<b>Hand Weapons<b>

Foot soldiers armed with hand weapons were the third principal component of
medieval armies, along with cavalry and missile troops. M�l�e infantry fought hand
to hand and were important both in pitched battles and during sieges. Infantry
consisted of peasants, common soldiers, and dismounted knights.

<i>Hand Weapons<i>

The Franks of the Dark Ages fought with a throwing axe called the francisca, from
which their tribe took its name. Their neighbors, the Saxons, fought with a large,
one-sided knife called a scramasax, from which they took their name.

With the development of the heavy cavalryman came the heavy sword, which was used
in hand-to-hand fighting on foot as well. Variants of the sword included a two-
handed version that required a lot of space to wield. Men-at-arms employed a
variety of weapons on foot, including axes (both one-handed and two-handed), maces,
flails, and hammers. A variant of the mace was a spiked ball fastened to a shaft by
a chain. As armor improved to reduce the effect of sword blows, crushing and
puncturing weapons became more favored.

<i>Pole Arms<i>

The basic spear was a useful weapon throughout the Middle Ages because it was cheap
to make and simple to use. Common foot soldiers and peasants could be armed with it
and pressed into battle service. In most cases such an expedient was of little use,
but with experience and some training large bodies of spearmen could be effective.

Pole arms evolved through the medieval period and eventually reached a point where
formations of foot troops skilled in their use were extremely effective. Advanced
pole arms consisted of a spear point with one or more weapon faces below the point.
This additional weapon might be a large long blade, an axe, a billhook, a hammer,
or a spike.

Long pole arms evolved in response to the mounted knight and resulted in a revival
of a formation something like the ancient Greek phalanx. Horses would not charge a
disciplined formation of men that bristled with extended pole weapons. A dense
formation of pole arms held high also served as some protection from arrows.

Foot soldiers first learned to stand behind wooden stakes set in the ground to ward
off cavalry. They then learned to deploy spears, pikes, and other pole arms to ward
off cavalry. This allowed the formation to move and take its anti-cavalry stakes
with it, in effect. In a m�l�e, the various attachments at the end of the pole were
used to pull horsemen off their mounts, push them off, or cause wounds to the rider
or horse. Although armored men were not helpless when prone on the ground, as some
have thought, they were at a disadvantage, at least temporarily, to men wearing
little or no armor before they could rise.

As the towns grew in the second half of the Middle Ages, they built up their own
militias of troops for defense and for feudal military service. Pole arms were
popular weapons with the town militias because they were relatively cheap to
provide and effective for the cost. Town militias trained with these weapons and
developed useful battlefield tactics. In time, formations of pole-armed men learned
to be aggressive, not simply defensive. Massed formations of pikeman could
physically attack other infantry and even cavalry. The Swiss lacked the pastureland
to support horse armies but became famous as pikemen. They often served as
mercenaries in other continental armies. The lowland cities of Flanders and the
highlands of Scotland also fielded pike units that were highly regarded.