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Medieval Armies
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The first medieval armies were tribal war bands carried over from ancient times.
These evolved into feudal armies made up of a lord's vassals and their
respective retainers. Fief holders were required to provide a period of military
service each year. This began as weeks or months of service by the vassal
accompanied by professional soldiers he retained personally. The armies of later
kings and wealthy lords consisted of a higher proportion of professionals and
mercenaries. Late in the period, vassals sent money instead of actually serving
in armies, and this "martial tax" helped kings to support armies year-round.
Service in feudal armies was a matter of duty and honor for the knights. In a
warrior society, knights lived for the opportunity to fight. Success in battle
was the main path to recognition and wealth. For professional soldiers, often
the sons of the aristocracy left with little when the eldest began inheriting
everything, fighting was a job. It was duty for peasants also, when they were
called up, but certainly not an honor.
By the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, many commoners joined the ranks for
pay that was often much better than that for more peaceful employment. A strong
attraction for a commoner to become a soldier was the prospect of loot. Tribal
warriors stayed loyal to their warrior chief and fought for him so long as he
provided them with a living and loot. These ideals of the war band carried over
into the feudal age. Low-ranking knights and professional foot soldiers longed
for the opportunity to take part in the assault against a rich town or castle
because strongholds that resisted were traditionally looted. A soldier could
gather up many times his year's pay during the sack of a city. Pitched battles
also offered opportunities for gain. The armor and weapons of the dead could be
sold and captured knights could be ransomed.
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| Organization |
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The organization of feudal armies was kept simple in comparison to the large
national armies of more modern time. There were no permanent regiments,
divisions, or corps until the very end of the age. When a feudal army was
summoned, each vassal traveled to the meeting point with any knights, archers,
and footmen that he was required to bring. At the meeting point, the contingents
would be reassembled by role. The knights and their squires kept and marched
together, as did the archers and footmen.
Special units, such as engineers and the operators of siege artillery, were
usually professionals hired for the campaign. Christian mercenaries, for
example, operated the artillery employed by the Turks against Constantinople.
Being a mercenary soldier was a respected profession in the late Middle Ages.
Warrior entrepreneurs formed mercenary companies that allowed a rich lord or
city to hire a ready-made competent fighting force. Mercenary companies existed
that were all of one skill. For example, 2000 Genoese crossbowmen served in the
French army at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. Other mercenary companies were mixed
forces of all arms. These were often described in terms of the number of lances
they contained. Each lance represented a mounted man-at-arms plus additional
mounted, foot, and missile troops. A company of 100 lances represented several
hundred fighting men. This system was the origin of the word "freelance."
Command hierarchy within a feudal army was flat. Not much maneuvering was
anticipated so there was little provision of large staffs to support the
commander and pass orders.
In 1439 Charles VII of France raised Royal Ordinance Companies. These companies
were filled with either knights or infantry and were paid from tax revenues.
Each company had a fixed complement of men; their armor and weapons were chosen
by the king rather than left to personal choice. This was the beginning of
modern standing armies in the West.
Supply
There was little provision for food and medical supplies. Medieval armies lived
off the land, to the detriment of everyone residing in an area they occupied or
passed through. Having a friendly army march through was no better than having
the enemy pass. Medieval armies did not linger in one area for long because
local supplies of food and forage were quickly exhausted. This was a particular
problem during sieges. If an army laying siege did not make arrangements to have
food and supplies brought in, it might have to lift its siege to avoid
starvation long before the defenders had to surrender.
Sanitation was also a problem when an army stayed in one place. A medieval army
brought along many animals, in addition to the horses of the knights, and sewage
problems led to dysentery. Feudal armies tended to waste away to disease and
desertion. During his campaign in France, Henry V of England lost an estimated
15 percent of his army to disease at the siege of Harfleur and more on the march
leading up to Agincourt. At the battle itself, he lost only 5 percent. Henry V
died of disease related to poor sanitation at another siege.
Deployment for Battle
Most battles were set-piece affairs where the two sides arranged themselves
before the fighting began. Campaigns of maneuver and meeting engagements were
rare.
Prior to battle, commanders divided their forces into contingents with specific
tasks in mind for each. The first separation might be into foot soldiers,
archers, and cavalry. These groups might be divided further into groups to be
given individual missions or to be held in reserve. A commander might arrange
several "battles" or "divisions" of knights, for example. These could be
launched individually as desired or held in reserve. Archers might be deployed
in front of the army with blocks of infantry in support. Once the army had been
arranged, the only major decisions were when to send in the prearranged pieces.
There was little provision for pulling back, reforming, or rearranging once the
fighting started. A force of knights, for example, could rarely be used more
than once. After they had been committed to action, they were usually reinforced
or withdrawn. A full charge by heavy cavalry caused such disruption, lost
equipment, and loss of horses that the force was essentially spent. The Norman
knights at Hastings were reformed for further attacks, but they did not launch a
full charge because they could not penetrate the Saxon shield-wall.
Superior commanders made use of the terrain to their advantage and conducted
reconnaissance to evaluate the enemy's strength and weaknesses.
Ransom
The ultimate rewards from successful battle included honors and grants of fiefs.
The proximate rewards included booty from looting bodies, ransacking captured
towns and castles, selling the armor and weapons of the dead, and ransoming
high-ranking prisoners. Knights were expected to pay ransoms to save their
lives. One of the highest recorded ransoms was more than US $20 million paid to
a German prince for the release of Richard I of England, captured during his
return from the Crusades.
At Agincourt the English were holding a large group of French knights at the
rear for ransom. During the battle, a French contingent raided toward the rear
of the English and briefly panicked Henry V. He ordered the execution of the
held French knights to prevent their release, thereby forgoing a fortune in
ransoms.
The capture of knights was recorded by heralds who kept a tally of which
soldiers were responsible and thereby due the bulk of the ransom. The heralds
then notified the prisoner's family, arranged the ransom payment, and obtained
the prisoner's release.
The popularity of ransoms seems remarkably civil but masks a darker story. Low-
ranking prisoners of no value might be killed out-of-hand to eliminate the
problem of guarding and feeding them.
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| Strategy |
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Medieval military strategy was concerned with control of the economic basis for
wealth and, thus, the ability to put armies in the field. At the start of the
era this meant primarily ravaging or defending the countryside because all
wealth originated in the fields and pastures. As the age progressed, towns
became important control points as centers of wealth from trade and
manufacturing.
Holding and taking castles was a key element of war because they defended the
farmland. The warrior occupants of the castle controlled the neighborhood. As
towns grew they were fortified also. Defending and taking them gradually became
more important than fighting for castles.
Field armies maneuvered to take the key fortified points and ravage the
countryside, or to prevent the enemy from conducting such a campaign. Pitched
battles were fought to end the destruction of enemy invasions. The Battle of
Hastings in 1066, for example, was fought by the Anglo-Saxons to stop an
invasion by the Normans. The Anglo-Saxons lost and the Normans under William
spent the next several years establishing control of England in a campaign of
conquest. The Battle of Lechfield in 955 was fought between the Germans and
Magyar raiders from the East. The decisive victory of the Germans under Otto I
brought an end to further Magyar invasions. The defeat of the Moors in 732 by
Charles Martel ended Muslim raids and expansion out of Spain.
The battles of Crécy, Poitiers, and Agincourt, all fought during the Hundred
Years War between the English and French, were all attempts by the French to
stop English incursions. The French lost all three battles and the English raids
carried on. In this case, however, the raids did not establish permanent control
for the English and the French eventually won the war.
The Crusades were attempts to take and hold key strong points in the Holy Land
from which control of the area could be maintained. Battles in the Crusades were
fought to break the control of one side or the other. The victory at Hattin in
1187 by the Saracens under Saladin made possible the recapture of Jerusalem.
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| Battle Tactics |
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Medieval battles evolved slowly from clashes of poorly organized war bands into
battles where tactics and maneuvers were employed. Part of this evolution was in
response to the development of different types of soldiers and weapons and
learning how to use these. The early armies of the Dark Ages were mobs of foot
soldiers. With the rise of heavy cavalry, the best armies became mobs of
knights. Foot soldiers were brought along to devastate farmlands and do the
heavy work in sieges. In battle, however, foot soldiers were at risk from both
sides as the knights sought to engage their enemies in single combat. This was
mainly true of foot soldiers early in the period who were feudal levies and
untrained peasants. Archers were useful in sieges as well, but also at risk of
being rundown on the battlefield.
By the late 1400's commanders were making better progress in disciplining their
knights and getting their armies to work as a team. In the English army, knights
gave their grudging respect to the longbowmen after the archers demonstrated
their value on so many battlefields. Discipline improved also as more and more
knights fought for pay and less for honor and glory. Mercenary soldiers in Italy
became well known for long campaigns during which no appreciable blood was
spilt. By that time soldiers of all ranks were assets not to be discarded
lightly. Feudal armies seeking glory evolved into professional armies more
interested in living to spend their pay.
Cavalry Tactics
Cavalry was divided typically into three groups, or divisions, to be sent into
battle one after another. The first wave would either break through or disrupt
the enemy so that the second or third wave could break through. Once the enemy
was running, the real killing and capturing could take place.
In practice, knights followed personal agendas to the detriment of any
commander's plan. The knights were interested primarily in honor and glory and
jockeyed for positions in the first rank of the first division. Overall victory
on the field was a secondary concern to personal glory. In battle after battle,
the knights charged as soon as they saw the enemy, dissolving any plan.
Commanders dismounted their knights on occasion as a way to better control them.
This was a popular option with the smaller army that had little hope in a
contest of charges. Dismounted knights bolstered the fighting power and morale
of common foot troops. The dismounted knights and other foot soldiers fought
from behind stakes or other battlefield constructions designed to minimize the
impact of cavalry charges.
An example of undisciplined behavior by knights was the Battle of Crécy in 1346.
The French army greatly outnumbered the English (40,000 to 10,000), having many
more mounted knights. The English divided into three groups of longbowmen
protected by stakes driven into the ground. Between the three groups were two
groups of dismounted knights. A third group of dismounted knights was held in
reserve. Genoese mercenary crossbowmen were sent out by the French king to shoot
into the dismounted English army while he tried to organize his knights into
three divisions. The crossbows had gotten wet, however, and were ineffective.
The French knights ignored their king's efforts at organization as soon as they
saw the enemy and worked themselves into a frenzy, shouting, "Kill! Kill!" over
and over. Impatient with the Genoese, the French king ordered his knights
forward and they trampled down the crossbowmen in their way. Although the
fighting went on all day, the dismounted English knights and longbowmen (who had
kept their bowstrings dry) defeated the mounted French who fought as an
undisciplined mob.
By the end of the Middle Ages, heavy cavalry had been reduced to roughly equal
value on the battlefield in comparison to missile and foot troops. By this time,
the futility of charging well-emplaced and disciplined infantry was well
understood. The rules had changed. Stakes, horse traps, and trenches were
routinely employed by armies to protect against cavalry charges. Charges against
massed ranks of pikemen and archers/gunners left only a pile of broken horses
and men. Knights were forced to fight on foot or wait for the right opportunity
to charge. Devastating charges were still possible, but only when the enemy was
in flight, disorganized, or out from behind his temporary battlefield defenses.
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