All historical ages are subject to popular misunderstanding, false prejudices and ignorance. However, perhaps none suffer quite as much in this regard as the Middle Ages. A lot of this is due to the perpetuation of various Enlightenment-era myths which took hold in the public consciousness and have proved difficult to dislodge. Hence we have a lot of bizarre and wildly inaccurate ideas about Medieval Europe such as it being altogether poor, backwards, tyrannical etc.
Recently, however, I have been thinking about the Middle Ages for a couple of reasons. Firstly, I am working on a longer piece about the future of aristocracy in the 21st century which includes some consideration of evolving Medieval political and social structures. Secondly, I have once again been playing the old PC strategy game Medieval Total War (the original one). The game is a classic for good reason and in a future post I may explore some of the reasons why.
More specifically, there is a lot that can be learned from the Middle Ages. In searching for historical reference points people often mine the modern era (1500s onwards) as well as the classical world. The Medieval Era tends to be overlooked which is a shame because it really is a treasure trove.
Some time ago I became aware of Jean II le Maingre, also known as Boucicaut, a famous French knight from the late Middle Ages. I learned about him from a thread on Twitter talking about the physical training of knights. Before the modern era, physical training was almost exclusively linked in some way with training for war. Delving into this topic underlines just how phenomenally fit and muscular knights of the Middle Ages were. Excavations of the skeletons of Medieval knights have revealed physical structures akin to modern high-level rugby players. It is not hard to understand why. Armour and weapons were not at all light and battles could last for hours. Knights needed to be very strong and would have had significant muscular development. However, they also needed considerable stamina so would have certainly excelled in terms of cardiovascular fitness too.
Now, Boucicaut was no ordinary knight and seems to have had an almost fanatical obsession with making sure he was in superlative condition, as this account by contemporary historian Jean Froissart makes clear:
And now he began to test himself by jumping onto a courser in full armour. At other times he would run or hike for a long way on foot, to train himself not to get out of breath and to endure long efforts. At other times he would strike with an axe or hammer for a long time to be able to hold out well in armour, and so his arms and hands would endure striking for a long time, and train himself to nimbly lift his arms. By these means he trained himself so well that at that time you couldn't find another gentleman in equal physical condition. He would do a somersault armed in all his armour except his bascinet, and dance armed in a mail shirt…When he was at his lodgings he would never ceased to test himself with the other squires at throwing the lance or other tests of war.
So unwavering was he in the pursuit of arms that no hardship was too great; privations that would have seemed intolerable to others gave him great pleasure, for even in periods of respite, he could not take it easy. So instead, he would train himself to leap fully armed onto his horse’s back, or on other occasions he would go for long runs on foot, to increase his strength and resistance, or he would train for hours with a battle-axe or a hammer to harden himself to armour and to exercise his arms and hands, so that he could easily raise his arms when fully armed. Doing such exercises gave him a physique so strong that there was no other gentleman in his time who was so proficient – for he could do a somersault fully armed but for his bascinet, and he could dance equipped in a coat of mail.
Boucicaut was reportedly able to perform a number of impressive feats. Among them he could:
Leap fully armed onto his courser without using the stirrups.
Leap from the ground onto the shoulders of a tall man sitting on a large horse by grabbing the man’s sleeve in one hand.
Vault over a horse holding its mane, by placing one hand on the saddlebow and the other between its ears.
Climb up between two walls an arm’s width apart, just by using his hands and feet.
Climb to the top of the underside of a ladder placed against a wall, in a full coat of mail, using only his hands.
‘Functional fitness’ has become a bit of a meme these days but in Boucicaut’s day it could be the difference between life and death. And in a career like his, death was a constant companion. He had considerable and varied combat experience. Among other adventures, he fought with the Teutonic Order in the Baltic against the pagan Lithuanians. He travelled through the Near East, including the Holy Land, as well as the Balkans. In 1396 he participated in the Crusade against the Turks where he was taken prisoner but escaped execution and was ransomed instead. Because of his military exploits he was named Marshal of France. His final action came at the Battle of Agincourt in 1415 where he commanded the French vanguard. However, he was captured by the English who took him prisoner and he lived out his days in Yorkshire before dying in 1421.
Outside his military adventures he garnered a reputation as the living embodiment of chivalric ideals. In 1390, he and two other knights organised the tournament of St-Inglevert. In this realm of sporting combat he was remarkably successful and apparently unhorsed three of his eighteen opponents. He also founded the chivalric order Dame Blanche à l’Écu Vert (White Lady of the Green Shield) which aimed to support and defend female relatives of absent knights.
Boucicaut’s life and career gives an interesting insight into late Medieval knighthood and warfare.1 Politically, the Middle Ages were marked by a very decentralised system even in those states which reached nation-statehood relatively early, such as England and France. Feudalism was based on reciprocal rights and responsibilities. Kings had nowhere near as much power as their Early Modern successors in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. The aristocracy had not yet enlarged to incorporate non-fighting men. Society was divided according to the three estates—those who prayed, those who fought and those who worked. Thus war was the profession of the knight and life was spent training and preparing for war.
Consequently, the name of the computer game aside, actual Medieval war was not total. The mass of the population was not incorporated into the general war effort and command economies did not exist. Generally, war was a matter for professionals and was supposed to be conducted according to ideals of chivalry which did a lot to curb the worst excesses of human nature.
That said, the very nature of warfare for most of the Middle Ages played a major role in the shape of society at the time. Fighting on horseback gave the knight a superior martial and social position to those who merely fought on foot. Noble lives were characterised by a kind of aristocratic individualism which bled over into warfare in a way reminiscent of the sort of warfare Homer described in the Iliad. The pursuit of glory led to acts of astonishing bravery and recklessness as well as adding a certain flair to combat.
Nothing manmade lasts for ever though and in time there were important technological and strategic developments which blunted the advantages enjoyed by knights in combat and served to democratise war. The emergence of pikemen units in the fourteenth century and perfected by the Swiss was one such advance, providing a porcupine-like defence which often proved highly costly for those attacking on horseback. Greater attention to coherent battlefield manoeuvres and discipline provided less space for martial individualism and those who opted to continue fighting along the old lines could find themselves extremely vulnerable such as the bulk of French knights at Agincourt in 1415.
Then there were the advances made with gun technology. Although various forms of guns had existed for a while during the Middle Ages, improved accuracy would eventually give the bearer an edge over swords and lances.
Heraclitus famously said that “War is the father of all things”. Often, the technological changes that take place as powers attempt to obtain strategic advantages prove to be instrumental in reshaping societies themselves. This, in addition to other important factors, was the case with the end of the Middle Ages. It has repeatedly been the case in modern times too. Sometimes the rate of change can be astonishing.
Image from pxhere.com
For more on Boucicaut see “The Training of a Medieval Knight”