Editing Pike (weapon) (section)

===Medieval Europe revival===
{{unreferenced section|date=June 2012}}
In the [[Middle Ages]], the principal users of the pike were urban militia troops such as the [[Flemings]] or the peasant array of the lowland [[Scottish people|Scots]]. For example, the Scots used a spear formation known as the ''[[schiltron]]'' in several battles during the [[Wars of Scottish Independence]] including the [[Battle of Bannockburn]] in 1314, and the Flemings used their ''geldon'' long spear to absorb the attack of French knights at the [[Battle of the Golden Spurs]] in 1302, before other troops in the Flemish formation counterattacked the stalled knights with [[goedendag]]s. Both battles were seen by contemporaries as stunning victories of commoners over superbly equipped, mounted, military professionals, where victory was owed to the use of the pike and the brave resistance of the commoners who wielded them.

These formations were essentially immune to the attacks of mounted men-at-arms as long as the knights obligingly threw themselves on the spear wall and the foot soldiers remained steady under the morale challenge of facing a cavalry charge, but the closely packed nature of pike formations rendered them vulnerable to enemy archers and crossbowmen who could shoot them down with impunity, especially when the pikemen did not have adequate armor. Many defeats, such as at [[Battle of Roosebeke|Roosebeke]] and [[Battle of Halidon Hill|Halidon Hill]], were suffered by the militia pike armies when faced by cunning foes who employed their archers and crossbowmen to thin the ranks of the pike blocks before charging in with their (often dismounted) men-at-arms.

[[File:Schlacht bei Dorneck.jpg|thumb|Contemporary woodcut of the [[Battle of Dornach]].]] 
Medieval pike formations tended to have better success when they operated in an aggressive fashion. The Scots at the [[Battle of Stirling Bridge]] (1297), for example, utilized the momentum of their charge to overrun an English army while the Englishmen were crossing a narrow bridge. At the [[Battle of Laupen]] (1339), [[Bern]]ese pikemen overwhelmed the infantry forces of the opposing Habsburg/Burgundian army with a massive charge before wheeling over to strike and rout the Austro-Burgundian horsemen as well. At the same time however such aggressive action required considerable tactical cohesiveness or suitable terrain to protect the vulnerable flanks of the pike formations especially from the attack of mounted [[man-at-arms]].{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} When these features were not available, militia often suffered costly failures,{{clarify|date=June 2021}} such as at the battles of [[Battle of Mons-en-Pevele|Mons-en-Pevele]] (1304), [[Battle of Cassel (1328)|Cassel]] (1328), [[Battle of Roosebeke|Roosebeke]] (1382) and [[Battle of Othée|Othee]] (1408).{{citation needed|date=June 2021}} The constant success of the [[Swiss mercenaries]] in the later period was attributed to their extreme discipline and tactical unity due to semi-professional nature, allowing a pike block to somewhat alleviate the threat presented by flanking attacks.

Perhaps copying the nearby Swiss model, the pike had a certain diffusion also in the [[duchy of Milan]] in the last two years of the 14th century. In 1391, a decree by [[Gian Galeazzo Visconti]] ordered the pikes to be at least 10 feet long in Milan, equivalent to 4.35&nbsp;m (14.3&nbsp;ft) and their tips to be reinforced with iron strips to prevent enemies, given their length, from cutting or breaking them. A second decree of 1397 provided that half the infantry of the duchy were armed with pikes.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Romanoni |first1=Fabio |title="Castrum paene in mundo singulare". Scritti per Aldo Settia in occasione del novantesimo compleanno |date=2023 |publisher=Sagep Editori |location=Genova |isbn=979-12-5590-015-3 |pages=214–216 |url=https://www.academia.edu/107017911 |access-date=22 September 2023 |language=it |chapter=Balestrieri, pavesari e lance lunghe: la tripartizione funzionale delle cernite di Gian Galeazzo Visconti del 1397}}</ref>

It was not uncommon for aggressive pike formations to be composed of dismounted [[man-at-arms|men-at-arms]], as at the [[Battle of Sempach]] (1386), where the dismounted Austrian vanguard, using their lances as pikes, had some initial success against their predominantly [[halberd]]-equipped Swiss adversaries. Dismounted Italian men-at-arms also used the same method to defeat the Swiss at the [[Battle of Arbedo]] (1422). Equally, well-armored Scottish nobles (accompanied even by King [[James IV]]) were recorded as forming the leading ranks of Scottish pike blocks at the [[Battle of Flodden]] (1513), incidentally rendering the whole formation resistant to English archery.