Article · Wikipedia archive · Last revised May 30, 2026

Welsh hook

A Welsh hook is a type of polearm, a halberd-like weapon with a hook on the back, and gained its name due to its prevalence among the Welsh soldiers during the medieval wars against the English. It closely related to the agricultural implement known as a bill and is commonly classified as a type of poleaxe.

Last revised
May 30, 2026
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Wikipedia ↗

A Welsh hook is a type of polearm, a halberd-like weapon with a hook on the back, and gained its name due to its prevalence among the Welsh soldiers during the medieval wars against the English.1 It closely related to the agricultural implement known as a bill and is commonly classified as a type of poleaxe.2

In literature

  • "That no man presume to wear any weapons, especially Welsh-hooks and forest-bills" ("The History of Sir John Oldcastle", Folio 3, 1664, 60).3
  • Falstaff: "My own knee? ... and swore the devil his true liegeman upon the cross of a Welsh hook,—What, a plague, call you him?" (Shakespeare Henry IV Part 1, 290).3
Notes

Notes

  1. Lublin 2013, p. 115.
  2. Shakespeare & Rowe 1821, pp. 286–287.
  3. Shakespeare & Rowe 1821, p. 286.
References

References

  • Lublin, Dr Robert I (2013), Costuming the Shakespearean Stage: Visual Codes of Representation in Early Modern Theatre and Culture, Ashgate Publishing, p. 115, ISBN 9781409479048
  • Shakespeare, William; Rowe, Nicholas; et al. (1821), The Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare: Richard II. Henry IV, pt. I, F. C. and J. Rivington, pp. 286–287