7 Pike Squares That Dominated Warfare

over time various rectangular square infantry formations dominated the battlefields of the world from the macedonian phalanx which was one pillar of alexander the great's success to the sheltron as a decisive factor in the scottish struggle for independence to the spanish darcio the war machine helping the habsburgs to control europe these formations shape the warfare of their time decisively in this video we will look at some hand-picked examples work out some of these formations most central characteristics and look at several of their most famous battles as well for the sake of brevity and entertainment we will prioritize interesting aspects over in-depth analysis more detailed info about each formation can be found by clicking on the links in the top right corner of the screen so let's dive straight in the first formation to talk about is obviously the ancient greek phalanx it is best known for the important role it played during the conquest of the macedonian king alexander the great as one of the pillars of his military success the phalanx played a decisive role in several battles such as gaironea granicus and gaugamela at gaugamela in 331 bc alexander faced a persian army superior in numbers under the the third the macedonians defeated the persians by luring most of the cavalry on the persian left flank to the site where they managed to defeat them this opened up a gap in the center which the phalanges of the first line and alexanders's cavalry could exploit to decisively win the battle the battle of gaugamela is considered the final blow to the achaemenid empire which was then completely conquered by alexander the origin of the phalanx however begins about 300 years earlier beginning in the 7th century bc it became the standard formation for armies throughout greece the phalanx consisted of heavily armed foot soldiers so-called hoplites every soldier had to bring his own weapons and armor the hoplites were arranged in close ranks so that they formed a shield wall with the shield of every man covering the right side of the one standing next to him besides the shield they carried spears and secondary weapons such as daggers and swords usually the phalanx was eight rows deep while the width depended on the overall number of men in battle the phalanges marched towards the enemy and tried to push them away the goal was to disrupt their battle order to gain a significant advantage this is best shown by the fact that an army usually suffered most losses once the formation was broken up and the man turned to flight naturally every man tried to get his uncovered right flank behind the shield of his neighbor thus the formation had a tendency to spin to the right if two phalanges fought they could even rotate counterclockwise this was even more of a problem because of the distribution of elite fighters within the formation traditionally the most veteran men were at the right wing this meant that each right wing fought the enemy's weak left wing whoever won on the right wing first usually ended up winning the battle this problem of the early greek phalanx formation was solved by the generals of thebes in the 5th and 4th century bc first the right wing was deepened to 25 ranks in order to defeat the enemy's weaker side more quickly then in the battle of loykra the famous general epaminondas arrayed his troops in the so-called oblique order this is considered one of the most important tactical developments he inverted the traditional order by placing his best man on the left wing and deepening it to 50 ranks thus when the thebans met the spartans on the field of lycra the elites of the two armies clashed epaminondas's plan worked out his left wing won the clash while his weaker center and right wing stayed back which is the reason this order is called oblique the next reform was implemented by the macedonian king philip ii he equipped his man with the famous sarisa a pike of 5 meters and a light shield the macedonian phalanx was 16 rows deep and arranged in a way that the sarissas of the second to the fifth row had their points all in front of the first line the men further to the back held their weapons vertically and increased the pushing power of the formation in the early days the phalanx was almost exclusively made up by greek macedonian fighters but after the 3rd century bc the macedonian rulers increasingly relied on mercenaries according to the historian leonhard burkhardt the macedonian phalanx had two crucial weaknesses firstly it struggled on uneven terrain and secondly the formation was not suited for close-up male fights the long weapons that made the formation strong early on in a fight were too unwieldy in a long and extended melee battle and the longer a battle took the likelier it became that the formation would be disrupted these weaknesses became obvious in the battle of putna in 168 bc when the macedonian phalanges under king parasites met the roman army under the experienced commander lucius emilius paulus both armies chose a traditional array with the phalanges and legions respectively in the center additional infantry beside them and cavalry on the wings the battle began in the afternoon at first the romans had difficulties to deal with the long sarissas of their enemies and the macedonians advanced towards the roman camp which is situated at the foothills of mount olokrus when the phalanges entered the uneven terrain they lost cohesion and gaps opened in their lines paulus immediately reacted divided his troops and ordered them into these cracks in close combat the roman legionaries specialized in close-up melee fighting quickly gained the upper hand when the roman cavalry on the right wing defeated the weaker macedonian cavalry and turned towards the infantry organized resistance became impossible many macedonians were butchered where they stood [Music] unlike the romans who didn't put a lot of emphasis on long spears other armies continued to rely on spear-armed troops but for the next couple of centuries it seems that generally speaking more linear formations were used for example shield walls let's fast forward to 13th century scotland where we find the next subject of study the chiltron this masked infantry formation is first mentioned in accounts about the battle of falkirk in 1298 but it is very well possible that it was in use much earlier the chiltron could either be rectangular or circular the latter was the case at falkirk there the scottish formed four circles and even reinforced them by plugging additional stakes into the ground the outer rows then knelt with their pikes pointed towards the enemy while the following rows placed them above their comrades deployed in this hedgehog-like way the shiltron was extremely immobile and essentially defensive which proved fatal at falkirk after the scottish cavalry had retreated the four circular shieldtrons were significantly weakened by english archers and slingers and then overrun by cavalry the circular chiltron's defensive capabilities should not be underestimated however it is not as useful as a tunnel such as the one avpn establishes to protect your privacy in particular and the connection between your device and the internet in general the best tunnel is provided by today's sponsor nordvpn we like their product because it is safe fast and has gotten good reviews across the board nord encrypts your data with a double vpn meaning that they route your traffic through two servers to ensure your privacy and security moreover nord is easy and intuitive to use for example you can simply switch where your traffic is routed through by clicking on the countries on the map their vpn is available for six devices and for all operating systems with just one subscription and lastly nord was rated the fastest vpn in recent speed tests so you're not trading security for speed at the moment nord celebrates its 10th anniversary and offers an exclusive deal click the link in the pinned comment or description to get nord with 1 to 24 months of subscription time for free all of this is risk free as nord offers a 30 day money back guarantee in contrast to circular shield trons which were mainly used defensively rectangular children's could also serve offensive purposes there are only few descriptions of the formation but two accounts give us an idea of how it might have looked like the vita edvardi secundi informs us that the man had axes as side weapons and spears as primary weapons with their spears pointed outwards they advanced like a hedgehog or as the chronicler has it like a phalanx john of crocolove adds that they used other weapons and shields as well this description is suspiciously close to a greek phalanx and some historians actually argued that the scots indeed at the ancient phalanx in mind when narrating their man in the battles of the wars of the scottish independence but due to the lack of sources this is impossible to prove one example for the children's successful use is the battle of bannockburn in 1314. on the second day of the battle when the major clash was taking place the scottish chiltrons awaited the attacking english behind the river bannock when the english cavalry attacked it failed to break the formations the scots then advanced and pushed the horsemen back towards the english infantry still trying to cross the bannock this inevitably caused chaos many englishmen were trampled to death or drowned in the river the battle of banuckburn is deemed one of the worst defeats an english army has ever suffered similar infantry formations were also used elsewhere for example by the flemish welsh and portuguese most famously however the swiss picked up on this idea all these medieval formations had a common purpose coping with cavalry the swiss reached perfection at this art the swiss pike square also known as gevaltaufen literally crowd of force is sometimes directly compared to the ancient greek phalanx however there are some significant differences first off it was a mixed formation in contrast to the greek phalanges most of the fighters were equipped with shorter weapons namely halberds swords or axes and the like only the outer rows consisted of heavily armed men with pikes secondly phalanges could be arrayed as widely as needed that is their front could be stretched according to the terrain and available fighters the gevalthoven in contrast almost always had the same number of ranks as rose an army was in most cases subdivided into vanguard main body and rearguard which allowed for completely different tactical maneuvers around the 1420s the swiss adopted longer pikes in greater mass about a quarter of the overall strength were long pikes this made the formation dauntingly effective against cavalry when a cavalry charge was incoming the pikemen whether scottish swiss or landscapes aimed at the horses quote for with the horse the horseman is lost but a wall of pikes was also a terrifying prospect for infantry formations on the offensive the swiss pike square was capable of steamrolling charges after the clash the pikeman would step aside so that the more agile man with shorter weapons in the center could storm out and kill the enemy though extraordinarily effective the gevalt alpha was not invincible in the battle of pikoca in 1522 for example the swiss charged an army of spanish archibazires and lance connects who had dug in behind a sunken road and rampart when they came within reach the spanish shot inflicted significant losses on the swiss after some desperate attempts some of the swiss might adopt the rampart only to meet the landscapes the swiss were nearly annihilated and were forced to retreat let's switch perspective the landscapes had adopted the swiss pike squares just before 1500 and improved it significantly now the man with pikes made up more than 50 of a pike square and the square itself was stratified rows of pikemen alternated with melee fighters carrying two handers and short pole arms in comparison to the swiss the landscaping spikemen themselves held their weapons closer to the end so that the points of five or six men standing behind each other could all be placed in front of the first man in addition as reinhardt baumann an acknowledged expert on the lance connects notes quote from a famous lance connects leader apparently recognized the signs of the times the future belonged to firearms end quote not only did he recognize this but he also put it into practice and consequently increased the number of firearms in his units the first rank of elan's next regiment usually consisted of doppels armed with pikes the term doppel sultana which translates to double mercenary refers to a mercenary who gets double pay these were usually heavily armored veterans or fighters who bore more risk because they fought in the so called valorana halfen which in english is usually referred to as forlone hope this was a small band of men fighting under a blood red flag the fallen hope was basically a death squad consisting of criminals landscapes chosen by lot and volunteers which served to breach the enemy lines from about 1522 umber this was mainly done by the relatively loosely operating shot which tried to shoot gaps into the enemy formation to create an opportunity for the infantry to attack not their most famous but a very fitting example is the battle of giardiniola in 1503 there the landscapes and about 1 000 spanish archibaziers defeated a force of 9 000 swiss pikemen and french heavy cavalry when the swiss approached the spanish position they were first weakened by the archibaziers and then dealt the final blow by the landscapes geraniola is considered the first battle won with gunpowder in europe and with this we are entering the age of pike in short warfare one of the most famous pike and shot formations was the spanish tarzio it dominated the battlefields of europe up to the 30 years war the tertium was an answer to a puzzle of warfare pikemen on their own were vulnerable to shot units while archibazires alone could be ran over by cavalry very easily the solution was a symbiosis of both so that the archibaziers could shoot at an enemy infantry formation and step back into the cover of the pikeman if a cavalry charge was expected thus the idea of pike and shot was born the spanish were the first to put this into practice they soon created a military goliath described as quote exemplary for an era of military history end quote by the expert of early modern history michael sikora created in 1534 the tertio consisted of 10 companies eight of which were composed of 200 pikemen 100 archibazires and 20 musketeers two companies were composed of exclusively shot units so in an ideal scenario etertio was about 2 500 to 3 000 men strong in battle the formation had a core of about 2 000 melee fighters the gunman were arranged on either side of them in so-called garrisons and four additional sleeves these consisted of 100 to 400 gunman and a handful of pikemen and helmeteers each over time the overall number of pikemen and shot increased at the cost of other melee fighters these smaller and more flexible squares allowed and asked for more elaborate forms of tactical deployment an army was no longer simply organized in vanguard main body and rearguard but in a checkered pattern the so-called spanish brigade a simple brigade consisted of four tertiles a double brigade consisted of either seven or eight the fragmentation of the army meant that the battle wasn't lost if one unit broke or was exhausted for around a hundred years the target dominated the battlefields of europe even beyond that it remained a force to be reckoned with but already in the late 16th century a new challenger entered the stage detertio met its new challenger on the infamous fields of flanders there the spanish faced the reformed army of the united provinces of the netherlands who had risen to fight for independence from their spanish overlord who wanted to impose catholicism on them in the battle of newport in 1600 the dutch and their allies among them to pick up on what we said earlier some scottish and swiss regiments awaited the spanish in a strong position on the top of a stretch of dunes the spanish advanced towards them and after a long struggle they made it to the top of the dunes where they routed the defending english regiments stationed there but then the tides turned and a series of counter-attacks and cavalry charges finally made the spanish infantry lines crumble soon they were disordered and fled the field this dutch victory was owed at least in part to the reforms maurice of nassau and his cousin were implementing in the dutch army the goal of these reforms was to be able to cope with the spanish tarzios in search for a more flexible tactic these military reformers were inspired by the roman manipular tactic they hoped to reproduce what the romans had achieved against the greek phalanx nearly 2 000 years ago defeating a mast formation by making their own formation more agile they deployed their man in so-called battalions each divided in five blocks of pikeman forming the center and three blocks of shot on either side this way they had smaller more flexible compartments each consisting of one arm only additionally they exploited the defensive potential of shot units this way the pikeman's only task was to protect the shot the depth of the formation could be reduced in favor of a widened front which in turn allowed to improve firepower the pikeman formed a wall behind which both cavalry and shot could seek cover there's a german saying of the time that goes quote in battle array the most reliable help one can seek besides god are the doppler sultana i.e the heavily armed pikeman as an additional innovation the dutch musketeers adapted and refined the so-called counter-march in the dutch variation of the counter-marge the first line fired then went back to the rear of the formation to reload while the second row was stepping forward and shot with a depth of ten men the first straw had reloaded by the time they were at the front again this way a dodge formation could shoot constantly in order for this formation to be effective two conditions had to be met firstly there had to be professional commanders and secondly regular drill every move was to be right even under the pressure of battle nevertheless battles were not too common because of the high stakes of losing a field battle and the high losses firearms brought along the dutch avoided battle whenever they could and instead specialized in sieges [Music] just after 1600 the dutch military reforms were brought to sweden by one of the original reformers john vii of nassau segen there it was further developed by the famous swedish king gustavus adolphus he further increased the number of shot contingents in his army and had his men drill so much that they were soon able to put up continuous fire even if they stood only six ranks deep the new formation the swedish brigade was arguably a blend of the dutch battalion and duterte which neatly combined the advantages of both in this new swedish formation the function of the pikemen was to defend the musketeers and if necessary slowly advance together with the musketeers and fight other formations in melee however it's controversial how effective pikemen really were whilst on the offensive the famous german writer hans jakob christoffel from kimmel's hausen commented on the pikeman of his time ironically quote and i think he who kills a pikeman whom he could have spared murders an innocent man i have seen many harsh events in my days but rarely have i seen a pikeman killing anyone end quote the swedish army demonstrated that it had successfully refined pike and short warfare in several battles most prominently at breitenfeld in 1631 and lutsen in 1632 the systems of the dutch and swedes foreshadowed the more linear formations of the 18th century in which the pike was replaced with bayonets the bayonet replaced the pike's defensive function on the battlefield with that the pike and shot age ended and therefore this video thank you for watching and please consider supporting us on patreon [Music]

Channel: SandRhoman History

Views: 306,687

Keywords: history, phalanx, tercio, pike square, pike and shot, pike and shot warfare, schiltron, scottish schiltron, maurice of nassau reform, dutch military reform, spanish tercio, swiss pike square, swiss pikemen, swiss mercenary, roman legion vs phalanx, legion vs phalanx, landsknecht, landsknechts, gustavus adolphus, swedish brigade, dutch battalion, macedonian phalanx, phalanx vs legion, roman legion, ancient phalanx, battle of leuctra, battle of gaugamela

Id: G2r-vXVqCIs

Length: 23min 16sec (1396 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 06 2022