Medieval Europe at War

There are many misconceptions about medieval warfare, and medieval times in general. This article will try to familiarize you with this topic, describing the progression of the medieval art of warfare and all it's major forms developed throughout Europe. Focus is given to army hierarchy and organization. Main source for this article are Osprey Publishing books, mainly Medieval European Armies.

Raising a Feudal Army

A feudal society had a largely agrarian economy. Hard cash, in form of coinage, was uncommon, and wealth was measured mainly in terms of land ownership. A landowner loaned his land to serfs, they in turn worked the fields and gave the landowner a certain part of their products as tax. The king was owner of all the land within a kingdom. He retained large estates for himself, to provide himself with a direct source of income and and personal followers. The rest he let in large lordships to his principal nobles, with condition they provide a certain number of men to the Crown for defence of the kingdom. These nobles were called chief tenants. Like the King they retained a portion of the land for themselves and sub-let the remainder if form of estates to other nobles or knights, on condition they supply them with armed forces required of the chief tenants by the king. Some chief tenants preferred to keep direct control of all their land, they supplied their quota of knights by hiring them, these men were known as household knights. Each sub-tenant let the farms on his manor to copyholders on condition they provide themselves with appropriate arms and muster under his banner when called to do military service. So, each manor supplied a troops of soldiers, knows as a retinue, the small farmers and the knights personal retainers fighting on foot, clad in leather and armed with a spear or a bow, with perhaps two or three of him more