Pappenheimer Rapier

Origins

By 1600 the civilian rapier had developed a complex hilt of bars and rings, like the Swept-Hilt Rapier, to protect a hand that was no longer covered by an armored gauntlet. In the early seventeenth century sword makers began to fill the spaces in these hilts with solid plates. One important form, often called the Walloon hilt, had two shell guards on either side of the blade. The Pappenheimer is a richer development of the same idea, combining the rings and bars of the swept hilt with a pair of large shells. It appears in the 1620s and was popular until about the middle of the century. The name was given by later collectors after Gottfried Heinrich, Count of Pappenheim (1594-1632), the dashing Imperial cavalry commander. Born a Protestant, Pappenheim converted to Catholicism, served the Catholic League and then the emperor, and was famous for his reckless courage and for the many scars that earned him the nickname Schrammhans. The name is a label of convenience; there is no evidence that Pappenheim designed the hilt or that his men carried a regulation pattern.

Design & Construction

The defining feature is a pair of shallow, dish-shaped shells set at right angles to the blade, one on each side, just above the quillons. They were usually pierced with small round holes or decorative patterns, which saved weight and could catch an opponent's point. Above the shells rose a knuckle-bow and a set of side rings and curved bars that joined them to the pommel, forming a cage around the hand. The grip was often bound in wire and the pommel was round or pear-shaped. Blades were long and straight. Some were slender thrusting blades of rapier type, while others were broader and double-edged, suited to cutting from horseback. Many blades were made in Solingen or Passau and exported across Europe, and many hilts were chiseled or blued, so quality ranged from plain soldiers' weapons to fine officers' swords.

Combat Use

The Pappenheimer belongs to the Thirty Years War of 1618-1648. Cavalry of the time, whether heavy cuirassiers or lighter harquebusiers, fought first with pistols such as the Wheellock Pistol and then closed in with the sword. A cavalryman in Cuirassier Armor often wore only a heavy gauntlet on his bridle hand, and the solid shells of the Pappenheimer gave his sword hand similar protection. Such swords were carried by officers and troopers in the Imperial, Bavarian and Swedish armies, and they would have been used at battles such as the Battle of Breitenfeld in 1631, where Pappenheim himself led the cavalry of the Imperial left in a series of charges against the Swedish right. Pappenheim was killed at Lützen in November 1632, the same day that Gustavus Adolphus fell.

Legacy

Surviving Pappenheimers are found in the great arsenal collections of Europe, including those of Dresden, Graz and Stockholm. The shell guard they made popular was simplified in the following decades into the small, plain shells of the smallsword and into the heavy cavalry swords of the later seventeenth century. Modern reproductions based on these originals are popular with collectors and historical fencers. The type stands between the rapier of the Renaissance and the military sword of the modern era, and it remains one of the most recognisable swords of the Thirty Years War.