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

have seen, were self contained, with little in the way of a logistical tail that could be
attacked, particularly in the fast-moving chevauchee. The Agincourt campaign is a
prime example of this. Apart from the siege and capture of Harfleur, which served to
provide the English with a second port on the French coast, Henry V had no need
to invest any of the other towns along his route. Instead he wove his way, avoiding the
towns with larger garrisons and guns and intimidating or negotiating with the smaller
ones, who for the most part remained behind their walls. Besieging and holding every
town and castle along the way was neither desirable nor practical. Each siege would
have lengthened the campaign, stretching the army's resources and reducing its
strength since each captured location would then require a garrison taken from the
field army.
Some towns and fortifications simply could not be ignored, however; either because
of their strategic position or political significance they had to be reduced. Even this did
not mean that an assault was inevitable. The ability to calculate the staying power of
a garrison meant that it was possible for the commanders of both sides to negotiate a
date for surrender, something called 'conditional respite'. A date was calculated based
upon the length of time the besieged could reasonably hope to hold out and in which
a relief army might reasonably be expected to arrive. A truce would be called
and the besieged were allowed to send a messenger to their overlord asking for relief.
The attacking force need not even stay in place around the fortification, but could
continue its march, reasonably confident that the terms of the agreement would
be honoured. The negotiations between Robert the Bruce of Scotland and Philip
Mowbray, the captain of English-held Stirling Castle, for its surrender if not relieved
by midsummer 1314 led Edward II to launch the ill-fated expedition that ended in
defeat at Bannockburn.
The desirability of gaining the surrender of a fortress without the dangers of an
assault is why two of the most important operations in a siege had little to do with
combat. If a fortification could be taken by trick, treachery or threat then the loss of
life and the dangers of failure were minimized or even negated.
In some cases it might prove possible to get a member of the garrison to betray the
castle, although this was more a matter of luck than judgement. When the crusading
army besieged Antioch in 1098 they only succeeded in capturing the city because one
of the tower captains, an Armenian named Firouz, was disgruntled at the garrison
commander Yaghi-Siyan. He sent a message to Bohemond of Taranto agreeing to open
a window and lower a rope to allow some crusaders in so that they could open the
gates for the rest. Sometimes trickery could be used. During the civil war for
the control of the Duchy of Brittany in 1341 the knight Henry de Spinefort was
captured by Jean de Montfort when the town of Rennes was seized. Spinefort s
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