Read The Age of Chivalry Online
Authors: Hywel Williams
The Age of Chivalry (44 page)
A
BOVE
The Siege of Orléans in 1428, shown here in a 15th-century illustration from
Les Vigiles de Charles VII,
was a major turning point in France's favor during the Hundred Years' War. The cannon used by the English were ineffective against the walls of Orléans
.
HE NEW ARTILLERY
Cannon using gunpowder to launch projectiles were first seen in European warfare during the
reconquista
in the 13th century, and the English used them at the Battle of Crécy in 1346. They initially had a poor rate of fire and were very cumbersome to deploy until one-handed cannon were developed. Nonetheless, the introduction of cannonry heralded the end of the siege as a method of warfare and would also play a decisive role in the development of naval warfareâa phenomenon that contributed in its own way to the displacement of cavalry and the diminution of knighthood. The galley propelled by oarsmen enjoyed a long dominance in medieval naval battles: missile fire would be exchanged and the combatant crews would then board the enemy's ships and fight on deck. Bulkier and sail-powered ships were then introduced, with cannon being mounted on their decks by the 15th century. Although here again the weaponry's bulk initially
counted against it, the subsequent development of anti-personnel, hand-held cannon proved highly effective at sea. But it was the introduction of the gun deckâcreated by the insertion of an opening in the ship's side and below the main deckâwhich really transformed naval warfare by
c
.1500.
R
IGHT
At the Battle of Sluys (1340) Philip VI's French fleet was destroyed by Edward III's naval force. England's command of the channel meant that the rest of the Hundred Years' War was fought on French soil. This late-15th-century illustration appeared in Jean de Wavrin's
Chronique d'Angleterre.
Monarchs with extensive revenue-raising powers could afford to buy the new artillery, and the nobility found it more difficult to wage war independently. A strong association with national identity, evident in the case of English and French monarchies from the 14th century onward, underpinned the public role of kings as enforcers of domestic authority and war-leaders. Patriotism's call to the drum therefore meant not just more taxes but also a greater willingness to pay the tax demand, since monarchs now associated their territorial and dynastic objectives with the “national interest.” Governments, especially in France and Spain, were now relying on paid and standing professional armies rather than occasional levies, and the improved weaponry led to more nobles being killed than in the past. During the Hussite wars, waged by the followers of Jan Huss against the nobility of Bohemia in the 1420s, fighting men in the lower ranks displayed great skill in outmaneuvering and slaughtering aristocratic
warriors. Earlier such military insurrections by the lower orders, such as England's Peasant Revolt (1381) and the Parisian
Jacquerie
led by Ãtienne Marcel in 1358, had been markedly ineffective by comparison.
MAZONS
The medieval female warriors who played an important role in military strategy and even as commanders in the field were mostly either aristocrats or of royal blood
.
Matilda of England (1102â67) was her father Henry I's sole legitimate heir to survive to adulthood. Following Stephen of Blois's seizure of the throne in 1135 she led a series of military campaigns in an attempt at securing the English Crown for herself. Matilda of Tuscany (1046â1115), who ruled the region in her own right as its countess, is a major figure in the military and diplomatic history of the Investiture crisis, since she was Pope Gregory VII's chief supporter in Italy. Medieval warfare's most famous female warrior, however, was of peasant stock. Jeanne d'Arc (
c
.1412â31) inspired the military engagements that led to the relief of the town of Orléans in 1429 and the subsequent capture of Rheimsâpreviously held by the Burgundian faction who were English allies during this late stage in the Hundred Years' War.
Gwenllian ap Gruffudd (
c
.1097â1136) was the daughter of Gruffudd ap Cynan (1055â1137), a dominant figure in Welsh politics and military strategy during his 62-year reign as prince of Gwynedd in north Wales. She married Gruffudd ap Rhys, ruler of the kingdom of Deheubarth, which extended across the southwest of Wales, and became the chatelaine at his castle in Dinefwr, near the town of Llandeilo. The royal house of Dinefwr, a cadet branch of the dynasty of Aberffraw that ruled Gwynedd, was already venerable by the time of Gwenllian's arrival at its court. Hywel Dda (“the Good”) (
c
.880â950) had expanded the early medieval kingdom of Dyfed to form Deheubarth in the 920s, and the codification of Welsh law in a single volume was achieved under his patronage in the 940s. By the early 12th century, however, Deheubarth was under sustained attack and Gruffudd ap Rhys, joined by his princess-consort, launched several retaliatory raids against the Norman, English and Flemish colonists who had established themselves within the kingdom. The years of “the Anarchy” during the reign (1135â54) of King Stephen of England were an opportunity to recover Deheubarth's authority. Gruffudd raised the banner of revolt, and in 1136 he traveled to Gwynedd where he debated terms of alliance with his wife's father. Norman raiding in Deheubarth continued in his absence, and Gwenllian raised an army that she then led into battle at a site near Cydweli. Although defeated, captured and then beheaded by the opposing Norman force, Gwenllian's action proved the catalyst for a major Welsh rebellion that spread to the south of Wales. The memory of her exploits inspired Welsh military commanders, and the highly successful campaigns led by her son Rhys ap Gruffudd (1132â97) against Henry II in 1164â70 made Deheubarth the dominant power in late-12th-century Wales.
The combination of social grievance with religious dissent, witnessed during the Hussite wars, recurred to explosive effect during the early 16th-century Protestant reformation. An idealized view of Christendom, and a belief in its unity, had been a defining feature of Europe's medieval civilization. But a world in which Protestants and Catholics killed each other also witnessed the progressive dissolution of the medieval world view, and the grave of “Christendom” is to be found in the battlefields of early modern Europe.
NDEX
Page numbers in
bold type
indicate main references to the various topics; those in
italic
refer to illustrations.
'Abd Allah
123
'Abd al-Rahman III
123
Abelard
90
Peter
203
Aberffraw dynasty
217
Abu al-Kasim
11
Acre, siege of
105
Adalberon, archbishop of Rheims
18
Adele of Champagne
21
Adelheid, Queen of Italy
10
Adhemar, Bishop of Le Puy
48
,
52
Aelred
30
Agilulf, king of the Lombards
200
Agincourt, Battle of
144
,
146
,
214
Alarcos, Battle of
176
Alaric
118
Albania
130
Albertus Magnus
89
Albigensian Crusade
110
â17
Aleppo
102
Alexander III, pope
69
Alexander III of Scotland
151
Alexius I Commensus, emperor of Greece
48
Alfonso I of Portugal
175
Alfonso II of Aragon
80
Alfonso II of the Asturias
172
Alfonso III of the Asturias
173
Alfonso VI of León
174
â5,
175
Alfonso V of Aragon and Sicily
135
Alfonso Henriques, prince
175
Alfred the Great, king of Wessex
26
Alhambra Decree
176
al-Idrisi, Muhammad
47
al-Mansur, Abu 'Amir
124
,
125
,
174
Almoravids
175
â6
Al-Nasir li-Din Allah
123
Alphonse of Toulouse
128
Amalric I, king
102
Amalric of Lusignan
107
Amazons
217
Anacletus II, pope
45
slap of
157
al-Andalus
120
â2,
172
,
174
,
175
,
176
Andalusian life
125
Andrew, prince of Naples
134
Anfortas
73
Anglo-Saxons
24
Anjou-Naples, house of
134
â5
Anno II, archbishop of Cologne
59
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury
28
â9,
90
Aquitaine
141
Aquitania
118
Arab influences in science and culture
88
â9
architecture
Arduin, margrave of Ivrea
13
Arianism
120
Arnold of Brescia
38
Arras, Treaty of
146
Arsuf
106
art
Ottonian legacy
14
â15
Arte dei Mercanti
164
Assisi
183
Assize of Clarendon
76
Assizes of Ariano
46
astrolabe
125
astrology
198
Ausculta fili
156
Averroism
206
Avignon and the Schism
152
â61
foreign exchange
159
Azaz, Battle of
100
Badby, John
186
Baldwin I of Jerusalem
100
Baldwin II of Jerusalem
108
Baldwin II of Constantinople
129
Baldwin III of Jerusalem
102
Baldwin IV of Jerusalem
102
â3
Baldwin V of Jerusalem
103