A halberd (also called halbard, halbert or Swiss voulge) is a two-handed polearm that

came to prominent use from the 13th to 16th centuries. The halberd consists of
an axe blade topped with a spike mounted on a long shaft. It can have a hook or thorn on
the back side of the axe blade for grappling mounted combatants. The halberd was usually
1.5 to 1.8 metres (5 to 6 feet) long.

The word halberd is cognate with the German word Hellebarde, deriving from Middle High
German halm (handle) and barte (battleaxe) joined to form helmbarte. Troops that used the
weapon were called halberdiers. The word has also been used to describe a weapon of the Early
Bronze Age in Western Europe. This consisted of a blade mounted on a pole at a right angle.
The halberd Is first mentioned (as hallenbarte) in a work by 13th-century German poet Konrad
von Würzburg. John of Winterthur described it as a new weapon used by the Swiss at the Battle
of Morgarten of 1315. The halberd was inexpensive to produce and very versatile in battle. As
the halberd was eventually refined, its point was more fully developed to allow it to better deal
with spears and pikes (and make it able to push back approaching horsemen), as was the hook
opposite the axe head, which could be used to pull horsemen to the ground. A Swiss peasant used
a halberd to kill Charles the Bold, the Duke of Burgundy, at the Battle of Nancy, decisively
ending the Burgundian Wars. Researchers suspect that a halberd or a bill sliced through the back
of King Richard III’s skull at the Battle of Bosworth.