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

... teams of equal numbers first rushed forth from both sides and raced at full speed
against each other as if they were going to attack. Then one side would turn back,
pretending that they wished to escape from their pursuers to their companions under
the protection of their shields. But then they would turn around again and try to pursue
those from whom they had been fleeing...
As was noted in the Introduction, the culture and background of the ninth-century
warrior noble was not all that different from his 1 lth-century descendant. If the former
had the skill to perform such a manoeuvre why should the knight have been any less
well prepared and skilled?
DISMOUNTED TACTICS
Contrary to the popular image the man-at-arms was to be found on loot as often as
he was on horseback. Sometimes, it is true, this was because of the loss ol his mount,
but at some point or another the knights of almost all polities fought dismounted as a
tactical choice. They might comprise the bulk of the foot, as the English man-at-arms
was to do in the Hundred Years War, or be used as a leaven for non-knightly
footsoldiers, or pedited. In all of the major engagements fought by Anglo-Norman
armies the knights dismounted and joined the ranks of the foot. Their sense of ejprit
de corpd, their greater experience of combat and the protection offered by their superior
armour made the formation physically stronger and their presence also hardened the
resolve of the men they fought alongside. Whilst waiting for his brother Robert
Curthose to invade England in 1101 Henry I went through the ranks of thejyrd, the
levied militia drawn from the able-bodied male population between 16 and 60, and
'taught them how, in meeting the attack of the knights, to defend with their shields
and return their blows'. At Tinchebrai in 1106 'the king and the duke, with great part
of their troops, fought on foot, that they might make a determined stand...' whilst at
Bremule Henry dismounted his knights 'that they might fight more bravely on foot'.
The two leaders of the Flemish contingent at Courtrai, the knights Guy de Namur
and Willem van Jiilich, both took their places on foot amongst the guildsmen,
indicating their willingness to share their fate. The other key example of dismounted
knights in battle, of course, is the tactics developed by the English from the battle of
Dupplin Moor in 1332. Whilst English armies were generally all horsed, men-at-arms
and archers alike, they dismounted for battle, the knights and men-at-arms supported
by increasingly large numbers of archers. This was to be the normal deployment for
over 150 years.