War and Armies in the Middle Ages
A chapter in Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages and at the Period of the Renaissance| BOOKS
Military life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance underwent significant transformations, shaped by evolving societal structures, technological advancements, and the interplay between military power and religious influence. Initially characterised by the destructive forces of barbarian invasions, military organisation gradually evolved into complex feudal systems, eventually giving way to more centralised royal armies and advanced siege warfare.
Early Military Systems
The art of war, highly perfected by the Romans, faced unprecedented challenges with the successive invasions of barbarian peoples. From the Caucasian mountains, these barbarians, often described as a turbulent mob, swept across Europe, notably under leaders like Attila. Attila, leading a vast army of seven hundred thousand, primarily aimed to lay waste to open country, burn villages, and isolate Roman legions before crushing them by sheer numbers, often avoiding pitched battles and fortresses. His defeat near Châlons-sur-Marne by a Roman-Gallic coalition, including Frank-Salians, Burgundians, Saxons, and Visigoths, marked a significant moment.
Following this period, Theodoric, King of the Goths, established a system in Italy that effectively distributed two hundred thousand troops throughout the peninsula, ensuring their regular pay and rations in both peace and war. He recognised the utility of urban garrisons, organising the country’s youth in a military manner at the gymnasium of Ravenna, with the king himself presiding over exercises. His levies were noted for their discipline, instruction, and equipment. Provincial officers were responsible for distributing arms, food, and hay for troops, and inhabitants were obligated to provide lodging. Towns were almost universally fortified, and entrenched camps covered much of Italy. Barbarian kings like Alaric, Clovis, Gondebaud, and Thierry also skillfully applied Greco-Roman strategic rules in military manoeuvres and siege operations.
Feudal Military Organisation
As the influence of the Goths diminished, the preponderance of the Franks in Gaul grew, leading to the establishment of feudalism. Feudalism was a political system where a seignior, owning land and its cultivators, had the right to enfeudalise, thereby creating a hierarchy of loyalty and service. The obligation of personal service and hierarchic subordination of vassalage became a necessary consequence of these institutions.
A key aspect was the arrière-ban or ban-fieffe, dating from the sixth century, which was a call to arms for vassals that only the suzerain could command. The oath of infeudation, or homage, formed a sacred bond between seignior and vassal, involving numerous feudal services, including military service. Vassals were obliged to follow their suzerain to war, either alone or with a specified number of armed men, with service duration varying from twenty to sixty days. They were bound to loyally preserve secrets, prevent treachery, defend their lord at risk of life, and even substitute themselves as prisoners. The seignior also held the right of reize, allowing him to assemble and lead feudal groups to battle. Failure to answer the call of the ban was considered a serious crime.
This era was marked by constant private wars between seigniories, with might often making right. The Church attempted to remedy these conflicts by establishing the Peace or Truce of God, which suspended warfare from sunset on Wednesday to sunrise on Monday, and during religious solemnities, under pain of excommunication. Feudal lords also possessed varying judicial rights, from superior courts with power of life and death to inferior ones. Even bishops and abbots held temporal rank, uniting spiritual and political authority, and maintained vassals for military service.
Evolution of Armies
The Norman Conquest of England in 1066 by William, Duke of Normandy, demonstrated the effectiveness of a numerous and trained feudal army equipped with powerful war machines. This period also saw the rise of the communal militia, which participated in campaigns with their spiritual pastors and received religious services on the battlefield. Knights received pay (ten sous a day, equivalent to ten modern francs), and squires received five. Ships were chartered for troop transport, and systems for commissariat and military equipment were established.
Under Philippe le Bel, efforts were made to restrain the undisciplined aristocracy, leading to the establishment of a regular royal army (ost) with permanent corps of cross-bowmen and men-at-arms receiving fixed pay. Despite these efforts, French infantry in the fourteenth century often lacked skill and courage, leading to the increased use of foreign mercenaries (English, Italian, German) who fought well when paid. These mercenaries were also entrusted with the management of early cannons.
The paid gendarmery, a mix of heavy and light cavalry, emerged in the reign of Charles VI, though it often exhibited a lack of discipline. Charles VII, aided by Joan of Arc in driving out the English, reformed the military by disbanding the gendarmery and forming fifteen new companies of artillery, incorporating regular cavalry. Each gendarme, fully equipped, was attended by two archers and two mounted followers, forming a lance fully equipped. This creation of mercenary troops further diminished the importance of the feudal ban, which became a secondary, poorly-equipped militia.
The death of Charles the Bold in 1477 marked the downfall of feudal chivalry, its last martial representative. Louis XI, with his devoted mercenary army and Scottish guard, successfully destroyed the great fiefs, ending the need for haughty vassalage. Seigniorial standards and war-cries faded, and the practice of purchasing exemption from military servicebecame accepted for nobles and commoners alike.
Clergy in Combat
Despite the Church's general aversion to bloodshed, ecclesiastical dignitaries occasionally took up arms. Examples include the Bishop of Beauvais at Bouvines, the Bishop of Rheims saving his city from siege, and the Archbishop of Sens falling in battle at Agincourt. Even popes, such as John X, Leo IX, Urban II, Innocent II, and Julius II, personally commanded troops of the Holy See.
Weapons and Siege Warfare
The fire-stick (arquebuse) slowly replaced the bow and cross-bow. Louis XI, in 1481, armed his sergeants-at-arms with pikes, halberts, and broadswords, inspired by Swiss effectiveness. Francis I later replaced national light cavalry with light horse mainly composed of mercenaries. The Battle of Fornoue in 1495 highlighted the continued importance of swords and bows, but thereafter, infantry regained pre-eminence, and cannons became preferred projectile weapons, leading to a revolution in army tactics and fortress attack/defence.
Before the invention of gunpowder, the art of fortification largely followed Roman traditions. Fortified places were attacked by escalade (using ladders and fascines across moats, protected by archers), or by breaching walls through sapping, mining, or battering-rams. Defenders countered by hurling stones and darts, undermining, or inundating the ground beneath siege towers (chattes, châteaux, bretesches). Mining involved digging noiselessly under rampart foundations, propping them with timber, and then burning the props to collapse the walls, creating breaches. Garrisons could attempt to discover and neutralise mines with countermines, as seen in the siege of Rennes in 1356 where basins of water were used to detect enemy digging.
Machines like pierriers, mangonneaux, and espringales were used for distant projectile attacks. The battering-ram, a long, iron-headed, pointed instrument, hammered walls, sometimes mounted on wheels for rapid impact. Defenders tried to catch the ram head in nooses, hurl stones and timber, or deaden blows with thick wool mattresses covered in leather. The trebuchet, a large catapult, could hurl immense stones over battlements. Ultimately, artillery's development rendered these older projectile machines obsolete, marking a new era in warfare.
In conclusion, the military landscape of the Middle Ages and Renaissance was characterised by a continuous evolution from tribal warfare and early strategic adaptations to the rigid, yet adaptable, feudal system, and finally to the emergence of centralised royal armies. This period witnessed significant changes in military organisation, recruitment, equipment, and the devastating impact of new technologies like gunpowder, forever altering the conduct of war.