page_title: Pike (weapon)
section_title: Medieval Europe revival
hierarchical_section_title: Pike (weapon) / History / Medieval Europe revival
caption_attribution_description: Deutsch: Ausschnitt aus einem anonymen Holzschnitt der Schlacht bei Dornach 1499 während des Schwabenkriegs. Der Ausschnitt zeigt die rechte Hälfte des Bildes. Der Holzschnitt misst insgesamt 86 x 41 cm. Es gibt drei bekannte Exemplare: Germanisches Nationalmuseum Nürnberg (koloriert), Universitätsbibliothek Basel (unkoloriert), Stadtbibliothek Zürich (unkoloriert, beschnitten). Über den Autor ist nichts bekannt, das Nürnberger Exemplar trägt die Bezeichnung "Zu Basel by Görg Erne". Eine Enstehung nahe am Ereignis gilt als wahrscheinlich, plausibel ist ein Druck in Basel um das Jahr 1500. Zemp vermutet als Urheber den Basler Meister Rudolf Heri (Herri, Herry), der 1500 auch ein Bild der Schlacht für das Rathaus Solothurn gemalt hat. Josef Zemp, Die schweizerischen Bilderchroniken und ihre Architektur-Darstellungen (1897), 77&#8211;83. Das Bild stellt gleichzeitig verschiedene Phasen der Schlacht dar. In der Mitte des Geschehens ist der Hauptkampf unterhalb der Burg Dorneck dargestellt (links unter dem roten Andreaskreuz die Reiterei des Schwäbischen Bundes, rechts unter den Bannern von Bern, Thun, Zürich und Solothurn die Eidgenössische Infanterie), oberhalb das Eingreifen der Nachhut bei Arlesheim und im unteren Teil kann man das Abschlachten der fliehenden Besiegten an der Birs sehen English: Detail of a contemporary woodcut of a the Battle of Dornach during the Swabian War 1499. The picture shows several phases of the battle: in the middle the main battle underneath the castle of Dorneck (on the left the cavalry of the Swabian League under the banner of the red Saint Andrew's Cross, on the right the Swiss infantry under the banners of Bern, Thun, Zurich and Solothurn); underneath the slaughtering of the fleeing troups by the Swiss at the river Birs
context_page_description: A pike is a pole weapon, a very long thrusting spear formerly used extensively by infantry. Pikes were used regularly in European warfare from the Late Middle Ages to the early 18th century, and were wielded by foot soldiers deployed in close quarters, until their replacement by the bayonet. The pike found extensive use with Landsknecht armies and Swiss mercenaries, who employed it as their main weapon and used it in pike square formations. A similar weapon, the sarissa, was also used by Alexander the Great's Macedonian phalanx infantry to great effect. Generally, a spear becomes a pike when it is too long to be wielded with one hand in combat.
context_section_description: In the Middle Ages, the principal users of the pike were urban militia troops such as the Flemings or the peasant array of the lowland Scots. For example, the Scots used a spear formation known as the schiltron in several battles during the Wars of Scottish Independence including the Battle of Bannockburn in 1314, and the Flemings used their geldon long spear to absorb the attack of French knights at the Battle of the Golden Spurs in 1302, before other troops in the Flemish formation counterattacked the stalled knights with goedendags. Both battles were seen by contemporaries as stunning victories of commoners over superbly equipped, mounted, military professionals, where victory was owed to the use of the pike and the brave resistance of the commoners who wielded them.
  These formations were essentially immune to the attacks of mounted men-at-arms as long as the knights obligingly threw themselves on the spear wall and the foot soldiers remained steady under the morale challenge of facing a cavalry charge, but the closely packed nature of pike formations rendered them vulnerable to enemy archers and crossbowmen who could shoot them down with impunity, especially when the pikemen did not have adequate armor. Many defeats, such as at Roosebeke and Halidon Hill, were suffered by the militia pike armies when faced by cunning foes who employed their archers and crossbowmen to thin the ranks of the pike blocks before charging in with their (often dismounted) men-at-arms.
   
  Medieval pike formations tended to have better success when they operated in an aggressive fashion. The Scots at the Battle of Stirling Bridge (1297), for example, utilized the momentum of their charge to overrun an English army while the Englishmen were crossing a narrow bridge. At the Battle of Laupen (1339), Bernese pikemen overwhelmed the infantry forces of the opposing Habsburg/Burgundian army with a massive charge before wheeling over to strike and rout the Austro-Burgundian horsemen as well. At the same time however such aggressive action required considerable tactical cohesiveness or suitable terrain to protect the vulnerable flanks of the pike formations especially from the attack of mounted man-at-arms, when these features not available Medieval militia pikes often suffered costly failures such as at Battles of Mons-en-Pevele (1304), Cassel (1328), Roosebeke (1382) and Othee (1408). The constant success of the Swiss mercenaries in the later period was attributed to their extreme discipline and tactical unity due to semi-professional nature, allowing a pike block to somewhat alleviate the threat presented by flanking attacks.
  It was not uncommon for aggressive pike formations to be composed of dismounted men-at-arms, as at the Battle of Sempach (1386), where the dismounted Austrian vanguard, using their lances as pikes, had some initial success against their predominantly halberd-equipped Swiss adversaries. Dismounted Italian men-at-arms also used the same method to defeat the Swiss at the Battle of Arbedo (1422). Equally, well-armored Scottish nobles (accompanied even by King James IV) were recorded as forming the leading ranks of Scottish pike blocks at the Battle of Flodden, incidentally rendering the whole formation resistant to English archery.
caption: Contemporary woodcut of the Battle of Dornach.
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