Possibly The Finest 17th Century Silver Sword Cum Plug-Bayonet, Complete With It’s Original Scabbard & Belt Mount, Outside of the Royal Collection..

A sword cum plug bayonet is a belt mounted short sword that doubles as a defensive sword, but when thrust into the muzzle of a musket becomes the very first form of bayonet, that converts a musket into a long pike or spear. In fact it is named after the French town of Bayonne, where it was said to have been first used, and thus technically invented, and it is the very first form of bayonet ever made, and whence every future bayonet therefore gets its name.
It further bears in silver bullion, stitched into the baldric [belt ‘frog’ mount] behind the two retaining cross straps, twin, inverted and elongated capital letter ‘L’s’, the personal cypher mark and symbol of King Louis XIVth of France. The highly distinctive cypher mark of all the King’s of France bearing the name Louis. This may likely indicate that this sword-bayonet was actually owned and used within the service of the King of France, by one of his highest ranking officers, or indeed an officer of his personal guard. One of finest quality pieces of its type we have ever had the privilege to own, and incredibly still in its original silver mounted scabbard and silk and silver bullion baldric. Probably this can be seen as the best available within the worldwide collecting market today.
It is also probably the most complete example, from the mid to late 1600's, we have ever seen, certainly in over 40 years, including those we have handled within the Royal Collections. This magnificent plug bayonet-cum-short sword would be the prize of any of the finest worldwide collections of the rarest short swords that can double as the very rare, so called ‘plug’ bayonet, as they are ‘plugged’ into the muzzle of a musket, to convert it to a pike or spear. It is remarkably complete with it's silver bullion and silk baldrick frog belt mount with three tongues. It has finest quality solid silver mounts, with decorated quillons bearing profile heads of men adorned with caps, very similar to the armourer's marks on the blade. And the silver scabbard mounts and fittings also beautifully match, with an acorn frog mount. The original scabbard leather is superb condition, crosshatch patterned, with the so called ‘bullets and lines’ stamped decor. It has a wonderful blade, in stunning order, with two large matching armourer's marks of a profile head [on both blade sides]. The grip handle is birds-eye maplewood with a silver pommel. The late 17th century saw the final demise of the pike, and its replacement by the bayonet. The plug bayonet, which blocked the muzzle of the musket and needed to be removed for firing, did not catch on. The earliest military use of bayonets was by the French Army in 1647, at Ypres. These were plug-fitted into the barrel. That prevented firing once they were mounted, but allowed musketeers to act as their own pikemen, which gave infantry formations greater firepower. By 1650 some muskets had bayonets fixed to the gun at manufacture, hinged and foldable back along the barrel. French fusiliers adopted the plug bayonet as standard equipment in 1671; English fusiliers followed suit in 1685. The trouble with firing in successive lines was that it was only practical on a narrow front. In open country, the musketeers could easily be flanked, especially by cavalry. In most battles, the musketeers relied on pikemen to protect them while reloading. Infantry practiced various formations and drills that allowed musketeers to hide behind the pikes while reloading and to take up firing positions as soon as their weapons were ready to use. This system worked pretty well, but it obviously cut down the army’s firepower-sometimes by more than half.

The solution to the problem was to turn the musket into a spear. According to some sources, this was the idea of Sebastien le Prestre de Vauban, the great French military engineer in the armies of Louis XIV. It was a solution at least for soldiers. Hunters in France and Spain had for some time been jamming knives into the muzzles of their muskets for protection against dangerous game. It seems that Bayonne, a French city noted for its cutlery, made a type of hunting knife that was favoured for this use. When the French army adopted this weapon, it was called a ‘bayonet’. The earliest reference to the use of the bayonet is in the memoirs of a French officer who wrote that on one campaign, his men did not carry swords, but knives with handles one foot long and blades of the same length. When needed, the knives could be placed in the muzzles of the guns to turn them into spears. The bayonet proved to be a much more effective defense against cavalry than the sword.

There were some drawbacks to the use of plug bayonets when mounted in muskets, When the bayonet was inserted within in the muzzle of a loaded musket and then fired by accident, the gun might indeed explode. This sort of accident seems to have been much more prevalent among civilians who, unlike soldiers, did not load and fire on command. It was so prevalent that in 1660, Louis XIV had to issue a proclamation forbidding the placing of short sword-daggers in the muzzles of hunting guns. The trouble with plug bayonets in military guns was that, when the bayonet was in place, the gun could not be loaded or fired, although there were situations when it would be most helpful to be able to do either with the bayonet in place. In the Battle of Killicrankie, General Hugh Mackay of Scourie a Scotsman, had learned his trade in the famous Scots Brigade of the Dutch Army. A friend of King William, he came over with William’s forces and was appointed to command in Scotland. Most of his detachment were Scottish. In fact, some of his Dragoon officers may have been feeding information to Dundee, and seem to have been responsible for Dundee to have been able to evade capture. Mackay had his own regiment and two others who had fought the French on the continent, and Leven’s newly raised Edinburgh regiment. At this point in history, British or government troops were equipped with the matchlock musket and plug bayonet. To make matters worse, MacKay’s troops were also equipped with the plug bayonet. As its name suggests, this fitted like a plug into the barrel of a musket. When inserted, the infantryman had the equivalent of a short pike to counter the broadsword and Targe of the Highland gentleman. Once inserted, he could not fire his weapon until the plug was removed. If he did have success and actually stuck an enemy with this type of bayonet, it would likely remain in the body of the person stuck, leaving him with virtually no defense. If his officers miscalculated and gave the order to fix bayonets late, he could get chopped to pieces. And of course, the plug bayonet didn?t always fit or hold in the barrel, which could leave the poor infantryman basically defenseless. This magnificant piece would have been used by a highest ranking officer who used a musket, or a nobleman for hunting boar or dangerous beasts. Plug bayonets were continually used into the American Revolution, most usefully turning any musket into a spontoon or pike. King Louis XIVth, was known as King Louis the great, or the Sun King. During Louis's long reign, France emerged as the leading European power and regularly asserted its military strength. A conflict with Spain marked his entire childhood, while during his reign, the kingdom took part in three major continental conflicts, each against powerful foreign alliances: the Franco-Dutch War, the War of the League of Augsburg, and the War of the Spanish Succession. In addition, France also contested shorter wars, such as the War of Devolution and the War of the Reunions. Warfare defined Louis's foreign policy and his personality shaped his approach. Impelled by "a mix of commerce, revenge, and pique", he sensed that war was the ideal way to enhance his glory. In peacetime he concentrated on preparing for the next war. He taught his diplomats that their job was to create tactical and strategic advantages for the French military

Code: 22160