Lance (military unit)

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An English-language form for the medieval French: lances fournies. This was a unit of four cavalry fighters plus all the servants needed to attend to men, beasts and arms.

The term survives to the present day in the name of a rank, the Lance Corporal.

The lance is no longer a weapon in any modern army and there are no units armed with these weapons, except, at times, for ceremonial purposes. The Pope's Swiss Guard of the Vatican State with their Hellebaard or halberd, a short lance or pike for use by infantry, incorporating an axe and a hook to dismount riders, is just one example.

For a unit, the term now only comes into play in fiction and role-playing games, such as FASA's Battletech.