Medieval warfare: Difference between revisions

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Medieval warfare is the warfare of the Middle Ages. In Europe, technological, cultural, and social developments had forced a dramatic transformation in the character of warfare from antiquity, changing military tactics and the role of cavalry and artillery. Similar patterns of warfare existed in other parts of the world. In China, weapons employing gunpowder date back to the 10th century, and the first permanent standing Chinese navy was established in the early 12th century by the Song Dynasty.

The Middle East and North Africa used similar methods and equipment as was used in Europe, and there occurred a considerable amount of technological exchange and tactical adaptation between the different cultures. In Japan the Medieval warfare period is considered by many to have stretched into the nineteenth century. In Africa along the Sahel and Sudan, states like the Kingdom of Sennar and Fulani Empire employed Medieval tactics and weapons through the 19th century. In India the Chola Dynasty became a strong naval power in the Indian Ocean, conquering Sri Lanka and areas of South East Asia.

Perhaps the most important technological change was the introduction of the stirrup, which arrived in Europe in the 8th century, but was already in use in China and the Middle East. The stirrup, along with horse breeding and more advanced iron and steel working, allowed for development of far more powerful cavalry. Earlier empires, such as the Romans, used horse-borne fighters primarily as lightly-armed scouts and auxiliaries, but the stirrup brought cavalry to the forefront by enabling riders to more effectively brace lances, and lean far to the side to swing weapons. In Europe, the heavily-armoured knight became central; in Mongolia, lightly armoured horse archers did so. In China and the Middle East, the main forces were somewhere in between.

Many consider the Second Battle of Adrianople in 378 AD as marking the end of the era of the Roman Empire and the beginning of the Middle Ages. This battle demonstrated the superiority of mounted cavalry over traditional ground forces, which helped to set the character that medieval warfare would maintain for the next several centuries.

Warfare centered on small cadres of elite, and very expensive, mounted fighters: this was both a product of and a contributing factor to the social order of the Middle Ages. Being a mounted warrior required great skill and much training and thus, unlike in earlier citizen armies, had to be a full time job. This encouraged the division of society into an upper class of nobles and a great mass of commoners. These feudal nobles quickly developed great power within weakly centralized states.

This made it more difficult to have large well trained and organized forces such as the Roman legions. Rather the bulk of the forces were mustered peasants or mercenaries. In some regions, such as high medieval England and Scandinavia or early medieval Spain, the yeomen (the English term), the free peasantry, formed relatively well-equipped infantry. Just as with roman republican mustered citizen armies, however, these forces needed experience and training to be truly effective in war. The end of medieval style warfare was also caused by technological and social change. A revival of the power of central governments would see the rise of standing armies, or semi-standing armies, such as the French compagnies d'ordonnance.

Europe was very diverse culturally and the many regions each had their distinctive style. English and American studies in medieval warfare have been heavily based on Anglo-French warfare, which was merely one of these regions. Medieval Anglo-French armies could be divided into three sections called 'battles' or 'battalions'—the vanguard or forward, the center or main-battle, and the rearguard or rearward. The vanguard was often composed of archers and other optional long-range weapons, like slings and stones and the rare lightweight simple catapults, while the center was composed of infantry and armoured cavalry (knights), and the rearguard was often comprised of more agile cavalry.

The usual order of march was vanguard, center, and rearguard, and the three battles deployed on the battlefield with the vanguard on the right, the center in the center and the rearward on the left. However, as armies grew larger and more unwieldy they often deployed as they arrived on the field. Each section deployed in either linear or block formation. A linear formation had the advantage that all soldiers could take part in battle almost at once (especially those with ranged weapons such as English longbows or crossbows). However, a cavalry charge could easily scatter a linear formation. A block formation was generally more robust, but would delay the soldiers in the rear ranks from entering the fighting (or totally prevent it in the case of the French at the Battle of Agincourt). Block formations gave the advantage of a "back up man" in case one of the soldiers on the front line were injured, and were often quite hard to scatter, especially if the army was well trained.

Eastern European armies were normally high in horse archers and noble cavalry. The nobles were light javelin cavalry in armor, until the armies were westernized, such as the Polish knights, 'rycerze'. The horse archers were partially influenced by Magyars who settled in Hungary during the migration period. The light cavalry were also effective against similar cavalry deployed by the Mongols and, later, the Golden Horde. The heavy cavalry wore brigandine, and later, plate armor (the Russians used lamellar armor instead). The light cavalry would wear leather or brigandine if they could afford it. Eastern Europe also produced decent foot archers, due to the horse archer tradition, but they generally had poor heavy infantry, usually spear or axe-armed levies.

Cavalry could be arranged in several ways, depending on the situation. While a clump of horsemen was no doubt effective, cavalry in tight formations wielding lances became devastating forces. The most common formation was the line or linear form. The horsemen would arrange themselves in a long line, commonly three or four ranks deep and then charge. However, a well-trained infantry force might be able to withstand such an attack so some forces employed a wedge formation. The horses would be arranged in a large triangle, with the most heavily armoured cavalry at the front. When the wedge came into contact with the infantry line, more often than not it would cave in on itself, allowing an infantry charge to move in and scatter the remaining forces.

As cavalry became the dominant force on the battlefield, it also became necessary to come up with ways to counter them. One popular method was the use of pikes, which were spears that sometimes reached lengths of twenty feet. As the cavalry charged, the pikemen would arrange themselves in a tight square or orb formation, which prevented the horses from penetrating too deeply into the infantry line (horses will not run headlong into a wall of spears). With a large block of pikes protecting the rear and flanks, armies could move into an effective position without being routed.

Another method utilized by the English was the use of massed archers. The English longbow was a particularly devastating weapon when in the hands of an expert, and the English discovered that by having thousands of archers all fire at once, few armies could manage to make any sort of frontal assault with cavalry or light infantry. During the Hundred Year's war, several French knights recalled seeing "the day turn to night from the cloud of arrows raining down". After several volleys against the enemy lines, the English infantry and cavalry could move in to finish off the enemy.

The experience level and tactical maneuvering ability of medieval armies varied widely, depending on the period and region. For larger battles, pre-battle planning typically consisted of a council of the war leaders, which could either be the general laying down a plan or a noisy debate between the different leaders, depending on how much authority the general possessed. Battlefield communications before the advent of strict lines of communication were naturally very difficult. Communication was done through musical signals, audible commands, messengers, or visual signals such raising a standard, banner, or flag.

The infantry, including missile troops, would typically be employed at the outset of the battle to break open infantry formations while the cavalry attempted to defeat its opposing number. When one side gained superiority in cavalry (or had it at the outset of battle) it could attempt to exploit the loss of cohesion in the opposing infantry lines caused by the infantry conflict to hit the opposing infantry and attempt to rout it. This could often be difficult, and careful timing would be necessary for a direct cavalry assault, as an ordered infantry line would often be able to beat off the cavalry attacks. Pure infantry conflicts would be drawn-out affairs.

Cannons were introduced to the battlefield in the later medieval period. However, their very poor rate of fire (which often meant that only one shot was fired in the course of an entire battle) and their inaccuracy made them more of psychological force multiplier than an effective anti-personnel weapon.

Later on in medieval warfare, once hand cannons were introduced, the rate of fire improved only slightly, but the cannons became far easier to aim, largely because they were smaller and much closer to their wielder. Their users could be easily protected, because the cannons were lighter and could be moved far more quickly. However, real field artillery did not become truly effective or commonly employed until well into the early modern period.

A hasty retreat could cause greater casualties than an organized withdrawal, because the fast cavalry of the winning side's rearguard would intercept the fleeing enemy while their infantry continued their attack. In most medieval battles, more soldiers were killed during the retreat than in battle, since mounted knights could quickly and easily dispatch the archers and infantry who were no longer protected by a line of pikes as they had been during the previous fighting.

Breakdowns in centralized states led to the rise of a number of groups that turned to large-scale pillage as a source of income. Most notably the Vikings (but also Arabs, Mongols and Magyars) raided significantly. As these groups were generally small and needed to move quickly, building fortifications was a good way to provide refuge and protection for the people and the wealth in the region.

These fortifications evolved over the course of the Middle Ages, the most important form being the castle, a structure which had become synonymous with the Medieval era to many. The castle served as a protected place for the local elites. Inside a castle they were protected from bands of raiders and could send mounted warriors to drive the raiders from the area, or to disrupt the efforts of larger armies to supply themselves in the region by gaining local superiority over foraging parties that would be impossible against the whole enemy host.

Fortifications had a great many advantages. They provided refuge from armies too large to face in open battle. The ability of the heavy cavalry to dominate a battle on an open field was useless against fortifications. Building siege engines was a time-consuming process, and could seldom be effectively done without preparations before the campaign. Many sieges could take months, if not years, to weaken or demoralize the defenders sufficiently. Fortifications were an excellent means of ensuring that the elite could not be easily dislodged from their lands - as a French nobleman once commented on seeing enemy troops ravage his lands from the safety of his castle, "they can't take the land with them".

In the Medieval period besieging armies used a wide variety of siege engines including: scaling ladders; battering rams; siege towers and various types of catapults such as the mangonel, onager, ballista, and trebuchet. Siege techniques also included mining.

Advances in the prosecution of sieges encouraged the development of a variety of defensive counter-measures. In particular, medieval fortifications became progressively stronger — for example, the advent of the concentric castle from the period of the Crusades — and more dangerous to attackers — witness the increasing use of machicolations and murder-holes, as well the preparation of boiling oil, molten lead or hot sand. Arrow slits, concealed doors for sallies, and deep water wells were also integral to resisting siege at this time. Designers of castles paid particular attention to defending entrances, protecting gates with drawbridges, portcullises and barbicans. Wet animal skins were often draped over gates to retard fire. Moats and other water defenses, whether natural or augmented, were also vital to defenders.

In the European Middle Ages, virtually all large cities had city walls — Dubrovnik in Dalmatia is an impressive and well-preserved example — and more important cities had citadels, forts or castles. Great effort was expended to ensure a good water supply inside the city in case of siege. In some cases, long tunnels were constructed to carry water into the city. Complex systems of underground tunnels were used for storage and communications in medieval cities like Tábor in Bohemia. Against these would be matched the mining skills of teams of trained sappers, who were sometimes employed by besieging armies.

Until the invention of gunpowder-based weapons (and the resulting higher-velocity projectiles), the balance of power and logistics definitely favored the defender. With the invention of gunpowder, the traditional methods of defense became less and less effective against a determined siege.

A medieval knight was a usually mounted and armoured soldier, often connected with nobility or royalty, although (especially in north-eastern Europe) knights could also come from the lower classes, and could even be unfree persons. The cost of their armor, horses, and weapons was great; this, among other things, helped gradually transform the knight, at least in western Europe, into a distinct social class separate from other warriors. During the crusades, holy orders of Knights fought in the Holy Land (see Knights Templar, the Hospitallers, etc.).

Heavily armed cavalry, armed with lances and a varied assortment of hand weapons played a significant part in the battles of the Middle Ages.

The role of infantry has been ignored in the past by writers who focused on the role of knights and heavy cavalry. Infantry were recruited and trained in a wide variety of manners in different regions of Europe all through the Middle Ages, and probably always formed the most numerous part of a medieval field army. Many infantrymen in prolonged wars would be mercenaries. Most armies contained significant numbers of spearmen, archers and other unmounted soldiers. In sieges, perhaps the most common element of medieval warfare, infantry units served as garrison troops and archers, among other positions. Near the end of the Middle Ages, with the advancements of weapons and armor, the infantryman became more important to an army.

In the earliest Middle Ages it was the obligation of every noble to respond to the call to battle with his own equipment, archers, and infantry. This decentralized system was necessary due to the social order of the time, but could lead to motley forces with variable training, equipment and abilities. The more resources the noble had access to, the better his troops would typically be.

As central governments grew in power, a return to the citizen armies of the classical period also began, as central levies of the peasantry began to be the central recruiting tool. England was one of the most centralized states in the Middle Ages, and the armies that fought the Hundred Years' War were mostly paid professionals. In theory, every Englishman had an obligation to serve for forty days. Forty days was not long enough for a campaign, especially one on the continent. Thus the scutage was introduced, whereby most Englishmen paid to escape their service and this money was used to create a permanent army. However, almost all high medieval armies in Europe were composed of a great deal of paid core troops, and there was a large mercenary market in Europe from at least the early 12th century.

As the Middle Ages progressed in Italy, Italian cities began to rely mostly on mercenaries to do their fighting rather than the militias that had dominated the early and high medieval period in this region. These would be groups of career soldiers who would be paid a set rate. Mercenaries tended to be effective soldiers, especially in combination with standing forces, but in Italy they came to dominate the armies of the city states. This made them considerably less reliable than a standing army. Mercenary-on-mercenary warfare in Italy also led to relatively bloodless campaigns which relied as much on maneuver as on battles.

The knights were drawn to battle by feudal and social obligation, and also by the prospect of profit and advancement. Those who performed well were likely to increase their landholdings and advance in the social hierarchy. The prospect of significant income from pillage and ransoming prisoners was also important. For the mounted knight Medieval Warfare could be a relatively low risk affair. Nobles avoided killing each other for several reasons—for one thing, many were related to each other, had fought along side one another, and they were all (more or less) members of the same elite culture; for another, a noble's ransom could be very high, and indeed some made a living by capturing and ransoming nobles in battle. Even peasants, who did not share the bonds of kinship and culture, would often avoid killing a nobleman, valuing the high ransom that a live capture could bring, as well as the valuable horse, armour and equipment that came with him. However, this is by no means a rule of medieval warfare. It was quite common, even at the height of "chivalric" warfare, for the knights to suffer heavy casaulties during battles.

• Knight
• Infantryman
• Engineer
• Archer
• Burgher

• Battle axe
• Bow
• Arming sword
• Crossbow
• Claymore
• Dagger
• Flail
• Greatsword
• Halberd
• Hammer
• Pick
• Javelin
• Lance
• Longbow
• Longsword
• Mace
• Shield
• Spear
• Sword
• Pike
• Pollaxe

• Maille
• Leather armour
• Scale armour
• Plate armour
• Lamellar armour
• Chicken armour

• Horses in the Middle Ages
• Destrier
• Courser
• Rouncey

• Medieval siege weaponry

As Napoleon famously said, an army marches on its stomach, a weakness that has applied to all military campaigns in history. Medieval armies were supplied much as earlier armies had been. With the advent of castle-building and the extended siege, supply problems had to be solved on a scale seldom seen before, as armies had to stay in one spot for months, or even years.

The usual method for solving logistical problems for smaller armies was foraging or "living off the land". As medieval campaigns were often directed at well-populated settled areas, a traveling army would forcibly commandeer all available resources from the land they passed through, from food to raw materials to equipment. Living off the land is not very easy when there is no food ready to eat, so there was, in theory at least, a prescribed "campaign season" that aimed to conduct warfare at a predictable time, when there would be both food on the ground and relatively good weather. This season was usually from spring to autumn, as by early-spring all the crops would be planted, thus freeing the male population for warfare until they were needed for harvest time in late-autumn. As an example, in many European countries serfs and peasants were obliged to perform around 45 days of military service per year without pay, usually during this campaign season when they were not required for agriculture.

Plunder in itself was often the objective of a military campaign, to either pay mercenary forces, seize resources, reduce the fighting capacity of enemy forces, or as a calculated insult to the enemy ruler. Examples are the Viking attacks across Europe, or the highly destructive English chevauchées across northern France during the Hundred Years' War.

Supply chains are more a feature of modern warfare than medieval warfare. Due to the impossibility of maintaining a real front in premodern warfare, the supplies had to be carried with the army and/or transported to it while under guard. However, a supply source moving with the army was necessary for any large-scale army to operate. Medieval supply trains are often found in illuminations and even poems of the period.

River and sea travel proved to be the easiest ways to transport supplies. During his invasion of the Levant, Richard I of England was forced to supply his army as it was marching through a barren desert. By marching his army along the shore, Richard was regularly resupplied by ships travelling along the coast. Likewise, as in Roman times, armies would frequently follow rivers while their supplies were being carried by barges. Supplying armies by mass land-transport would not become practical until the invention of rail transport and the internal combustion engine.

The baggage train provided an alternative supply method that was not dependant on access to a water-way. However, it was often a tactical liability. Supply chains forced armies to travel more slowly than a light skirmishing force and were typically centrally placed in the army, protected by the infantry and outriders. Attacks on an enemy's baggage when it was unprotected — as for instance the French attack on the English train at Agincourt, highlighted in the play Henry V—could cripple an army's ability to continue a campaign. This was particularly true in the case of sieges, when large amounts of supplies had to be provided for the besieging army. To refill its supply train, an army would forage extensively as well as resupply itself in cities or supply points - border castles were frequently stocked with supplies for this purpose.

A failure in logistics often resulted in famine and disease for a medieval army, with corresponding deaths and loss of morale. A besieging force could starve while waiting for the same to happen to the besieged, which meant the siege had to be lifted. With the advent of the great castles of high medieval Europe however, this problem was typically something commanders prepared for on both sides, so sieges could be long, drawn-out affairs.

Epidemics of diseases such as smallpox, cholera, typhoid, and dysentery often swept through medieval armies, especially when poorly supplied or sedentary. In a famous example, in 1347 the bubonic plague erupted in the besieging Mongol army outside the walls of Caffa, Crimea where the disease then spread throughout Europe as the Black Death.

For the inhabitants of a contested area, famine often followed protracted periods of warfare, because foraging armies ate any food stores they could find, reducing or depleting reserve stores. In addition, the overland routes taken by armies on the move could easily destroy a carefully planted field, preventing a crop the following season. Moreover, the death toll in war hit the farming labour pool particularly hard, making it even more difficult to recoup losses.

In the Mediterranean, naval warfare in the medieval period resembled that of the ancient period: fleets of galleys, often rowed by slaves, would attempt to ram each other, or come alongside for marines to fight on deck. This mode of naval warfare continued even into the early modern period, as, for example, at the Battle of Lepanto. Famous admirals included Andrea Doria, Hayreddin Barbarossa, and Don John of Austria.

However, galleys were fragile and difficult to use in the cold and turbulent North Sea and northern Atlantic, although they saw occasional use. Bulkier ships were developed which were primarily sail-driven, although the long lowboard Viking-style rowed longship saw use well into the 15th century. Ramming was unpractical with these sailing ships, but the main purpose of these warships remained the transportation of soldiers to fight on the decks of the opposing ship (as, for example, at the Battle of Svolder or the Battle of Sluys).

Warships resembled floating fortresses, with towers in the bows and at the stern (respectively, the forecastle and aftcastle). The large superstructure made these warships quite unstable, but the decisive defeats the more mobile but considerably lower boarded longships suffered at the hands of high-boarded cogs in the 15th century ended the issue of which ship type would dominate northern European warfare.

In the medieval period, it had proved difficult to mount cannons on board a warship, although some were placed in the fore- and aftcastles. Small hand-held anti-personnel cannons were used, but large cannons mounted on deck further compromised the stability of warships, and cannons at that time had a slow rate of fire and were inaccurate.

All this was about to change at the end of the medieval period. The insertion of opening in the side of a ship, with a hinged cover, allowed the creation of a gundeck below the main deck. The weight of cannon distributed to lower decks of the ship increased its stability immensely, effectively providing ballast, and a row of cannon on a lower deck produced the broadside, where the weight of shot overcame the inherent inaccuracy of firing cannons from a ship at sea. An example is the Mary Rose, the flagship of King Henry VIII's fleet, which had around thirty cannon per side, all of which were capable of firing shot nine pounds or more. The Spanish took this concept and produced the galleon.

In the Medieval period, the mounted cavalry long held sway on the battlefield. Heavily armoured, mounted knights represented a formidable foe for reluctant peasant draftees and lightly-armoured freemen. To defeat mounted cavalry, infantry used swarms of missiles or a tightly packed phalanx of men, techniques honed in Antiquity by the Romans. The ancient generals of Asia used regiments of archers to fend off mounted threats. Alexander the Great combined both methods in his clashes with swarming Asiatic horseman, screening the central infantry core with slingers, archers and javelin men, before unleashing his cavalry to see off attackers.

The use of long pikes and densely-packed foot troops was not uncommon in Medieval times. The Flemish footmen at the Battle of the Golden Spurs met and overcame French knights in 1302, and the Scots held their own against heavily-armored English invaders. During St.Louis crusade, dismounted French knights formed a tight lance-and-shield phalanx to repel Egyptian cavalry. The Swiss used pike tactics in the late medieval period. While pikemen usually grouped together and awaited a mounted attack, the Swiss developed flexible formations and aggressive maneuvering, forcing their opponents to respond. The Swiss won at Morgarten, Laupen, Sempach, and Granson, and between 1450 and 1550 every leading prince in Europe hired Swiss pikemen, or emulated their tactics and weapons (e.g., the German Landsknechte).

The English longbowman used a single-piece longbow to deliver arrows that could penetrate contemporary plate armor and mail. The longbow was a difficult weapon to master, requiring long years of use and practice. A skilled longbowman could shoot over 20 arrows a minute, and 10 arrows a minute was used as the minimum standard. This rate of fire was far superior to competing weapons like the crossbow or early gunpowder weapons. The nearest competitor to the longbow was the much more expensive crossbow, used often by urban militias and mercenary forces. The crossbow had greater penetrating power, and did not require the extended years of training. However, it lacked the range of the longbow.

At the Crécy and Agincourt bowmen unleashed clouds of arrows into the ranks of knights. At Crécy, even 15,000 Genoese' crossbowmen could not dislodge them from their hill. At Agincourt, thousands of French knights that tried to charge through mud faced thousands of armour-piercing bodkin arrows and horse- maiming broadheads. The longbowmen decimated an entire generation of the French nobility.

Since the longbow was difficult to deploy in a thrusting mobile offensive, it was best used in a defensive configuration. Bowmen were extended in thin lines and protected and screened by pits (as at Bannockburn), staves or trenches. The terrain was usually chosen to put the archers at an advantage forcing their opponents into a bottleneck (at Agincourt) or a hard climb under fire (at Crécy). Sometimes the bowmen were deployed in a shallow "W", enabling them to trap and enfilade their foes.

The pike and the longbow put an end to the dominance of cavalry in European warfare, making the use of foot soldiers more important than they had been in recent years. Gunpowder eventually was to provoke even more significant changes. However, the heavy cavalry continued to be an important battlefield arm of European armies until the 19th century, when new and more accurate weapons made the mounted soldier too easy a target.

• The Battle of Chalons (451)
• The Sack of Rome (455)
• The Battle of Salsu (612)
• The Battle of Badr (624)
• The Battle of Uhud (625)
• The Battle of the Trench (627)
• The Battle of Mu'tah (629)
• The Conquest of Mecca (630)
• The Battle of Walaja (633)
• The Battle of Ullais (633)
• The Battle of Zumail (633)
• The Battle of Firaz (634)
• The Battle of Bosra (634)
• The Battle of Ajnadayn (634)
• The Battle of Fahl (635)
• The Battle of Yarmouk (636)
• The Battle of al-Qādisiyyah (636)
• The Battle of Iron bridge (637)
• The Battle of Baekgang (663)
• The Battle of Guadalete (711)
• The Siege of Constantinople (718)
• The Battle of Tours (732)
• The Battle of Rajasthan (738)
• The Battle of Talas (751)
• Тhe Battle of Pliska (811)
• The Sack of Rome (846)
• The Battle of Anchialus (917)
• The Battle of Brunanburh (937)
• The Battle of Lechfeld (955)
• The Battle of Maldon (c. 991)
• The Battle of Kleidion (1014)
• The Battle of Stamford Bridge (1066)
• The Battle of Hastings (1066)
• The Battle of Manzikert (1071)
• The Battle of Levounion (1091)
• The Siege of Jerusalem (1099)
• The Battle of Didgori (1121)
• The Siege of Lisbon (1147)
• The Battle of Caishi (1161)
• The Battle of Tangdao (1161)
• The Battle of Sirmium (1167)
• The Battle of Myriokephalon (1176)
• The Battle of Hattin (1187)
• The Battle of Adrianople (1205)
• The Battle of Las Navas de Tolosa (1212)
• The Battle of Bouvines (1214)
• The Battle of Parwan (1221)
• The Battle of Indus (1221)
• The Battle of the Kalka River (1223)
• The Battle of Klokotnitsa (1230)
• The Battle of Legnica (1241)
• The Battle of Mohi (1241)
• The Battle of Baghdad (1258)
• The Battle of Fishing Town (1259)
• The Battle of Ain Jalut (1260)
• The Battle of Xiangyang (1273)
• The Battle of Yamen (1279)
• The Battle of Homs (1281)
• The Battle of the Golden Spurs (1302)
• The Battle of Bannockburn (1314)
• The Battle of Crécy (1346)
• The Battle of Poitiers (1356)
• The Battle of Lake Poyang (1363)
• The Battle of Adrianople (1365)
• The Battle of Kulikovo (1380)
• The Battle of Kosovo (1389)
• The Battle of Nicopolis (1396)
• The Battle of Ankara (1402)
• The Battle of Grunwald/Tannenberg (1410)
• The Battle of Agincourt (1415)
• The Battle of Patay (1429)
• The Fall of Constantinople (1453)
• The Battle of Towton (1461)
• The Battle of Vaslui (1475)
• The Battle of Nancy (1477)
• The Siege of Rhodes (1480)
• The Battle of Bosworth Field (1485)

Major wars of the Middle Ages, arranged chronologically by year begun.

• The Muslim conquests (624-1526)
  • Byzantine-Arab Wars (629-1169)
    • Muslim conquest of Syria (629-640)
    • Muslim conquest of Egypt (639-654)
    • Umayyad conquest of North Africa (647-709)
  • Conquest of Mecca (630)
  • Ridda wars (632-633)
  • Islamic conquest of Persia (634-652)
  • Islamic conquest of Afghanistan (662-679)
  • Muslim conquest in the Indian subcontinent (664-1526)
  • Umayyad conquest of Hispania (711-718)
  • Khazar-Arab Wars (711-750)
  • Muslim conquest of southern Italy (831-902)
  • Byzantine-Seljuk wars (1064-1308)
  • Byzantine-Ottoman wars (1299–1453)
• The Saxon Wars - (772-804)
• The Spanish Reconquista (718-1492): In which the Moors were driven from the Iberian Peninsula; begun under Pelayo in Asturias, concluded under the Catholic Monarchs (Isabella of Castile and Ferdinand II of Aragon), of Columbus fame.
• The Crusades (1096–1291): A generic, catch-all term for Church-sanctioned wars against non-Christians or heretics.
  • 1096–1099—First Crusade: The only "successful" crusade against the Islamic Near East; Christian states were established throughout the Levant.
  • 1101—Crusade of 1101
  • 1147–1149—Second Crusade
  • 1147-1410—Northern Crusades
  • 1187–1191—Third Crusade
  • 1202–1204—Fourth Crusade: In which the Western forces sacked Constantinople
  • 1209–1229—Albigensian Crusade: In which the Albigensians in southern France were crushed.
  • 1212—Children's Crusade: Sometimes believed to be a fictional event
  • 1217–1221—Fifth Crusade
  • 1228—Sixth Crusade
  • 1248–1254—Seventh Crusade
  • 1270—Eighth Crusade
  • 1271–1291—Ninth Crusade
• The Wars of China
  • Wars of the Southern and Northern Dynasties (420-581)
  • Goguryeo-Sui Wars (598–614)
  • Linyi-Champa Campaign (602-605): Chinese Invasion of Annam and Champa (Vietnam))
  • Sino-Tibetan Wars (635-821)
  • Wars of Korean Unification (660–668): which included aid from Tang China and the expulsion of Yamato Japanese forces.
  • An Lushan Rebellion (756-763) (Chinese Tang Dynasty)
  • The Sino-Khitan Wars (979-1125): Conflict between the Song Dynasty and the Liao Dynasty.
  • The Jurchen Conquest of Northern China (1125–1127)
  • Sino-Jurchen Wars (1127–1164)
  • Southern Chinese Resistance against the Mongols (1234–1279)
  • Red Turban Rebellion (1351–1368): Chinese rebellion and collapse of Mongol power.
  • Imjin War (1592–1598): an alliance of Joseon Korea and Ming Dynasty China against the Japanese forces of Toyotomi Hideyoshi.
• The Mongol invasions (1205–1472)
  • Mongol invasions of China (1205–1279)
  • Mongol invasion of Central Asia (1218–1221)
  • Mongol invasions of Georgia and Armenia (1220–1330)
  • Mongol invasion of Europe (1223–1284)
    • Mongol invasion of Volga Bulgaria (1223–1236)
    • Mongol invasion of Rus (1237–1242)
    • Mongol invasions of Russia (1252–1472)
  • Mongol invasions of Korea (1231–1273)
  • Mongol invasions of Vietnam (1257–1287)
  • Mongol invasion of Baghdad (1258)
  • Mongol invasions of Japan (1274–1281)
  • Mongol invasion of Syria (1299)
• The Timur Lenk's invasions (1370-1405)
• The Hussite Wars (1420-1434)
• The Hundred Years' War (1337–1453): In which the English were eventually driven out of France; many famous events occurred during this war, including the Battle of Agincourt and the campaign under Joan of Arc.
• The Wars of the Roses (1455–1487): War for the English throne between the Houses of Lancaster and York

The initial Arab Muslim conquests began in the 7th century after the death of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, and were marked by a century of rapid Arab expansion beyond the Arabian Peninsula under the Rashidun and Umayyad Caliphates. Under the Rashidun, the Arabs conquered the Persian Empire, along with Roman Syria and Roman Egypt during the Byzantine-Arab Wars, all within just seven years from 633 to 640. Under the Umayyads, the Arabs annexed North Africa and southern Italy from the Romans and the Arab Empire soon stretched from parts of the Indian subcontinent, across Central Asia, the Middle East, North Africa, and southern Italy, to the Iberian Peninsula and the Pyrenees. The Arab Empire became the largest empire the world had ever seen, up until the Mongol Empire five centuries later.

The most famous early Arab military commander was Khalid ibn al-Walid, also known as the Sword of Allah. In having the distinction of being undefeated in over a hundred battles against the numerically superior forces of the Roman Empire, Persian Empire, and their allies, Khalid is regarded as one of the finest military commanders in history. His greatest strategic achievements were his swift conquest of the Persian Empire and conquest of Roman Syria all within just three years from 633 to 636, while his greatest tactical achievements were his double envelopment maneuver against the larger Persian forces at the Battle of Walaja, and his decisive victories against the larger combined forces of the Persians, Romans, Greeks and Arab Christians at the Battle of Firaz, and the larger combined forces of Romans, Greeks, Ghassanids, Russians, Slavs, Franks, Georgians and Armenians at the Battle of Yarmouk.

Other famous Muslim military commanders included ‘Amr ibn al-‘As during the Muslim conquest of Egypt against the Roman Empire, Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas at the Battle of al-Qādisiyyah against the Persian Empire, Tariq ibn-Ziyad during the Umayyad conquest of Hispania against the Visigoths, Ziyad ibn Salih at the Battle of Talas against the Chinese Tang Empire, and Saladin against the Crusaders.

The early Arab army mainly consisted of light infantry, with some light cavalry and a few camel cavalry. In contrast, the Roman army and Persian army at the time both had large numbers of heavy infantry (Roman legions and Persian daylami) and heavy cavalry (cataphracts and clibanarii) that were better equipped, heavily protected, and more experienced and disciplined. The Roman and Persian armies were also led by skilled generals such as Heraclius and Rostam Farrokhzād respectively. Despite being outnumbered by these superior Roman and Persian armies that were several times larger in almost every early battle, the Arabs were able to overcome the odds and defeat their enemies each time, mainly due to being led by tactical geniuses such as Khalid ibn al-Walid, ‘Amr ibn al-‘As, and Sa`d ibn Abi Waqqas, as well as the better mobility of light cavalry and light infantry units which allowed them to use better maneuvers, including various flanking maneuvers and pincer movements.

In particular, the double envelopment maneuver, which Khalid ibn al-Walid successfully used against the larger Persian forces at the Battle of Walaja, is regarded as one of the greatest tactical maneuvers in history, and was only successfully used once before by Hannibal at the Battle of Cannae.

According to Steven Muhlberger of the ORB Encyclopedia, the "...vigor and prowess of the Arab armies" was due "... to the willingness of the great mass of the conquered population to make a deal with the Arab armies" and the "confidence of the Muslims" due to their religion and "esprit de corps."^[1]

The Vikings were a feared force in Europe because of their courage and strength. While seaborne raids are nothing new in history, the Vikings brought the practice to a high art, and unlike raiders elsewhere, were to eventually transform the face of Europe. During the Viking age their expeditions, who frequently combined raiding and trading, penetrated most of the old Frankish empire, the British Isles, The Baltic, Russia and Muslim and Christian Iberia. Many served as mercenaries, and the famed Varangian Guard, serving the Emperor of Constantinople, had a big complement of Scandinavian warriors.

Viking longships were easily maneuvered, could navigate deep seas or shallow waters, and could carry warriors that could be quickly dispersed onto land due to the ability possessed by the longships to come straight up onto shore. The Viking style of warfare was fast and mobile, relying heavily on the element of surprise, and they tended to capture horses for mobility rather than carry them on their ships. The usual method was to approach a target stealthily, strike with surprise, then disperse and retire swiftly. The tactics used were difficult to stop, for the Vikings, like guerrilla style raiders elsewhere, deployed at a time and place of their own choosing. The fully armoured Viking raider would wear an iron helmet and a maille hauberk, and fight with a combination of axe, sword, shield, spear or great "Danish" two-handed axe, although the typical raider would be unarmoured, carrying only a shield, an axe, and possibly a spear.

Opponents of the Vikings were ill prepared to fight a force that struck at will, with no warning, then would disappear to attack other locations or retreat to their bases in what is now Sweden, Denmark, Norway and their atlantic colonies. As time went on, Viking raids became more sophisticated, with coordinated strikes involving multiple forces and large armies, as the "Great Heathen Army" that ravaged Anglo-Saxon England in the 9th century. In time the Vikings began to hold on to the areas they raided, first wintering and then consolidating footholds for expansion that were to change Europe forever.

With the growth of centralized authority in the Scandinavian region, Viking raids, always an expression of "private enterprise" ceased and the raids became pure voyages of conquest. In 1066, King Harald Hardråde of Norway invaded England, only to be defeated by Harold Godwinson, the son of one of Danish-Norwegian-English king Canute the Great's Earls, who in turn was defeated by William of Normandy, descendant of the Viking Rollo, who had accepted Normandy as a fief from the frankish King. The three rulers all had their eyes on the English crown (Harald probably primarily on the overlordship of Northumbria), rather than being motivated by the lure of plunder.

At this point the scandinavians had entered their medieval period, and the growth of centralized authority had formed the kingdoms of Denmark and Norway, and later the kingdom of Sweden. The scandinavians started adapting more continental European ways, although they, and particularly the Norwegians, always had their own distinctive style in warfare with an emphasis on naval power from an early date - the "Viking" clinker-built warship was used effectively in war until the 14th century at least, and the larger Scandinavian warships in this style are all from the medieval period. However, the close trading and diplomatic links between Scandinavia and nearby catholic states ensured that the scandinavians kept up to date with continental developments in warfare.

The Mongolian nomads were one of the most feared forces ever to take the field of battle. Operating in massive cavalry sweeps consisting of light mobile cavalry and horse archers, together with smaller tactical units, extending over dozens of miles, the fierce horsemen combined a shock, mobility and firepower unmatched in land warfare until the advent of the gunpowder age. From about two centuries, beginning with the rise of Genghis Khan in the 1200s, the Mongol warriors defeated some of the world's most powerful, well established and sophisticated empires, and claiming over one-twelfth of the world's land surface at their height, seen by some as the largest contiguous empire in human history - stretching from across Asia to Eastern Europe.

Mongols deployed weapons, bows, scimitars and lances. The Mongol bow was a composite bow, made from glue, horn, sinew and wood or bamboo, with a range of over 200 yards. The Mongols were exceedingly tough warriors, used to privation and hardship. Hardy steppes ponies furnished the means of transport into battle. Warriors were tightly organized into units of ten, and into larger formations such as the Mongol tumen of 10,000 soldiers. Coordination was provided by designated unit leaders, with signalling provided by horns, smoke, and flags. Most columns or tumen were self-sufficient in the short run, living off the land. Their main tactics were speed, surprise and mobility; as well, the Mongols were not rigid in their thinking, and nor did they adhere to Medieval European notions of chivalry. Mongols used siege engineers to overcome fortifications, and Mongol terror was used as a psychological warfare tactic.

By 1241, having conquered large parts of Russia, the Mongols began the invasion of Europe with a massive three-pronged advance, following the fleeing Cumans, who had established an uncertain alliance with King Bela IV of Hungary. They first invaded Poland, then Transylvania, and finally Hungary, culminating in the crushing defeat of the Hungarians in the Battle of Mohi. The Mongol aim seems to have consistently been to defeat the Hungarian-Cuman alliance. The Mongols raided across the borders to Austria and Bohemia in the summer when the Great Khan died, and the Mongol princes returned home to elect a new Great Khan.

The Golden Horde would frequently clash with Hungarians, Lithuanians and Poles in the 13th century, with two large raids in the 1260s and 1280s respectively. In 1284 the Hungarians repelled the last major raid into Hungary, and in 1287 the Poles repelled a raid against them. The instability in the Golden Horde seems to have quieted the western front of the Horde. The Hungarians and Poles had responded to the mobile threat by extensive fortification-building, army reform in the form of better armoured cavalry, and refusing battle unless they could control the site of the battlefield to deny the Mongols local superiority. The Lithuanians relied on the their forested homelands for defense, and used their cavalry for raiding into Mongol-dominated Russia.

Trade between China, the Middle East, and Europe along the Silk Road extended throughout the period of the Middle Ages. The Turkic peoples were exposed to military technology from the days of the Roman Empire onwards, as well as financial wealth as a result of their position midway on the route. An early Turkic group, the Seljuks, were known for their cavalry archers. These fierce nomads were often raiding empires, such as the Byzantine Empire, and they scored several victories using mobility and timing to defeat the heavy cataphracts of the Byzantines.

One notable victory was at Manzikert, where a conflict among the generals of the Byzantines gave the Turks the perfect opportunity to strike. They hit the cataphracts with arrows, and outmaneuvered them, then rode down their less mobile infantry with light cavalry that used scimitars. When gunpowder was introduced, the Ottoman Turks of the Ottoman Empire hired the mercenaries that used the gunpowder weapons and asked them to teach their soldiers. Out of these Ottoman soldiers rose the Janissaries, or Ottoman gunmen. Along with the use of cavalry and early grenades, the Ottomans mounted an offensive in the early Renaissance period and attacked Europe, taking Constantinople, notably with the help of their huge cannons that were bigger than their opponent's, notably Basilica, the giant that pounded the walls of Constantinople. Basilica was itself designed and cast for the Grand Turk by a Christian Hungarian named Urban. Despite its size, however, it was not very successful as an artillery piece.

• Horses in warfare
• Endemic warfare
• Medieval warfare tactics

• Contamine, Philippe. War in the Middle Ages. Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1984.
• Creveld, Martin Van. Technology and War: From 2000 BC to present, 1989.
• Keegan, John. The face of battle: a study of Agincourt, Waterloo, and the Somme. London: Barrie & Jenkins, 1988.
• Keen, Maurice. Medieval Warfare: A History. Oxford University Press, 1999.
• McNeill, William Hardy. The pursuit of power: technology, armed force, and society since A.D. 1000. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1982.
• Nicholson, Helen. Medieval Warfare. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2004,
• Oman, Charles William Chadwick. A history of the art of war in the Middle Ages. London: Greenhill Books; Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania: Stackpole Books, 1998.
• De Re Militari: The Society for Medieval Military History
• Kosztolnyik, Z.J. Hungary in the thirteenth century. New York: Columbia University Press: Stackpole Books, 1996. (Parts of which are available online)
• Parker, Geoffrey. The Military Revolution: Military innovation and the Rise of The West, 1988.