Its true. There was a great show on the history channel (cant remember what it was called) that put medieval weapons and contraptions to work to see how they were used and how effective they were. A half dozen peasants with bills absolutely ripped apart a fully armored knight on warhorse in about 2 minutes. Of course the point of a knight isnt to sit and trade wacks with a peasant so your mileage may vary against a knight at full charge, but in a wooded area its a very different story.

I am not certain that your contention is correct. I recall a book that describes how the type of weapon used by the Vatican Guard and others provided great advantage to the little guy because it combined the benefits of an axe and a spear together. It allowed the attacker to reach out and hack, spear, or hook the opponent from beyond sword reach. You no longer had to be a professional soldier with expensive gear (like a knight) to fight.

As such it seems more like an evolution of weaponry than farmers using pruning hooks. I think the Bible got it right!

It only proves that every weapon brings about its own counter-weapon. Armored knights, trained since boyhood in military skills, were highly effective fighters whether on foot or mounted. Dressed in mail coats, shields, light helmets, and swords they were very effective even against infantry. Their mounts were typically trained to fight by kicking and biting.

But in heavy armor, lance, full helmet and with a stronger, slower horse their best use was in a charge of massed heavy cavalry. For a time this was unstoppable. But weapons such as the bill and especially crossbowmen or English archers behind a wall of sharpened stakes--these were the death knell of that weapon system. The heavily-laden knights and their relatively-clumsy horses were sitting ducks. As #1 said, any time they were dismounted any agile peasant with a long knife could find a gap in the knight's armor (under the arm was a particularly good spot); lying on the ground they were as helpless as a turtle.

I don't know...
Spears, long pointy things either grounded or thrown, are omnipresent through history, or maybe they go away and then make a reapparance akin to Gordon's point about weapons and counter-weapons.

Just ask the Greek hoplites
or the Roman legionnaires
or the members of the Scottish schiltrons
or those Sealed Knot pikemen representing the mid-1600s.

Medieval military historian here:

Amusing point, and various poleaxes (as opposed to pollaxes, a discrete weapon term) were always useful in that regard... however, the role of the heavy-armored knight actually increased throughout the late middle ages and early renaissance, finally being shoved off the stage by other horsemen with pistols.

That being said, if you need to keep the local robber knights off your butt, "the bill is in the maille...."

I'm not sure the Swiss Guards' Halberds are evolved bills/gusarmes - the axe was a staple of war, had its own evolution path with the bardiche et. al.

In truth, these weapons were pretty chancy against a knight - in theory, you could pull one off. In practice, not so much owing to combat reach, positioning requirements, etc. It really took bows, crossbows, and then finally the pike (in a blast from the past, vid. pedrog) to sound the death knell. But if you weren't a trained warrior, this was the best you were going to get.

As for Isiah, don't count him out. I submit we're simply reading him wrong. It's about the evolution of war, not its end:

"they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning hooks; "

Those middle ages metal shortages and guisarmes. Good prediction.

"nation shall not lift up sword against nation,"

See, the thing is to read it as sequential. Of course we don't, silly. That's what guns are for! Another good one.

"neither shall they learn war any more."

Obviously referring to our future in which war is conducted by robots equipped with software uploads. Bring on the Terminators!

Pedrog makes a good point. Actually evolution of Roman arms itself tells a fascinating tale. Much Roman success came from their abandoning the longer and longer spears popular with the Greek era hoplites and embracing the gladius and javelin.

The first two Roman lines would fight in succession with a quick javelin throw that would either kill the opponent or tangle up his shield (and spear hopefully) followed by an immediate charge and stab with the short sword. The last line of older veterans carried true spears and could advance or cover an orderly retreat if the first 2 lines failed to break the enemy.

This was later abandoned and legionaries all carried the Pilum which was a javelin/spear that was generally thrown before contact but could be used as a spear when called on.

The upshot was Roman lines were far more flexible that the phalanx quite aside from their extra missile ability, but they could still use their pila to repel charging cavalry which became a growing threat later in the empire- and the pilum grew with the threat. Eventually the legionary evolved into specialized units like the lanciarii designed to augment calvary battles against instead of vice-versa. This didnt work well for the Romans (battle of Adrianople), but essentially the spear had come full circle by the end of the Empire.

The Roman example illustrates that sometimes the counter to a weapon wasn't so much a different weapon but a different tactical system.

Shouldn't that be historical iron in action?

It tells you a lot about European history that there are about 150 highly differentiated terms (voulge, halberd, partisan, glaive, Bohemian ear spoon) for a big stick to kill people with.

Ah yes, the weapon of my ancestors, the Swiss pike. Actually wielded by a (some distant) cousin of mine, a papal guard.

Not precisely a peasant's weapon: it took training and discipline to master. Training, discipline, and loyalty were the reasons Les Guardes Suisses were the choice of royalty and the elite for 300 years in Europe.

The famous monument in Lucerne commemorates the Switzers who died defending their clients, the French monarchy.

In Joel 3:10, it is written: "Beat your plowshares into swords, and your pruninghooks into spears: let the weak say, I am strong."

I want to go to a peace rally carrying a sign which just says "Joel 3:10" some day.