9320 yup. And all the more so if it was a farming tool implemented for military use, as it already had probably centuries of scrutiny for practicality for that exact job. The difference in working between a good and a bad tool is very obvious, and especially when you are using it every day for your livelihood, you will converge towards an optimal design fairly quickly. The beauty and sophistication in this design is not in its gadgetry, but in its "simple", optimised shape.
first job i had was to clear overgrown fields with a long bilhook....what a lovely summer that was, genuinely. Swing, hew , repeat, very satisfying, nothing stood in my way and and all fell before me scything or lopping. Having a rest I could view what I had accomplished. My arms and torso muscled up nicely. Wonderful !
This and the longbow, very British weapon.
Having used the Billhook against Pikes in ECWS reenactment melee, I can confirm there is nothing quite as upsetting to a closely packed rank of longstabbity bois as when you use the hook to push their shafts up and away to tangle each other up with their own second rank. Then you slide the head turned blade edge first down towards their hands and that really upsets them.
As another commenter observed, it would be great to see you do this in a video with Matt.
@@tamlandipper29 could be flying fingers and assorted body shavings spiced with gamblersin
I haven’t watched the video yet, but I bet the answer involves context…
I've seen it... The answer is it depends
I was going to say that.
@@roryconroy9669 that’s always the freaking answer but I know I’ll still watch lol
@@roryconroy9669 ..... on the context
It might
I'd imagined a glaive was great for 1 person to crowd control against many un-armoured/lightly armoured assailants in a town/city guard.
Bill and halberd for battlefield formation fighting
The Halberd is absolutely devastating as crowd control. It works very well in that role (look Swiss Guards). Due to the many projections on the head, guards can link them to a kind of moveable fence to push crowds away, and turn into savage carnage mode in a heartbeat.
Montante joins the chat
yeah glaive for unarmored/light armor no doubt lighter thinner weapon in general, easier to use cutting blade is larger. There is a reason its a design of polearm seen all over the world
@@paavobergmann4920Bills are also great at crowd/riot control, battlefield formation, and single combat
Id rather have a heavier slasher in a Haldberd for crowd control. Glaive seems more like a lighter weight everyday carry but with some sacrifices when slashing
🎩hi from my days in the forestry we would always use a bill for de-limbing as the curved blade gives you a longer cutting edge, and if you got your range slightly wrong the bill is much more forgiving. Cutting say a 2” diameter branch at head height in one stroke is so much easier with the bill, because it traps it.
Imagine how effective it is de-limbing a horse rider in battle.
I think there should be a similar argument for the glaive which wasn't discussed in the video. The longer edge makes it more forgiving as a cutting weapon. In combat where the opponent is moving themselves around so that you can't always get a clean hit, a more forgiving cutting edge should make it more effective as a cutting weapon.
@@Blaisem It's basically a french naginata
Exactly what it was named for - bough-hack. Not because it has a bill or hook, a fine example false friend etymology.
The more complicated question to answer is how do you determine the destinctions between a guisarme, a bill, a fauchard, a glaive... Shit even some voulges fit the bill (pun intended). I'm pretty sure Oakeshott basically describes guisarmes as being axe like pole weapons often with a hook of some kind. Like I'm becoming pretty certain that all the varieties in naming are just localized terms to refer any weaponised arborial pruning tool on a stick.
Correct.
@@garychurch9740 The fμck is a "poddy?"
Yeah, I would guess so. The middle ages are not known to me for a standardised nomenclature for hardware. Or clothing, for that. That came , my guess, only in the 19th century, when historians tried to catalogue museum collections and make sense of the mess. Every region made them a little different, and named a foreign item either what it reminded them of, or what name it came with, or whatever. I could imagine one item being forged and sold in one city as a "guisarme", sold to some other army, and catalogued and used there as a "fauchard", together with the fauchards they had bought locally...and so on. There simply was no contract specification for "250 pieces 'M101A3 polearm, bladed, multi-purpose' "
Lindybeige made an entertaining video on the differences between warhammer, crow´s beak, and Bec de corbin, concluding with "Come on, it´s a hammer..."
Honestly I usually stick to these three, Glaive, Halberd and Bill (and spear/pike/lance) and anything that doesn't look like these I just refer to as a polearm, keeps it simple and it works fine.
I think for the most part it is a localization issue compounded by centuries of languages in different places changing.
On top of the fact history wasn't exactly written by military men in the past, and they probably didn't always care about categorizing everything perfectly.
I mean I've seen even Hollywood name weapons wrong. You got people today thinking any rifle is an assault rifle that fires 1,000rpm, and will suck your lungs out. .
I've seen people call a scimitar a katana or a Falcata a machete.
6 in the morning, breakfast, coffee and Matt talking about polearms.
Nice start of the day
This is the kind of thing I really appreciate about Matt's channel. Detailed looks at edged weapons and all the whys and wherefores that are possible to know. Thanks Matt!
The halberd is my favorite of the three. It looks to be able to do the most damage. However, I love the graceful look of the glaive.
It depends on the specific halbert and the specific bill. There is a huge grey area between both of them and at some point it would be hard to tell, if it is a halbert with a slightly curved axe blade or a bill with the bill hook a little less pronounced and quite near to an axe blade. I am quite sure, if a German and an Englishman in the renaissance would meet on a market in Constantinople and see this weapon in the middle, the German would call it halbert and the Englishman bill. And the ottoman seller would agree with whover pays more for this specific piece of equipment.
The relative handiness of glaive-type weapons may explain why they were also used by cavalry, e.g. the Japanese naginata and Muscovite sovnya. Another informative video from Matt!
yup the curved blade acts saber like on a charge does not get stuck as easy like a strait lance/sword. The heavy curved polearm cuts on the charge, its lighter then glaves and bills also
The longer blade of the glaive also makes it easier to hit with.
It´s more of a cutting vs a chopping blade. I can imagine you would move it differently to make use of the length. I could also imagine you can absolutely devastate textile armor like gambesons with it.
@@paavobergmann4920 Yeah, textile armours aren't exactly good against cuts. Well, they still help since you still have to cut through a lot of material, but a pole weapon has a lot of force behind it.
@@AnotherDuck yeah, I was thinking along the line " the longer the blade, the more cut you get"
@@paavobergmann4920 I assumed that's what you meant by cutting versus chopping.
@@AnotherDuck Yes I thought dragging it across the fabric would do more damage than pushing it with force against it. I think we are imagening the same thing
in times as troubled as these, I appreciate people like yourself doing the work to remind us all of what is important in this world.
Halberds are obviously best as they have armour-piercing, charge defence vs large and +16 damage vs large.
edit: Fookin spelling.
See that's the problem: Bretonnian "halberds" are a mixture of bills and glaives!
@@DzinkyDzink It would ruin the theme if they used halberds
Still can't beat my mammoth
You can do all that with bills, but bills can hook your opponents off their feet while your pals stick 'em with the pointy bits. Source: was a re-enactor.
@@Skiamakhos
Op was specifically making a total war reference
It would be interesting to see a deep-dive into the different shaped halberds and where they come from/what advantages and disadvantages they have.
I've always wondered about these weapons, specifically how the English used the Bill against the pike (and the scots) at the battle of Flodden. Matt, could you do a video of live drills with another person. Id love to see how these are used.
@@AllenCrawford3 Yes, it was a bit of a disaster for the Scots, but I was thinking of it from more of an objective standpoint. As in, how do you break the pike down with a bill. It would take some serious strength to split the pike ouright, and even more endurance to wear it down before splitting it.
The omens were not good for James IV and that poor man's fate even worse.
@@mrmegachonks3581 It occurs to me that pikes and bills face to face, the bill can stab and if it misses can pull a man off balance on the recovery stroke opening him to the guy next to you, or pull a pike down till it can be trodden on stamped, on or the shaft hacked at. the pike can only really be effective in a forward motion, the polearms are dangerous in any direction. I do have to say that you would have to be phenomenally fit and strong to fight with one of these things for any length of time.
It's pointless trying to chop off a pike head unless you have a perfect set of conditions to do it. The trick is to halt and break into the formation between the shafts, (easier said than done). That's where the shorter, handier pole weapons come into their own. Once you are past the points then they have to use secondary weapons and you can outreach them. The Scot's lost the impetus of their charge due to the terrain and couldn't use momentum to burst through the English line. Where the terrain was more favourable on the left flank, they did a lot of damage by doing just that.
@@peterthompson640 We have various references to cutting off pike heads in period manuals & accounts. A lot of them involve single-handed swords, but other refer to polearms or two-handed swords. Giacomo di Grassi gave a specific technique for chopping pikes with the partizan. The sources for Flodden 1513 aren't clear but one can be read as saying that English bills chopped up Scottish pikes.
@@b.h.abbott-motley2427 Do you have any sources you could be kind enough to refer me to, relating to accounts of Flodden made at the time.
Great video! I've been looking for an in-depth explanation and comparison of these that isn't just "But 'glaive' is meaningless!" for a while and this is just what I needed. Very thorough.
#glaivesarethesexiestpolearm
In a blatant over generalisation, Bills look more suited to face cavalry where the curved blade is much more forgiving against a fast moving target and you can combine both chopping and hooking in the same strike. Halberds seem suited for use against infantry (pikes especially) where the target is considerably more stable and slow. I always thought glaives where a Chinese weapon for use on targets that didn't use plate armour. I learn something new every day.
For use on targets that didn't use plate armor is likely fairly accurate I imagine, but given that a glaive is essentially a choppy single-edged sword on a long haft, it's a basic weapon type that appears in multiple times and places, often even without likely cultural cross pollination. An example of that is the Guandao, what you were thinking of.
@@cyrilgigee4630 Curiously, from my point of view anyway, the Glaive/Guandao is the only one of the three that doesn't originate from an agricultural tool. I've used a billhook (the tool) and seen an axe head on a pole used but the glaive doesn't fit a farming role I can think of.
@@hadrianbuiltawall9531 It certainly doesn't fit any farming tool very closely, you're right.
Guandoa is the Chinese as well as Pudoa and in Japan the bisento/naginata
@@cyrilgigee4630 I always see a scythe bent straight.
England being a maritime nation, people tend to forget the boatsmans-hook/boarding-hook. A lot of "hooked bills" are NOT agricultural tools, they are tools for dragging floating logs, boat, flotsam, et.c. towards your watercraft or pier. The pike is used to push away, and the spike opposing the hook is used to impale stuff to pick it up. A lot of such tools were sharpened for use in war or just gang-fights and people misstake them for martial weapons. Also there is the woodsplitters-hook, which is used to pick up a piece of firewood from the ground to put them on the splitting-stump, so if you find an old rusty metal head with a 2 foot long piece of handle, it might not be a broken billhook, but rather a woodsmans-tool. Naturally, theese could also be sharpened, and put on a longer handle to use in war if your were to poor for a sword and didn't own a hunting-spear.
Lindybeige did a great video on the spadone a few months ago, and he talked about it in the context of being used as a guard's weapon. You mentioned that the glaive usually tends to be lighter or nimbler than a comparable halberd, and it's got the longer cutting edge like a sword, so it makes sense that the glaive would be seen more often in use by guards. I guess the sword would be quicker, but the glaive would have more reach? Comparing the two for use by guards and law enforcement in crowd control could be a cool video topic!
Glaive; sword attached to a staff.
Halberd and bill; axe attached to a spear.
sword or scythe, actually
Halberd : axe and hammer/crow's beak combo attached to a spear
@@pierre-mariecaulliez6285 or: a six-foot pole with an assortment of killing cutlery on one end.
@@paavobergmann4920big pocket knife
Now I like halberds, I like bills, and I like glaives. But which is better?
There's only one way to find out...
FIIIIIIIGHT!
😅
Starts at 3:35. You’re welcome.
Thank you!
Underrated comment. Cheers!
I have always seen the Glaive as the odd man out in the Polearm community, and this video didn't change my mind. :D
But you have given me a new appreciation for the Billhook. I always like the halberd, and by showing how a Billhook is essentially a halberd in different form, I finally understand and like the Billhook as a Pole weapon.
XD I took the same way from halberd to billhook. Halberds are super fancy and super deadly, but billhooks FTW.
Thanks for another great video! This channel's given me a much greater appreciation for the power and historical importance of pole weapons in general, so I always like to see these.
One thing that I'd quite like to hear more about though, when you cover future topics, is the historical distribution and context of weapons, and your (or other scholars) thoughts on why these occurred. I didn't know that halberds were more associated with the Germanic areas of Europe, for example. I'd really like to hear your thoughts on comparisons of European glaives and halberds to ones that appear in Asia, for example!
I would be interested in a discussion of man-catchers and other not-so-lethal weapons. Were they used much in medieval Europe?
@@lostalone9320 a lasso is better in every way or a sling
fantastic video! would also love to see more on pole-arms, espeically those from other cultures such as the naginata or guan-dao from Asia.
In formation we found halbards to work best as a piercing and draw cut weapon . In the treatises there are a lot of big movements, chops and swings. But those are maybe omey for one on one or loose formations fights . And there is definitely a lot of hooking done too.
Sir Joh Smythe instructed blow at the head & thrust at the face for halberdiers fighting in formation.
I've been following (and watching) this channel for quite some time now - and regularly giving it the "thumbs up" - but this video is so good, so informative that I just had to write a comment, in fact, had to say how excellent ti is. In fact, the whole channel is realy, realy good, I dare say, the best of its kind on youtube, in my opinion. You're doing magnificent work, Mr. Easton. Congrats!
Not all, but in comparison, the glaive has a much longer edge for cutting.
A dwnside of the bill that i have noticed while using a billhook (the tool) is that the hook at the end sometimes gets in the way of cutting. This makes sense since the curved end in the tool is meant to stop the blade from hitting a rock but sometimes it may hit something unitentional like another branch before the blade can make contact, i imagine the weapon version would have the same problem.
You can hit with the end, the tip of the curved blade. I think the swiss used one handled billhook for against helmets. See serpe suisse, swiss billhook.
I never knew the difference between a Glaive, Halberd and Bill. Thank you for teaching me something cool.
I'm currently in the process of writing a novel which has one of the main protagonists using a glaive as his weapon, and this seems to be the best (only) video that has any sort of analysis of the weapon, so thank you very much!
I'm getting into small-scale farming, and I got an auction lot of rusty old farm tools recently. One is a bill hook that I would say was only ever meant for single hand use. Sharpened main edge (hook, about 20-25 degree curve) and sharpened false edge (proud of the spine to the extent of the bevel) I'd estimate that the blade is .8-.9kg, and that's very crudely welded onto a collar (probably mild steel) and hafted on a ~5ft probably ash handle. Symmetrical elliptical profile, equally flared at the butt, I'd guess a pick haft originally.
It was rusted to hell, I brought it back to bright steel and sharpened it decently, but I have no idea what use whoever created it intended it for. It's ridiculously unwieldy, I had great fun swinging at errant bush and tree limbs (heaven forbid the neighbours would see me) which it breezed through, but the heft of it carried me along with it so that it took me a full half second to reset for another 'strike'.
If I wanted to reach a thick high limb I'd climb up and use a hand saw, and if I wanted to set hedges I'd use the head of the 'frankenbill' on its own. I've seen long bills for pruning apple trees but they're very light, like slightly curved reaping hooks on broom handles, probably 1.5kg in total at most. I reckon the auction lot was from a poor auld lad on a farm that croaked, so I'll probably never understand its purpose.
This has very little to do with the video, but some may enjoy the anecdote.
Sounds similar to a Yorkshire pattern billhook.
@@netyr4554 Not far off!
I would love to duel the creators of RAID with halberds, bills, or glaives.
At 17:31 I really have always thought that the distinction between these was unnecessary, but I think that's technically a voulge and not a glaive? It's only a difference in how they're mounted, I think, with glaives being on an encompassing socket while a voulge is mounted on loop sockets to the side.
Useless pedantry, and I imagine someone else has mentioned it already too.
Great video, Matt! The discussion of straight vs. hooked back spikes re: penetration reminds me of discussions about stabbing with straight vs. curved sword blades.
Edit: On the topic of polearms, is there any chance of you reviewing LK Chen's Han Sha? From their website, it looks like the Han Chinese version of a sword-staff.
Absolutely no background in HEMA, but I like the bill-hook. More pointy sweepy bits. Plus I can use it to trim my trees 😬
Yeah, my uninformed guess also: If in doubt, you can´t go wrong with a billhook.
I think the Halberd and Bill might just slightly beat the Glaive, which fits with my impression that the Glaive was maybe slightly less common than the Bill and especially the Halberd, however aesthetically the bigger, choppier Glaives might be my favorite of the 3.
Glaives seem more common than bills in the 15th century. They're by far the most popular polearm in France/Flanders (not counting simple spears), they show up in Italy a decent amount as well and in English sources they seem to be about as common as bills. However they seem to fall out of use towards the beginning of the 16th century in most places.
Halberds before the late 1400s are mainly found in the HRE with the occasional example in Italy and Flanders/France. However in the late 1400s they start appearing a lot more commonly in many places. In france they most likely were adopted from the Swiss especially after the Confederacy's victory against Charles, and in England they seem to have come in with the Tudors and their trading links to germany.
@@duchessskye4072 Very interesting and informative, thanks for donating to the comments section.
I would guess it depends on where you are and what enemies you will most likely face. In general multipurpose role, or f I expect armored men at arms, I would favour the billhook or halberd. Against lightly armored spearmen, the glaive.
Very well said! I really liked having this comparison especially since I can never remember the difference between the weapons. Furthermore, the pros and cons of each is very thrilling to learn.
Me, zoning out:
Matt: "which played a cinnamon roll on the battlefield"
Me, snapping out of it: wha~
Hello Matt. As someone who works retail, I really appreciate the topic of best staff weapon.
Could you please make a video on the best customer weapon next? Many thanks.
Customers come armed with a sharp tongue, and an acid personality
Hummm......baseball bat?
A waterhose?
I love the look of the bill, but that big hook makes the blade much more difficult to land IMO. The glaive on the other hand, it'll land blade first regardless of how much the spacing changes from the start of the swing until the strike.
Very VERY short plot of the video!
Matt: They are a bit different and may perform a bit differently, with more pronounced chopping or hooking dynamics, depending on the polearm, although they fill the same role on the battlefield.
People: So, which is the best?
Matt: Yes, certainly so!
(Disclaimer: I really like Matt's stand on things, because for me that's what makes most sense. Different things for different purposes and preferences, so there's actually not one better than the other.)
Thank you Matt. Love these pole arm vids
Forward pointing back spikes occur on a few patterns of agricultural bills including Shifnal and Aberaeron types, as well as an as yet unidentified French pattern.
Of the 3 i'd go for the Bill just for the versatility advantage it has over the Halberd. Given it can both chop and hook on the same side it makes it easier to do either on the fly as and when the opportunity appeared, and also allowed the back spike to specialise as an anti-armour device. For the Halberd the need to spin the weapon around to access its secondary function (i know Matt says you could use the bottom of the axe as a hook, but that looks like a much shorter range and poorer option than a dedicated hook) makes it slightly more cumbersome at a time when speed counts, and the fact you have to choose between a hook and a spike limits your options to only one of them whilst the Bill has both.
The glaive is the worst of the 3 for battlefields for me since it is worse in both cut and thrust against armour than the other two. Against the lightly armoured its speed would be a big advantage though.
I was kinda wondering if Matt would just mention that George Silver says the glaive is the best and just leave it at that.
Doesn't he say the billhook is the best? Other than the quarterstaff of course.
"The Welch hook or forest bill, has advantage against all manner of weapons whatsoever."
@@oldschooljeremy8124 ah, quite right, guess I remembered wrong. I'll make a note of it.
@@acethesupervillain348 at least in self-defense or a duel. He's clear that in war, axes, heavy bills, pikes, etc., are much better.
There are currently 3 copies of that book on Amazon, available for the low low price of $768.57. I thought I was getting hit hard when I paid $140 for it a few months ago...
We could find someone who has it and kill them with a halberd and then steal their book . . . what? Not moral you say?
Not very sporting?
But Margret he's had the damned book for awhile, he ought to have known to carry a self-defence halberd.
What's that?
A Katzbalger you say?
Oh, Nevermind.
In sufferable she is!
The wife says that it wouldn't be sporting.
Sorry mate. Can't help you afterall.
If you don't care about a little plagiarism you can always put the pages online to help us poor peasants who can't afford to pay over $700 dollars for a single book.
@@shanewebb3341 especially since I doubt the author is getting any money from those Amazon sales.
There's really no rational argument *against* piracy in this case.
Tell me about it... I'm still looking for a copy of "British Warships in the Age of Sail", the 1600-1700 version, and every copy is crazy expensive... Just wish the publisher would print another run..
@@snideaugustine2143 Spectrum Magazine Issues 6-8.
I always thought the names were just interchangeable. Learn something every day. Great video as always
Thanks for making this video. I collect original polearm examples from European auction houses and the polearm topic is rarely expanded upon. I will say that Italian bills are much more massive than people realize, dwarfing their English bill counterparts. It’s certainly fair to put English bills in the same usage as most halberds, but the Italian bill feels like a whole different animal in the hand.
Hello, I loved this video. These weapons are my most favourite kind. If I had a choice in battle weapon I would choose a sturdy bill with a thick spike on the top to penetrate armour. A sturdy hook for horsemen and a sturdy and quite long back spike. Fantastic examples in this video. Much respect. 🇬🇧🗡️
I hope one day you will compare and contrast Asian and European pole arms. Chinese polearms in particular have some extremely interesting, and aesthetically pleasing designs.
Raid Shadow Legend probably counts a charity at this point.
Whatever helps the guy put food in his table and give us amazing videos
@@mortache of course. I have no problem with that. Just meant, that at this point everybody knows them and knows its a shit game, yet the still pay all the creators.
@@niveaulimbo6101 It only takes a relatively small number of whales to support a shitty mobile game. If an $1000 sponsorship can gain them a single $100 per month whale, it pays for itself in less than a year.
@@Desparil dayum people it was a joke. I know, that they do not run a charity and would have stopped if it would not be worth their while sponsoring people.
Other important factors which should be taken into account:
Which weapon is easiest to mass produce and is the cheapest.
Which of the weapon doesn't require much training.
Which weapon is the most durable, easiest to maintain, and easiest to repair.
Which weapon is easiest to transport
As far as easiest/quickest/cheapest goes, that's clearly the "technically bills" with barely a curved hook to them at all. And on the opposite end of the spectrum should be halberds with pronounced axe blades. Simpler halberds, glaives (both slim and broad types), and proper bills ought to fall between them (and probably in this order), but my memory about how each of these is forged is a bit fuzzy.
All three weapons seem to start off as simple designs. Early halberds are just large axe blades on poles, the type one might consider 'bardiche'. However in the late 1300s it gets more complex with the introduction of langets and the transition from hoop mounts to socket mounts.
Bills also vary in complexity. Late 15th centurry Italian ones get rather complex but the english designs seem to still be quite crude and simple.
Glaives are more or less the same. Though as with halberds some designs, mainly the slimmer ones (which waldman calls Voulges) get more complex with the addition of langets to reinforce the haft.
Thank you for the very informative video. I've always wondered about whether there were any major differences. Your video answered all my questions. :)
Thanks for the video!! I joined a billhook group a few years ago and was surprised it's old TOOLS! Lol. Love the shirt today!!! ( Mik Patton!!)
Interesting video. It is perfectly possible to have two or more approaches to the same problem without one being best. Also, context is always important. Looking at the blades, I see the halberd as "chopping", the bill as "hacking" and the glaive as "cutting". Difference of emphasis, but basically the same.
I have a roleplay character who started her fighting career as a bodyguard, her weapon of choice is a glaive. I feel very validated! :D thank you for the informative video
HalBIRDs are the best for carving turkey, obviously.
Nice.
Oink.
= @ )
The bill on the other hand is best for carving duck... or platypus, if you eat that
It's also best for carving the customer.
Reminds me of the idea of personal defense weapons in firearms. You also see almost identical weapons used by so called executive guards. Among firearms they occupy the gap between pistols and rifles, similarly the polearms you discussed fill a gap between closeup and ranged weapons.
Love Matt chatting about weapons. Which is best? Most often the answer is - well, it depends
Great info Matt !
Glad it was helpful!
I really like the bill at 15:05. Seems like the perfect mix of what you want.
Loving the polearms videos so far. I've become quite fascinated with them
But should not gamers with long memories speak of the glaive-guisarme-voulge?
Actually, I’m surprised that we haven’t had Scots posters on here promoting the claims of the lochaber axe. But honestly, I reckon this stuff was 85% national tradition and regional fashion.
It is rather interesting that you use a rather systematic approach to staff weapons, defining all their types by the arrangement of blades, hooks, and spikes, but speaking of your own specialty, swords, you became a poet, not interested in such trinkets, as the shape of blade or hilt or both are determining the kind of weapon.
I'll never get tired of videos on polearms. My favourite medieval weapon class by far.
Thanks Matt, great video, like always ! 👍
Could you do a video on the Bec de Corbin ?
YESSS! I agree!
And another one on the Katzbalger too please!
@@manfredconnor3194 YES, the Karzbalger is the cat's pajamas!
kaTzbalger
Wait. If you are on the battlefield hooking enemies with a staff weapon... does that make you a HOOKER ??!
Only if you get paid for that.
Glaive because it's sexy.
PS perpendicular spike won't penetrate better than at a slight angle because the weapon head moves in an arc. It will be more or less pronounced depending on the length of the lever.
The precursor to the Halberd was called a "Rossschinder" from 'Ross' (or "warhorse") and 'Schinder' (or "flayer"). So the original precursor of the halberd was a warhorse flayer.
As a Rossschinder, I know Bills with a pronounced hook and additional spikes.
@@edi9892 yeah, somewhat like the "italian billhook/italian halberd"
I've very little experience of using polarms, and only really short spears. I was thinking, though, as I looked at them that preference might be related to how close the formation one wanted one's troops to deploy in was. A bill looks a bit more suited to a close formation, especially one where you want the second or even third rank to be striking/hooking/thrusting or defending/blocking with the shaft, a glaive more suited to one where you have room to swing due to its superior slashing/cutting and inferior percussive abilities, and defense is more about armour and footwork. The halberd feels like a compromise between the two. I wonder if anyone knows if this hypothesis has any weight at all, I certainly don't ptretend to be doing anything other than giving first impressions.
I remember watching, on one of these channels, test cutting with halberds and bills. The ones that had a spike weather diamond cross-section or square caught on the tatami mats. But the ones with blade shaped top spike cut rite through, once they sharpened the spear like top point.
I wonder how much of the design was about hurting the other guy vs. whittling down the shaft of the other guy’s polearm? I would imagine that durability over a longer battle in dense formations would be a significant factor when comparing the differences.
I think one slight advantage of the bill over the halberd is the fact that the former can chop AND hook at the same time, basically. It's an easy wham-yank motion. Whereas with the halberd, you generally have to decide first which motion to commit to (unless you chop and overshoot and can react quickly with a follow-up hook). And of course, with the glaive, to hook--if your weapon is suited to that at all--you have to turn the weapon around so the hook presents to the target. Just a bit of nuance to add to this excellent overview of these three popular pole arms!
Missed a perfect opportunity to mention the Vatican Swiss Guards polearms used for "ceremonial purposes" to this day.
They do receive training on them, though.
And I always thought that the halberd is the ideal tool for robust crowd control. Nothing says " You are not getting in here" like a guard with a halberd in a tight corridor, and nothing says " You are to clear this yard ASAP" like 20 guard with halberds
Top spike length affects blocking and catching swings much more than the argument for wound size, assuming you'd prepare the appropriate kind depending on enemy armor.
If you were to block an overhead, you could raise your shield at an angle and catch the top spike, this plays into the durability argument much better because you cause a leverage point between the shield and the main head, which can cause it to become unusable in combat. Or if you're brave enough you could argue that a thin rod can be grabbed more easily post block than a knife-like spike.
Whatever are you on about man?
@@manfredconnor3194 physics mainly.
This is what I was thinking as well.
Wait a minute, are you telling us that a glaive is not actually a curved starfish looking thing with pop-out blades?
Damn it, Hollywood has fooled me again!
It's also not a buckler-looking thing with two comically large sword blades sticking out of it, apparently. :P
Hello Matt, may I suggest using an arbitrary scale for comparing these weapons? For example Thrust against soft targets: Halberd(10), Glaive(10), Bill(10), against maille: Halberd(10), Bill(8), Glaive(7), blunt force damage: Halberd(10), glaive(8), Bill(9) etc. This would allow for a more complex comparison in certain scenarios.
This made me curious: would a one handed billhook be useful offhand weapon for sparring?
The Chinese had hook swords (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hook_sword), but AFAIK no other culture did, so I suspect on the whole they weren't great. On the other hand, one of advantages of axes is supposed to be their ability to hook onto opponents, so maybe!
from a hook standpoint it would be basically a sickle. which the kama or kusarigama in Japanese/Okinawan would function the same. They don't have the spike for stabbing, but originated similarly from a farming tool.
Mucblike a khukre but even less stab and a different optimal chop.
I imagine it being quite heavy and unwieldy for that.
A very light one then. For hooking definitely. Drawcuts.
Bills are hookier and halberds choppier. Ethnic preferences owe perhaps more to cultural than technical factors. Both have advantages and disadvantages against cavalry or pike armed infantry, but ultimately it's about a wash.
Look at the whole system. English and Italian bills were used in conjunction with longbowmen or crossbowmen, while halberds were more a part of the Germanic pike block system, with lesser reliance on missile weapons in combined arms formations.
Yup, same as how some NATO armies favoured the assault rifle and some the battle rifle. German tank grendiers are always six to a group with one MG, instead of 2x4, some have DM embedded in the platoon, some have sharpshooters working independently, etc.pp.
@@paavobergmann4920 In mechanized infantry, the vehicle can also function as a fire team, more so if it’s an infantry fighting vehicle rather than an armored personnel carrier.
@@blastulae yeah, as I meant: similar roles, different styles, today as back then.
16th Italian Bill/Roncone, specifically A930 from the Wallace Collection like Arms & Armor copied is the best. It basically has 2 halberds worth of cutting area below a well-defined hook with a chisel point, a nasty sharpened back spike, and a serious 14in long, 1/2-thick square spike. The thing is a work of art and as close as a Jack-of-All-Trades gets to being a Master of All imo.
Why there are so much similitudes between italian and english weapons (take the baselard or the bill)? Those are areas with very less in common politically and geographically speaking(they are not in proximity between each other and there are not invasions,wars and such that put these two places face to face). Could it be that mercenaries movements influenced the "fashion" of weapons in use? I know for example that during the hundred years war genoese crossbowmen and milanese knights were hired (usually by the french) and after that lots of english mercenaries went in Italy hired by the various states frequently in war between themselves. And if mercenaries could be the cause of convergency in weapon choice and style between England and Italy, in which way this influence would go? Were Italians to influence english or the contrary?
While it went in both directions to some degree, Italy first, then Germany and France second set the stage for a lot of technology and culture during the Medieval Period, especially for Western Europe. Idk how much that applies to armament tendencies, though.
one thing that occurs to me about the bill hook: if you try to chop someone's arm off and it doesn't go all the way through, your hook is now behind their arm, meaning that to withdraw your weapon, you have to rip it straight back towards you or swing it out of the wound before retracting. In the former case, the pull wouldn't have much power and risks getting stuck. In the latter case, changing the direction of the weapon when your arms are probably already extended from the strike takes time and more effort. This is not a problem with the halberd or glaive; if your swing doesn't go through something, you can immediately retract it and try again.
One of the major differences between bills, halberds and glaives is how glaive-like weapons were often used from horseback especially in Asia to injure the opponents horse or perform hit and run slashes at infantry whereas bills and halberds tended to be used exclusively by infantrymen in infantry skirmishes or defense against mounted opponents. The "fork" at the back of the blade was probably very handy in siege combat allowing the defenders to push off ladders and slice at attackers climbing the walls. In that setting due to limited range of motion the glaive functioned more like a tool than a weapon allowing to cut/saw and safely push and pull at a reach.
There's an opinion that glaives, including guan dao, naginata and maybe even berdiche was mostly constructed for dealing with horses. Long cutting and chopping blade for an unarmored flesh.
Video in russian: ruclips.net/video/5G4Z5Vu505k/видео.html
Sir John Smythe specifically complained about long top spikes on halberd & about longer halberds in general for fighting in formation. He wanted short halberds of no more than 6ft in total length for regular halberdiers, who wore considerable armor & fought in formation. However, for his irregular halbediers, who wore lighter armor & accompanied the shot, he wanted longer & lighter halberds of 7.5+ft. These irregular halberdiers typically had more space to use their weapons & often had to fight when outnumbered, so Smythe thought a longer halberd made sense to them. George Silver likewise thought heavy polearms like the black bill should be 5-6ft in total length.
SIr Roger Williams & Humphrey Barwick had more respect for longer thrusting halberds, at least if they were made well. Williams wrote that many bills & halberds were forged from low-quality metal.
Giacomo di Grassi considered the bill the best of the polearms he covered: "Where I gather, that the Bill is the most perfect weapon of all others, because it strikes and hurts in every of these six motions, and his defenses both cut and prick." The bill pictured in the Italian version of di Grassi's manual has the classical form of an Italian bill, & he wrote that it could chop. Specifically, the hook was sharp & could contribute to a blow. Of course, it was also comparing that version of the bill with the later form of the halberd, which he thought too light & weak.
Earlier, in 1548, Raimond de Fourquevaux had similar issues with Italian halberds: "The Halbards are armes newly inuented as I thinke by the Switzers, which are very good, so that they be strong and sharpe, and not light, as those that the Italians do carry, more to make a faire shewe (as I thinke) then for any goodnesse that is in them, because they are too weake" (from the 1589 English translation).
I noticed at least one of those glaives you showed with the significant hook at the back (Glaive of the Bodyguard of Saxony if I'm not mistaken, around 17:26) looked a whole lot like a Lochaber axe. Now I'm wondering if you'd place that more in the Glaive family or the Halberd family? I think traditionally it's be considered a type of crescent blade Halberd. It certainly seems there's some weapons that fall into sort of a grey area where two types of weapon converge.
It looks like through the centuries there's been so many variations, we can have a full spectrum of designs that can be named either or neither of those categories while being very similar in function and training (thrust motion, pull motion, downwards motion). Also having hafts of different lengths might change the application more than the actual shape of the head.
The Arcane Potions guardian guy from the ad just HAS to be the famous (infamous?) Potion Seller. He just has to be.
Even though the voulge is in most respects a less developed form of the glaive, there’s something about the stand-off blade that’s very aesthetically appealing to me.
I wouldn't call it less developed, it seems to possibly have different origins. While the thicker form of glaives can be seen in for example the Morgan bible in the mid-1200s already the depictions are rather short and not full-length polearms. This changes overtime and in the late 1300s the common form has pretty much developed and is found in both France and Italy.
That being said the 'voulge' (though the names were interchangeable) seems to have its origin in single-bladed lances. These are _also_ depicted in the Mogan bible alongside the other more beefy glaives though by this point still used as a cavalry lance as well as on foot. You see them continually crop up in french art now and again throughout the 1300s and by the mid-1400s they seem to have developed into what you see in the video.
While I by no means have proved this development beyond a reasonable doubt it's what I suspect happens.
Smacking the faces of knights and cataphracts with glaives while being away from their lance's point in Bannerlord is SO satisfying lol.
It is enormously satisfying to clothesline a khergit with any swung polearm. But doesn't feel realistic.
@scholagladiatoria: Is it useful to talk about a "front end" and a "back end" on these kinds of weapons? The glaive seems kind of obvious, I guess, but the halberd and bill less so. Even though the "axe end" and "bill end" are more prominent on the halberd and bill respectively, do we know for sure these parts dictated the use of these weapons? Is it possible that the "back spike" on a bill was in fact used as the primary business end of that weapon when fighting certain opponents or during certain periods of time (e.g. if fighting primarily dismounted knights or at the time plate armour became more common)? If so, the halberd, bill and their variants are perhaps more alike than they would appear, and their differences more a matter of culture and tradition rather than deliberately choosing one attribute over another. This is purely speculation in my part, however, and I would love to hear your thoughts (and references, as I haven't found any good ones).
I'm honestly surprised that you didn't mention that there are two fundamentally different basic types of halberd:
Type I: it's an axe with a spike on top. It's pretty much as you've described it in the video, but the spike is more for armor-piercing than slashing or making wide wounds. Some are even without a blade and square or triangular in crosssection. This makes it very similar to the poleaxe, which has a blade optimized for cutting soft targets and the spike and hammerhead are clearly for the armored targets...
Type II: the crescent axe blade has shrunken and become more like a double-spike. The axe- _blade_ is blunt(!) and intended to bite into armor and potentially entangle enough with an enemy to pull him off a horse. As compensation, many of these halberds have a spearhead, meaning that the thrusting bit can also be used for slashing to some degree.
However, there are also inverse combinations, for example, a small blunt axehead and a long triangular spike...
In general, glaives tend to distribute the impact the most, followed by bills and finally halberds, who can have very small axeblades, though there are also billberts as seen in 6:19.
PS: if I had to design a polearm for universal use, I'd probably make a glave with a blade similar to a tanto or wakizashi and add sturdy hooks at the base that can be used to smash helmets, pull or push (probably the blade sided hook would be for pushing and the one on the blunt for hooking). Those hooks would look similar to rose-thorns.
Interesting thoughts! Your universal polearm suggestion sounds rather like a ranseur (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ranseur).
That intro to Medieval Germany should have had its own video. I was expecting you to just say "Google the Holy Roman Empire"
3:48 There is exactly one available on abebooks for $127. I usually go to that sire to find cheaper used books. But you were not kidding about availability and price.
I came here to learn about how context decides the outcome. I was not disappointed.
I think it is easier to mount a kitchen knife on a pole and make a simple glaive that is a serviceable military weapon. Likewise you can put a long handle on a bill or an ax and haul it into combat, but they have to be modified to give you a spear point. And as we all know, the spear is the king of weapons. And if your goal is a spear that can cut, then a kitchen knife on a pole gives you that ability. Hooks and spikes all have to be added which makes more work for the smiths. So if you were throwing together a levy of peasants, simple glaives might be the best weapon you could quickly and cheaply arm them with.