Medieval warfare

The term “medieval” (from Latin for “Middle Ages”) really applies only to Western European history, from the fall of Rome around 500 c.e. to the beginning of European voyages of exploration and conquest around 1500 c.e. For most parts of the world, military practices continued through these centuries much as they had since ancient times. One military resource, however, seems to dominate the medieval period everywhere except the Americas: the horse. Hordes of horse-riding armies regularly swept out of Asia to create and destroy empires. Meanwhile, the rider became the knight in Europe and the samurai in Japan, not only creating new methods of warfare but also transforming their societies. Although infantry remained a vital part of many military forces, the preeminence of the horse warrior ended only as new weapons created modern warfare.

Horse Peoples

Since ancient times, the horse-domesticating peoples of the steppes of central Asia used their nomadic mobility to plague neighboring civilizations. Their typical battle plan was for masses of horsemen to ride into shooting range, unleash huge volleys of arrows from their powerful composite bows, then swiftly retreat. After several waves of attacks, enemy formations would be broken and the horsemen would ride in with swords for the final slaughter.

For much of the medieval period, various horse peoples invaded Europe, the Middle East and East Asia. The brief Avar Empire on the plain of Hungary, destroyed by Charlemagne around 800 c.e., was soon followed by the Magyars. They plundered Germany, France, and Italy until stopped by Otto the Great at Lechfeld (955). After Bulgars threatened Byzantium, the Seljuk Turks successfully penetrated into Asia Minor and provoked the Crusades. In the thirteenth century, Genghis Khan reorganized the Mongols and stormed out of central Asia. The Mongols eventually conquered the Russians, the Turks, and China.

The failed attempts by Mongols to invade Japan sparked the development of the samurai warriors, who imitated the Mongol horse archery. By the fourteenth century, the samurai became a dominant class of armored swordsmen who fought under powerful competing lords. In Egypt, the mamlwks, warriors who combined skills of archers, heavy infantry, and heavy cavalry, also managed to resist the Mongols. After the Mongol Empire dissipated, the Ottoman Turks seized the initiative, combining horse archers with heavy cavalry and infantry. In 1453, the Ottomans successfully crushed the Byzantine Empire and became a dominant power in the Balkans and the Middle East.

Islam

Part of the Turkish success derived from the religious fervor of Islam, to which the Turks had been converted in the tenth century. Founded in Arabia in the seventh century, Islam included the idea of jihad, or holy war. Inspired to conquer in the name of Allah, the heretofore militarily insignificant Arabs banded together and swept out of the Arabian Peninsula. Within a century, Arab armies had subjugated peoples in the Iberian Peninsula, across north Africa, throughout Mesopotamia, and deep across Asia into India. The Muslim armies almost destroyed the Byzantine Empire, which managed to defend itself only by reorganizing its own armies and employing Greek fire, an incendiary weapon. Although political divisions soon shattered the Arab empire, Islam later provided the motivation for many non-Arab conquerors to establish Muslim empires in places such as sub-Saharan Africa and India.

Early Medieval Europe: 500-900 c.e.

In the new kingdoms of Christian Europe, in which the bureaucracy of the Roman Empire collapsed after invasions by the Goths and Germans, societies became organized around war groups. A king as war-leader united the people as a whole, while alongside and under him served powerful lords supported by warriors in their households or retinues. Endemic petty warfare from feuds and the desire for power and plunder ravaged Europe for centuries. The aggressive campaigns of Charlemagne briefly succeeded in unifying much of Western Europe by 800. However, the quarrels of Charlemagne’s successors and the raiding attacks of Vikings, Magyars, and Saracens shattered the empire and even broke down the central leadership of the king.

High Medieval Europe: 900-1300

Europeans survived by building fortifications and by forming bands of heavy cavalry, soon called knights. On the defensive, the communal burhs (fortresses) were soon outmoded by residential forts, the castles. Castles allowed nobles to protect the local populace and thus establish dominion over a region. On the offensive, groups of mounted warriors, protected by chain-mail armor and often using the couched-lance charge, cleared Europe of foreign invaders.

The expense of building castles, raising horses, maintaining armor and weapons, and training for battle meant that the wealthy elites dominated warfare. In much of Europe, they reshaped government using their bonds of loyalty and military service with one another. Even though historians have exaggerated the pervasiveness of the so-called feudal system, knights did mold politics and society in their image. Their ideology was called chivalry, drawn from the French word for horse warrior. The aristocracy and nobility took up arms according to a code of honor immortalized by minstrels in courtly halls.

The realities of medieval warfare were more cruel than the romantic stories. Many medieval commanders, saddled with small, unreliable forces, avoided the risks of pitched battle. Because many military campaigns were waged over property, most military actions involved the raid or chevauchée: ravaging the enemy’s undefended material and agricultural resources. Therefore, helpless populations repeatedly suffered plundering, arson, rape, slaughter, and famine. The logistic difficulty of marshaling large armies did prevent any one king from establishing an empire within Western Europe. Yet by 1050, the Europeans were strong enough to take the offensive against their non-Christian neighbors, especially using the religious calling of Crusades.

Although the knights dominated government and culture, other military forces, namely the artillery and infantry, never disappeared from the battlefield. Unlike samurai, western knights disdained the bow. Nonetheless, the value of long-range missile shot compelled many commanders to include archers among their troops. The crossbow, a specialty of mercenaries, became valued for its ability to pierce armor. The frequent sieges of castles and towns, the most common form of medieval military confrontation, also required specialized technicians for breaking castles and infantry to man the blockade or assault the walls.

Late Medieval Europe: 1300–1500

The Hundred Years’ War (1337–1457) saw both the culmination of medieval warfare and the beginning of its end. Notwithstanding the increasingly sophisticated plate armor that temporarily secured the superiority of the knight, foot soldiers and artillery ultimately triumphed. First, the Englishlongbow archers, supported by dismounted knights, won key battles for the English. Then, gunpowder weapons, handguns, and cannons punctured armor and shattered castles. Finally, the Swiss perfected fighting with soldiers marching in formation carrying pikes, reminiscent of the Greek phalanx but now supported by swordsmen, archers, and increasingly, guns. The use of large armies of cheap infantry trained in pike and gun gradually ended the effectiveness of the mounted warrior everywhere.

Ten Military Innovations During the Middle Ages

Bibliography

Bradbury, Jim. The Medieval Siege. Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press, 1992.

Castle. Documentary. PBS Home Video, 1983.

Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984.

Delbrück, Hans. Medieval Warfare. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1982.

DeVries, Kelly. Medieval Military Technology. Peterborough, Canada: Broadview Press, 1992.

Europe in the Middle Ages: The Feudal System. Documentary. Films for the Humanities & Sciences, 1989.

France, John. Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusaders: 1000–1300. Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1999.

Holmes, Richard, ed. The World Atlas of Warfare: Military Innovations That Changed the Course of History. New York: Viking Studio Books, 1988.

Hooper, Nicholas, and Matthew Bennett. Cambridge Illustrated Atlas: Warfare: The Middle Ages: 768-1487. Cambridge, England: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Hyland, Ann. Warhorse, 1250–1600. Stroud, England: Sutton, 1998.

Keen, Maurice, ed. Medieval Warfare: A History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Knights & Armor. Documentary. A&E Network, 1995.

Koch, H. W. Medieval Warfare. New York: Crescent Books, 1978.

The Middle Ages: Rise of Feudalism. Documentary. Britannica Films, 1966.

Oman, Sir Charles. A History of the Art of War in the Middle Ages. 2 vols. London: Greenhill Books, 1991.

Robards, Brooks. The Medieval Knight at War. London: Tiger Books International, 1997.

Verbruggen, J. F. The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages: From the Eighth Century to 1340. Woodbridge, England: Boydell & Brewer, 1998.

The War Lord. Fiction feature. Universal Studios Home Video, 1965.