Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
These horses were usually stallions, bred and raised from foalhood specifically for the needs of war. The destrier was specifically for use in battle or tournament; for everyday riding, a knight would use a palfrey, and his baggage would be carried on a sumpter horse (or packhorse), or possibly in wagons.
Knights and nobles kept riding horses in their war-trains, saving their warhorses for the battle. [12] The names of horses referred to a type of horse, rather than a breed. Many horses were named by the region where they or their immediate ancestors were foaled. For example, in Germany, Hungarian horses were commonly used for riding. [6]
Europeans used several types of war horses in the Middle Ages, and the best-known heavy cavalry warrior of the period was the armoured knight. With the decline of the knight and rise of gunpowder in warfare, light cavalry again rose to prominence, used in both European warfare and in the conquest of the Americas .
A museum display of a sixteenth-century knight with an armoured horse Chinese Song dynasty lamellar horse barding as illustrated on Wujing Zongyao. Barding (also spelled bard or barb) is body armour for war horses. The practice of armoring horses was first extensively developed in antiquity in the eastern kingdoms of Parthia and Pahlava.
Jousting is a medieval and renaissance martial game or hastilude between two combatants either on horse or on foot. [1] The joust became an iconic characteristic of the knight in Romantic medievalism. The term is derived from Old French joster, ultimately from Latin iuxtare "to approach, to meet".
Both were expensive, highly trained horses prized by knights and nobles, while a poorer knight, squire or man-at-arms would use a rouncey for fighting. A wealthy knight would provide rounceys for his retinue. [3] [4] Sometimes the expected nature of warfare dictated the choice of horse; when a summons to war was sent out in England in 1327, it ...
This 12th century depiction of a knight on horseback might show a courser. A courser is a swift and strong horse, frequently used during the Middle Ages as a warhorse . It was ridden by knights and men-at-arms .
' horse ' or ' cavalrymen ', though sometimes referred to as "knights" in English) constituted the second of the property/social-based classes of ancient Rome, ranking below the senatorial class. A member of the equestrian order was known as an eques (Latin: [ˈɛ.kʷɛs]).