The Francisca

This is an axe favored by the Franks in battle. Not known for their organized melees, the axe serve them well in their languid conquest of the regions of northern France and Germany as they carved chunks out of the dying Roman Empire,

However, accounts of the Battle of the Catalaunian Plains recount the axes devastating impact when used in mass. This is noted upon the open plains around Orleans the Huns under Attila met the armies of Aetius and Theoderic I.

Aetius hobbled together a coalition of Roman and Frankish soldiers to meet the Hunnic King (who, chance relates he met as a child and hostage at the Hunnic Court) as he plunged his armies through the province of Gaul. As the battle unfolded the Romans fought the huns and Alans to a standstill, but the Gauls received the brunt of Hun's attack. As the legendary horsemen strove to close with the Franks the Franks hurled their francisca into the charging horses breaking their momentum, before they could recover the Frankish soldiery crashed into them in a wave of armored rage. Their fury broke the Huns and they fell back in dismay; the Franks shattered the Hunnic army, and threw them back upon their baggage train.

Thus the axe changed history, for the Huns fell back across the Rhine and never bothered western Europe again.

 Art by Frank Frazetta.