Название: Medieval Military Combat: Battle Tactics and Fighting Techniques of the Wars of the Roses
Автор: Tom Lewis
Издательство: Casemate
Год: 2021
Страниц: 256
Язык: английский
Формат: epub
Размер: 10.1 MB

We don't know how medieval soldiers fought. Did they just walk forward in their armor smashing each other with their maces and poleaxes for hours on end, as depicted on film and in programs such as Game of Thrones?

They could not have done so. It is impossible to fight in such a manner for more than several minutes as exhaustion becomes a preventative factor.

Indeed, we know more of how the Roman and Greek armies fought than we do of the 1300 to 1550 period.

So how did medieval soldiers in the War of the Roses, and in the infantry sections of battles such as Agincourt and Towton, carry out their grim work?

Medieval Military Combat shows, for the first time, the techniques of such battles. It also breaks new ground in establishing medieval battle numbers as highly exaggerated, and that we need to look again at the accounts of actions such as the famous Battle of Towton, which this work uses as a basic for its overall study.

Due to the significant achievements of historians such as Tobias Capwell, it is known how the soldier of the day was armoured against injury, and therefore to some extent how well he could survive as a fighting man on the battlefield. What is not known is exactly how these battles were fought at a unit and personal level. The basic tactics and dispositions are understood: there were almost always three groups – known as ‘battles’ – which formed a great line; each of the three was commanded by as capable a captain as was available, with the most prominent, often a King of England, in the centre.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The genesis of infantry combat
2. The evidence of medieval combat
3. Armour
4. Arms
5. The Longbow’s Place in Medieval Battle
6. The effectiveness of poleaxes
7. How were medieval battles fought?
8. Towton as an example
9. Conclusion
Appendices