Definition
An archaic term for a type of early firearm — specifically, a variant spelling of "harquebus" (also "hagbut" or "arquebus"), a heavy, hook-mounted gun used in the 15th and 16th centuries. In legal contexts, the term appears primarily in English statutes and legal writings of the Tudor period regulating the possession, manufacture, and use of firearms. Bouvier treats it as synonymous with "harquebuze," citing English statutes from the reigns of Edward VI.
Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): Obsolete spelling of "hagbut."
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): Directs the reader to "Hagbut," reflecting that even by 1913 the haquebut spelling was understood only as an archaic variant.
The gap between common and legal meaning is minimal here, but worth noting: in common historical usage, hagbut and its variants referred simply to the physical weapon. In legal usage, the term acquired significance as the named subject of statutory regulation — meaning that encountering it in a legal source signals a regulatory or penal context, not merely a descriptive one.
Why It Matters in Research
This term is purely of antiquarian and historical legal significance. Researchers will encounter it almost exclusively in two contexts: (1) early English statutes governing weapons, particularly Tudor-era legislation such as 2 & 3 Edward VI, c. 14, which addressed the regulation of firearms among the general population; and (2) secondary legal glossaries and dictionaries that reproduce or cite those statutes.
The primary navigational challenge is spelling variation. The same weapon appears across historical sources as haquebut, harquebus, hagbut, hackbut, arquebus, and harquebuze, among other variants. A researcher searching a digitized corpus or archive for any single spelling may miss relevant documents using alternate forms. When tracing firearm regulation in early modern English law, treat all these spellings as equivalent and search broadly.
The term has no living legal significance. It does not appear in modern statutory or common law. Its value is entirely contextual: understanding what weapon a historical statute regulated, or confirming that a reference in an old legal text to a "haquebut" is a firearm and not an unfamiliar legal concept.
Historical Dictionary Support
Bouvier's Law Dictionary is the principal legal dictionary source for this term in the American tradition, and its treatment is brief — essentially a cross-reference identifying the haquebut as a gun and equating it with the harquebuze, supported by the citation to the Tudor statute. Bouvier draws on Termes de la Ley, an early English legal glossary, which similarly gives only a passing identification of the term.
No significant divergence exists among the historical dictionary sources because so few cover the term at all. The historical sources are consistent in treating this as a weapon identification rather than a legal concept requiring doctrinal explanation. What the historical dictionaries do not provide is any substantive discussion of the regulatory framework these statutes created — for that, researchers must consult the statutes themselves and Tudor legal history directly.