The replacement of the popular levy by landed elite forces reduced the military importance of the peasants and thus their ability to resist pressure from above, and probably also led to an increase in aristocratic landownership. The growth of the ecclesiastical hierarchy worked in the same direction, as the Church eventually became the greatest landowner in all three countries.
Military
Fatih William’ın Kuzey Kıyımı
As Orderic explains, the king left York and divided his army into smaller contingents that could comb the mountains and forests where the rebels were hiding. They spread out, we are told, over more than a hundred miles of territory, slaying many men and destroying the lairs of others. This, however, was only the beginning of William’s strategy. ‘In his anger’, continues Orderic, ‘he commanded that all crops and herds, chattels and food of every kind should be brought together and burned to ashes with consuming fire, so that the whole region north of the Humber might be stripped of all means of sustenance.’ The Conqueror’s aim was to ensure that no future army, English or Danish, would be able to support itself against him and, as Orderic makes clear, this scorched-earth policy was brutally effective. ‘As a consequence, so serious a scarcity was felt in England, and so terrible a famine fell upon the humble and defenceless people, that more than 100,000 Christian folk of both sexes, young and old alike, perished of hunger.’
William’ın Normanlara Ganimet Vaadi
According to William of Poitiers, the duke pointed out that Harold could offer his men nothing in victory, whereas he, William, was promising those who followed him a share of the spoils. This may explain why, in the end, the Normans agreed to having the terms of their service written down, for the greater the service rendered, the greater the eventual reward.
Kral Edward’ın Haçlı Seferi ve Galler Savaşı
Henry III (1216–72) was not militarily skilled or ruthless like his father, but he was a very pious king – a fact reflected in his reverence for St Edward and Westminster Abbey as well as his interest in the crusades.4 This interest in crusading partially fuelled disaffection among his barons in the 1260s; they rebelled against him and established alternative rule under Simon de Montfort. His son and heir, Edward, however, ably supported Henry, and after the defeat of Simon de Montfort peace was restored. Although the peace was not perfect, it was sufficient for Edward and his brother Edmund to join the crusade of Louis IX in 1270. It was while on crusade, in 1272, that Edward learned that his father had died. As Edward I, he was quick to stamp his authority on England and the rulers of Wales and Scotland, demanding the submission of the Welsh prince Llywelyn ap Gruffydd. The prince’s refusal sparked a war between Edward and the prince of Gwynedd. Although this first war did not see all-out conquest by Edward, a second war sparked by Dafydd ap Gruffydd’s attack on Hawarden Castle in 1282 brought about the end of Welsh independence.
Norman Atlı Savaş Kültürü ve İngilizler
Certainly the English had horses and bred them. We hear on occasions of the Vikings taking English horses for their own use during their campaigns. But the Vikings used them as the English did, not for battle. The Normans needed their own specially bred horses, such as they took with them to Sicily, such as they transported across the Channel in 1066. The young Norman warrior learned to fight from horseback as a noble pursuit. The idea of a mounted élite was already forming in Norman and northern French minds in a way that was yet to happen in England. The heroes of English poetry were warriors who fought on foot. The warfare of Normandy, like most of north-western continental Europe, relied heavily on development from the Frankish Carolingian Empire. Fortified strongholds or castles, and warriors trained to fight on horseback had developed over a century or so.
Süvari Birliklerine Bakış Açısı
Cavalry, with its capacity to ride off to safety, was not an admired kind of troop. A telling phrase in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle relates to the flight of the English under Earl Ralph at Hereford in 1055, ‘because they were on horseback’. In the poem of the battle of Maldon, Byrhtnoth told his men each to let go of his horse, ‘to drive it far off and to march forwards’. This attitude lasted well into the age of cavalry, when it could often be a mark of courage to abandon the horse and its promise of escape, and to stand alongside your men.
Savaş Alanında Balta Kullanımı
The axe was a fearsome and devastating weapon, but not easily wielded and less flexible than a sword. An axeman required a good deal of space around him in order to be effective, and this could leave the line vulnerable to charging cavalry. It must also have been a particularly tiring weapon to wield through a long day of battle. Nevertheless, it was favoured by some of the English.
Henry 5’in Esirleri İnfaz Etmesi
His contemporaries understand this. What’s more, they allow it. The French had, after all, brought the oriflamme out of Saint-Denis Abbey – an explicit statement that they were prepared to show no mercy and give no quarter on the battlefield. And in the aftermath of Agincourt, many writers do not even see fit to mention the killing of the prisoners. Instead, they express great shock at the numbers of French killed – more than three thousand noblemen, knights and squires, including three dukes and five counts, and nearly the same again in ordinary men.
Oriflamme: When the oriflamme was raised in battle by the French royalty during the Middle Ages, most notably during the Hundred Years’ War, no prisoners were to be taken until it was lowered. Through that tactic, they hoped to strike fear into the hearts of the enemy, especially the nobles, who could usually expect to be taken alive for ransom during such military encounters.
Fyrd Kompozisyonu
The armies of Wessex, the so-called fyrds, were not levies en masse but select forces of king’s men and their retainers. In conception and practice, a fyrd was the king’s following arrayed for battle. At its core was the complement of royal household thegns, perhaps fifty to a hundred men, who repaid their royal lord’s gifts of rings, robes, and feasts with loyalty and service. This ‘standing’ force, however, was too small to conduct full-scale campaigns or engage in battles on its own. For that, Alfred needed to call upon the shire fyrds. These territorial forces, consisting mainly of landowners and their personal followings, were led by ealdormen, royal reeves, and local king’s thegns, either as battalions within the king’s army or, in many instances, as independent armies defending localities against raiders. Because they were raised on an ad hoc basis, in response to an ealdorman’s summons, shire fyrds, were ill-suited to meet the challenge presented by viking raiders. By the time an ealdormen had gathered his army from the various vills and estates scattered throughout a sparsely populated countryside, a highly mobile raiding party might well have already devastated a region and moved on. This led individual ealdormen and thegns to mount small-scale actions against the invaders in 871, presumably attacking bands of foragers as they scattered to plunder the countryside. We are assured by the Chronicler that Alfred himself often rode on such expeditions before he became king.
Savaş Kavramının Anglo Saksonlarca Yorumu
In referring to places of battles, the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle often uses a formula, referring to an army, usually Vikings, having ‘held control of the place of slaughter’ (wælstowe geweald ahtan). It is perhaps revealing in these cases that the battlefield was seen as a place that could be controlled, and maybe helps to explain why sea battles are not remembered, but it does not necessarily mean that Anglo-Saxon victories were any less significant – as we have already seen, an action did not have to be large in order to qualify as a ‘battle’ – rather that to an English audience Viking armies contested control of the landscape, whereas victorious Anglo-Saxon armies were reasserting the status quo. Either way, the sites of battles were often important.