The cornerstone of French armies of the 100 Years War was the mounted knight.
Mounted on his sturdy warhorse, well protected with his armor (and early on, also a shield) the knight was an intimidating foe to face as he charged at you, and when a large army of several thousand knights assembled, standing in their way wasn't usually a good idea.
The French of this era were also very class-oriented, which bought an unhealthy amount of snobbery to their battlefield tactics. The knights were generally of noble birth - peasants simply couldn't afford a horse, much less armor and quality weapons.
Their "elitism" demanded that they occupy the first line of battle, with the "lesser" ranks of society forming up behind, and following up to clean up any remaining resistance.
Against armies that were intimidated by the sight of the knights, this worked well. But the English longbow men proved equal to the challenge.
Their arrows were able to penetrate the French armor, and the inability of the French to alter their tactics to counter the power of this weapon meant that in battle after battle, thousands of French nobles died pointlessly in stupid frontal attacks, when perhaps a more considered approach, and better use of the "less noble" archers and infantrymen, might have yielded a result.
No comments:
Post a Comment