Infantry - A Summary

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 ; but it spread nevertheless, especially in France, Italy, and Germany. Borrowed from the balista, it seems to have been made available as a hand weapon only about the beginning of the eleventh century.

About this time a burgher militia began to grow up in the French towns. They obtained charters, either by purchase from their lords, who were in want of money for Crusades, or by appeals to the king. “The king has been said to be the founder of the communes, but the reverse is more nearly the truth ; it is the communes that established the king,” says Michelet. They were enabled by their charters to maintain a well-armed force, which was liable to be summoned for the king’s service, though it was seldom willing to go far from home. The towns of Picardy sent companies of crossbowmen to the army with which Philip Augustus won the battle of Bouvines (1214 a.d.). But he owed his victory to his men-at-arms. The French communal troops proved no match for the Flemish foot. The men who distinguished themselves most were some Braban9on mercenaries in King John’s pay, who refused to surrender and were cut to pieces.

The wealthy and turbulent cities of Flanders provided a sturdy militia, whose reputation gained greatly by their victory at Courtrai (1302 a.d.). It was something new and marvellous, as Villani says, for a feudal army of 50,000 men, including 7500 cavalry and 10,000 crossbowmen, to be beaten by 20,000 burghers. The result was due to that arrogance and eagerness to be foremost which was so often fatal to the French chivalry. The flanks as well as the front of the Flemings were covered by a ditch. The leaders of the Italian mercenaries proposed to march round and post their men where they could intercept supplies. ” The Flemings,” they said, ” are great eaters and drinkers ; if we keep them long fasting, they will grow faint. They will quit their ground ; and then the cavalry can charge and rout them without risk.” But these ” Lombard counsels ” were scouted. The foot were not to be allowed to have the honour of the victory. The men-at-arms dashed to the front, floundered into the ditch, and were speared or struck down by ” godendags,” long-handled maces with iron spikes, like the Swiss ” morning-star.” *

But two years afterwards it was shown near Lille that a much larger number of Flemish burghers was no match for a feudal army properly handled, and this was confirmed at Cassel in 1328, and again at Roosebecke in 1382, when Van Artevelde was killed with 25,000 men. If infantry was to recover its old position it must combine excellence in the use of missiles with excellence in handto-hand fighting, and it was the association of the English archer with the dismounted man-at-arms that gave the first real shock to the feudal military system.

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 mounted, but by the end of the tenth century it had become exclusively a feudal host, made up of the contingents of lords who had received grants of land as fiefs or benefices, and were under contract to bring their quota of mounted men into the field.

Fiefs and offices (dukes, counts, &c.) which were at first revocable or for life only, became hereditary, and the inroads of the Northmen gave the holders of them an opportunity to buUd strongholds in which they could defy the king himself. CivU wars among the Carolingian prmces weakened their authority, and enabled some of their vassals to become stronger and more independent. In the general struggle for existence the weaker lords sought safety by “commending themselves” to the stronger lords, surrendermg their lands, and receiving them back as fiefs. The freemen of the conquered (GalloRoman) race fared worse. Some of them were allowed to contmue to hold land subject to a quit-rent, but the bulk of them became serfs. After a time there was no land without its lord, and the lords took care not to aive arms or training to an alien and oppressed peasantry. Froissarts description of the Jacquerie^ shows how the pea.sants, unarmed as they were except with knives and staves, would now and then rise, and revenge themselves on theulords by fearful outrages.

Besides the valets of the men-at-arms, foot archers and crossbowmen were required, especially for garrisons and sieges. These were mostly mercenaries drawn from various quarters, and the term solidarii (soldiers) came into use for hired men early in the eleventh century .^ The army of adventurers with which William of Normandy invaded England comprised not only bowmen, but some mail-clad infantry armed with spears and swords. The Crusader armies also were largely composed of foot, and they had the more need for missile weapons as they had to deal with an enemy skilled in the use of the bow. The, earlier Crusaders suffered much from their inferiority in this respect. In 1104 a.d. they met with a disaster on the very ground, near Carrhie, where the Parthians had routed Crassus’s legions.