Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

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KNIGHT
of Charles' plan would have reverted to a much simpler and more manageable one.
Indeed when he came to battle at Morat a few days later he formed his army into a
more traditional organization of a centre of foot in three lines flanked by archers who
were, in turn, flanked on one side by the cavalry and on the other by 150 artillery
pieces, a massive battery for its time and the truly novel aspect of his army.
Medieval armies had little in the way of formal rank structure. In the Rule of the
Temple are instructions for a number of different officers, each of whom had a role
within the Order as a whole. Some of them, like the draper and infirmarer-brother,
the man in charge of the infirmary, were not military, being instead household and
monastic positions. Others were unique to the military orders, in particular the
turcopolier who was in command of the turcopoled, men who fought in an Eastern
manner, and, when in battle, the sergeant-brothers, whom he was to form in reserve.
The marshal was the Order's key battlefield officer. He gave almost all military
commands, from the setting up of camp to giving the order to charge. It was the
marshal that a knight-brother had to approach for permission to exercise his horse
whilst on the march or to leave the field it he was injured. The rank of marshal was
also present in secular armies. Alongside the constable it is the only position that can
be thought of as military rank in the modern sense of the word. Both terms originate
in the keeping of horses; marshal or marechal coming from the Frankish marah dchalh,
or 'horse servant' whilst constable is a contraction of the Latin comites dtabulariud or
'count of the stable'. Indeed both terms seem to have continued in use to describe
those within a lordly household who had charge of the stables and horses. The title of
constable was also routinely applied to one who had command of a castle and garrison,
or who had responsibility for levies of foot troops, particularly in rural villages. There
also appear to have been marshals within noble familiae, performing duties almost
identical to those of the marshal of the army.
The duties of the marshal and constable within many of the European armies are
not entirely clear, and certainly not as well defined as those of the marshal in the
military orders. The ordinances of war, regulations drawn up for the disciplining of
armies, and chronicles such as Froissart indicate that orders were routinely given for
no man to advance ahead of or fall behind the banners of the constable and marshal,
which would suggest that they (and their retinues) might have formed part of the
vanguard and rearguard. The ordinances also forbade that anyone should depart from
their banners' once formed up. Like the secular ordinances the Rule instructed that
once in position brothers were not to leave the column without permission. It had
more detailed instructions, saying that men joining the column or riding alongside it
should do so from downwind so that the dust they threw up would not annoy those
in the line. It also specified that a brother should give up the space in front of him but