What Is a Broadsword? The Sword Behind a Confusing Name
"Broadsword" is one of the most used and least precise words in the sword world. To a game designer it means a big medieval two-hander. To a museum curator it means a basket-hilted cavalry sword from the 1700s. To a Highlander it meant the claymore. All of them are right, in their own century. Here is what the word has meant over time, which swords truly earn it, and how to sort a broadsword from a longsword.
What "Broadsword" Originally Meant
The term appears in English in the 17th century, and it was coined by contrast. As the slender, thrust-only rapier and then the smallsword became the civilian fashion, the older military sword with a wide, double-edged cutting blade needed a name of its own. It became the "broad sword" — broad relative to a rapier, not broad in any absolute sense. Most historical broadswords carried blades about 1.25 to 1.5 inches wide at the hilt, roughly the same as the medieval swords that came before them.
So in the strict historical sense, a broadsword is a one-handed, double-edged, broad-bladed military sword of the 17th to 19th centuries, almost always fitted with a protective basket or half-basket hilt. A single-edged version of the same sword is a backsword.
The Basket-Hilt Broadsword
The defining broadsword is the basket-hilt: a one-handed sword whose hand is enclosed in a cage of steel bars or plates. The Scottish version is the most famous — the basket-hilt claymore carried at Killiecrankie and Culloden and by Highland regiments of the British Army long after. England produced the mortuary sword with its half-basket and chiseled faces; Venice produced the schiavona with its distinctive lattice basket and cat's-head pommel. Each is a broadsword.
These swords ran 35 to 40 inches overall with blades around 30 to 33 inches and weights of 2.5 to 3.5 pounds. The basket added weight at the hand, which actually improved the balance for cutting, and it allowed a swordsman to fight without a gauntlet — which mattered once firearms made full armor obsolete.
Why Medieval Swords Are Called Broadswords Today
The modern habit of calling medieval cross-hilted swords "broadswords" comes from Victorian collectors and antiquarians, who applied the word they knew to the older blades they were cataloguing. Fantasy fiction and role-playing games then fixed the usage permanently: in Dungeons & Dragons and its descendants, "broadsword" is a generic one-handed medieval sword, and in video games it is often a huge two-hander. Neither matches the historical term, but both are now too common to argue with. Collectors and HEMA practitioners usually say arming sword for the one-handed medieval blade and longsword for the two-hander, and reserve broadsword for basket-hilts.
Broadsword vs. Longsword
If we use the words properly, the comparison is clean. The longsword is a medieval and Renaissance two-handed sword (roughly 1350 to 1550) with a cross guard, a grip of 7 to 10 inches, and an overall length of 40 to 48 inches. The broadsword is a later one-handed sword (roughly 1600 to 1850) with a basket hilt and a grip for a single hand. The longsword is the knight's armored-combat weapon; the broadsword is the cavalryman's and Highlander's cutting sword of the gunpowder era.
If we use the words the way games do, a "broadsword" is simply a one-handed sword and the longsword is its two-handed big brother — and in that usage the medieval arming sword is what people are really describing.
Owning a Broadsword Today
A broadsword in either sense is a superb wall piece and a rewarding cutter: wide enough to carry real authority, one-handed enough to handle comfortably. Ours are hand-forged in 1095 high-carbon and Damascus steel, sharpened, with sheaths included. See our broadsword collection, the basket-hilt Scottish blades in the claymore collection, or the hand-and-a-half and one-handed medieval swords in the longsword collection.
Broadsword FAQ
What is a broadsword?
Historically, a one-handed, double-edged military sword with a wide cutting blade and usually a basket hilt, used from the 1600s to the 1800s. In modern casual usage, any broad-bladed medieval sword.
What is the difference between a broadsword and a longsword?
A longsword is a two-handed medieval sword with a cross guard; a broadsword is a one-handed sword, historically with a basket hilt. In game terminology, the difference is simply one hand versus two.
Is a claymore a broadsword?
The basket-hilt claymore is — it is the classic Scottish broadsword. The earlier two-handed Highland claymore is a greatsword, not a broadsword.
How much does a broadsword weigh?
About 2.5 to 3.5 pounds for a basket-hilt broadsword. Medieval one-handed swords often called broadswords weighed 2 to 2.5 pounds.
What is a backsword?
A broadsword with a single edge and a flat, thick spine. Many cavalry and Highland swords were backswords, which were cheaper to make and stiffer in the cut.
Why is it called a broadsword if the blade isn't that wide?
Because it was named in contrast to the narrow rapier and smallsword of the same era. It is broad by comparison, not by measurement.
