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

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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 CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE •*}*• 115
KNIGHT The burning of Dinan, during William's campaign against Conan of Brittany. The wooden motte and bailey castle was prone to fire, although wet animal hides might be thrown over the walls to try and protect them. (Bridgeman Art Library) brother was holding the nearby town ol Hennebont lor the Duke of Brittany, and, attempting to prevent his brother's death, Spinefort asked Jean de Montfort to allow him to march ahead of the main army with 200 men, bearing the banner of the Duchy of Brittany. Seeing this banner and recognizing his brother, the governor of Hennebont opened the gates which Spinefort seized and turned over to de Montfort. Ranulph, Earl of Chester, seized the castle at Lincoln in 1141 by similarly underhand means. Orderic Vitalis tells us that Ranulph and his half-brother arranged for their wives to visit the wife of the garrison commander. After a while Ranulph and three knights arrived, ostensibly to collect the ladies. On being admitted through the gates they seized them and let in more troops and ejected the garrison. Robert Fitz Hildebrand took Portchester Castle in 1142—43 by seducing the wife of the castellan, and then imprisoning her husband. The attacker might try to scare the garrison into submission. Henry I got the Bridgnorth garrison to surrender by threatening to hang them. King Stephen tried a similar tactic against John Marshal at Newbury in I 152. Holding John's son, the famous William, as a hostage, Stephen threatened to hang the child unless John surrendered. John refused the gambit claiming he had the 'anvil and hammers to produce even finer ones'. Being a kind-hearted fellow, however, Stephen could not kill William. At Montereau in 1420 Henry V hanged a number of hostages in an attempt to force its surrender but the act failed to move the garrison. If cunning and intimidation failed then the besieger had to fall back on more robust methods. He could try starving the opposition out but the constraints of time rarely
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The Warrior and World of Chivalry R
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iCS.
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First published in Great Britain in
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8 THERE CAN BE NO WARRIOR QUITE SO
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KNIGHT The lists at the Eglinton To
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12 KNIGHT THE AGE OF THE MEDIEVAL K
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14 KNIGHT CHRONOLOGY What follows i
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1202-04 The Fourth Crusade. Origina
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France. There are several key campa
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KNIGHT Opposite: The top left corne
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Given these apparent similarities i
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KNIGHT Opposite: Carolingian soldie
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26 KNIGHT the incomes to afford to
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CHAPTER ONE ARMS AND ARMOUR
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iblical subjects in contemporary cl
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terms (after all the compiler of th
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padding being used to protect the t
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which had been developing along the
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Greek Corinthian helmet. Sallets co
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stopped the wearer's head from bein
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decorating. The shield was held by
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there may be others which cannot be
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made stronger without a huge increa
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normal sharp points. Some tournamen
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hen in March of 1095 Pope Urban II
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loricati and armati, mail-clad' or
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KNIGHT The fluting on this gothic a
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skirt, the underlying mail chausses
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60 KNIGHT weapon impacts on real ar
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The knight would have different hor
Page 66: Windsor Park in 1278. In the 1322 i
Page 69 and 70: CONTRARY TO THE POPULAR IMAGE KNIGH
Page 71 and 72: KNIGHT The high pommel and cantle o
Page 73 and 74: eins. It is clear that it is intend
Page 75 and 76: KNIGHT Combat in a 13th-century Ger
Page 77 and 78: it seems clear that retinues would
Page 79 and 80: ... teams of equal numbers first ru
Page 81 and 82: earlier, Wace writes that the Norma
Page 83 and 84: KNIGHT Knights awaiting the start o
Page 86 and 87: A similar device, but for mounted c
Page 88 and 89: hedgerows, barns, hills and the tow
Page 90 and 91: English knights at a disadvantage a
Page 92: imit^S^VWSEqVES'BRrrANNLVSWXAElATK
Page 96 and 97: CHAPTER THREE CAMPAIGN AND BATTLE
Page 98 and 99: the raising of a royal field army t
Page 100 and 101: separate organizations drawn from s
Page 102 and 103: not that behind; presumably the sti
Page 104 and 105: With its snub nose and double chin,
Page 106 and 107: supported by Geoffrey de Brabant. T
Page 108 and 109: THE ARMY ON THE MARCH Many of the i
Page 110 and 111: with limited objectives, if any, be
Page 112 and 113: • * / h M / Images of the battle
Page 114 and 115: of wine, dozens of herds of live ca
Page 118 and 119: made this a practical proposition.
Page 120 and 121: crusaders even threw the heads of c
Page 122 and 123: BATTLE In comparison to sieges and
Page 124 and 125: of Northallerton in 1138 the priest
Page 126 and 127: A 15th-century depiction of Agincou
Page 128 and 129: dttrnutir.'Xaefatrami r^Wuutrma era
Page 130 and 131: himself as a scholar. Similarly, th
Page 132 and 133: numerous nobles, gleaming with gold
Page 134 and 135: of his charge, the savagery and pow
Page 136 and 137: fought in 1461, showed a blade woun
Page 138 and 139: and facing a renewed attack in thei
Page 140 and 141: (as opposed to rebellion) was consi
Page 142: the survival of a number of great h
Page 145 and 146: THE MODERN USE OF THE WORD CHIVALRY
Page 147 and 148: shame, striving with the skill of y
Page 149 and 150: KNIGHT The Song of Roland is the ea
Page 151 and 152: KNIGHT Roger Mortimer, one of the f
Page 153 and 154: hen the theologians Augustine of Hi
Page 155 and 156: Hastings a set of penances was impo
Page 157 and 158: KNIGHT In a treaty on virtue and vi
Page 159 and 160: exposing his body to execute and ac
Page 161 and 162: 160 KNIGHT A royal crusader, marked
Page 164 and 165: 'WMItwm^.i CHIVALRY: THE KNIGHTLY C
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Indeed similar conversations were p
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marriage, such quarterings could be
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These were not individual symbols i
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Ulrich von Lichtenstein, depicted i
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were believed to be culturally infe
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eturned. In 1139, during the war be
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from sacking the town for much the
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THE KNIGHT WAS DEFINED BY HIS MARTI
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182 KNIGHT The seal of Henry II of
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squire was closer to the knight tha
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KNIGHT The royal court was a curiou
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ill-educated and uncultured individ
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0younger son of a minor nobleman wh
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KNIGHT Devotional works were not al
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KNIGHT Games like chess and backgam
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the tips of their toes where the bo
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he Black Prince's reputation as a c
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KNIGHT The secular orders each had
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BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT
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BEYOND THE BATTLEFIELD: THE KNIGHT
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would become over-tired. The quarry
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CHAPTER SIX THE DEATH OF KNIGHTHOOD
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men had been adopting them without
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KNIGHT By the time the Landsknecht
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e struggles between the Italian cit
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only for the tournament and pageant
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JtoimP^
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224 aketon arret de la cuiradde ave
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226 KNIGHT pell poleyn quintain rer
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228 KNIGHT The Rule of the Templars
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Liddiard, R. (ed.), Anglo-Norman Ca
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Cuhna, E. and Silva, Ana Maria, 'Wa
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Sherborne, J. W., 'Indentured retin
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KNIGHT champions 82 Chandos, Sir Jo
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KNIGHT Knights Templar, Order of 13
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KNIGHT sumptuary law (1363) 183-4,
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Osprey - General Military - Knight - The Warrior and ... - Brego-weard

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