Broadsword History: Basket Hilts & Wide Bladed Swords

In the strict historical sense, a broadsword is a straight, wide-bladed military sword of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, usually fitted with a basket hilt that encloses the hand. The name was coined to separate these cutting swords from the slender rapiers and smallswords of civilian fashion. Today "broadsword" is also used loosely for almost any wide, straight, double-edged sword, including Viking and medieval knightly swords, but historians and collectors regard that usage as a misnomer.

Few sword names cause as much confusion as "broadsword." Video games hand them to medieval knights. Films show them as massive, clumsy slabs of iron. Sellers attach the word to anything with a wide blade. Ask a curator, and you get a very different answer: a specific family of swords, from a specific period, with a hilt you would recognize instantly.

Below we untangle the two meanings, trace where the word came from, walk through the real historical broadswords, and explain how medieval swords ended up wearing a label that arrived centuries after they did.

What Is a Broadsword? Two Meanings

The historical meaning. A broadsword is a straight-bladed sword, double or single-edged, built for cutting and thrusting in military use during roughly the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. Most carried a basket hilt, a cage of steel bars protecting the sword hand. The Scottish Highland basket-hilted sword is the best-known example.

The modern loose meaning. In popular use, "broadsword" has stretched to cover almost any wide, straight sword, from the Viking age through the High Middle Ages. Fantasy games and tabletop role-playing adopted it as a generic label for a knight's sword, and the habit spread.

Both meanings appear in search results, which is why so many readers come away confused. Where the difference matters, such as buying, collecting or researching, the historical meaning is the one to use.

Where the Word Came From

"Broadsword" gained currency in the seventeenth century, at a time when fashionable civilian swords had become long, narrow and thrust-focused. Next to a rapier or a smallsword, the soldier's cutting sword looked broad, and the name stuck. In other words, the broadsword was defined by contrast with the rapier, not with medieval swords, which had long since passed out of use.

Blade width itself was unremarkable by earlier standards. Many Viking and early medieval blades are as wide as, or wider than, a typical basket-hilted broadsword. The "broad" in broadsword only made sense next to the slim civilian swords of its own era.

The Basket Hilt: The Broadsword's Defining Feature

If one feature identifies a true broadsword, it is the basket hilt. Medieval swords protected the hand with a simple crossguard, and the shield or armour did the rest. By the seventeenth century, armour was disappearing from much of the battlefield and shields were rare. Hilts grew to compensate, evolving from added rings and bars into a complete cage of steel around the hand.

Early baskets were simple arrangements of bars. By the eighteenth century, Scottish makers were producing elaborate hilts with pierced plates, decorative panels and a leather or fabric liner inside the basket. The guard allowed a soldier to cut hard and parry without a shield, and the hilt added mass near the hand, making the sword quick to recover after a cut.

Types of Historical Broadswords

The Scottish Basket-Hilted Broadsword

The Highland broadsword is the classic form: a straight, double-edged blade of roughly 75 to 85 cm (30 to 33 in) with a full steel basket. Highlanders carried it into the Jacobite risings of the eighteenth century, often paired with a targe, a small round shield, and a dirk. Many Scottish broadswords were fitted with blades imported from continental centres such as Solingen, some marked "Andrea Ferara" after a famous, and possibly legendary, Italian bladesmith whose name became a mark of quality.

The English Mortuary Sword

English cavalry of the mid-seventeenth century carried broadswords with half-basket hilts, often chiselled with small faces or busts. Victorian collectors later named them "mortuary swords," claiming the faces commemorated the executed King Charles I. The link is doubtful, but the name has stuck to the type ever since.

The Schiavona

Venice produced its own basket-hilted broadsword, the schiavona, named after the Dalmatian Slavic troops who guarded the Doge. Its intricate lattice basket and distinctive "cat's head" pommel make it one of the most recognizable swords of the period.

The Backsword

A backsword shares the broadsword's hilt and proportions but carries a single edge, with a thick unsharpened back. Many basket-hilted swords were backswords, and period writers sometimes used the two terms almost interchangeably.

Cavalry Broadswords

Heavy cavalry across Europe carried straight, broad-bladed swords well into the nineteenth century. The British 1796 pattern heavy cavalry sword, with its hatchet point and wide blade, is a late descendant of the broadsword family, built for powerful cuts from horseback.

The Claymore Confusion

The word claymore comes from the Gaelic claidheamh mòr, "great sword." Originally it described the Highland two-handed sword of the fifteenth to seventeenth centuries, a long blade with forward-angled quillons. By the eighteenth century, however, writers were applying "claymore" to the one-handed basket-hilted broadsword as well. Both usages have defenders, and museum labels still differ. When you see "claymore," check the hilt: a long two-handed grip means the great sword, and a basket means the broadsword.

How Medieval Swords Became "Broadswords"

Nineteenth-century antiquarians sorting armouries needed a word to separate heavy medieval swords from the rapiers that followed them, and "broadsword" was close at hand. Twentieth-century fantasy fiction and games then turned it into a catch-all for the knight's sword. The result is a word applied to swords made up to eight centuries before the term existed.

Wide, straight Viking and medieval blades are the swords most people now picture when they hear "broadsword." Our brass-fitted Viking sword shows the broad, parallel-edged Norse profile, while the wide-bladed arming sword follows the knightly pattern. Neither is a broadsword in the strict sense, and we do not describe them as one. Both belong to the older families the word was later stretched to cover, which our full breakdown of sword styles sets out in order.

Were Broadswords Heavy?

No. The image of a broadsword as a crude, heavy club with an edge comes from fiction, not from surviving swords. Most basket-hilted broadswords weigh between 1 and 1.5 kg (2.2 to 3.3 lb), with the basket placing much of that mass near the hand. Medieval one-handed swords fall in a similar range. A sword that heavy at the tip would have exhausted its user within minutes, and makers knew it.

Even our longest one-handed blade, the 25-inch medieval battle sword, is built for balance rather than bulk, which is how every period sword maker approached the problem.

Broadsword vs Longsword vs Bastard Sword

These three names are regularly mixed up, but they describe different swords.

• Broadsword: one-handed, seventeenth to eighteenth century, basket hilt.
• Longsword: two-handed grip, fourteenth to sixteenth century, simple crossguard.
• Bastard sword: a grip long enough for one hand or two, sitting between the arming sword and the longsword. We cover these hand-and-a-half blades in a separate guide.

The simplest test is the hilt. A basket points to a broadsword. A long, simple grip with a cross points to a longsword or bastard sword.

How to Recognize a True Broadsword

1. Check the hilt first. A full or half basket of steel bars is the clearest sign.
2. Look at the period. True broadswords date from roughly the 1600s to the 1800s. A "medieval broadsword" is a modern label, not a historical one.
3. Measure the grip. Broadswords are one-handed. A two-handed grip indicates a different sword.
4. Read the blade. Straight, of moderate width, and built for both cut and thrust. A single edge makes it a backsword.
5. Question the weight. Anything marketed as a heavy, massive broadsword is following fiction rather than history.
6. See the real thing. Museum collections hold many surviving historical examples, and handling photos of originals is the fastest way to train your eye.

Our Swords

Our workshop focuses on the older straight-bladed families that the word "broadsword" is so often borrowed for: Viking swords and medieval arming swords, each forged in layered Damascus and fitted with a hand-stitched leather sheath. Browse our straight-bladed swords to compare profiles.

Frequently Asked Questions

What is a broadsword?

Historically, a broadsword is a straight, wide-bladed military sword of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, usually with a basket hilt. In modern loose usage, the word is applied to almost any wide, straight sword, including medieval knightly swords.

Is "broadsword" one word or two?

Both spellings appear, but "broadsword" as one word is the standard modern form. "Broad sword" usually describes any sword with a wide blade rather than the specific historical type.

Did medieval knights use broadswords?

Not by that name. Medieval knights used arming swords and later longswords. The term "broadsword" arose in the seventeenth century and was applied to medieval swords only later, by collectors and writers.

What is the difference between a broadsword and a claymore?

A claymore originally meant the Scottish two-handed great sword. By the eighteenth century the name was also used for the Highland basket-hilted broadsword, so the answer depends on which claymore is meant.

How much did a broadsword weigh?

Most historical broadswords weighed between 1 and 1.5 kg (2.2 to 3.3 lb). The idea of a very heavy broadsword comes from fiction rather than surviving examples.

What is a basket-hilted sword?

A basket-hilted sword has a guard of interlaced steel bars that fully encloses the sword hand. The design became popular in the seventeenth century as shields and armour fell out of use.