Baselard

There is evidence that the term baselard is in origin a Middle French or Medieval Latin corruption of the German basler [messer] "Basel knife".

By the mid-14th century, the baselard is a popular sidearm carried by the more violence-prone section of civilian society, and it retains an association with hooliganism.

One early attestation of the German form pasler (1341) is from a court document of Nuremberg recording a case against a man who had injured a woman by striking her on the head with this weapon.

"[9] Wat Tyler was slain with a baselard by the mayor of London, William Walworth, in 1381, and the original weapon was "still preserved with peculiar veneration by the Company of Fishmongers" in the 19th century.

The document recording the agreement on the weapons used in the duel mentions "two baslaerd swords with blades a yard and half quarter long".

A 14th-century baselard ( Swiss National Museum )
Drawing of the baselard shown on the effigy of Thomas de Topcliffe (died 1365) (Dillon 1887).
A 14th-century Swiss basler , predecessor of the classical Swiss dagger used in the 16th century.