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Despite the rise of knightly cavalry in the 11th century, infantry played an important role throughout the Middle Ages on both the battlefield and in sieges. From the 14th century onwards, it has been argued that there was a rise in the prominence of infantry forces, sometimes referred to as an " infantry revolution ", but this view is strongly ...
Byzantine heavy infantry were armed with a long spear (kontos or kontarion) but it is possible that a minority may have been armed with the menavlion polearm. At the beginning of the Komnenian era, all Byzantine infantry still carried round shields, but these were superseded by much larger kite shields in the mid 12th century. [110]
Both light infantry and cavalry carried javelins (akontia or riptaria) no longer than two meters. Multiple spearheads have been found from 11th century Byzantine sites, namely the Drastar battlefield of 1081 AD, the Serce Limani shipwrecks, and the 12th–13th century Great Palace destruction layer. [65] [66] [67]
The use of armoured infantry in Gaelic Ireland from the 9th century on, came as a counter to the mail-clad Vikings. The arrival of the heavily armoured Norse-Gaelic mercenary Gallowglasses in the early 13th century, was in response to the Norman invasion of Ireland and the Anglo-Normans use of heavily armoured Men-at-arms and Knights.
In the 12th century the process of creation of the knighthood began in Poland (and lasted more than a century), which was strictly connected with a tenure of land. In order to recreate the picture of the army of those times, it is essential to know the duties of particular classes of society: military duty , specified works for army's needs ...
The Palaiologan army refers to the military forces of the Byzantine Empire under the rule of the Palaiologos dynasty, from the late 13th century to its final collapse in the mid-15th century. The army was a direct continuation of the forces of the Empire of Nicaea , which itself was a fractured component of the formidable Komnenian army of the ...
In the late 12th century the army numbered 40,000 men-at-arms. [34] The country was able to mobilize around 100,000 men in the first decade of the 13th century ( Kaloyan reportedly offered the leader of the Fourth Crusade Baldwin I 100,000 soldiers to help him take Constantinople ). [ 35 ]
Often, while the infantry engaged their enemy counterparts, the Clibanophori would destroy the enemy's cavalry (this tactic was used mainly against Franks, Lombards or other Germanic tribes who deployed armoured cavalry). Byzantine infantry were trained to operate with cavalry and to exploit any gaps created by the cavalry.