The Capetian monarchy in France gradually emerged from the fragmentation of the
Carolingian empire. The survival of the early Capetians depended on their military
capabilities, and some of them suffered serious reversals. Recruitment of soldiers
increasingly depended on feudal institutions in the 11th and 12th centuries, and the kings
sometimes could not muster sufficient troops. As they began to acquire more resources,
they began to supplement feudal troops with paid professionals. The king himself or a
designated noble lieutenant generally commanded these armies.
Mounted knights were still the core of the army. With improved weapons and armor
and mounted upon expen-sive warhorses, they usually decided the course of each battle,
fighting with couched lance in a tournament-like fashion. Most knights by the 13th
century were nobles supported by fiefs. Large battles were infrequent and those that were
fought often included only rudimentary tactical combinations.
While knights were the core of the army, the most numerous forces were still the
infantry. Levied from among the free men of the kingdom, these troops were armed much
less well than their mounted counterparts. While some were protected by a helmet, a
small shield, and a leather hauberk, infantry soldiers frequently served without armor.
Offensive infantry weapons included the spear, sword, lance, and pike, with little
standardization among these weapons. Archers also served in infantry contingents,
initially being equipped with short bows. In the course of the 12th century, these began to
be replaced with the more powerful crossbow.
In the Capetian period, the siege replaced the battle as the primary form of military
engagement. Though Charlemagne had effectively altered the standard of battlefield
fighting, he and his successors tended to neglect fortifications, leaving the empire
vulnerable to the raids of Vikings and Hungarians. In the 11th century, local rulers led in
the construction of fortifications, at first small earth and wood motte-and-bailey castles,
but soon larger and stronger structures of masonry. These more intricate and costly
fortifications provided valuable defenses. Although mining, sapping, and stone-throwing
engines were used against them, a castle or town with strong stone walls could generally
be reduced only by starvation.
In the late Middle Ages, five significant developments altered warfare. First, armies
fighting on foot began again to predominate. The stunning defeat of French knights by
Flemish infantry at Courtrai in 1302 showed that a strong unified infantry line could halt
the charge of cavalry. The Scots similarly defeated English knights at Bannockburn in
1314, and Swiss infantry defeated Austrian cavalry at Mortgarten in 1316. French cavalry
suffered serious defeats over the next century at the hands of English armies dominated
by footsoldiers and longbowmen. The second development was the continual fighting
that beset France between 1337 and 1453, the period misnamed the “Hundred Years’
War.” The long struggle exhausted the French military and required a stricter and often
less noble military bureaucracy. The emergence of routiers and condot-tieri, paid
mercenaries without feudal ties, weakened traditional military institutions. The third
factor was the Black Death of 1348–49, which significantly reduced the numbers
available to fight on the battlefield and defend French towns and castles. The fourth was
the advent of frequent and often violent popular rebellions by French peasants and
townspeople, the suppression of which required changes in military tactics.
Finally, warfare was changed by the advent and proliferation of missile weapons
employing gunpowder. Appearing initially in the early 14th century, they began
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