Infantry in the Middle Ages
The Crusade era highlighted the importance of infantry and required large numbers of men and material to be organized for distant battlefields, but foot was consistently a central element in medieval armies.
[1] Such expeditions were part of the growing number of sieges, disputes and campaigns throughout the 13th and 14th centuries that greatly increased the cost of warfare for medieval regimes.
[2] By the 11th century, much of the infantry fighting was conducted by high-ranking nobles, middle-class freemen and peasants, who were expected to have a certain standard of equipment, often including helmet, spear, shield and secondary weapons in the form of an axe, long knife or sword.
Routiers, such as Brabançons and Aragones, were supplemented in the later Middle Ages by Swiss pikeman, the German Landsknecht, and the Italian Condottiere - to provide the three best-known examples of these bands of fighting men.
As Clifford Rogers, historian of medieval warfare notes: The rising importance of foot troops, thus, brought not only the opportunity but also the need to expand armies substantially.
Thus as early as the late 13th century, we can observe Edward I campaigning at the head of armies incorporating tens of thousands of paid archers and spearmen.
[17] Such tactics were long-established; the Romans used missile troops such as slingers, and the core infantry learned to deal with swarming enemy cavalrymen by forming a hollow square fenced with a solid hedge of iron pila (large javelins).
Alexander the Great combined both methods in his clashes with the Asiatic horseman of Persia and India, screening his central infantry phalanx with slingers, archers and javelin-men, before unleashing his cavalry against the enemy.
These ancient lessons were relearned in the Medieval period: in the Crusades, in the continued operations of forces like the Flemish footman, and particularly the Swiss pikeman and the English longbowman.
Archers, for example, were essential in holding the fast-moving Muslim cavalry at bay—suppressing their firepower, and allowing the armoured knights to mount successful counter-attacks.
[2] Against Saladin's light cavalry at Jaffa (c. 1192) during the Crusades, Richard of England drew up a line of spearmen, kneeling on the ground with spear planted in front, forming an effectual 'hedge of steel' against the charging enemy horsemen.
At the battle of Courtrai in 1302, the determined Flemish infantry staked out a good position on advantageous ground (cut up with streams and ditches) and stood firm against the cavalry charge of the French nobles using their pikes and wooden Goedendag, a combination spear and club.
In his reconstruction of the infantry fight at Agincourt, John Keegan describes the French as running to contact over the final yards but the English stepping back to "wrong foot" them.
[24] The traditional role of archery on the medieval battlefield was to begin the action, advancing in front of the main body of the army, as occurred at the Battle of Hastings.
Christian Spain owed the use of composite bows and mounted archery using Parthian shots to its long exposure to Islamic military techniques during the Reconquista.
Free mercenary forces such as the Condottiere generally attempted to defeat their foes in open field battle or manoeuvre, but also participated in sieges, adding to the specialist ranks that bolstered the growing dominance of infantry.
The Flemish footmen at the Battle of Courtrai, for example, as shown above, met and overcame the French knights c. 1302, and the Scots occasionally used the technique against the English during the Wars of Scottish Independence.
Historical records indicate that the hard-marching Swiss pikemen managed to keep pace with cavalry units at times, if only in the confined terrain of the Alpine regions.
[30] Centuries later, the fast-moving Zulu impis in Southern Africa made their mark, reputedly achieving an outstanding march rate of 50 miles per day.
[31] The Swiss initially started with mid-length polearms such as the halberds and the lucerne hammer, but eventually adopted the pike to fight more effectively in open terrain during the 15th century, after facing difficulties with dismounted gendarmes.
Rather than simply meet a lance on equal terms, a cavalryman facing the Swiss could expect to deal with sharp points and slashing blows that could certainly not cleave his armour, but could easily break his bones.
Pole weapons were mixed in combat, with pikemen in the front ranks and halberdiers deployed further back to break the deadlock of the "push of pike" after the former had delivered the initial shock treatment.
The Swiss wore little armour, unlike the ancient phalanx warriors of old, dispensing with greaves or shield, and donning only a helmet and a relatively light reinforced corselet.
At the Battle of Falkirk, the Scots pikemen managed to hold off their cavalry opponents but were caught in a static position, providing targets for the English longbow.
On the other hand, when employed in mercenary service they often showed a surprising stubbornness in clinging to frontal assaults (Bicocca, Cerignola), trusting that their reputation for ferocity and unflinching resolve would overcome any opposition.
The famous Swiss hollow square provided for a vanguard group of blademen using slashing halberds or two-handed swords to break the front of cavalry formations.
A cheap "low class" weapon, considered "unchivalrous" by those unlucky enough to face it, the longbow outperformed the crossbow in the hands of skilled archers, and was to transform several battlefields in Europe.
The crossbow and the longbow are two different weapon systems with solely their quick succession rate of shot compared in many modern assessments (precision, endurance, exploitation of opportunities are usually not taken into these comparisons).
[47] Ayton and Price identify three components to what they call the "military revolution" occurring at the end of the Middle Ages; a rise in the importance of infantry to the detriment of heavy cavalry, increasing use of gunpowder weapons on the battlefield and sieges, as well as social, political, and fiscal changes allowing the growth of larger armies.
[50] Instead, the three components of revolution identified by Ayton and Price led to a rebalancing of the elements of the medieval tactical system, opening the way for an integrated arms approach in the 16th century.
