Baton (military)
high military officer's ceremonial object, sometimes intricately decorated
The ceremonial baton is a short, thick stick-like object, typically in wood or metal, that is traditionally the sign of a field marshal or a similar high-ranking military officer, and carried as a piece of their uniform. The baton is distinguished from the swagger stick in being thicker and effectively without any practical function. A staff of office is rested on the ground; a baton is not. Unlike a royal sceptre that is crowned on one end with an eagle or globe, a baton is typically flat-ended.
Origins
The baton can most likely be traced back to the mace, with ancient kings and pharaohs often being buried with ceremonial maces. With the advent of primitive body armor, the mace went out of fashion, but made a comeback as an effective weapon against full plate armour during the Late Middle Ages. During this time, the staff of office also became a prominent symbol of power.
By the time of Louis X of France, it was common for sergeants-at-arms to carry highly ornamented ceremonial maces. By the 16th century, the war mace had once again been phased out, solely replaced by an ornamented ceremonial version, used as a sign of wealth and power. As such, only army commanders would carry these devices, transforming the maces into symbols of power on the battlefield.
“Baton (military)” enters the record as high military officer's ceremonial object, sometimes intricately decorated. Crown Archives preserves that source wording while asking what Baton, military and high can confirm, complicate or overturn.
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The citation trail is more important than the brevity of the summary: it shows where individual claims can be examined in context. The source revision retrieved here is dated Sep 9, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q2014830. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Baton (military)” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.