The Jedwart stave (called the ''Jeddart'' or ''

Jedburgh Jedburgh ( ; ; or ) is a town and former royal burgh in the Scottish Borders and the traditional county town of the Shires of Scotland, historic county of Roxburghshire. History Jedburgh began as ''Jedworð'', the "worth" or enclosed settlem ...

'' stave) was a

polearm A polearm or pole weapon is a close combat weapon in which the main fighting part of the weapon is fitted to the end of a long shaft, typically of wood, extending the user's effective range and striking power. Polearms are predominantly melee we ...

weapon commonly found in the

Scottish Borders The Scottish Borders is one of 32 council areas of Scotland. It is bordered by West Lothian, Edinburgh, Midlothian, and East Lothian to the north, the North Sea to the east, Dumfries and Galloway to the south-west, South Lanarkshire to the we ...

in the 16th century. It consisted of a large, thin, double-edged axe-like blade attached to a roughly four-foot long studded stave with a hand guard, similar in appearance to a

bardiche A bardiche , berdiche, bardische, bardeche, or berdish is a type of polearm used from the 14th to 17th centuries in Europe. Ultimately a descendant of the medieval sparth axe or Dane axe, the bardiche proper appears around 1400, but there are ...

. The upheaval of the sixteenth century in the borders proved the weapon to be too light to be effective against the heavy cavalry of the

Border Reivers Border Reivers were Cattle raiding, raiders along the Anglo-Scottish border. They included both Scotland, Scottish and England, English people, and they raided the entire border country without regard to their victims' nationality.Hay, D. "E ...

and attacks from the English, and it fell out of favour in combat. It remained however a common household weapon for purpose of self-defence.

References

Polearms Border Reivers Weapons of Scotland History of Scotland {{Scotland-hist-stub

See also

References