How to Raise a Medieval Army DOCUMENTARY

pop cultural depictions of medieval or pseudo-medieval armies are extremely common in today's media these armies are often either shown marching dramatically to the battlefield or are already deployed on it in reality though these sorts of armies didn't just materialize out of thin air a small portion of media seem to understand this and provide at least a token explanation by having some general say the magic words that will do the trick call the banners summon the elect accounts master the rohirim but this is usually just a plot convenience that ignores much of the realities of ancient warfare in this video we will discuss what it really took to raise a medieval army if you'd like to manage your own medieval kingdom you can do so through our sponsor crusader kings 3. it's an incredible grand strategy game on the pc that lets you guide noble dynasties from realms across a massive historical map which stretches from iceland to india and from the arctic circle to central africa engage in politics diplomacy trade religion espionage and warfare as you reshape history knights peasant revolts pilgrimages viking raiders experience the drama and pageantry of the middle ages by clicking the link in the description below to get crusader kings 3. before we begin it must be stated that even our own in-depth video here will be filled with its own generalities and summarizations this is a consequence of the fact that the medieval period in the popular imagination covers hundreds of years of history and an incredibly large geographical area an army raised in the eastern roman empire in the 8th century would look and function very differently to a 15th century french royal army therefore this video is not intended to provide a complete understanding of how all medieval armies were raised and organized but rather to provide a simplified look at the dynamics and structural factors behind the assembly of a typical medieval army of western europe which is the basis of most media depictions so what is a typical medieval army well we can start to get a sense of things by looking at larger macro trends in military history in the preceding era europe had witnessed a gradual consolidation of power under the romans who eventually developed standing professional forces these legions were numerous well-equipped and well trained as a result of the vast pool of resources that could be leveraged to sustain them but as the roman empire fell into decline power once again began to fracture and revert to the local level this meant that military forces reverted from large bodies of professional standing troops to smaller groups of warriors organized around an individual aristocrats household or by local communities calling them more limited resources to provide for their own defense this structure of militaries lasted from the early medieval period to the late 15th and 16th centuries when the more powerful western european states developed the bureaucratic and financial apparatus necessary to raise and maintain larger professional standing forces thus the typical medieval army at this time would usually number in the low thousands or even hundreds this is in stark contrast to the massive forces from antiquity where an estimated one hundred thousand soldiers participated in the famed battle of canai as opposed to the medieval battle of agincourt which featured at most half that number however a more detailed discussion of this phenomenon will have to wait for another time as for the composition of this typical medieval army you would expect a core force made up of the armed household and retinue of the social elite these generally had the best gear and might be either on foot or on horseback bolstering their ranks would be non-aristocratic freeman who could be called up for service when the need arose their gear would vary greatly but was usually expected to at least meet some basic standards which were often tied to legal obligations for the maintenance of arms based on their socio-economic status and lastly would come the auxiliary forces such as foreign allies or hired mercenaries whose quality again would vary but it was probably at least high enough to warrant their inclusion in the army notably missing from this description are the holds of unwashed peasants with pitchforks you usually see depicted in pop culture this is because such peasants were of little military value and would have imposed a heavy logistical burden better to leave them in the fields where they could be productive some peasants however did fight either because their socio-economic status meant they were already subject to the levy obligations we previously mentioned all because they rallied for local defense as a militia that had been armed by the community all by a rich individual again however we are speaking in generalities here and these details would have varied by region and era with this in context let's now turn to the process of raising a medieval army our discussion will follow this chain of events one deciding to go to war two the call to arms 3. mustering the troops 4. deployment for battle as one might expect something would always prompt the decision to go to war whether or not it actually amounted to a valid casus belly it will therefore be useful for us to spend a little time talking about the nature of medieval warfare and what might trigger a large-scale conflict simply put warfare in the medieval period was quite common as with the army sizes however its scope was rather reduced compared to antiquity there was a far greater prevalence of low-level combat going on in the form of raiding and skirmishing than for instance the mast battles of hollywood for our purposes however we will be focused on the larger scale wars which did indeed occur but were simply more rare these conflicts could occur for all sorts of reasons but often boil down to the following issues territorial expansion often for control of valuable resources such as land which really is at the root of most conflicts political feuds often involving claims to the throne like the hundred years war holy wars like the crusades and reconquest like the byzantine campaigns of justinian so let's say that one of these wars was brewing how did the decision to pull the trigger come about well we must understand that going to war was no light undertaking most rulers viewed large-scale war as a significant risk both because of the great expense and the danger of defeat even attempts at raising armies that did not take the field could be ruinously expensive and crippling politically therefore the lead-up to war might take years or even decades to develop much of this time would have been spent marshaling the necessary resources and political capital for the undertaking despite the common view of kings as all-powerful dictatorial figures they existed in an era of decentralized power and often lacked the personal resources and authority to take on the war effort alone rulers therefore had to make compromises and deals with other powerful bodies within the realm and beyond to achieve their aims this negotiation process involved talks with aristocrats religious authorities diplomats bankers and consultative or legislative bodies such as the imperial diet of the holy roman empire or the parliament in england the amount of politicking and negotiation needed to solicit support for a war was often dependent on the type of conflict being thought and the stakeholders involved broadly speaking though defensive wars were simpler matters the logistical and financial burdens were relatively light and the threat to one's own community was a powerful motivator it's the offensive wars in foreign territory that were the real problem these required much greater logistical and financial preparation especially if they were conducted overseas for instance the debt accumulated by richard the lionheart during his many wars was massive and the ransom for his capture alone is estimated to have cost two to three times the annual income of the crown these financial hardships revealed the strained relationships between the king and his subjects and eventually contributed to the formation of the magna carta the hundred years war a few centuries later between france and england similarly led to political reforms as a result of the negotiations necessary to maintain the conflict but after months of preparation let's say the decision has finally been made to go to war what now well the next step was the call to arms this basically amounted to telling all relevant parties that it was go time generally an initial notice would be sent to key officials and aristocrats declaring the leader's intentions and justifying the decision to go to war with the necessary political messaging these would be delivered by couriers who traveled on foot on horseback by boat or by wing in the case of messenger birds one must imagine such a process taking at least a week or two to reach its intended recipients [Music] after the initial message an official summons will be issued to alert the crown's vassals and other important figures as to the specifics of their military obligations details would include a date and location for the army to muster these individuals would in turn send out messages to their own vassals and dependents the process would repeat until it had reached the local level usually through a system of public cry whereby heralds would write out to make announcements in village squares and marketplaces this call to arms required significant time not only to account for travel but also for provisions to be gathered equipment to be purchased or refurbished and contracts to be worked out for example when william the conqueror issued a call to arms in 1072 for the purposes of launching a campaign into scotland he gave his men eight weeks to assemble when henry v made his preparations for the famed agincourt campaign in 1415 his forces were largely raised through contracts of indenture which were formally issued in late april with an intended date of arrival within two months now that the word was out amongst the general public let's move on to talk about the response to the call to arms the mustering of the troops would have vary greatly by region and time period however we can provide some idea of what this looked like by applying this process to the typical medieval army we mentioned previously of these the quickest and most reliable to muster would be the retinue of the social elite and were already close at hand when the call to arms came in such troops were generally well well-equipped and trained forces of heavy cavalry infantry and archers and thus constituted an important part of a medieval army a king's personal retinue might number in the hundreds or even thousands of soldiers while lesser nobles further down the hierarchy might only be able to call on a handful of men retinues became increasingly professionalized over the course of the middle ages and would often be supplemented in times of war by subcontracting with smaller companies of professional soldiers in england these arrangements would be called contracts of indenture and would eventually be issued for the whole army in the late medieval period the next major group to muster would be the non-aristocratic freeman who assembled as part of a levy or militia unit these were quite common institutions especially in urban population centers most regions and cities across europe had some form of obligated military service for freeman and even required them to possess weaponry suitable for their level of income however these obligations were not intended as a general draft for military service in offensive field armies but rather as a tool for local defense and peacekeeping in 14th century france for example when the king made his call to arms in the face of an english invasion towns had to make a payment in money or bodies proportional to their wealth and size a well-off community for instance might have to supply one soldier for each 100 hearths while a poorer village only supplied one soldier for each 200 hearths rulers such as edward the first of england sometimes attempted to expand these obligations into a larger form of military service that would provide infantry for field armies but these groups were typically smaller finding troops eligible to serve in them was often difficult as the most capable soldiers had already found other employment the last major group to mention in our muster are the auxiliary forces these might have been made up of hired professional forces mercenaries and foreign allies the line between these groups can be hard to define given the many forms of military service in the medieval period generally though these types of soldiers might be acquired as part of political treaties and alliances or might be hired from groups of three companies as was the case in 14th century italy such forces could be quite efficient in mustering given the incentives of paid service but there might be a substantial lag time for negotiation and transport throughout the mustering period one can therefore expect all kinds of activity taking place small groups would assemble on the local level and proceed towards the main rally point gathering into larger groups along the way for the sake of organization discipline and mutual protection once at the muster point the commanders of a force would have to present themselves to a royal official to be officially counted and assigned a position in the army this was an important process as there was really no way of knowing exactly how many people would show up once registered at the muster soldiers would camp along with the larger host and wait for the assembly of forces to finish due to the amalgamated nature of medieval armies rulers attempted to maintain discipline by issuing ordinances that prohibited insults brawling and other conflicts that could disrupt the cohesion of the army this encampment would usually be located near a port or a border territory for easier movement once the army was finally on the march how the army moved to the area where they would fight was dependent on geography land wars were fairly straightforward and an army would often simply march there wars overseas were more complicated and required the use of naval transports as might be the case for an english expedition to the continent or armies going on crusade to the holy land however medieval states did not maintain large purpose-built navies and they would have to either impress merchant ships for military purposes or pay significant expenses to hire ships for transporting the army the logistic requirements of an army were enormous not only from the army itself but also from the large number of support personnel camp followers and animals that accompanied medieval armies war horses pack animals and livestock brought for food all required enormous quantities of forage themselves the efforts of medieval commanders to meet this logistical demand by requisitioning supplies and transport under royal authority often proved politically unpopular when embarking or in friendly territory medieval armies did their best to remain together and retain a sense of organization on campaign in enemy territories medieval armies tended to spread out to scout forage and raid small units as large as two or three hundred would break off from the main army to gather supplies and loot villages these raiding and foraging actions were extremely brutal for local civilians caught in the path of marching armies even when some rulers attempted to limit the damage that their armies inflicted for political purposes when the army was approaching its main target or a large enemy force it would once again reconsolidate and prepare for battle however discussions of this stage of medieval warfare will have to wait for another time we hope you've appreciated this in-depth look at how to raise a medieval army stay tuned for more exciting videos on ancient warfare but you can continue the fight with crusader kings 3 the grand strategy game puts you in charge of raising a medieval army summon the royal levy recruit powerful knights hire mercenaries and unleash them on your foes with raids and all-out wars check it out by using the link in the description below a huge thanks is owed to our supporters on patreon and the many talented researchers writers and artists who made this video possible be sure to like and subscribe for more history and check out the rest of our content you

Channel: Invicta

Views: 536,717

Rating: 4.9610419 out of 5

Keywords: medieval army, medieval warfare, how to raise a medieval army, hundred years war, crusader kings, crusader kings 3, crusader kings 3 gameplay, crusader kings 3 trailer, medieval documentary, medieval history, medieval army documentary, crusader kings iii, paradox interactive, viking army, kingdoms and warfare, kingdom of heaven, history documentary, lord of the rings, invicta, shadiversity, castle, muster the rohirrim, muster the rohirrim we ride for gondor, call the banners

Id: F2cm-rsDfjw

Length: 18min 43sec (1123 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 01 2020

Reddit Comments

[u/InvictaHistory]

A video covering the mechanics of raising a typical medieval army. This should be helpful for most D&D campaigns and in particular give some historical context for the upcoming Kingdoms and Warfare supplement.

Note: I made this video and have a YouTube channel about ancient history. However I've been a big fan of Matt's for a few years now and was able to make the leap to running my own campaign as a brand new DM thanks to him. I hope this video and some of my other content helps provide rich historical content to enrich your own D&D experiences.

[u/Darth_Valken]

Cool, didn´t know you were also a D&D fan (I know your channel from Total War). Really like the quality you put in your video's, absolute gems, each and every one. And thanks for sharing it here. You are right, this is very useful in the context of D&D and K&W

[u/ingo2020]

Wow!!! I used your video on Ancient Roman public courts/trials and made a session out of it when my players got caught red handed in some thievery.

[u/XltikilX]

Just watched your video, flip over to reddit and here you are. Great stuff that got me wondering how some of the logistics and such might change in your typical dnd world. Been following your channel for awhile, keep up the excellent work.

[u/WholesomeCommentOnly]

I COULD SMELL THE CK3 SPONSORSHIP! I KNEW IT!

[u/dandan_noodles]

I would tack on recommendations of John France, Western Warfare in the Age of the Crusades, 1000-1300 and Christopher Tyerman, How to Plan a Crusade: Reason and Religious War in the High Middle Ages for those interested in medieval warfare, along with the books mentioned in the video description.

[u/ShakeWeightMyDick]

The answer is press gangs.

[u/Ely_121299]

Wow, this was awesome; I’ll definitely keep this in mind if I’m running a war in my games. I wonder how magic and monsters would affect building an army.

[u/CptnAlex]

And subscribed. That was fascinating and well paced. Thanks for sharing.