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

group from which the army was raised became a landholding class. That said,
landholding was still not a prerequisite tor military service — it was sufficient that the
individual was free — and there was still no formal system of granting land for service,
nor were all grants permanent or hereditary. Increasingly, however, the warrior
became entitled not to the revenues of the portion of land which was earmarked tor
his support but to the land itself.
The expansion of the pool of men liable for military service brought about another
change in the social organization of the military classes. Late Roman generals and the
post-Roman kings and aristocrats had always had bodyguards, groups of specially
selected experienced warriors. The relationship between them was characterized by
their name. In the late Roman period such units were called bucellarii (literally 'biscuit
eaters') because they were fed, paid and supported by the individual commander
rather than the state. In the middle of the seventh century, in part as a reaction to the
larger pool of those eligible for military service, such bodyguard units became
increasingly important. We see in the source material two particular groups: thepueri
and the jcarae. The pueri were young warriors serving a military apprenticeship
within the royal household; they would receive arms and armour as well as training
in both weapons handling and military tactics, staying there until they reached an
age when they would marry, acquire property and join the ranks of the aristocracy.
The Ltcarae (the term is Frankish, but there were similar bands under different titles
in the other post-Roman kingdoms) were parties of chosen warriors, experienced
and well-equipped men who formed the focus and core ot royal armies from this
period on. Membership of these bodies enabled the elite warrior to distinguish himself
as a professional, regaining his distinctiveness from the bulk of the free population
who, whilst expected to perform military service if called upon, were not first and
foremost warriors.
A FALSE DAWN? CAROLINGIAN
WARFARE AND THE MYTH OF
MOUNTED SHOCK COMBAT
The reign of the Carolingian dynasties in Western Europe, running from around 752 to
987, has been seen as a defining period in the origins of the middle ages and the knight.
Although a number of different writers contributed to the theory, the most holistic and,
in terms of popular understanding, influential treatment was Lynn White Jr's the
stirrup and mounted shock combat' in his book Medieval Technology and Social Change.
INTRODUCTION -
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