Infantry - A Summary

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 little nags : and of the men-at-arms only one-fourth were ” knights ” in the restricted sense which the word had reached by that time. The rest were variously described as squires, sergeants, &c. In Philip’s army there were 12,000 men-at-arms, of whom two-thirds were “gentils gens,” and about 60,000 foot, mainly communal troops, but including 6000 Genoese crossbowmen and other mercenaries. The English army was under 20,000 men all told, but there were 10,000 archers, of whom one-fourth were mounted.

To make up for the disproportion of numbers an advantageous position was chosen between Crecy and Wadicourt, fronting south-cast. The right flank was covered by the forest of Crecy. There was a shallow valley in front, and in rear there was a small wood, by the side of which the king caused a park to be made, “and there was set all carts and carriages, and within the park were all their horses, for every man was afoot ; and into this park there was but one entry.” i The men-at-arms were formed in three “battles” with corps of archers, as_ at Halidon Hill ; that of the Prince of Wales was in front, that of Lord Northampton (rather weaker than the others) was in immediate support “on a wing,” and that of the king was in reserve on higher ground. Thus they were in echelon right in front.

At the battle of Bouvines (1214) the French cavalry were told  “One knight should not make another his shield; draw up so that all the knights may be in the front line.”  It seems likely that this was the general rule, and that at Crecy (as at Agincourt) the English men-at-arms were four deep. Behind them there would be hobelars, and other men less well armed, ” rascals that went afoot with great knives,” Welsh or Irish. Villani says that the English, when fighting on foot, formed a compact body, almost round (like a Scottish schildron), and that each lance was held by two men. An eighteen-foot lance was unwieldy for a single man on foot, but the common practice was to cut it down to a length of five feet, that dimension referring no doubt only to the part in front of the hand-grip.

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. in the Assize of Arms of 1181. The rules were revised by Henry III. in 1252, and by the Statute of Wmchester (1285); the bow was introduced among the weapons, and periodical inspection of arms was provided for. When a war broke out, commissioners of array were sent to the counties to take over from the sherifts the number of men called for, and to see that they were well chosen. Acts of Parliament provided that men sent abroad on the king’s service should be at the king’s wages (1344), and that no one should be forced to serve without the sanction of Parliament, unless he was bound by the terms of his tenure (1351). The foot were formed into bands of a score, a hundred, or a thousand, under vintcnars, centenars, and millenars. The muster rolls of 1339 show that out of a levy of 11,200 men (exclusive of men-at-arms) half were armed with hand weapons and the other half were archers.”

The bow was little used in England before the Conquest. It always played an important part in naval warfare, and just as the Athenians and the Genoese were quick to recognise its value, so the Vikings of the north made it one of their weapons, and prided themselves on their skill with it.i They seem to have dropped it when they settled in England. The ” huscaiies ” or bodyguard of Canute were armed with the two-handed Danish axe, and that weapon largely superseded the Saxon spear. At Hastings Harold’s best troops fought in the Danish fashion, on foot, armed with axes, and awaiting attack behind a stockade.They may have hung their shields on the stockade, as was done on the bulwarks of ships. But William was well provided with bowmen and crossbowmen, as well as with mailed horsemen, and it was by the co-operation of archers and cavalry that the battle was won. ” The Saxon mass was subjected to exactly the same trial which befell the British squares in the battle of Waterloo  incessant charges by a gallant cavalry mixed with a destructive hail of missiles.”  The stockade gave little protection against the curved flight of arrows, especially when they were aimed high, as the duke directed. Darts, axes, and stones made a feeble reply to them ; and sorties upon the assailants, sometimes provoked by feigned flights, ended in the rout of the men who made them. At length the Norman horsemen forced an entrance, and the English broke up.

From that time forward archers formed an important part of English armies, and archery was encouraged as a national sport. Fitzstephen speaks of it as one of the pastimes of Londoners in the time of Henry 11. Richard I. took a thousand bowmen with him when he went to Palestine. Henry III. m the Assize of Arms of 1252 required all forty-shilling freeholders to provide themselves with bow and arrows, and arrows were sometimes exacted for the tenure of lands. But the Norman bow was under live feet in length, and had no great range or penetration. The early Plantagenets preferred the crossbow. The six-foot long-bow with its cloth-yard shaft dates from the time of Edward I, and probably from his wars in Wales.