Many of those who study medieval swords can be somewhat cavalier (pun intended) regarding the precise lexicology of sword types. It is to be hoped that any who consider themselves serious students of the subject will understand that the term “broadsword” refers not to large, heavy cruciform swords of the type hoi polloi mean when they use the term, but rather to basket-hilted, double-edged swords of the type developed in England. Some terms, however, remain indistinct or confusing, even among the cognoscenti, especially the term “bastard sword.”
Many sources tend to lump bastard swords together under the broad heading of longswords (I do so myself in my unarmored longsword book, to my shame), and yet a careful study will show a distinction between the two terms, and, indeed, we see that distinction made manifest in the Fechtbücher, as this essay will demonstrate. In this essay, I will urge the sense of the term taught by the great Ewart Oakeshott, who referred to bastard swords as “hand-and-a-half” swords, meaning that they fell between arming swords and longswords, and could be used as easily with one hand on the hilt as with two [1]. Conversely, we will limit the term “longsword” to swords which are generally used only with two hands on the hilt (except in armor, of course) because using them one-handed, while possible, would be awkward.
That definition is not absolute in the literature. For example, in 1801 Joseph Strutt referred to a bastard sword as “A sword without edges or point.” [2] However, as early as 1617, Joseph Swetnam referred to: “The Bastard Sword, the which sword is something shorter than a long sword, and yet longer than a short sword.” [3] The term “hand-and-a-half sword” only dates to the late nineteenth century [4], but it seems clear this is what Swetnam meant and we will hold that term to be synonymous with bastard sword.
This distinction between bastard swords and longswords shows up in the Fechtbücher. When we look at the Gladiatoria Fechtbuch from the first half of the fifteenth century, for example, we see similar swords used both in an out of armor. All of the swords in that source, whether used in armored combat or out of armor with a Langenschilte or buckler seem to be bastard swords, with hilt and blade lengths appearing to be the same for all (note, however, that this source does not contain any unarmored longsword
