A morning star is any of several medieval club-like weapons consisting of a shaft with an attached ball adorned with one or more spikes. Each used, to varying degrees, a combination of blunt-force and puncture attack to kill or wound the enemy.
It first came into widespread use around the beginning of the fourteenth century, particularly in Germany where it was known as Morgenstern. The term is often confused with the military flail, which typically consists of a wooden shaft joined by a length of chain to one or more iron-shod wooden bars (heavy sword pommels have also been used as weights). However, there are few depictions of such a ball-and-chain flail from the period, so the weapon of this type appears to have been uncommon.
