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| http://universitypost.dk/article/medieval-knights-were-stressed-out |
I must admit that the Christmas gift from my brother is the gift that keeps on giving. The Hundred Years War: A People's History has served to tie together various areas of research I'd done previously, as well as to add some depth to thoughts already pondered. It's been like when you go out to explore the city you live in (or wherever), you decide to take a turn you've never taken, down a narrow street of dubious character, and you discover a bar your friend had taken you to one drunken night ages ago, or that it's the perfect shortcut to your favorite bookstore (this used to happen a lot to me in Prague with all the twisty streets and passages). I'll cite some examples.
This time period saw the transition of armies from being formed primarily of rough untrained levies, to being composed of professional soldiers. This transition was due to a variety of factors, not the least of which being the sheer number of battles one had the opportunity to take part in during this time period. These conflicts not only hardened the combatants (and killed the rest), some of whom went on to take part in mercenary companies, but enabled the evolution of weapons and tactics at a rapid clip. The importance that the longbow earned in this period had a significant societal impact (beyond creating the legend of Robin Hood). An easy weapon to use, it's difficult to master, so England made archery practice compulsory for its people, outlawing (on Sunday) so many of the games I've written about. Competitions were held to encourage training and the best archers in the realm were actively recruited to serve in the armies. This need for a well trained rank-and-file soldier served to create professionalism in the army as a whole that had been lacking, as well as diminishing the luster of the lordly knight on horseback.
An army on campaign is a terrible unwieldy beast. It has long been clear that to support such an endeavor requires a significant amount of logistical work. Baggage trains moved slowly and were susceptible to attack. Foraging for food or equipment would also slow your advance (plus who knew if you could find what you needed, even if the locals didn't fight back? "The Seven Samurai" showed us how good peasants get at hiding things from their oppressors). Not only does the baggage train need to carry materials to support the soldiers, but their animals as well. One horse can graze at the roadside (I guess, I'm not great with horse care), but a thousand will denude an area rather quickly (imagine a siege...). Likewise, it's all well and good to bring grain with you, but you need to find a mill to turn it into flour, and it's not always easy to find an oven to bake bread in (certainly not to bake enough to feed an army), so you might want to bring your own (ovens, not mills. those are a little too heavy). Foraging is not only slow and chancy, but it spreads your army out, making it susceptible to the enemy's raids.
So, yeah. Those are a couple of the areas of connection and expansion in my understanding of the era. The 100 Years War reshuffled social classes, making a new type of warrior out of the common man. It also led to the rapid evolution of gunpowder weapons, but that is a tale for another day. Supplying an army is an absurd affair. While I've tried to imagine what it would take to move one, the level of complexity is astounding. When you think of the amount of support staff necessary to keep an army functioning (cooks, armorers, surgeons, grooms, furriers, carters, lackeys, and so on), it's hard to believe they even bothered. Huh, I didn't even mention about how stressed these guys got. Follow the caption under the image for your own fun. I can't do everything ;)
That seems like a large enough wall of text for today. I'll keep some back for our next visit. Hopefully some of this starts you thinking and leads you off into searches of your own. Godspeed and good hunting.
