8 - Flemish Urban Militias against the French Cavalry Armies in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries

Summary

During the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, most principalities of western Europe maintained a cavalry army and had also at their disposal the militias of their towns and the soldiers supplied by the communities of the countryside. The kingdom of France, the Holy Roman Empire of German states, the Spanish kingdoms, the Italian principalities had both types of soldiers: the knights and nobles, men-at-arms who fought as heavily armored horsemen, and townspeople and peasants who fought on foot. In the kingdom of England, the army also consisted of horsemen and common infantry, but the kings mostly undertook offensive wars in France and Scotland, and in those, alongside professional soldiers such as knights and nobles, footsoldiers who had been recruited from the countryside were used. Urban militias sent from the towns played no role in those wars, but could well appear in the event of a civil war or if the defense of a town was needed during the invasion of an enemy. The English infantry were above all recruited from the rural villages.

The strength and the worth of the cavalry armies, urban militias and troops raised from rural villages changed from kingdom to kingdom, or from region to region. On most occasions an army was raised that contained both heavy cavalry and infantry. In the kingdom of France, the noble cavalry played the principal role, while the infantry was of little importance. In the English armies the nobles and men drawn from the countryside worked very well together. The infantry were mostly archers who were excellent fighting men and performed a very important task on the battlefield. But, without the cavalry and nobles, the archers could not form a strong line for the battle, because the nobles could fight either on foot or on horse and the archers assisted them during the battle. In the principalities of the Low Countries, the county of Flanders, the duchy of Brabant, the counties of Hainault, Holland, and Zeeland, the prince-bishopric of Liège, the county of Loon, and the county of Namur, armies existed also of these two elements, cavalry and infantry, nobles and commoners, with a cavalry army, urban militia, and army of rural villagers. In Friesland, it was only the rural villages who sent men into the army.