The baselard (also Basilard, the name is probably from the town of Basel) or Swiss dagger (Schweizerdegen) was a weapon popular with the Swiss pikemen throughout the 15th and 16th centuries. They were somewhere between a long dagger and a short sword, with a blade length averaging some 40 cm in the early 15th century, reaching up to 70 cm towards the end of the 15th century. Their handling largely corresponded to the German grosses Messer.