Ideally, pikemen were equipped with protective armour, consisting of a helmet, breast- and back plates, tassets (thigh guards suspended from the breastplate) and gorget. The cumbersome gorget and       tassets were unpopular with pikemen and declined in use during the wars. A "buff-coat" could be worn underneath, which was a leather jacket thick enough to turn a sword blow that became a universal protection for both infantry and cavalry.

 

The pike itself was a steel-headed spear mounted on a shaft made of seasoned ash, between 15 and 18 feet in length. Owing to its weight and unwieldiness. Handling the pike effectively required the learning of a complex set of drills and "postures". In practice,    however, the elaborate ceremonial manoeuvres recommended in military drill books were reduced to a smaller set of basic commands and postures necessary to advance into battle, to fight opposing      pikemen and to fend off cavalry.

 

In infantry combat, opposing blocks of pikemen would advance with their pikes "charged" horizontally at shoulder level to jab at one   another until bodily contact was made. The two sides would then push physically until one or other of them gave way (known as "push of pike"). An increasingly important role of the pikeman was to defend musketeers against attack by enemy cavalry. To meet a cavalry charge, the pikeman would crouch with the butt end of the pike resting against his right instep and the pike angled upwards, its head at horse-breast height.

 

Although use of the pike declined during the civil wars, it was not fully abandoned by the English army until the adoption of the baynet in the early 18th century.