http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog Infantry Information Mon, 13 Oct 2008 16:40:05 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en The French men-at-arms charged through the crossbowmen by the king's orders, spearing and trampling them, but they were themselves shot down by English arrows, or overthrown by one another in the press. As King Edward wrote, there died more than 1500 knights and esquires in the part of the field ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/13/longbow-vs-crossbow/ According to Baker of Swynbrook, the archers were placed, not in front of the men-at-arms, but at the sides of the king's army, like wings, so that they might not get in the way of the men-at-arms, nor meet the enemy face to face, but discharge their arrows at his ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/12/according-to-baker-of-swynbrook/ Such considerations as these, together with his previous experience at Halidon Hill, led Edward III. to make his Knight s dismount, when he turned to offer battle to Philip of Valois at Crecy (1346).' Hejiad about 4000 cavalry, but nearly half of these were " hobelars," light-armed men mounted on ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/11/edward-iii/ It was by no means a new departure for English knights to fight on foot. To say nothing of the times before the Conquest, Henry I. won two victories with dismounted knights: Tenchebrai (1106) over his brother Robert, and Bremule (1119) over Louis VI. of France. At Tenchebrai he followed ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/10/foot-knights/ According to Giraldus Cambrensis, the South Welsh, especially the men of Gwent, excelled in archery. They had bows of elm so stout that they would serve for cudgels, and could send the point of an arrow through a three-inch door.i It became a rule in later days that the length ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/08/south-welsh-archers/ For the foot English kings depended mainly on county levies. Military service, which was tending to become a matter of privilege abroad, was insisted on as the duty of all freemen. The arms and equipment which they were bound to have, according to their means, were specified by Henry II. ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/07/english-kings/ The coming of the Normans brought depression of the peasantry. A good deal of the land became the lord's domain-land, and "churls" mostly saiak into "villeins," serfs bound to the soil. Nevertheless, the divisions between classes were less sharp than in France. Between lords and villeins there were sokemen, who ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/06/normans/ In England armies had passed through the same changes as in France, but the soil was less congenial to feudalism. Jutes and Anglo-Saxons came over in bands from different districts, and were only by slow degrees amalgamated into a nation. The Britons were mostly driven westward, instead of forming a ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/05/english-armies/ The victories of Cceur de Lion were due to skilful cooperation of heavy cavalry and crossbowmen, whose bolts were further ranging and more deadly than the Turkish arrows.*^ So deadly were they that in 1139 A.D. the second Lateran Council condemned the use of the crossbow, except against infidels ; ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/04/coeur-de-lion/ Something more mobile and efficient was required to meet sudden descents of the Danes upon the coasts which formed the chief danger to the peace of the kmgdom. In 86G a.d. Charles the Bald issued an edict that all freeholders who had or might have horses should jom the host ... http://infantry.web-data-network.co.uk/blog/2008/10/02/danes/