Basket-Hilted Swords

Hey folks, Matt Easton here, Scholar Gladiatoria, and before I start this video, which I'm going to be talking about basket hilts, I'd like to say that it's dedicated to a really good friend of mine and a founder, in fact, a founding member of Scholar Gladiatoria by the name of Ross Dean. Any of you who were in the very early days of HEMA in Europe, so around the year 1999, 2001, 2002, Ross was in those days working with Chris Webb on a company called Countercut, importing swords from Angus Trim and other companies into the UK, and he came to quite a number of HEMA events, and any of you who were obviously a member of Scholar Gladiatoria at that time, in those very early days, in fact, at our beginning, at our very absolute beginning, will remember Ross fondly. He was a great guy, and sadly I found out today, this morning in fact, that sadly he's passed away. So Ross, this is for you. I'll remember you incredibly fondly. You were very important in the early days of my personal experience of HEMA, and you were a great guy. So one of Ross's loves, he was born in Glasgow, he actually lived in Devon when I knew him anyway, and in fact until the end of his life, but he was from Glasgow, and one of his loves being from Glasgow was basket hilted swords. I'm just going to talk a little bit about basket hilted swords. Some of you will have heard some of the things I'm saying before, but for some of you this may be new information. So first of all, what is a basket hilted sword? Well you can see I'm holding one here. What I'm going to do is I'm going to swap over swords to the beginning of the story, okay? So this is Lucy's sword in fact. This is a replica, or at least the hilt is a replica, of the Mary Rose sword. Now Mary Rose was Henry VIII's flagship, which sunk in 1545. Therefore this hilt, this style of hilt, is very specifically datable to 1545 or earlier. And really in the history of basket hilts, that's incredibly early. What's amazing is that such a developed form of basket should have been available to people in 1545. And also there's a perception, certainly in the Victorian period, and I think through into modern times as well, that this style of basket hilt that goes fully around the hand is a sort of Scottish and Irish thing. And of course, ironically, one of the earliest datable examples we have is English. Not to say that, of course, the person who owned that sword and probably died on Henry VIII's ship Mary Rose in 1545, he may have been Scottish or Irish. In fact there's nothing to say for sure that he was an Englishman. But absolutely the earliest datable find therefore is from Portsmouth in England, or just off the coast of England in the sea, from 1545. But that's not to say that basket hilts only came around in the British Isles. There were basket hilts in Germany and other areas of Europe. German basket hilts seem to be pretty much almost as early as British ones. But they're different, they're a different design. They do fully encase the hand, or at least the developed ones do, but they don't do it in the same way with the same arrangement of bars. So rather than necessarily it being invented in one place and copied, so for example let's say it was invented in England in 1530-ish, the Germans didn't just copy it because the German-style basket hilts are quite different to the British, shall we say, style basket hilts. So therefore why do we get these basket hilts coming around in let's say the second quarter of the 16th century? I think it's probably safe to say that if we've got one syncing with the Mary Rose in 1545 they'd probably been around for at least 10 years prior, especially given how developed this basket hilt is and how similar it is to later ones from the later 1500s and indeed after 1600 as well. One thing we have to note about this basket is it is asymmetrical. So unlike with the later Highland basket hilts we see, which are symmetrical usually, sometimes they have a hole for the reins to hold a horse but generally speaking they're more or less symmetrical and this is asymmetrical and secondly it still has a cross guard. So if you look at this hilt for a minute and try and blank out the basket, what we've essentially got is a medieval arming sword. If we just cover up that basket we've got a cross, straight cross here, with terminal knobs on the end as you find with 15th century English swords and a ball pommel. I've also spoken in the past how those ball pommels are a very characteristically English feature actually and if we look at the Scottish swords very often they have a hemispherical or sometimes conical pommel. The English ones are spherical and you'll notice it's a massive knob and to make that that's not too heavy because of the size it is hollow. So there was obviously something in the English psyche that loved a massive knob on the end of their swords and because they wanted a big pommel they had to make it hollow so that it wasn't balanced wrongly essentially. But there was obviously something in their ethos of design either the look of it or the feel of it or something that meant they wanted big round pommels. But coming back to the basket you'll notice that it's asymmetrical and the inner guards are actually quite like a swept hilt rapier. So we've got something that looks like a vestigial finger ring here so if you imagine the finger coming over there possibly that could be a finger ring and then side bars that are similar to the thumb bars we get on a swept hilt rapier. So it seems as if what they were doing is they were taking a swept hilt that was for a thrust centric sword and then being in Britain the British being cut centric people as we as you find out when you read George Silver not say they didn't thrust but they were very choppy centric people and the Germans seem to have been as well at least the northern Germans they've decided to fit a basket hilt which better protects against cuts. So for example if you're using a swept hilt then the forms of swept hilt protect your hand enough from cuts because you've generally got the blade forward and in front of the hand. As soon as you want to hold the sword more like this then that hilt doesn't work so great against cuts and you're better off developing some form of basket which protects the hand better and because of angulation assuming the other person is right-handed and I'm right-handed if they cut to me here and I guard here then actually this side of the guard protects the hand perfectly adequately we only need protection for the thumb as we have there which is why very often with sabers you'll notice as well the guard is more accentuated on this side whereas if we guard on this side against the cut we need that guard there so whether we're guarding inside or outside we want the guard mostly on the outside. Not to say that it's not useful on the inside of course we do get hit on the inside of the hand and the wrist sometimes so a full basket hilt has some advantages but it comes at a cost but I'm going to talk about those costs in a minute. So we get this type of basket hilt asymmetrical that eventually becomes a symmetrical basket hilt which we'll look at in a second in Britain by before the middle of the 16th century which is incredibly early when we consider as late as 1500 people were still essentially using swords that looked like medieval swords they had cross hilts they occasionally had finger rings they occasionally had a knuckle bow okay so very occasionally you get a finger ring very occasionally you get a knuckle bow and both of both of those elements are incorporated into this hilt but remember that gives you essentially what most people would know as a side sword now a side sword which is essentially an arming sword with some additional hand protection on it a side sword is a type of sword that you can find throughout the 1500s all the way through to 1600 and in some cases beyond without any real additional things you know finger rings a knuckle bow and maybe a side ring so really relatively minimal hand protection so the fact that we're getting a fully enclosed basket by 1545 probably by 1535 is really quite an exceptional thing so why did people in and this is a separate question I have addressed this in a separate video in the past rather than me saying I'm going to do a separate video I can say I've done a separate video why did people in Germany and England develop the style of hilts at that time well I think it has to be connected first of all to the carrying of swords in civilian life that is people therefore not wearing forms of hand protection they've got vulnerable hands so they want to protect them but secondly it has to be connected to the fencing systems using these swords and I'm not going to go into the details of that now but I think it's got to be connected to the fact that in England and Germany there were certain guards guard positions and certain ways of using swords which must have meant that basket hilts were seen as more appropriate than they were necessarily in Italy France and Spain right so we're going to come back now to the so as I've mentioned this at some point developed away from a swept hilt on the inside and a basket hilt on the outside to the more in fact I'll grab a different one because I've got three down here so I may as well make use of all of them to a more symmetrical basket now this form this is a 19th century example in fairly rough condition as you can see made by Wilkinson in the middle of the 19th century but what they essentially followed with the Highland officers basket hilt was a symmetrical hilt modeled on what had been developed in Scotland really in the late 1600s and into the 1700s so whilst this is a 19th century sword the hilt is very much a product of the 18th century you could even say the late 17th century so in the 17th century or even in the 16th century we start to see symmetrical baskets being formed and you'll notice the cross guard is still there it's still inside the basket it's still part of the construction and part of the design but the basket the guard rather the cross guard no longer extends beyond the basket now we could get into a great and we could do a whole video in fact on why that's the case I think by and large the simplest answer is because it wasn't needed anymore you don't need to have the cross guard extending beyond the basket and in fact that was one of the first features to be dropped from basket hilts by about the year 1600 so about the time that George Silver and Joseph Swetnum were writing their treatises around that time the cross guard stops extending beyond the basket with the exception of this little quill on at the back and they start to trust the whole basket now is there any advantage to having the cross guard extend beyond the basket well in literal terms you could say yes I think it does help you engage opposing thrusting weapons more easily and bind against them and counter thrust so if you've got your point forward and you're fighting someone who's using a rapier or a small sword if you engage with them you're more likely to get their blade trapped by your quill on and you're able to thrust back at them however if you're favoring a predominantly cut centric style and you're not holding the sword in the way I just was there but you're holding it in something closer to a handshake grip instead of a thumb up or quill on fingering style grip which brings the point more in line if you've got more of a canted connection between your arm and the sword which in some ways is not forced but is in some ways promoted by the basket hilt itself then indeed the guard in that form engaging the person's blade and and counter thrusting is something that perhaps you need the quill ons less however one thing I will say notice that even on these 19th century ones and right the way through the 18th century we usually have these two bars and I do think to some extent they act as a blade trap okay so I think they have two main purposes I know that Paul Macdonald and various other people out there have ideas about what these are for as far as I'm aware and please do post underneath if you know somewhat contrary to this but as far as I'm aware no historical source explains why these two bars here are retained they are like the finger ring almost and the quill on combined now I've got I think they're there for two main reasons partly there there is a trap okay partly there for exactly what I just talked about if you cross the person's blade and you counter thrust them then I think you're more likely to trap or bind their blade in there during the wind but secondly I think they're also there as a not a shock absorber as such but a kind of barrier to this part of the basket getting a lot of punishment because in this style of broadsword play that's taking very heavy blows a lot of the heavy blows come down there so I think that they are there to absorb or block a lot of the punishment that would otherwise be directed straight at the guard and if that guard were getting bent in it would be impacting with your index finger and your hand basically inside perhaps even your thumb by having that there the impacts are away and if these get bent or broken at least it's a bit further away from your hand so I think that I think those are the two main reasons but the symmetrical hilt does it give more protection yes no shadow of a doubt why what is the disadvantage of having a symmetrical hilt well first of all let's in fact let's break that down we'll talk about the disadvantages and advantages of a full basket helpful so number one easiest big advantage a huge amount of hand protection now some of you go oh there's some gaps in there I could stick my small sword through well yeah every hilt has gaps in it okay my whole body's a gap as well okay notice I don't have a hilt around my head or around my torso so yes there are always going to be some things exposed but these basket hilts usually have a buff leather liner inside so actually many of these those gaps will be filled by leather now leather isn't going to stop everything but it'll stop most things most things involving the force of a sword anyway and at least remember the sword that is moving the whole time so the whole time it's attacking and defending and doing everything else you can't specifically target little holes and put all of your exertion to trying to stab through here when the other person is in the process of defending and counter-attacking and riposting as well okay so remember you're fighting someone who's trying to kill you quite possibly right so huge amount of hand protection to both sides okay clearly the outside and the inside whichever direction I point the hilt in okay I've got huge amounts of hand protection more than basically any other hilt invented especially when we've got the leather liner inside what are the disadvantages well there are three main disadvantages as I see it number one they're a bit of a pain to wear okay one of the beauties of asymmetrical hilts is if most of your protection is on the right hand side when you wear it at your side it doesn't stick out and it doesn't bash into you too much okay it's one of the reasons that sabre hilts are slightly asymmetrical they extend more on one side than the other partly because that's what's necessary that's like the minimum necessary for hand protection in actual combat and fencing but also because by having less on the inside it goes against your body more easily that aside the second disadvantage is that it restricts hand movement to some extent so by having the hilt all around okay instead of being if I hold this one which has got less less of a hilt I can actually extend my hand quite far up now I know that Jay, Mass and other people have not argued with me but have picked me up on this point and they are correct you can still I'll just switch to the other basket hilt you can still get quite versatile grip on these types of swords and in fact you can get the thumb up just about but that's partly facilitated for one specific reason that I'll go into in a second okay so you don't have to just grip it with a hammer fist you can have it with a handshake grip with a canter grip and you can put the thumb up and there are indeed sources from the period which describe putting the thumb up with a basket hilt so so long as you've got enough space in inside it might not be terribly comfortable but you can get your thumb up I would however to to defend my point bearing this in mind this is the second disadvantage I'm listing for basket hilts I would defend my point by saying that it's not as comfortable and it's not as versatile as something like a saber hilt okay or a hanger hilt or cutlass hilt because of these sidebars but I'll come back to those sidebars in a second thirdly the third disadvantage to having a full basket weight now don't underestimate that when you look at the average weights of basket hilts be they 17th century highland basket hilts or 19th century officer swords they are heavier swords and the reason they're heavier swords is not because they've got bigger blades they don't the blade is about the same mass as a typical um saber of the period the reason they're heavier is because they've got a huge amount more metal at the hilt which tends to bring the point of balance quite far back now that has two effects number one you're carrying a heavier weapon not only wearing a heavier weapon but you're using a heavier weapon which means that your shoulder and other bits of your body are likely to get tired more quickly and potentially it moves a little bit more slowly so it's a heavier weapon with all of the disadvantages that comes with secondly by having a huge amount of weight at the hilt it does it has the potential to mess up the point of balance here by bringing the point of balance too close to the hand and reducing the cutting power of the blade therefore to counter effect that you usually have to make the blade a bit heavier which makes the entire weapon heavier and makes it slower so there are some disadvantages to sticking so much mass on the hilt of a weapon and if we read colonel mary mong's treaties he very much argues that the best cutting swords in the world are the ones which have a point of balance fairly far up the blade have a lot of inertia at the tip and have very light hilts for example the mamluk shamshir or the turkish kilich or the indian tolwa so the disadvantage of having lots of weight at the back end of the sword is it's at the back end of the sword and you're hitting someone with this end of the sword and therefore you're making a heavy weapon which isn't giving you any benefit to wounding the opponent it's only giving you benefit to protecting your hand right now coming back to those sidebars so i mentioned that one of the disadvantages was the sidebars now you'll notice that some versions of these and this is an example i'll make it focus on the hilt for you attach the sidebars instead of at the side so if you look at a mortuary hilt or if you look at an 18th century basket hilt these sidebars normally come in and join here and that prevents the hand from coming down the side of the pommel and gripping it with a dynamic grip like this but with 19th century versions they managed to get around this by attaching them essentially at the front of the pommel now that is a really really clever adaptation that enables you to get the hand down in something closer to a saber position which is very good for a 19th century officer because they were using exactly the same system for these swords as they were for sabers and indeed for spadrunes so angelo basically so most people in for the first half of the 19th century were using angelo's method in britain anyway of course and so therefore they were using it with this sword or a saber or whatever okay so being able to use it in the same way as a saber is quite good it helps you to train your army and your officers and everything else also means if you're an english officer as was often the case an english person who's gone to become an officer in a highland regiment and you now have to carry one of these this is 71st i think let's have a look uh 70 he's written somewhere and i can't see it now uh 74th highlanders there we go sorry for that digression um so if you're an englishman who's become an officer in a highland regiment you may have trained foil fencing and spadrune or saber fencing so if you're now posted to or join the 74th regiment of foot a highland regiment it means that you can pick up one of these and still use it in the same way that you've trained to so very useful in military terms one thing i mentioned as well other basket hills so i realized that most of my videos are very anglo or british centric um and this is we are talking about a british style sword here but as mentioned earlier in the video there are other foreign types of basket hilt one of those um i've mentioned the german basket hilts of the 16th century which have a different hilt design to these and are very beautiful and still have cross guards and then the cross guards disappear in a very similar way incidentally to in britain but they tend to have different shaped pommels and different arrangement of bars but equally another very famous type of basket hilt is the schiavona that is an italian basket hilt to an extent in that it was brought in by the slavic mercenaries fighting for venice mostly or the northern states in the 16th century so those people from essentially serbia and the balkans who came into italy to fight as mercenaries brought a type of basket hilt sword with them so they had a type of basket hilt just like the germans did the northern germans and just like the english did and the scottish and the irish but it was a different design yet again now what's interesting about the schiavona is that the bars the side bars connect at the front they in fact don't really connect at all they come in front of the pommel which enables you and in fact they still have finger rings inside to get this type of dynamic point extended grip more easily than the earlier british examples such as the mortuary hilt and the early highland basket hilts do where the bars connect at the side right so i'm going to finish off more or less there i think but hopefully that was an overview of basket hilts basket hilts seem to have been particular to certain areas as mentioned all of the british isles england scotland um island and wales um and they were popular in northern germ northern and central germany and they were popular in um in what became the former yugoslavia and therefore the mercenaries carried those into northern italy as well so there were basket hilted cut and thrust swords or broad swords should we say back swords and broad swords were popular in several different areas and that must be connected to the particular requirements of those people in that time and the way that they used their swords there are some disadvantages to these they're heavier they sometimes limit hand mobility and they're a bit more difficult to wear and things like this and but that being said they come with many advantages the main one being a huge level of hand protection but also and it shouldn't be overstated the fact that they are symmetrical the later ones are symmetrical and a symmetrical guard means that the sword's less likely to turn in the hand when you're moving it around asymmetrical guards have a habit of turning in the hand and there we go once again to say basket hilts very very interesting form of sword they don't get as much attention as they probably should do but some people out there like jay j mass in canada are working on the the use of these the specific use of these there's also heiko over in germany as well with various people out there who are working on basket hilt sources 18th century sources in particular need more love not just basket hilted broad swords and back swords but also the small sword the spadroon and so on and once again to say this is dedicated to ross dean i'm going to miss you and i'm really glad that we reconnected a bit a year or two ago and managed to catch up and i'm glad that you had a happy and good life condolences to family and friends he is going to be really missed he was a great guy cheers folks thanks for watching we've got extra videos on patreon please give our facebook a like and subscribe if you haven't already cheers folks