Quote:
Originally Posted by Joseph Paul
Knights, the elite warriors of Western Europe, fought each other with spears on foot in tourneys and used cut down lances when on foot in battle. Boar, bear and deer were taken with spear on foot. The spear can be a dandy offensive weapon and can be used at long and short ranges, just choke up on it. They are not handed out to just the militia.
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"Just choke up on it" is overly blaise; doing so has some serious effects on wieldiness as I've seen when watching martial arts students train with them. Some of this can be overcome if one is trained to also use the haft effectively, but that's effectively a seperate skill (mostly staff work) than using the working end.
I don't doubt knights sometimes did so, but I have no evidence they were considered anything but a secondary weapon off horseback and outside of formations.
Hunting usage is an entirely different issue than war usage; among other things the reach issue becomes a very serious consideration there (especially with boar).