Medieval European Warfare Weapons In early to mid Medieval Europe, the armies had nothing very complicated. The nobles had solid iron weapons, and the not as rich had brass coated in iron. There was the lance, the spear, the pike, throwing axe, battle axe, short sword, the horsebow, the longsword, broadsword, dagger, shortbow, longbow, crossbow, mallet, mace, greatsword, serrated sword, halberd, throwing knives, and the wrist knife. The lance, dagger, longsword, and horse bow were generally used by cavalry. The lance, battle axe, longsword, broadsword, dagger, mace, greatsword, and the halberd were used by men-at-arms, or knights.
The serrated sword, throwing daggers, shortbow, and wrist knife were used by assasins. The longbow, mallet, mace, and battle axe were used by English yeomen. Infantry used the halberd, pike, spear, and broadsword. Swiss infantry especially used the pike and halberd. In the 12th century, the Chinese invention of gunpowder reached Europe. Everybody immediately began developing weapons with it. The French invented the cannon and firearm, making France a major power with England and also lead to the downfall of many lesser nobles who couldn’t afford cannon-proof fortifications.
Castles were expensive anyway (as much as 13,000,000 ducats) so the lesser nobles could barely afford a regular castle(considering a king got 12 million ducats a year). The weapons used for seige warfare were the ballista, battering ram, and seige tower that could allow experienced archers to have more accuracy. Strategies Early warfare during this period was very simple. Two armies would throw their infantry at each other and charge with the cavalry when the general deemed it right. The stronger army always won because there was no “coming in on the left flank” or “drawing your enemy into an ambush” or any of that stuff.
But it didn’t take long for the English to discover the usefulness of archers. They used yeomen, English farmers who were good with the longbow. The English army contained 80-90% yeomen with the rest being men-at-arms. Each 100 yeomen (called a century) were led by a centenaur, who repeated the orders of the Master of the Archers (a knight who was uncommon, for he was skilled with the longbow). The Master of the Archers told them when and where to shoot, sending about 60,000 arrows a minute at the enemy. When the opposing army had been reduced, the yeomen teamed up on the nobles and captured them for ransom.
This made the yeomen very rich, for ransoms could be as much as thousands of ducats. The Swiss also had a good deal going. They reinvented the Greek phalanx with less armor and more maneuverability so they couldn’t get hit in the flanks. Qualities of a Good Soldier For men-at-arms, some good qualities were a code of honor (chivalry), weapons skill, good horsemanship, and rich (needed enough money for horse, armor, and weapons). For yeomen, good qualities were discipline, skill with a bow, and flexibility (could be called to war at any time by the king). For infantry, good qualities are mobility, discipline, and skill with weapons.
People in the Army Depends on the country. For Germans, it was mainly infantry with some cavalry. With the Swiss, it’s all infantry. With the English, it was mostly yeomen with some knights thrown in. All mixed in with archers with shortbows and the regular army people. Pay for the troops This is for 90 days pay. Ducats Soldier Type 1,200 English Yeoman Archer (longbow) 1,500 Italian Crossbowman 1,000 Common (professional) infantry ,000 Archer (short bow) 1,500 Light cavalry (common in Spain, where it was native, and Italy, where it was often hired from Albania. ) 2,400 Mounted Man at Arms (squire or “sergeant at arms”) 5,000 Fief Holder (knight leading 20-50 troops) 0,000-100,000 for the above group 12,000 Noble (lesser noble leading 100-500 troops) 200,000-1,000,000 for the above group 25,000 Magnate (leading 1,000-5,000 troops) 2,000,000-10,000,000 for group plus siege train, etc This comes to about 2,000 ducats per man on average, although in practice the employers could get off with paying about half that by passing out IOUs that were never honored.
This was a game in itself, and was one of the reasons kings, and other magnates who hired troops regularly, surrounded themselves with loyal, well paid and permanently employed bodyguards. There were threats and assassination attempts by unpaid soldiers, especially higher ranking ones owned hundreds of thousands of ducats. Other military specialists drew higher rates of pay for 90 days service. For example; 10,000-Siegeworks Master. This would be an individual, often a commoner, who had a knack for running sieges.
Nobles often had one or more of these fellows in their household, and had to pay them handsomely lest these talented fellows move on. When there wasn’t a war going on, these specialists were often employed to build things, as sieges were, more than anything else, construction (or “destruction”) projects. 1,000-Siegeworks Artisan. These were commoners who were skilled at actually building siege machines or digging specialized trenches and tunnels. This information copied off of Army Organization Not much organization except for the English.
The English yeomen were each split into 20 & 100. The group of 20 watched out for one another, and the group of 100 was called a century, and was led by a centenaur. Each army had about 50 centuries, and thus could pound the enemy with arrows (with each yeoman being able to shoot approximately 12 arrows a minute). Armor As with weapons, the richer you were, the better you had. The commoners had leather with steel discs sewed on, with a helm on and a buckler or targe (round wooden shield with 9″ spike on front).
Rich people had better quality, having chain mail, plate mail, a helm, and a targe or kite shield (large rectangular shield with a metal knob in the middle). The 3 helm types were the greathelm, chapel-de-fer, and, later, the bascinet. Problems in the Army One of the main problems in the army was morality. The commoners sometimes didn’t get paid and thus were sometimes prone to revolt. Another reason for low morality was sometimes the army didn’t get to pillage and plunder a city because a besieged city made a deal with the besiegers. If an army had low morale, the army didn’t function, and the king’s wars were lost.
If you didn’t have a good standing army, you could find yourself without a kingdom very quickly. Another problem in the army was the fact that the men-at-arms thought of themselves as individuals. They weren’t disciplined, and though they answered the king’s call and fought together, they didn’t really fight together. They would fight by themselves without really helping anyone else, getting many knights captured or killed because of blind pride and ignorance of the fact that it isn’t a one man war. Seiges Seige weapons were the cannon, ballista, battering ram, and scaling ladder.
Some seige strategies were to starve out the beseiged, set up a deal with them, dig tunnels under their walls to collapse them, destroy the doors and walls with a battering ram, storm the walls and climb them with ballistas and scaling ladders, or blow down the walls with cannons. Training Methods Ordinary infantry and cavalry would drill under a drill sergeant for much of the day, honing their skills in various areas. Yeomen would do something called clout shooting (or “cloth shooting”). Knights would train their weapons and practice their horsemanship by themselves, or would partake in tournaments and practice fighting with other people.
