Feudal Troop Types

Historical References on Medieval Europe

The Assize of Arms (1181) - Henry II

Knights:

• "Whoever possess one knight's fee shall have a shirt of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance; and every knight should have as many shirts of mail, helmets, shields, and lances as he possesses knight's fees in demesne."

Mounted Men-at-Arms/Sergeants:

• "oreover, every free layman who possesses chattels or rents to the value of 16 marks shall have a shirt of mail, a helmet, a shield, and a lance;"
• "And every free layman possessing chattels or rents to the value of 10 marks shall have a hauberk, an iron cap, and a lance."

Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages. New York: Basil Blackwell, 1989

Knights:

• "The Rule of the Templars precisely defines the normal equipment of a knight: a shirt (haubert) and mail leggings (chausses), a helmet or iron headpiece, espaliers for protecting the shoulders, sollerets covering the feet, a surcoat or jupon of arms which was worn over the haubert, and a shield, whilst a lance or spear, sword, Turkish club (masse) and a dagger were the offensive weapons."
• "In 1260 Florence expected its knights to possess a panziere or haubert, mail leggings (stivaletti), a steel helmet, lamières or a breastplate and, to complete protection of the torso, encased in the haubert, a lance, and a buckler called a shield, targe or tavolaccio (tabolaccium: great board)."
• "Until the thirteenth century three remained the minimum number of mounts at the disposition of each knight, and in all probability there was a tendency to increase this number. The Rule of the Templars stipulated three horses, though a fourth was allowed by permission of the Master."
• "The differences, already apparent in the twelfth century with the distinction between milites gregarii (or milites plebei or rustici) and the primi milites, who were also called strenui milites, became institutionalized in some form in the thirteenth century with the appearance in France under Phillip Augustus and in England, during the early years of Henry III's personal rule, of knights banneret, who were ranked above simple knights, knights bachelor or shield-knights. This latter category may be assimilated with the einschildig Ritter found at the base of the pyramid of the German Heerschildordnung."

Squires/Servants:

• "In a pact concluded with Pope Gregory IX in 1239, Venice agreed to send 'three hundred knights, each of them having a warhorse (destrier), two rounceys and three esquires with their arms for a campaign."
• "In 1269, seeking to limit as much as possible the costs of transport for his future crusade, Louis IX authorized every knight banneret to bring with him two horses and a following of five companions, whilst every ordinary knight, called in these circumstances 'a poor man', only had the right to bring a single horse and two helpers."
• "Three names are found most frequently: valet (Latin: vallettus; German: Kneckt), boy (Latin: garcio, puer; German: Knabe, Knappe) and esquire (Latin: armiger, scutifer)."
• "Thus each knight Templar had an esquire."
• "In 1253 Matthew Paris thought it went without saying that each knight was accompanied by an armigeror garcio."
• "Charles of Anjou in 1283 ordered his financial officers to pay wages to a certain number of soldiers under the command of a knight, Mauger de Bussières. He was to be suitably armed and to have four horses and three aides - a noble esquire and two 'boys' who wore espaliers and a metal tippet to protect the neck, and carried a sword and dagger. These servants were thus not only to concern themselves with supplies and the maintenance of their master and his mounts, but also had their combat role."
• "In 1237 the armigeri militum of Frederick II took prisoners and chained enemies who had fallen to the ground."
• "The Rule of the Temple made provision, when the knights had gone to fight, for some of their valets, boys or esquires to remain at the rear with the pack animals. Others bearing spears accompanied the knights, but when the charge began they were to rejoin the rearguard in order to clear the battlefield."

Mounted Men-at-Arms/Sergeants:

• "Conversely, possessors of knights' fees or fees of haubert (feoda loricae), for various reasons, chiefly economic, refused more and more frequently in the course of the thirteenth century to get themselves dubbed, thus avoiding participation in the honor and expenses of knighthood."
• "In the majority of these cases it remained true that horsemen who had not obtained the cingulum militiae formed a category of combatants of the second rank, although they performed the same role in warfare. The texts mention them under various names: servientes equites, servientes loricati, famuli, scutiferi, satellites equestres, clientes, servientes armati ut milites."
• "In the Order of the Temple sergeants or serving brothers had the right to one mount only unless given permission for more; they did not have esquires."
• "however, there was scarcely any difference between their actual equipment; the sergeants, in place of the haubert, simply had a haubergeon (smaller haubert) lacking manicles, in place of the helmet an iron cap, and mail leggings without foot protectors."
• "The appearance during the last decades of the twelfth century of mounted sergeants clothed in the same style has a double significance. Military, first of all, to the extent that the progressively increasing weight and cost of a complete set of knight's equipment was tending to restrict its diffusion amongst an elite distinguished by wealth and birth. Secondly, it had social significance, since at the same time and in parallel with the way knighthood was exalted as a model, whose apogee may be found in the thirteenth century, men refused to call those who had not undergone the ritual of dubbing knights or milites. In these circumstances it was necessary to use a new expression to designate horsemen whose birth and precarious fortunes prevented them from becoming knights."

Light Horse:

• "Neither by its equipment nor through its tactics did this second-rank cavalry constitute a genuine light cavalry. This nevertheless did exist in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries in various forms. There were the Turcopoles in the Holy Land who drew their Turkish bows without dismounting. There were also the mobile forces of which Gerald of Wales, in a justly famous passage from the celebrated Expugnatio hibernica, advocates use against the Irish."

"In the same way as when aries in the open, heavy and complicated armor made of linen as well as iron plates protects and perfectly decorates knights, so when one is fighting only in the hills, woods or marshes . . . a light armour is best. For against men lacking protection, for whom the victory is won or lost at the first encounter or nearly always so, less cumbrous weapons fully suffice . . . with a complicated armour and high curved saddles, it is difficult to dismount from a horse, even more difficult to mount and yet more difficult to get around on foot when necessary."

• "One might also add to this same category the mounted Saracen archers whom Frederick II installed at Lucera in Apulia and whom he used in several of his Italian campaigns, the alforrats (homens a cavall alforrats as opposed to the homens a cavall armats) of the Catalan armies, mounted on jinetes, and the English hobelars (light horseman) used in campaigns against Wales."

Mounted Bowmen:

• "There was a final type of horseman: the mounted crossbowman. John Lackland recruited a certain number of them who often possessed several mounts."
• "Philip Augustus for his part did the same and balistarii equites are found in the French king's armies until the 1280s."
• "In 1238 Frederick II fetched a troop of mounted crossbowmen from Hungary. The following year the pope engaged crossbowmen, each of whom had four horses, provided by the count of Provence."