Download Medieval Warfare

Medieval Warfare
In Europe and Japan
Europe
• The collapse of the western Roman Empire
around 410-12AD, left Europe in chaos
– Former provinces ruled by various tribes, each
with a chief or king
– Depression in population as food shortages and
war take their toll
– Populations once connected by roads and
common government become isolated
– Single largest power structure in Europe remains
the Catholic Church
Trends in Medieval Period
• Lack of central organization means an end to
large, professional armies paid for by
government
– Armies become smaller, and entirely funded by
private money (usually individual nobles)
– Focus of battle now on elite warriors who can
afford the best weapons, armor and horses
– Creation of isolated, fortified manors known as
castles or keeps to defend land with fewer men
Example: Tours- The Battle that Saved
Christian Europe
• By the 730s, Muslim Umayyad Dynasty had
expanded across Africa and conquered most of
Spain
• Now proceeding across Pyrenees Mountains to
conquer France and the rest of Europe
• Odo the Great, Lord of Aquitaine appeals to
Charles Martel (Charles the Hammer), King of the
Franks for aid against the impending invasion
– Charles agrees if Odo swears loyalty
Battle of Tours
• Battle is emblematic of later Medieval warfare
– Charles enters battle with a small corps of elite
warriors and a large army of auxiliaries who are
basically arrow fodder
– Charles’ army is small, but wins through proper
deployment of troops
Battle
Battle
• Moors greatest asset is the cavalry, armed
with long curved swords called scimitars
• Charles arrays his forces in a formation known
as the square, two lines of men in a square
formation to hold back enemy horsemen
– Trees help to baffle incoming cavalry charge
– Arms men with pikes: 5-6ft long sharpened stakes
for killing horses
The Battle
• Day 1: Charles’ forces decimate the Umayyad
cavalry
• Day 2: Umayyads forced to commit infantry
• Day 3: While fighting infantry, Charles
dispatches his scouts to hit Umayyad supply
wagons, causing as much havoc and freeing as
many slaves as possible
– Umayyads retreat in disarray with heavy losses
Consequences of Battle
• Charles’ family forms the first post-Roman
Empire, the Carolignian Dynasty
– Charles’ battle becomes model for other kings
• Had Charles lost, there would have been no
other comparable army to stop the Umayyads
– A Muslim Europe?
Muslim Caliphate after Tours
Europe develops new military strategy
• Europe forced to develop new strategies in
response to realities of post-Roman world
– Fewer fighting men
– Threat of invading tribes
– Need to protect only wealth left: agriculture
– No one king able to pay resources to hire an army
on his own
Answer: The Feudal System
• Kings offer land to lords (alternately known as
Dukes, Karls, Counts, etc.) in exchange for
promises of fealty
– Lords must respond to Kings call for battle, and pay
taxes, but are otherwise given total control
• Lords in turn offer swaths of their land to Knights
– Knights protect land by building fortified manors or
castles, pay taxes and fealty to lords
• Knights directly control peasants who farm land
Feudalism
The Manor becomes the Castle
• Castles were self-sufficient fortresses designed
to slow an advancing army, hold strategic
areas and serve as watchtowers on the border
• Castles ranged from small walled forts, to
massive complexes of buildings
Castles
Common features of castles
• Motte: An earthen mound with a flat top on
which the castle rested (often artificial).
These later became known as moats, because
often, a depression would be built around the
castle and filled with water to slow attackers
Castles
• Curtain Wall: Castles were surrounded by at
least 1, if not multiple walls
• Bailey: Fortified areas within castle walls, held
spaces for animals, crops and supplies
• Gate: Large fortified gates in walls, usually
protected by a donjon- a high tower capable
of raining down attacks on besieging armies
• Keep: The central house of the castle,
containing the lord’s manor
Effect on Medieval Society
• Focus of society entirely on nobility
– One was not a citizen of a country, but a subject of
a local lord
– Knights required to swear personal loyalty and
their honor to a lord
– Should that Lord fall in battle, it would essentially
be the death of the Kingdom as well.
Example: The Battle of Hastings
• In your textbook read pages 14-17 and answer
the following questions
• Why were Harold and William fighting over
England?
• What turned the tide of battle for the
Normans?
• What were the consequences for English
language and culture as a result of the
victory?
Chivalry
• Code of honor all knights were expected to
adhere to
– Developed from the laws of the Ordo Equistriis (the
Roman Equestrians) as well as the code established by
various kings, and literature
– Rules
• Duty of the Knight to protect the poor (typically meant ruling
over the peasants in his care, knights had absolute power
over their peasantry)
• God and Lord: Knights must be loyal to the Church and Lord
above all
• Duties to women: treat noble women with deference and
respect
Knight’s equipment
• Armor: Early middle ages knights used light
armor or chain for maximum mobility on
horseback.
– By the late middle ages, knights increasingly used
heavy gothic armor, made of interlocking plates
– Knights became increasingly protected, but
increasingly immobile
Armor of Henry II of France
Knight’s Equipment
• Knights had to maintain a stable of warhorses,
bred to handle battle, and carry a fully
armored and armed knight
• Weapons
– Lance: A long spear used as a stabbing weapon
from horseback
– Broad sword, a long double-bladed sword that
could double as a stabbing or swinging weapon
– Mace/Warhammer: A heavy hammer (often with
flanges, for crushing the skulls of enemies)
Medieval weapons
Power of the Church
• Church during the Middle Ages acted much
like a secular government
– Maintained its own extensive lands, ruled by
knights
– Maintained its own orders of monk/knights
• Knights Templar
• Knights Hospitaller
Church as a Military Power: The
Crusades
• 1066 Popes had built a power-base of knights,
and made alliances with European Kings (height
of the Pope’s secular power)
• Launched a holy war against the Umayyads in
order to retake the Holy Land
• Pope promised martyrdom to anyone who died in
the Crusade (instant forgiveness of all sins)
– Kings and Knights flock to banner, adding to Papal
Army
The People’s Crusade
• The People’s Crusade
– Numerous Dukes form an unruly mob to attack
heretics
– Unable to organize enough to get to Asia Minor,
the mob begins attacking Jews and Orthodox
Christians wherever they can find them
– Several Archbishops in cities like Cologne attempt
to shield Jews from attack, but largely
unsuccessful
• Thousands killed or forced to convert
People’s Crusade
Early problems with the Crusade: The
Siege of Antioch
• Antioch was a town of major importance in
Asia Minor
– Half-way between Constantinople and Jerusalem
• Combined Crusader forces besiege the city
• Crusaders led by religious zealot named Peter
Bartholomew
• Turkish forces led by a warlord named Fakr alMuq Radwan
Siege of Antioch 1097
1st Battle
• Crusaders outside city learn that advancing
Turkish army may trap them against walls
• Bribe a tower guard to allow them to enter
city
– Results in the slaughter of the town’s Muslim and
Jewish population
2nd Battle
• Crusaders now find themselves besieged in
the ruins of the town they just captured
• Bartholomew claims to find The Spear of
Destiny (the spear which supposedly stabbed
Jesus) uses it to lead a charge against Turks
– Meanwhile large contingent of Turkish forces
desert, fearing that, should he win Radwan would
become too powerful
– Christians see victory as a sign from God
3rd Battle (against plague)
• Plague quickly breaks out in the area as bodies
taint the water supply
• Muslim and Jewish peasants in the countryside refuse to provide food to Crusaders
• Crusaders descend on a nearby village
– Reports of cannabalism against villagers
1099 Siege of Jerusalem
• By the time crusaders reach Jerusalem they are
down to 16,000 men, from 25,000
– Resolve to assault city
– Destroy ships in order to make siege machines
– Jews and Muslims in city unite to fight crusaders
• City taken by assault in July
– Muslims slaughtered throughout city
– Many Jewish families burned alive inside chief
Synagouge (trapped inside by Crusaders)
– Slaughter estimated at 10,000 people
Christian image of the Siege of
Jerusalem
Aftermath
• 1st Crusade establishes a series of Crusader
states, loyal to the Church
• Knights Templar (A knightly order set up to
guard the Church of the Sepulcher) become
extremely important
– Set up first Church banking system
– Control flow of wealth through holy land
– Tithe much of wealth to the Church
Aftermath
• The First Crusade is followed by nearly 26
more Crusades, each more disastrous for
Crusaders than the last.
Effects of the Crusade on Europe
• Creates modern banking
– Church based system to allow pilgrims to store
and recover money while in Holy Land
– Adopted by major Italian families like the Medici
and the Pazzi who go on to found first modern
Republics
– Becomes a basis for future economic expansion
Effects of the Crusade on Europe
• Rediscovery of lost or banned Roman and
Greek documents in Arabic libraries
– Leads to the birth of the Renaissance and the
Humanist Movement
• Rejection of Church Authority
• Growth of an intellectual class in Europe
Effects of the Crusade on Europe
• Growing disgust with Church
– Nobility sees Crusades as increasingly wasteful
and dangerous
– Intellectuals in Church see it as cause of growing
Church corruption
• Need for cash results in use of Indulgences
– Purchases of absolution from sin, including future sin, by
simply paying money to the church
– Had previously only been used under special circumstances
Indulgences
Effects of the Crusades in Europe
• All of this will lead to the eventual Protestant
Reformation as Christianity splits into
numerous warring factions
– Church power replaced by that of strong secular
rulers
– Foundations of the modern state
100 Years War: Death of the Knight
• Lasts from 1337-1453
• Conflict over Normandy, a large portion of
Northern France originally controlled by
William the Conqueror
The War
• Broken into 4 parts, separated by brief treaties
• Pitted the best of French and English knighthood
against each other
• Part 1:
– French attempt to make an alliance with the Scots
against the English
– English King Edward (known as the Black Prince) sails
to France
• War briefly interrupted by Black Plague
– Edward wins several key battles, throwing French into
Chaos
Key Weapons
• The French Crossbow
– Designed for poorly trained French
bowmen/peasants
– English considered it un-Christian to use
– Rifle design allowed for easy aiming
– Shorter range, but more power
– Took longer to reload than a skilled bowmen
Crossbow
Key Weapons
• Welsh Longbow
– Large bow (sometimes up to 5-6ft.)
– Long range, could fire heavy steel tipped arrows
– Capable of piercing armor
– Required extremely skilled bowmen to use
Battle of Sluys
• French Fleet prepares to invade England
• Prince Edward of England (known as the Black
Prince) attacks with an inferior fleet
• Use of the Broadside
– Firing from the side of the ship so that maximum
firepower can be brought against a target
– Used Welsh Longbows
• Despite being outnumbered, English destroy
French fleet
Battle of Sluys
Battle of Crecy, 1346
• 15,000 English troops invade France led by
Prince Edward vs. 25,000 French forces
• English position well hill, with Archers in a V
formation
– French march to fight English, Philip IV is so eager
that he launches his exhausted men into battle
– French charge so fast that they are forced to leave
behind their Pavises
• Large rolling shields designed to deflect arrow fire
Battle of Crecy
• French find that crossbows have half the range
of the English longbowmen
– French archers neutralized by volleys of arrows
– Despite this, Knights charge –straight to their
deaths
Result
• End of the first phase of war with French on
the run, forced to surrender large portions of
land to the English
Battle of Agincourt, 1415
• Battle of Agincourt decisively puts an end to
the age of Knights
– Henry V, a highly intelligent French king, vs.
Charles VI (known as Charles the Simple)
– English vastly outnumbered
The death of French Knighthood
• English array their men-at-arms across a
narrow valley, with archers commanding the
hills
• French lured into attacking seemingly vastly
outnumbered foot soldiers
• French Knights utterly massacred by repeated
volleys of arrows
– Demonstrates that a peasant with a good bow
could destroy a wealthy knight
End of the Hundred Years War
• French forces led by Joan of Arc (a religious zealot
believed to be inspired by God) lead a massive
counter-assault
• Despite Joan’s capture and execution at the stake
by the English, the French continue the
momentum
• English in no position to continue due to civil war
over who gets to be the next king (War of the
Roses)
– French win by default…. Hooray for France
Timeline of the Hundred Years War
Rise of the Condotierre
• Increasingly governments begin relying on
professionally trained soldiers
• Based on the Condotierre model
– Italian mercenaries who would sell their skills to
the highest bidder
• Nobles increasingly lose power in the
governments, feudalism replaced by
professional armies led by powerful kings
Conclusion
• Nobility is forced to adapt to a growing
changing world
– Becomes irrelevant or secures a place in the larger
military structure
– Europe modernizes in response to guns, and
military advancement to become most powerful
and organized military force on Earth