Swiss arms and armour

The

Early Modern period

(16th and 17th centuries).

The halberd was the primary weapon of the early Swiss armies in the 14th and early 15th centuries. Later on, the Swiss added the

Landsknechte, who imitated Swiss warfare methods during the early 16th century, also used the pike, supplemented by the halberd. The halberd is still the ceremonial weapon of the Swiss Guard in the Vatican.^[1]

The Swiss armies of the late 14th and 15th centuries, used a variety of different

cannons

and early handguns.

The bladesmiths of

personal weapon, either pike, halberd or handgun, as well as his personal sidearm, and in the 18th century his own musket, bayonet, sabre

, and uniform.

Central

armouries (Zeughäuser) which were able to equip the troops of a given city developed only in the more wealthy cities during the 17th and 18th centuries, specifically in Zürich, Bern, Lucerne, Fribourg and Geneva

. These did not supersede the principle of the privately owned equipment; instead, the armouries offered standard equipment at a reduced price to the individual serviceman. Consequently, substantial reserves of arms and armour were accumulated in the armouries of the Swiss cities during the Thirty Years' War, especially by Zürich and Solothurn. These armouries were decommissioned after the dissolution of cantonal military forces with the formation of the modern state in 1848.

By contrast, the population of the rural cantons in the conflicts of the Early Modern period was often armed with simple and ad hoc weaponry, especially clubs, and maces such as the spiked morning star. This was the case in the Swiss peasant war of 1653, and again in the Stecklikrieg uprising of 1802, called after the eponymous Stäckli "club" carried by the insurgents.

Substantial collections of historical arms and armour are kept in the

Historical Museum in Bern and in the Morges Castle

Military Museum.