How were real medieval armies composed?

[spong]

Polearm - a weapon which involves a two-handed haft of varying lengths.

Bill - Adapted from agricultural bill hooks, varied quite widely in appearance but comprised essentially of a thrusting spike, often a curved and heavy chopping blade, a curved often forward-facing hook to unseat a rider or hook a footsoldier behind the leg, often also had spikes on the rear of the head for puncturing armour.

Pic of a typical bill hook:
http://www.anshelmarms.com/images/arms/halberd1.jpg
(labelled Halberd for some reason)

Voulge/ Glaive / Guisarme - Varied widely, essentially a big cleaving knife on the end of a pole, but did evolve to include various rear facing spikes.

http://www.members.aol.com/dargolyt/...ge/Voulge1.gif

http://www.members.aol.com/dargolyt/...ge/voulge2.gif

Partly contributed to the evolution of...

Halberd! - Differed from the voulge in that it was essentially an axehead or cleaver on the end of a pole, wheras the voulge could already be used for thrusting with the point of the 'knife' blade as it where, the halberd developed its own thrusting point and also had rear-facing spikes.

http://www.anshelmarms.com/images/arms/halberd3.jpg

http://www.anshelmarms.com/images/arms/halberd2.jpg

Poleaxe or Polehammer - Haft 5-6 feet, used most frequently by dismounted men-at-arms (knights, sergeants etc.) Had an axe head, rear facing spike or more often hammer-head and a thrusting spike on the top.

Poleaxe with hammer at rear
http://www.chicagoswordplayguild.com...rmor/azza1.jpg

Poleaxe with spike at rear
http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Some of the Swiss soldiers favoured a variation known as the Lucerne hammer, which had the axe part omitted and replaced by a hammer head with three curved prongs instead, still with a rear facing spike.

Many polearms including pikes had strips of metal rivetted to the haft near the head to prevent the head being chopped off, these were called 'langets'. Some polearms such as the poleaxe also might be fitted with a metal disc below the head to act as a handgaurd.

Found this useful link http://images.google.co.uk/imgres?im...lr%3D%26sa%3DG

Another useful link to a galleries page:
http://therionarms.com/old_armor_page.shtml