Medieval Military Combat by Dr Tom Lewis OAM

Author:Dr Tom Lewis OAM
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: History / Military / Medieval
Publisher: Casemate Publishers
Published: 2021-04-16T00:00:00+00:00

The preliminary to the foot battle

An arrow engagement was the initial norm. It might be wondered why this was so, for if the armour held off the danger of the arrows, why bother? The pavise – a heavy shield, the lower section of which was rested on the ground – was in use on medieval battlefields, and there is evidence they were employed by English combat forces, although less perhaps in England than in forays to the Continent. They offered a fair defence against arrows, and it would have been sensible to deploy them.49 Oman suggests they were more often used defensively by the attackers in sieges, and says they were not used ‘in normal battles out in the open’.50 But medieval battles were not won by defending, and sheltering behind pavises offered only temporary protection.

Armour itself was not generally 100 per cent effective in defence. Plate would give a high amount of protection; mail and brigandines much less. But only the best armour could be guaranteed to hold off the arrow storm, and while good plate would protect a soldier, he could still be wounded by an arrow in the eye at a weak spot with inferior plate or mail. Any billmen wearing just a brigandine or jack, along with the bowmen – similarly clad – were also disadvantaged, and would be steadily picked off by arrow fire unless they closed and fought. The best tactic to avert this was to walk forward and fight.

To begin the infantry assault, there was a need for some method of effective communication, such as a trumpet blast, or rather several, with outlying commanders hearing the sound from the centre, then ordering it repeated along the line. The weapons of the bowmen and how they routinely fought has been established in a previous chapter; but how did the whole mass of foot soldiers move forward to engage? They might not always have acted as a single body. It seems from some accounts that a medieval army might almost fight as three forces – left flank, centre and right flank – all with the same general impetus, but with the individual commanders controlling their component in a symbiotic relationship. This was the case at the battle of Tewkesbury in 1471, when King Edward IV, commanding the left ‘battle’, took the initiative by stationing a small infantry force of perhaps 200 men in a wood to his left to guard against a surprise attack. These men became of critical importance when an attack was indeed made on Edward’s left flank.

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