Mind-Munitions

82
Propaganda in the Middle Ages
essentially this aspect of his role which was strengthened in the course
of the fifteenth century. Pitted against footsoldiers, heavy cavalry
charge relied largely upon the ‘shock’ principle for its effect.
John Keegan confirms this, stating that the impact of a cavalry
charge on the morale of enemy infantry was greater than its
physical effect. The objective was to induce fear, panic, and flight
and it took iron discipline not to succumb, especially after morale
had already been lowered by archery fire. Hence the significance
of the development of full plate armour, which replaced chain mail
in the second half of the fourteenth century and offered some
measure of protection against arrows, thus aiding morale. And the
cavalry retained an essential function of the immediate aftermath
of a battle by their capacity to pursue the fleeing enemy.
It has to be remembered that the Normans who invaded
England in 1066 retained family lands in France, and indeed after
the accession of Henry Plantagenet to the throne of England in
1154, the English ruled a third of France, occupying virtually the
whole of the west side of the country. Much of this was lost in the
early years of the thirteenth century. Political struggles between
the kings of France and England-Normandy to extend their
territory had exploded into open war in 1294 and 1324, but the
issue which was to cause lasting conflict was the death of the last
Capetian king, Charles IV, in 1328.
After the great French defeat at the battle of Poitiers in 1356,
French public opinion felt that too many knights had fled and had
thus brought disgrace upon France and upon the nobility as a
whole. They were accused of treason and the king was advised to
mobilize the peasantry: ‘The peasantry will not flee to save their
lives, as the knights did in Poitiers.’ The peasants who constituted
the new armies of foot-soldiers had for centuries endured the
maraudings of knights; now it was their turn to ‘enjoy’ the
benefits of medieval warfare. However, the advent of gunpowder
at the end of the fourteenth century was to change the face of
battle in a profound way. Don Quixote, Cervantes’ famous hero,
looked back to the good old days before artillery:
Blessed be those happy ages that were strangers to the dreadful fury of
these devlish instruments of artillery, whose inventor I am satisfied is
now in Hell receiving the reward of his cursed invention, which is the
cause that very often a cowardly base hand takes away the life of the