Pollaxe Combat:

Principles and Tactics

By: Hugh T. Knight, Jr.

 Pollaxe Combat: Principles and Tactics

T
his paper will discuss the general principles and tactics of pollaxe combat in
armored duels. It will not address specific techniques, as such; for those, see my
book The Play of the Axe available from Lulu.com. Rather, in this paper I will
discuss the general process of combat, and how to use the axe most efficiently in that
process. The principles here are those which underlie the art of the axe and which are
necessary in order to understand how to use the Fechtbuch techniques correctly and
effectively. Some of this is not explicitly discussed in any Fechtbuch, but through
careful practice over many years I have found these principles and tactical principles to
be plainly implied by the masters and absolutely necessary in order to make their
published techniques work correctly in an actual fight.

GUARDS
You may grip the axe in one of two ways: Thumbs opposed or thumbs aligned.
Thumbs opposed means that the thumb of each hand faces the other. Thumbs aligned
means that both thumbs face the croix of the axe (NB: you should never hold your axe
with the left thumb pointing toward the queue—it will always point toward the croix).
While the thumbs-aligned grip is more intuitive for most men, the thumbs-opposed
grip is actually more versatile, and is worth learning to use well. It gives somewhat less
reach with a thrust double, but is just as effective for other techniques.

In all single axe play, you must take care to hold your axe in thirds, with the croix above
your right hand and the queue below your left hand; thus, one third of the shaft will be
between your hands. In war you may hold the axe long so that when you strike you do
not accidently hit your friends with the other end as you do so. In single combat,
however, it is important to be able to use either end of the axe at will, and to be able to
switch from using one end to the other effortlessly (just using each end—not switching
grips; see below). If you hold your axe too close to one end you will find it harder to
bring that end into play instantly.

Do not hold your axe too close to your body when in the guard of the low queue
because when you do so it presents less of a static defense against your opponent’s
attacks; be especially careful to hold your queue well out in front of your knee, but not
so far out that your opponent can knock it without stepping. Also, do not hold your axe
parallel to the ground at any time, but especially when displacing attacks, because
doing that means your defenses will have too small of an angle of incidence with regard
to your opponent’s axe, and thus his axe may slip off of your displacements too easily.

Avoid standing in guard as much as possible. This does not mean to switch from one
guard to the other while awaiting your opponent’s attack—that is foolishness, because
you are most susceptible to being hit while changing from one guard to another (c.f. the
plays of the vier Versetzen with the longsword). Rather, you are to attack first when
you can, a Vorschlag, and not just stand awaiting your opponent’s attack except in
special circumstances, of which more below.

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 Pollaxe Combat: Principles and Tactics

There are times when you may wish to stand in guard briefly to await or invite your
opponent’s attack. This is useful when your opponent is in guard and his guard is such
that you think a simple attack may be dangerous to use because he is ready and
prepared to use a powerful counter against your attack. You can judge this by his
demeanor: if he is confident and steady, you may suspect he is skilled enough to
counter your attack easily. Do not wait long under even these circumstances, however,
because doing so is of little use. If you wait for a few moments and he still does not
attack, then you must attack, but you should do so with a feint to draw him from his
guard so that you may hit him where you wish—that should upset whatever
counterattack he had planned.

THE PARTS OF THE AXE

The axe is, by definition and intent, an unbalanced weapon. The croix is heavy, while
the queue is fast and agile. Many believe that the croix is the primary “business end” of
the axe, but they are mistaken; the author of Le Jeu de la Hache says this explicitly,
saying that an expert will advance with his queue forward. When someone attacks
with the dague or mail, the attack will necessarily be slower than your counter with the
lighter, faster queue. Thus, you should normally prefer to assume a guard with the
queue forward, either low or high, so you are better prepared to use it. If you also pay
attention to the importance of length and measure, so that your opponent cannot attack
you without taking a step to do so, it should be all but impossible for him to strike you
successfully with a simple attack since a quick movement of your hands will interpose
your queue against his attack in the Time of the Hand.

The croix of your axe is better used for attacks in the Krieg after you have displaced an
attack with your queue. One exception to this is when you are in the guard of the low
dague: This guard is useful for thrusting attacks against an unwary opponent using the
thrust single, which has a very long range your opponent may not expect. Be wary of
using this, however, as a successful displacement of such a thrust will make it hard to
defend against follow-on attacks since your axe may fly far out to the side because of
how far down your hands are toward the queue. This guard is also useful for
countering blows from above with either the Absetzen or Hinterbinden.

The bec de faucon is never used for striking, despite what many believe. Armor is
proof against such attacks, and they slide off too easily to be of much use for percussive
effect. The only thing for which the bec is used in any Fechtbuch we have is as a hook,
to yank or pull. Such yanking techniques are most often applied to the neck
(Halsreissen) or knee (Kniereissen) to throw your opponent forward or backward,
respectively, to the ground, or against the shaft of your opponent’s axe (Axtreissen) to
remove it from his hand.

When you hook anything with your bec, be it your opponent or the shaft of his axe, you
must pay attention to do it correctly. Many men simply reach out with their axes and

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 Pollaxe Combat: Principles and Tactics

attempt to snag the bec on the target. This approach often results in a shallow hook,
and this can easily result in your bec slipping off of its target. The correct way to hook a
target is to strike at the target with the shaft of your axe immediately below the bec so
that the bec goes past the target. For example, if you wish to hook your opponent’s
knee, don’t reach out with a snatching motion to hook the knee, instead, strike the side
of his knee with the shaft of your axe just below your bec so that the bec passes behind
his knee. That way, your bec will be firmly on the target when you begin to pull, and a
moderate amount of force in the strike will also help to break your opponent’s balance.

THE ZUFECHTEN AND THE KRIEG

A Vorschlag will be successful only in rare instances, such as when your opponent’s
attention wanders. This is because of length and measure: If your opponent is the
correct distance away, you must necessarily take a step in order to hit him in the Time
of the Hand, Body, and Foot. This means your attack will take longer to land than it
would take for him to simply interpose his axe between your attack and his person
since he can do so in the Time of the Hand. Thus, it is pointless to try to force the
Vorschlag to land, such as by trying to move extremely fast, because that will only
make it harder to move on to the next action. The Vorschlag is not really expected to
land, although it would be delightful if it did—take care not to make a half-hearted
attack, as it may well work.

The real purpose of a Vorschlag is twofold: First, it allows you to close from the
Zufechten into the Krieg safely because your opponent will need to defend himself as
you close rather than attacking you. Second, it puts you into the Vor since, again, he is
forced to defend himself as you attack, which puts him in the Nach.

Once you close into the Krieg, you must apply the principle of frequens motus, or
constant motion. Whether you attack in the Vor or counter his attack with a technique
that takes the Vor, in both cases you must work to maintain the Vor at all times, never
giving your opponent a chance to leave the Nach so he can attack you. So if he
displaces your Vorschlag, then you must move to another attack Indes so he is forced to
displace that attack, and so on until he misses a displacement and is struck. In general
you will best accomplish this by moving from end to end with your axe. Thus, if your
first attack is an Oberstich with your queue and it is displaced, then you should strike
with your mail. If that is displaced, do the next thing, whatever it may be, with your
queue, switching back and forth, end to end, until your opponent is defeated.

Frequens motus also means that you should constantly be looking for targets for light
attacks, especially when your queue is forward, as it should be the majority of the time.
Look for quick, light thrusts single to the palms of your opponent’s hands, his face if his
visor is up or off, or his feet if he is not wearing sabatons. Keep your queue in constant
motion so he does not know where it will strike, but take care he does not have a chance
to strike your queue when it is extended away from you lest he knock it out of your
hand.

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 Pollaxe Combat: Principles and Tactics

In addition to targets for quick thrusts, you should also watch carefully for any
weakness in your opponent’s stance or guard. If his stance is weak, you can attempt a
Kniereissen with your bec or queue. If his guard is weak, you can attempt to knock his
axe out of his grip (see below) or you can try to slide your queue through the gap
between one of his arms and the shaft of his axe in order to apply one of the arm levers.

ATTACKING THE SHAFT

While it is a general principle of the Kunst des Fechtens that we attack the man, not the
weapon, some of the attacks you use in pollaxe combat may be strikes against the shaft
of his axe in the hopes of making him lose his grip. Thus, if you attack with an
Oberschlag with your mail, and he displaces with his croix, you may strike the back of
his croix with your queue in order to try to knock his axe out through the fingers of his
right hand. Thus, some of your attacks may be at his weapon rather than at him; note,
however, that it is still preferable to move from end to end (croix to queue in this case)
as you do so.

When you attack his weapon, take care to strike against his grip. This means to strike
the shaft of his axe on the same side as the back of his hand so that you knock the shaft
out through the weak of his grip—that is, through the fingers. For example, if he is in
the right guard of the low queue and he starts to lift his queue so it comes into your
reach, circle your queue over his axe and use a powerful backhanded stroke (i.e., from
your right to your left) so that you knock his queue out through the fingers of his left
hand toward your left. If he is holding his axe right handed with the croix forward,
strike forehanded with your queue from your left to right to knock his axe out through
the fingers of his right hand to your right. These knocking techniques can often follow
after a simple displacement. For example, if he attacks with an Oberschlag from his
right, you can displace with your croix, then strike the back of his shaft with your queue
to knock it out of the fingers of his right hand to your right.

One exception to the rule about moving from end to end is that when he places his
demy hache in the way of your axe you may wish to hook his axe with your bec de
faucon (Axtreissen) in an attempt to rip it out of his hands. Learn to twist your axe
quickly in your grip so that you can rotate it while starting to pull back with the bec de
faucon—try to avoid doing it in two motions.

THRUSTS
There are three kinds of thrusts: Thrusts single, thrusts double, and Ansetzen; all three
kinds can be done with the queue or the dague, and thrusts single and double can be
done from below or above (Oberstich or Unterstich). A thrust single is done by relaxing
the grip of your forward hand (i.e., your left hand for a thrust with the queue and your
right for a thrust with the dague) and driving the thrust with your rear hand so that the
shaft of your axe slides smoothly through your forward hand, then recovering back to a

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normal grip immediately (sort of like using a pool queue); you will often lunge forward
as you do so. To execute a thrust double, grip the shaft of your axe firmly and thrust
forward with both hands while lunging toward your target.

The Ansetzen is a special version of the thrust double; it is essentially a “thrust and
push” attack. The Ansetzen is not a percussive thrust; instead, it is a heavy, driving
push. To execute it, grip your axe firmly with both hands, and place the point (queue or
dague) firmly against the target. “Couch” your axe under your armpit and lock it in
place by pressing your rear arm over it. Then drive the point into the target with a
powerful pushing motion by stepping in with your feet in order to use your entire body
to push the point in. Although no source discusses the footwork for such thrusts,
experiments have shown that a passing step works best for driving the point in.
Ansetzen are normally used against targets covered in mail; the idea is to place your
point into the links of the mail then drive hard enough to push the point into the target
through the mail either by simply sliding through a link or by breaking one. An
Ansetzen can also be used to drive or push your opponent where you want him to go,
such as in “showing him the gate” (see below).

ATTACKING ARMOR
While armor is very effective protection, it can be defeated by attacking it correctly.
Plate armor is practically invulnerable to significant penetration, but it necessarily has
gaps at the joints, and thrusting attacks to these openings can be very effective even
when they are covered by mail. You should thrust to the insides of the elbows; the
armpits and the entire surrounding area not covered by the breastplate; the back of the
neck if your opponent is wearing a sallet; the backs of the knees; the backs of the thighs
if your opponent’s cuisses do not fully cover them; the palms of the hands; the feet if
your opponent is not wearing sabatons; the junction between the top of the sabatons
and the lower edge of the greave; and any other location not covered by plate. Of
course, if your opponent is not wearing a visor, something quite common in lethal
fights, his face is one of the best possible targets for a thrust (although sometimes a
mere turn of the head can interpose the side of his helmet); even if he is wearing a visor,
however, a heavy thrust can still have significant percussive effect, and can stun as
effectively as a blow of the mail.

Striking attacks with the mail of your axe against armor function differently. There are
two goals for striking attacks: You can either seek to damage your opponent through his
armor, or you can seek to limit his actions by damaging the armor itself. Some helmets
worn in foot combat were padded with relatively thin liners, often stuffed with animal
hair or wool, so a heavy blow to the helmet can be quite effective at stunning your
opponent. Great bascinets, however, do not suffer from this weakness, so pay attention
to the kind of helmet your opponent is wearing. When you strike the helmet, try to turn
your axe so that the face of the mail impacts perpendicularly to the slope of the helmet.
Although the teeth on the mail will help it to “stick” when it lands, a straight-down
blow will often glance off because the slope creates a glancing surface which prevents

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most of the blow’s force from being transmitted to the target. Another effective target
for striking blows is the hand, especially the fingers. Gauntlets are usually quite thin in
order to make them light, and as hands are quite delicate a blow there can be very
effective. Hands are, however, quick and highly mobile, so they can be difficult to
target.

The armor itself can be vulnerable to striking attacks. The lames, which allow armor to
articulate, are usually of thinner metal than the rest of the plates. Thus, a heavy blow to
the lames at the joints can cause the armor to fit improperly or make it difficult or
impossible for your opponent to move the limb they protect. A blow to the lames of a
pauldron, for example, can prevent it from sitting correctly on the shoulder, which can
create a gap into which you can thrust; such a blow can also make it very difficult for
your opponent to move his arm.

SHOWING THE GATE

In addition to striking, thrusting, and hooking, you can also use the shaft of your axe to
drive your opponent where you want him to go. Some judicial combat rule sets
consider driving your opponent from the lists through one of the two gates in the list
enclosure a victory condition; this is called “showing him the gate.” We have already
discussed doing this with an Ansetzen above; to do this with your shaft, you must use a
technique that causes him to present his back to you—a lever action on one of his arms
with your queue, or a wrenching with your bec, for example. The instant his back is
turned to you, you must immediately (Indes) press the middle of your axe shaft—the
demy hache—against his back at or just below his shoulder blades with your axe
horizontal and parallel to the ground. You want your axe to be well above his waist
since the higher you go the harder it will be for him to resist since you are on the
“weak” of his body; take care not to go too high, however, as that will make it easy for
him to slip out under your axe. Your hands should be in a thumbs-opposed grip and
just outside the sides of his body. Start driving him in the direction you want him to go
by pushing on the end of the axe on that side, but make sure to keep the entire shaft of
your axe against his back. You must use Fühlen as you push so as to know how he is
responding; he may turn right, left, or try to rush forward faster than you are
advancing, and you must feel his action through the shaft of your axe and respond
accordingly, by either pushing against the direction of his turn or speeding up to
prevent him from breaking contact.

FIGHTING LEFT HANDED

Some Fechtbücher show left-handed techniques, that is, ones done with the left hand
gripping the shaft toward the mail. Le Jeu de La Hache, by contrast, only shows how to
fight someone who is using an axe left handed, it does not show anything about using
the axe that way yourself. There is no indication that using an axe left handed is in any
way tied to handedness; rather, it just seems a tactical choice. If you choose to use your
axe left handed do not be tempted to switch to that grip, nor to switch back and forth,

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while in the Krieg, nor even in the Zufechten. Take up your grip only when out of
range, never in any situation in which your axe can be struck while doing so. A certain
famous instructor with rather confused ideas about how pollaxes are meant to be used
teaches ways to change grips during an engagement and urges people to practice this
foolish action. Be aware, however, that doing so is the height of folly because the
switch is somewhat unsure in gauntlets, and even the lightest strike to your axe could
cause you to lose your grip to your great detriment.

LENGTH AND MEASURE

All arts have length and measure, the masters say. For the pollaxe, length and measure
are somewhat complex because of the different ways the axe can be used. When you
hold an axe correctly in thirds swinging blows and thrusts double have very short
lengths; that is, their reach is quite short and you must, therefore, use them at very close
measure—dagger fighting range, really. This is especially true since the interaction
between gauntlets and the lower cannons of the vambraces limits the motion of the
wrists. This seems counterintuitive to most people given the length of the axe, which
can cause inexperienced combatants to either miss with their attacks or unbalance
themselves by reaching in more than is safe.

Balanced against that, however, we must consider the fact that the axe can be swung
“long” (meaning holding it at the far end rather than in thirds), and the fact that thrusts
single have extremely long reach, especially when coupled with a lunge. These
techniques can be done from a normal guard, too—even the long strike, you can just
slide your hands down the shaft as you strike—making it very difficult to tell when
your opponent is going to use such a technique. For these reasons you must be careful
when considering measure in combat and be careful to watch your opponent closely.

GENERATING FORCE SAFELY

When using a longsword we are carefully taught not to over swing—not to make huge,
cleaving cuts because such cuts put you out of position if you miss; and after all, very
little force is required to kill with a longsword in unarmored combat. When striking
with a pollaxe in armored combat, however, the circumstances are quite different; a
light strike with the mail will have no effect whatsoever, and great force is required to
do any damage. Striking with great force is likely to put you in a bad position if you
miss your target, however, and even if you do not over swing the effort you put into the
swing is likely to make you somewhat stiff, thus making you slower when you try to go
on to the next action. Indeed, the author of Le Jeu was careful to warn us that when we
strike at someone we are to be careful not to let the axe go past our opponent because
that would be dangerous.

In order to strike with great force without over swinging you must take care to strike
with your entire body; aim the strike of your mail through your target, but only just.
You have to aim where the end of your arc of attack is intended to go (just past the

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target, not to its surface), not just swing blindly. In addition, and just as importantly,
you must use both hands to generate the force of your strike. Too many men drive
forward with the right hand, but let the left hand lie still; this is comparatively weak.
Instead, you must pull back with your left hand as you drive forward with the right—
both hands work together to generate the force, and the left hand also gives better
control. This is not just true for strikes: You must also use a push-pull motion of both
hands when using a lever action (e.g., an arm rip) or a displacement (e.g., the
Hinterbinden).

ABSQUATULATION
The word absquatulate means to leave abruptly; it’s a lovely word rarely used today. In
Le Jeu de La Hache, the author often tells us to escape backward from an attack, re-
grabbing the shaft of our axe if we have lost our grip, and taking up a new guard out of
range. He describes the action in a relatively piecemeal fashion, however, never
explaining it as a general principle. In practice, he means for us to use this in any
untenable position, and that usually refers to a displacement or strike against the back
of the shaft of our axe, especially one that knocks it out of our hand. This is no mere
jumping out of the way wildly; it is a specific way of recovering your shaft while
moving safely out of range. It is this action I have chosen to call “absquatulation,” since
the books give us no explicit term for it.

To explain the principle of absquatulation, we will examine a specific situation to make

it simple to describe; be aware, however, that this is but one of numerous examples of
absquatulation in Le Jeu, and that there are others, although they are all pretty much the
same. In our example, your opponent attacks with an Oberschlag and you respond
with an Absetzen with your dague. Before your thrust can land, however, your
opponent strikes the back of your croix with his queue with a forehand action from his
left to his right. This knocks the shaft of your axe out through the weakest part of your
grip—your fingers—and off to your left side. Having done so, he prepares to follow
after you with a blow of his mail while you are helpless because you are only holding
your axe with one hand. What do you do? You can simply drop your axe and charge in
to grapple, but let’s assume you prefer not to do that and want to continue using your
axe.

You have two primary goals: First, to re-grab your axe, and second, to be safe against
your opponent’s follow-on attack. In order to do that, your best move is to back out of
the engagement to give yourself time and room. Since you just did an Absetzen, your
right foot is forward. Therefore, you must take a very large passing step backward by
passing back too far with your right foot then dragging your left foot back to assume a
good balance stance. At the same time, you need to re-grab your axe with your right
hand. Since the croix end of your axe can be anywhere, the safest approach, and the
one that requires the least attention from your conscious mind, is to grab the part of the
axe of whose location you can be sure—the part near your left hand. Therefore, grab
the shaft of your axe right against your left hand, and do so thumb to thumb in a

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thumbs-opposed grip. It’s easier to grab with a thumbs-opposed grip when doing this
because you don’t have to turn your wrist over. Once you have your grip, slide your
right hand up toward the croix until it’s in its normal “thirds” position, pulling your
croix back as you do so to assume the guard of the low queue, hopefully as, or even
before, you have resumed a good balance stance.

You can’t pause there, however: You must act Indes, either to counter your opponent’s
follow-on attack, or to attack him if he foolishly paused, so as to give yourself the Vor.
Frequens motus applies here, too; the absquatulation is not simply a means of starting a
fight over from scratch with ach of you glaring at the other over your axes.

That is, in general, the absquatulation. Of course, there are several variations. If you
have your queue forward and he knocks it out of your hand, you reverse these
directions, stepping back with your left foot and grabbing your shaft with your left
hand, ending up in the guard of the high dague. Or you can lunge backward to end up
in the guard of the low queue. You should see absquatulation as a principle, not a
specific, rigid, technique. You must learn to do this quickly and surely, and it must be
automatic—not requiring conscious thought—else you won’t be able to respond quickly
enough to an opponent who knows to rush in with his attacks when you are helpless.
Knocking an opponent’s axe out of his grip is one of the most preferred and
advantageous tactics in the source material, so you must learn to respond Indes and
well to such attacks.

ACTIONS FROM DISPLACEMENT

It is necessary to have a pre-prepared plan ready when you attack, whether you do so
in the Zufechten or in the Krieg. There is usually little time to decide what to do after
your attack is displaced, so, as the anonymous author of the so-called Döbringer
Hausbuch (HS 3227a) tells us, we must go in with a plan for what to do if our attack is
displaced, preferably one that is simple and can be done automatically. One way to do
that is to create a matrix of all of the simple attacks and simple defenses to show how to
react to the most common situations. All of the techniques to be described here are
contained in the Fechtbücher—I’m not making anything new—this is just a way of
organizing them and preparing for them in context; looking at them as an organized
whole, not just as disparate techniques.

Despite the many and varied techniques for using the pollaxe, simple attacks can be
broken down into a relatively few groups: Attacks with the queue, attacks with the
croix (either mail or dague) except for thrusts single, and thrusts single with either the
queue or the dague. Likewise, most simple displacements can be broken into just a few
categories: A bind to the front of your shaft, a bind to the back of your shaft, and a bind
with the demy hache.

Understanding what is meant by a bind to the front or back of your shaft can seem
confusing, but it’s quite simple. It has to do with the position of your fingers on the

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shaft of your axe. A blow to the back of your shaft is one that is likely to knock the shaft
of your axe out between your fingers; thus, it is a strike against the side of your shaft
where the back of your hand is. A blow to the front of your shaft is one that tends to
drive your shaft into your own palm; thus, it is one struck to the side of your shaft
where your fingers are. Obviously, as we discussed above, a blow to the back of your
shaft will be more effective for your opponent since it will tend to drive your shaft out
from between your fingers and thumb, causing you to lose control of your weapon.

The direction of such blows will depend upon which end of your axe is struck. If you
have your croix forward, then in order to strike the back of your axe your opponent will
have to use his queue in a motion from his left to his right. To strike the front of your
shaft, he will have to use his croix in a motion from his right to his left. If you have
your queue forward, it is just the reverse: To strike the back of your shaft he will have
to use his croix in a motion from his right to his left. To strike the back of your shaft he
will have to use his queue from his left to his right. This is much more simple than it
probably seems when written out.

A displacement with his demy hache is just what it sounds like: He interposes the
middle of his shaft against your attack. This will usually be done to counter a blow of
the mail (although we do see it in the “Kniereissen bricht Unterstich” from Talhoffer).
Typically it is used against vertical blows, but in truth, for this purpose it can be any
displacement with the demy hache, such as that used in the technique “Hintertretten
bricht Oberschlag,” too.

As you look at the table below, you will note that absquatulation seems to be the most
common defense, which, given the Kunst des Fechtens’ propensity for defenses that
move aggressively forward, may seem out of proportion. The simple fact is that blows
to the back of your shaft are extremely dangerous and difficult to counter, as are
displacements of thrusts single, as we discussed above. Both situations involve you
losing control over one end of your weapon, something rather less common in other
forms of our art. The author of Le Jeu was cognizant of this, because in several places he
was careful to warn you not to let your opponent get his axe behind yours—i.e., to
strike the back of your axe. In truth, however, most simple displacements by poorly
skilled opponents will be empty displacements against the front of your shaft, so
absquatulation will less frequent in actual use than the matrix might suggest.

The other defenses are ones common to the axe material. The “binds of the queue” are
simply the actions from a soft or hard bind of the queue from Le Jeu. The “queue
knock” isn’t the one where you strike his queue as he starts to lift it, but the one from
the second play of the croix versetzen in which he displaces your Oberschlag with his
croix and you respond by striking the back of his axe with your queue after the bind.
The “Axtreissen” is a universal technique in Harnischfechten, we see it in the play from
the bind of the demy hache in Le Jeu in which you rotate your shaft so the bec hooks his
shaft and you then yank downward.

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 Pollaxe Combat: Principles and Tactics

This is not to say that these specific acts are your only choices; obviously, the
Fechtbücher contain a wide range of techniques for dealing with most situations. This
is more of a simplified “go to” list for emergency situations when your attack has been
displaced. You should train these actions until they happen automatically when your
attacks are displaced. If you strike with your mail and he displaces with his croix, it
should be automatic for you to strike the back of his shaft with your queue—you
shouldn’t even have to think about it. And if the back of your axe is struck, or if your
thrust single is struck away, you should immediately absquatulate without even having
to think about it.

Nor is this matrix comprehensive. This looks only at simple defenses—empty

displacements. This won’t tell you how to counter the more sophisticated counters
from the Fechtbücher, such as the forward roll throw counter to a Halsreissen, for
example. Those have to be learned through hard work and simple rote training,
unfortunately. However, the fact is that many of the displacements in combat are
simple displacements, so this matrix will help you in many of the situations that arise.

He strikes your axe:

You attack with: Front Back Demy Hache
Queue Binds of the Queue Absquatulate N/A
Croix (dague or Queue Knock (as in Absquatulate Axtreissen with Bec
mail) Croix displacement) de Faucon
Thrust Single Absquatulate Absquatulate N/A

The pollaxe is a complex, sophisticated, and deadly weapon, and it is as elegant as it is

brutal. It, and not the vaunted sword, should be considered the premier knightly
weapon for armored foot combat. Learning to use it well requires studying the axe as a
coordinated whole, and understanding all of its parts and their best place in the art.
The general underlying principles of the Kunst des Fechtens certainly apply, but the axe
has its own rules and principles, too. It is not enough to know and practice the
techniques of the axe from Le Jeu, or Talhoffer, or Kal, you must learn how to apply
them in an actual fight, which means understanding more than just the plain
techniques. I hope this brief paper has made some of these ideas clearer and easier to
understand.

Train safely and with honor,

Hugh T. Knight, Jr.
Fechtmeister, die Schlachtschule
San Bernardino, CA 2015

© Copyright 2015 by the author. Permission is hereby granted to copy and distribute
this document freely as long as it is done in whole and attributed correctly.

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