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

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THERE CAN BE NO WARRIOR QUITE SO ICONIC AND IMMEDIATELY
recognizable as the medieval knight. More than any other he
remains a part ol contemporary culture. Not only does he ride
his charger, resplendent in his shining armour and colourful heraldry,
through novels and movies, but his armour still decorates museums,
castles and stately homes, and his image in brass or stone adorns our
churches. Every summer crowds gather to watch the sight of costumed
interpreters bringing him back to life in jousting matches and
re-enactments.
But this image of the knight - the mounted warrior armoured head to toe, bedecked
with brightly painted heraldry and mounted on a great charger — is only a snapshot of
what the real knight was. The full picture is much more complex. His outward
appearance changed over the 500 years of his dominance, as armourers responded
to the developments in weapons technology and took advantage of the changes
in metallurgy and smithing techniques. The figure he cut in the 11th century — clad in
unadorned mail with a nasal helm on his head - was vastly different from that of the
14th, where the mixture of plate and mail was hidden beneath a flowing surcoat and
his face was covered by a full helm or the beaked visor of the more lightweight luwcinet;
which was as different again from the way he looked as his time on the battlefield
came to an end in the 16th century — massively armoured in full plate under a sleeved
tabard, with his visored helmet topped with plumes of ostrich feathers.
Nor did knights charge hell-for-leather into combat. Whilst the evidence for the
tactics used on the battlefield can be frustratingly vague it is clear that, when executed
correctly, charges were carefully timed and structured using small-unit tactics to
maximize their impact and allow for reforming and the use of reserves. The importance
of being ordinate — in good order — and the dangers of being inordinate are regular
themes in battle narratives. Knightly commanders could be rash and arrogant, it is
true, but they could equally be cunning and careful.
The knight's skill was not limited to mounted combat and the knight was as
effective a warrior on foot as he was on horseback. The Anglo-Norman knights of the
12th century and the English men-at-arms of the 14th and 15th fought their pitched
battles on foot more often than they did on horseback, and other nations' warriors
might do the same. Contrary to the traditional view, a knight knocked out of the saddle
did not necessarily become as helpless as a turtle on its back, although in certain