Basket-hilted sword

The Schiavona was a Renaissance sword that became popular in Italy during the 16th and 17th centuries.[11] Stemming from the 16th-century sword of the Balkan mercenaries who formed the bodyguard of the Doge of Venice, the name came from the fact that the guard consisted largely of the Schiavoni, Istrian and Dalmatian Slavs.[9] It was widely recognizable for its "cat's-head pommel" and distinctive handguard made up of many leaf-shaped brass or iron bars that were attached to the cross-bar and knucklebow rather than the pommel.[9]

Classified as a true broadsword, this war sword had a wider blade than its contemporary civilian rapiers. While a rapier is primarily a thrusting sword, a schiavona is a cut and thrust sword that has extra weight for greater penetration. It was basket-hilted (often with an imbedded quillon for an upper guard) and its blade was double edged. A surviving blade measures 93.2 cm (36.7 in) × 3.4 cm (1.3 in) × 0.45 cm (0.18 in) and bears two fullers or grooves running about 1/4 the length of the blade. Weighing in at around 1.1 kg (2.4 lb), this blade was useful for both cut and thrust.[12]

The schiavona became popular among the armies of those who traded with Italy during the 17th century and was the weapon of choice for many heavy cavalry.[13] It was popular among mercenary soldiers and wealthy civilians alike; examples decorated with gilding and precious stones were imported by the upper classes to be worn as a combination of fashion accessory and defensive weapon.[14]

A similar weapon was the cut-and-thrust mortuary sword which was used after 1625 by cavalry during the English Civil War. This (usually) two-edged sword sported a half-basket hilt with a straight blade some 90–105 cm long. These hilts were often of very intricate sculpting and design.

After the execution of King Charles I (1649), basket-hilted swords were made which depicted the face or death mask of the "martyred" king on the hilt. These swords came to be known as "mortuary swords", and the term has been extended to refer to the entire type of Civil War–era broadswords by some 20th-century authors.[15] Other scholars dispute that the faces etched on the hilt are Charles I. There are examples used on both sides of the conflict and the face imagery appeared before Charles I died.[16]

One possible explanation for the "Mortuary" name is that in the decades after the English Civil Wars, the arms of war heroes were donated to churches. The Churches painted the swords black and used them in funeral displays until the 19th century when many were sold into the antique market.[16]

This sword was Oliver Cromwell's weapon of choice; the one he owned is now held by the Royal Armories, and displayed at the Tower of London.[17] Two Mortuary swords also reputed to belong to Cromwell are at the Cromwell Museum and another at the Philadelphia Museum of Art.[18][19] Mortuary swords remained in use until around 1670 when they fell out of favor among civilians and began to be replaced with the smallsword.[10]

A painting by David Morier (1705?–1770) depicting one of the final moments of the last Jacobite Rebellion, at the Battle of Culloden, the last battle fought on British soil.

A common weapon among the clansmen during the Jacobite rebellions of the late 17th and early 18th centuries was the Scottish basket hilted broadsword, commonly known as claidheamh mor or claymore meaning "great sword" in Gaelic. Some authors suggest that claybeg should be used instead, from a purported Gaelic claidheamh beag "small sword". This does not parallel Scottish Gaelic usage. According to the Gaelic Dictionary by R. A. Armstrong (1825), claidheamh mór "big/great sword" translates to "broadsword", and claidheamh dà làimh to "two-handed sword", while claidheamh beag "small sword" is given as a translation of "Bilbo".[20]

The "Sinclair Hilt" is the name given by Victorian antiquarians, in the late 19th century, to Scandinavian swords that "bear a certain resemblance" to swords used in the Scottish Highlands in the 17th and 18th centuries. They named the sword for George Sinclair, a Scottish mercenary who died in the battle of Kringen in Norway.(d. 1612).[21]

The so-called walloon sword (épée wallone)[22] or haudegen (hewing sword) was common in Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and Scandinavia in the Thirty Years' War and Baroque era. The historian and sword typologist Ewart Oakeshott proposed an English origin for this type of sword, with subsequent development in the Netherlands and Germany.[23] Basket-hilted rapiers and sword-rapiers, characterised by pierced shell-guards, made during the same period are known as Pappenheimer rapiers.

The Walloon sword was favoured by both the military and civilian gentry.[24] A distinctive feature of the Walloon sword is the presence of a thumb-ring, and it was therefore not ambidextrous. The most common hilt type featured a double shell guard and half-basket, though examples exist with hand protection ranging from a shell and single knuckle-bow to a full basket.[25] The hilt may have influenced the design of 18th century continental hunting hangers.

Following their campaign in the Netherlands in 1672 (when many of these German-made swords were captured from the Dutch), the French began producing this weapon as their first regulation sword.[26] Weapons of this design were also issued to the Swedish army from the time of Gustavus Adolphus until as late as the 1850s.[27]

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  Venetian schiavona, type 2a, of the late 17th century
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  British Pattern 1788 Heavy Cavalry Sword
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  A Scottish broadsword of the claidheamh cuil or "back-sword" type
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  Swiss-made Walloon sword
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  George Sinclair's forces land in Norway, 1612. The soldier in the center is armed with a Sinclair hilt broadsword and wears a comb morion.
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  "The Advantage of Shifting the Leg", plate from Henry Angelo & Son's Hungarian and Highland Broadsword (1799).