The mercy is a kind of thin-bladed, two-edged or square-sectioned dagger or dagger. This weapon is mentioned as early as the 13th century.
Description
Mercy seems to have lasted longer than the dagger. It was fitted with quillons. This weapon, like the thrust or the halberd, was one of the few that could pass through armor:it was passed through a defect in the armor at the level of the gorget. It is a knife that could only be used when the fighters were very close and when we had given up using the sword.
Originally, it was therefore only a very short sword, but public and private collections do not seem to have a typical example of this weapon. According to another hypothesis, the same weapon was called indifferently "dagger" or "mercy".
Origin of the name:According to some, this weapon was so named because it forced one of the combatants to shout “Mercy! when he had it on his throat.
According to other sources, the name comes from the fact that this bladed weapon was used to deal the deathblow to untreatable wounded on the battlefield.