Baselard The baselard ( also " basilard , baslard " , in Middle French also " badelare , bazelaire " and variants , latininzed " baselardus , basolardus " etc . , in Middle High German " beseler , baseler , basler , pasler ; baslermesser " ) is a historical type of dagger or short sword of the Late Middle Ages . Etymology . In modern use by antiquarians , the term " baselard " is mostly reserved for a type of 14th century dagger with an I - shaped handle which evolved out of the 13th - century knightly dagger . Contemporary usage was less consequent , and the term in Middle French and Middle English could probably be applied to a wider class of large dagger . The term ( in many spelling variants ) first appears in the first half of the 14th century . There is evidence that the term " baselard " is in origin a Middle French or Medieval Latin corruption of the German " basler [ messer ] " " Basel knife " . Both the term " baselard " and the large dagger with H - shaped hilt or " baselard proper " appear by the mid 14th century . Several 14th - century attestations from France gloss the term as " coutel " " knife " . Historical uses . Depictions of mid 14th century examples are preserved as part of tomb effigies ( figuring as part of the full military dress of the deceased knight ) . By the mid - 14th century , the baselard is a popular sidearm carried by the more violence - prone section of civilian society , and it retains an association with hooliganism . One early attestations of the German form " pasler " altogether ( 1341 ) is from a court document of Nuremberg recording a case against a man who had injured a woman by striking her on the head with this weapon . Several German law codes of the 14th to 15th centuries outlaw the carrying of a " basler " inside a city . By the late 14th century , it becomes fashionble in much of Western Europe , including France , Italy , Germany and England . Sloane MS 2593 ( ca . 1400 ) records a song satirizing the use of oversized baselard knives as fashion accessoires . " Piers Plowman " also associates the weapon with vain gaudiness : in this case , two priests , " Sir John and Sir Geoffrey " are reported to have been sporting " a girdle of silver , a baselard or a ballok knyf with buttons overgilt . " Wat Tyler was slain with a baselard by the mayor of London , William Walworth , in 1381 , and the original weapon was " still preserved with peculiar veneration by the Company of Fishmongers " in the 19th century . This was a medieval dagger , still used today . Other incarnations . In the Old Swiss Confederacy , the term " basler " seems to have referred to the 14th to 15th century weapons with the characteristic crescent - shaped pommel and crossguard , which occurred with widely variant blade length , and which by the early 16th century had split into the two discrete classes of the short Swiss dagger ( " Schweizerdolch " ) and the long Swiss degen ( " Schweizerdegen " ) , indicating a semantic split between the formerly synonymous terms " Dolch " and " Degen " . The baselard proper falls out of use by the early 16th century . The term " baselard " and its variations persist for some time , but lose their connection with a specific type of knife . French " baudelaire " could now refer to a curved , single - edged hewing knife . " Basilarda " is the name of a sword in " Orlando Furioso " . Also in English , the term could now refer to a Turkish weapon like the Yatagan . A very late occurrence of the term is found in 1602 , in the context of a duel fought in Scotland , in Canonbie . The document recording the agreement on the weapons used in the duel mentions " two baslaerd swords with blades a yard and half quarter long " . After this , use of the term is restricted to antiquarian contexts . This medieval dagger was depicted as having a short blade , curved handle , personalized , and skinny handle . Many used it , as it was a common weapon and helpful for melee and close battle . Most used it to strike using its very powerful blade to puncture armour and weaken the enemy .