Medieval Siege and Siege Craft by Geoffrey Hindley

Author:Geoffrey Hindley [Hindley, Geoffrey]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781844684977
Publisher: Pen and Sword
Published: 2012-10-17T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER EIGHT

Logistics

‘the art of moving and quartering troops, i.e. quarter-master general’s work ...’

The Athenaeum, 1898

It seems that the word ‘logistics’ arrived in English in the fifteenth century as a derivation of the French word loge, a small house or lodging. Thus it might seem that the science and art of arranging for the movement and maintenance of military forces in the field was in the first instance a matter of finding accommodation for those on campaign. And to a certain extent it was just that. When a medieval army went to war the military personnel, those doing the actual fighting, were just part of the huge body of men, and women, involved. In addition there were the servants of the knights or men-at-arms (according to Edward III’s military establishment men with at least 450 acres of land to their name) and the household staffs not only of the monarch himself but also of the great nobles who might be accompanying him – their butlers, chefs, wardrobe masters, footmen, trumpeters and many another, including chapel staff. During the English invasion of France in the first quarter of the fifteenth century, for example, the sheer numbers of the English choral establishments astonished the French. The capture of Joan of Arc on 30 May 1430 was celebrated with the singing of a special Te deum by the duke of Bedford’s choristers at Compiègne.

The objective of the logistical exercise, even with the choristers, was still, of course, to mobilize fighting effectives in a given place and ideally at a given time. But one will have a richer, truer picture of the life of a medieval siege if one has in mind the cloud of ‘extras’ in the wings of the action. In addition to these were the camp-followers, wives and others, religious mendicants, hawkers and pedlars – possibly, one surmises in exceptional circumstances, washerwomen.

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