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

want to go against his orders as this knight had done'. The biographer of William
Marshal records how during a tournament held between the towns of Gournay and
Ressons 'those who had rode up over-arrogantly were routed. They never kept
together in tight formation. They were quickly discomfited and were so disorganized
that no man kept with another'. In battle it was vital that combatants cooperated.
William Marshal's biographer summarizes the situation with the phrase 'fob est qui
trap tostese desrote'; 'a man who breaks ranks too early is a fool.'
The Rule of the Templars gives clear instructions on how its members were
to conduct themselves on the field and whilst both they and the Hospitallers, whose
regulations were very similar, might have a more formal discipline and structure
by dint of their being in part a monastic order, they must surely have been based on
practices common to knightly forces. Once in his eschielle, or squadron, no brother-
knight was permitted to charge or leave without permission ol the Marshal, who alone
gave the command to charge. Nor was he to turn his horse's head to the rear to fight
or to shout. The only exception to this was that a brother might leave the ranks to
adjust his saddle or, if he saw a Christian who 'acts foolishly, and any Turk attacks him
in order to kill him, and he is in peril of death' he might go to his aid, which reinforces
the idea that those who rode out alone were behaving rashly. As soon as this task had
been accomplished the Templar was to return quietly to his place in the ranks. Once
engaged no brother was to leave the field without permission, even it wounded, on
pain of being expelled from the Order.
Thus the knight fought not as an individual but as part of a small unit - the eschielle
of the Rule of the Templars, or similar units called conrois or constalmlarii — of anywhere
between ten and 50 men, who supported each other in battle. In the Rule the squadrons
were formed around a commander and banner, the knights attacking 'in tront and
behind, to the left and the right, and wherever they think they can torment their
enemies' so long as they were able to protect their banner. A similar structure almost
certainly underpinned the conroid and familiae of ordinary' knights. In the tournaments
TACTICS AND TRAINING -}=>•
Norman knights charging
at Hastings. Until the 15th
century, artistic techniques
made it very difficult to
give a sense of the depth
of the formations into
which knights were
organized. (Bridgeman
Art Library)
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