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

Joinville persuaded the king to remove his helmet and wear instead Joinville's steel
cap 'so that he might have some air'. The lighter armour seen around the Mediterranean
and in the Iberian peninsula might also reflect another factor: the weapons they
expected to face. In the north, where the lance and crossbow were king, there was a
greater need for protection than in Spain, where the opponents were more likely to use
less powerful javelins and slings.
In his works describing Wales and Ireland, written around 1189, Gerald of Wales
highlights another important factor. Contrasting warfare on mainland Europe with the
experience of fighting the Welsh and Irish he notes that in France 'heavy armour is
a mark of distinction, here it is only a burden'. Heavy armour, he says, is wholly
inappropriate when engaging an enemy who fights in broken terrain and employs hit
and run tactics. 'Lightly armoured men ... should be used against an enemy who is lightly
armoured and mobile, and who chooses to fight over rough terrain.' Full armour was
not always the most appropriate for the duties the knight might be asked to perform.
In the biography of the Anglo-Norman knight William Marshal we are told how
William and four companions go off to scout the French army's line of attack, during
Henry I's campaign against the French in 1189. Because their task requires mobility,
'whether to chase the enemy or rescue their own men ' they go out in their light armour'.
The following day, with the French army closing on him, Henry II rides out of Le Mans
unarmed to look at them himself. William is already fully armoured and Henry tells
him to disarm. William refuses stating that an unarmed man cannot last out in a crisis
or grave situation, and we don't know what their intention will be'. Henry leaves
William behind, but is caught by the French and William has to come to the rescue.
Of course the anecdote is framed in such a way that William is seen as the intelligent
and savvy warrior, the hero who rescues his king, but it also reflects something of
the practical decisions that had to be made. Armour could be an intolerable burden:
Joinville tells of being awakened by a night attack after Mansourah and putting on his
aketon because his wounds left him unable to bear the weight of his mail hauberk.
It is even more difficult to determine why knights chose a particular hand weapon
in preference to another. Just as a golfer has a favourite set of clubs or a craftsman his
closely guarded tools, the warrior must have found swords, spears or pollaxes that
suited his physique and style of fighting. That said, and as we shall see in the next
chapter when we look at the tactics and training of the knightly class, the ideal was that
he be competent with a range of weapons including, by the 15th century, dagger,
sword, lance and some form of hafted weapon.
Not all of the factors behind the choice of arms and armour were necessarily practical
ones. Throughout the period there was a clear link between the knight's possession of
arms and armour and his social standing and status. Chroniclers often refer to knights as
ARMS AND ARMOUR •*}*•
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