guisarme , także: gisarme

The charge shown is known as a guisarme, a weapon used in ancient times to reach the enemy behind the defense.

He sees the guisarme as a "crescent shaped double socketed axe" on a long shaft.

The later variant can easily be confused with the guisarme or bill-guisarme, since it superficially appears to have a "hook".

Some of the medieval weapons that were still in use included Guisarme, the Halberd, the Mace and the partisan.

Shield: Per chevron Gules and Or, issuant from base a guisarme in pale Proper.

This weapon is called a fauchard-fork, but is very often erroneously referred to as a guisarme or bill-guisarme since it superficially appears to have a 'hook'.

Like most polearms the guisarme was developed by peasants by combining hand tools with long poles: in this case by putting a pruning hook onto a spear shaft.

Eventually weapon makers incorporated the usefulness of the hook in a variety of different polearms, and guisarme became a catch-all for any weapon that included a hook on the blade.

Variant weapons included the guisarme or fauchard, which persisted in many forms as late as the seventeenth century, and inflicted such horrible wounds that attempts were made to have it banned during the medieval period.

In his novel Knight in Anarchy, George Shipway describes the process of training for a judicial duel using the guisarme, where he favours the double-socketed axe interpretation of the weapon.

While the basic lance was the familiar three man structure of man-at-arms, coutilier and page, dependent on the wealth of the man-at-arms, additional archers or juzarmiers (that is, men equipped with a guisarme) were added.

Description A Gold color metal and enamel device 1 1/8 inches (2.86 cm) in height overall consisting of a shield blazoned: Per chevron Gules and Or, issuant from base a guisarme in pale Proper.