Ad
related to: medieval infantry mounted knight
Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
In the medieval period, the mounted warrior held sway for an extended time. Typically heavily armoured, well-motivated and mounted on powerful, specially bred horses, the mounted knight represented a formidable force, which was used to effect against more lightly armoured troops.
The origins of the lance lie in the retinues of medieval knights (Chaucer's Knight in the Canterbury Tales, with his son the Squire and his archer Yeoman, has similarities to a lance). When called by the liege, the knight would command men from his fief and possibly those of his liege lord or in this latter's stead.
In the Medieval period, the mounted cavalry long held sway on the battlefield. Heavily armoured mounted knights represented a formidable foe for reluctant peasant draftees and lightly armoured freemen. To defeat mounted cavalry, infantry used swarms of missiles or a tightly packed phalanx of men, techniques honed in antiquity by the Greeks.
Though in English the term man-at-arms is a fairly straightforward rendering of the French homme d'armes, [b] in the Middle Ages, there were numerous terms for this type of soldier, referring to the type of arms he would be expected to provide: In France, he might be known as a lance or glaive, while in Germany, Spieß, Helm or Gleve, and in various places, a bascinet. [2]
Lydon, James (1954) "The hobelar:An Irish contribution to medieval warfare, Irish Sword, II, v, pp. 12–16. Morris, J.E. (1914), Mounted Infantry in Mediaeval Warfare, Transactions of the Royal Historical Society 3rd Series, Volume 8 ; Powicke, Michael (1962). Military Obligation in Medieval England. Oxford: Clarendon Press. ISBN 0-19-820695-X.
The length of the standard kontarion is estimated at 2.5 meters (8.2 ft), which is shorter than that of the medieval knight of Western Europe. [4] Formations of knights were known to use underarm-couched military lances in full-gallop closed-ranks charges against lines of opposing infantry or cavalry.
The emperor Manuel I Komnenos, for example, re-equipped his elite cavalry in the style of western knights. It is difficult to determine when exactly the cataphract saw his final day in battle. After all, both cataphracts and knights fulfilled a similar role on the medieval battlefield, and the armoured knight survived well into the modern age.
No longer outreached by the knight's lance, and displaying far greater cohesion than any knightly army, the Swiss soon showed that they could defeat armoured men-at-arms, mounted or dismounted, given anything like even numbers. With the creation of the pike square tactical formation, the Swiss provided the model for the modern infantry regiment ...
Ad
related to: medieval infantry mounted knight