The basket-hilted sword is a type of sword from the early modern era, starting around the mid-16th century. It has a basket-shaped guard to protect the hand. The basket hilt came from adding quillons to the crossguard of swords since the Late Middle Ages. Sometimes, this sword is called a broadsword, but that term is also used in a less exact way for other swords.
The basket-hilted sword was mainly used by soldiers. A real broadsword has a blade that is sharp on both sides. Other wide-bladed swords with one sharp edge and a thicker back are called backswords. Different types of basket-hilts were attached to both broadswords and backswords.
One of the swords used in the German dueling sport called Mensur (also known as academic fencing) is the basket-hilted Korbschläger.
Nomenclature
The term "broadsword" is unclear and can describe many different types of swords.
Records of "broad swords" date back to the 11th century, but these simply describe any sword that is wide, not a specific type. No sword style was officially called a broadsword before the 17th century.
By the late 17th century, "broadsword" referred to a specific type of sword: double-edged, basket-hilted cutting swords used by cavalry soldiers. These were called broadswords to distinguish them from civilian swords, which were narrow and designed for thrusting, like rapiers and small-swords. This is the correct historical use of the term, and it is still used this way by collectors and historical fencing groups.
In the 19th century, historians used "broadsword" to describe any sword with a wider blade than a dueling sword. This use was not accurate and led to the term being applied to unrelated weapons like sabers and cutlasses, as well as most swords from earlier times that were not rapiers or small-swords. This incorrect use continues in non-expert writing, such as fantasy stories and role-playing games, where "broadsword" often refers to any medieval sword, like longswords or Viking swords.
Morphology
The basket-hilted sword was developed in the 16th century and became popular in the 17th century. It was widely used by heavy cavalry throughout the 18th century, especially up to the Napoleonic era.
One of the earliest known basket-hilted swords was found on the wreck of the Mary Rose, an English warship that sank in 1545. Before this discovery, the oldest confirmed examples were two swords from around the time of the English Civil War. Early versions of the sword had simple wire guards, but over time, the guards became more detailed and decorative.
The basket-hilted sword was used for both cutting and thrusting and was mainly used by soldiers. It was different from the rapier, a heavier sword used by civilians that evolved from the espada ropera or spada da lato type. In the 17th and 18th centuries, the term "broadsword" was used to describe double-edged basket-hilted swords. This term helped distinguish them from the smaller and narrower smallsword.
By the 17th century, many regional styles of basket-hilts existed, including the Walloon hilt, the Sinclair hilt, the schiavona, the mortuary sword, the Scottish broadsword, and some types of eastern European pallasches. The mortuary and claybeg styles were often used in the British Isles, whether made locally or imported from Italy and Germany. These swords also influenced the design of 18th-century cavalry sabers.
During the 18th century, dueling in Europe focused on the lighter smallsword, while fencing with the broadsword became a specialty in Scotland. Many books teaching how to fence with the Scottish broadsword were published during this time.
Descendants of the basket-hilted sword, such as backswords with smaller "half" or "three-quarter" basket guards, were still used by cavalry during the Napoleonic era and into the 19th century. These included the 1796 Heavy Cavalry Sword, the Gothic Hilted British Infantry Swords from the 1820s to 1890s, the 1897 Pattern British Infantry Officer's Sword, and the Pattern 1908 and 1912 cavalry swords up until just before World War I. One of the last military uses of the Scottish broadsword was during World War II by Major Jack Churchill.
Subtypes
The Schiavona was a Renaissance sword that became popular in Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries. It came from the 16th-century swords used by Dalmatian soldiers who were part of the naval infantry and bodyguard of the Doge of Venice. The name "Schiavona" was inspired by the Schiavoni, Istrian, and Dalmatian Slavs who made up much of the guard. This sword was easily recognized by its "cat's-head pommel" and a handguard made of many leaf-shaped brass or iron bars attached to the cross-bar and knucklebow, not the pommel.
Classified as a true broadsword, the Schiavona had a wider blade than the civilian rapiers of its time. While rapiers were mainly used for thrusting, the Schiavona was designed for both cutting and thrusting, with added weight for stronger strikes. It had a basket hilt, often with an embedded quillon for an upper guard, and a double-edged blade. A surviving blade measured 93.2 cm (36.7 in) long, 3.4 cm (1.3 in) wide, and 0.45 cm (0.18 in) thick. It had two fullers or grooves running about 1/4 the length of the blade. Weighing about 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), this blade was effective for both cutting and thrusting.
The Schiavona was widely used by armies of countries that traded with Italy during the 17th century. It was a favorite weapon for heavy cavalry, as well as for mercenary soldiers and wealthy civilians. Some examples were decorated with gilding and precious stones and worn by the upper classes as both fashion items and weapons.
A similar weapon was the cut-and-thrust mortuary sword, used by cavalry during the English Civil War after 1625. This sword had a straight blade about 90–105 cm (35–41 in) long and a half-basket hilt often decorated with intricate designs.
After King Charles I was executed in 1649, basket-hilted swords were made that showed the face or death mask of the "martyred" king on the hilt. These became known as "mortuary swords" in the 18th century. Some 20th-century authors later used the term to describe all Civil War-era broadswords, though some scholars argue the faces on the hilts were not always those of Charles I. These images appeared before his death and were used by both sides of the conflict.
One possible reason for the name "mortuary" is that after the English Civil War, war heroes' weapons were donated to churches. The churches painted the swords black and used them in funeral displays until the 19th century, when many were sold as antiques.
Oliver Cromwell, a key figure in the English Civil War, was said to have used a mortuary sword. One of his swords is now displayed at the Tower of London, and others are in the Cromwell Museum and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Mortuary swords were used until around 1670.
During the Jacobite rebellions of the late 17th and early 18th centuries, Scottish clansmen often used the Scottish basket-hilted broadsword, known as the claidheamh mor or claymore, meaning "great sword" in Gaelic. Some authors suggest the term "claybeg" (from "small sword") might be more accurate, but this does not match Scottish Gaelic usage. According to the Gaelic Dictionary by R. A. Armstrong (1825), "claidheamh mór" means "broadsword," while "claidheamh beag" translates to "small sword," which is associated with a "Bilbo" sword.
The "Sinclair hilt" is a term used by Victorian scholars to describe Scandinavian swords that resemble those used in the Scottish Highlands during the 17th and 18th centuries. The name honors George Sinclair, a Scottish mercenary who died in Norway in 1612.
The so-called Walloon sword (épée wallone) or haudegen was common in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands, and Scandinavia during the Thirty Years' War and the Baroque era. Historian Ewart Oakeshott suggested this type of sword originated in England before spreading to the Netherlands and Germany. Basket-hilted rapiers with pierced shell-guards from the same period are called Pappenheimer rapiers.
The Walloon sword was used by both military and civilian gentry. A key feature was the presence of a thumb-ring, making it unsuitable for left-handed use. Common hilts had a double shell guard and half-basket, though some had simpler designs. The hilt may have influenced the design of 18th-century continental hunting hangers.
After the French captured many German-made Walloon swords during their 1672 campaign in the Netherlands, France began producing this weapon as its first regulation sword. Sweden also used these swords, starting with Gustavus Adolphus and continuing until the 1850s.