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 rural 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 his more important copyholders wearing padded and quilted body-armour and steel helmets. His younger brother or sons as men-at-arms and squires on horseback with lance, sword and shield and in armour almost as complete as his own. The knight himself was fully armoured, armoured with lance, sword and shield and mounted on a heavy charger. For example, in the mid-fourteenth century the retinue of Richard Lord Talbot was 14 knights, 60 squires and 82 archers, the retinue of John de Vere, Earl of Oxford, numbered 23 knights, 44 squires and 63 archers. All such retinues combined to provide the force with which the chief tenant was bound to provide the king, and the forces of all chief tenants combined to make up the army of the kingdom.

Sub-tenants holding less than a knight's manor were knows as sergeants. They were mounted soldiers below the rank of knight. Sergeancy did not exist in England, but on the continent the filled many roles, acting as officers of the army. They were obliged to provide a certain number of infantry if return for their land, to lead troops or carry their lords banner into battle. Their equipment was similar to that of a knight, usually they wore less armour and their horses were not armoured. These sergeants should not be confused with sergeants-at-arms, who were members of a royal bodyguard, originally formed by Philip Augustus of France, but soon copied by other European monarchs. Together with household knights they formed an elite body of fighting men round the king's person. Until emergence of standing armies they provided the nucleus for all armies raised by the king.

Most monarchs had the right to call out en masse all able-bodied men to serve as foot soldiers. Such troops were of poor quality and were only called upon in great emergencies, for the nobles were always hesitant to arm the population at large. They were only obliged to serve for an average of forty days, and only in their own country. Their service could be extended by paying them, but peasants were reluctant to stay away from their land for long periods, the fields had to be worked. This made it very difficult to keep an army in the field for any length of time. Commonly up to two-thirds of knights ignored the call to arms, preferring to pay fines or scutage tax, allowing the king to hire professional soldiers in their place.

Militia Armies

In northern Italy and Flanders, where the wealth and influence of cities was often far greater then that of the feudal lords, feudalism developed along different lines. Nobles often abandoned their estates to take up trade in the rich cities, this yielding control of the countryside to these cities. In such cities, and many other great cities in Europe, a third type of soldiers was raised, the city militia. At first these militiamen were conscripted, but later service was voluntary. These troops were in effect standing armies, better trained and equipped then peasant levies. Florence, Venice, Milan and many other cities raised such troops. When the crossbow was introduced it became the main weapon of militia men, and they carried large shields on their backs to protect them from enemy fire. They usually deployed in a line, placing their shield in the ground and making a wall from which they could shoot and defend against cavalry. Such a wall was bolstered with spearman for additional protection from cavalry charges.