influencing warfare by the 1380s, when they were used effectively against fortifications
and also on the battlefield. By 1400, no siege was free of their use, as they reduced
substantially the time needed to destroy walls. No longer was it necessary to rely on
starvation to force the capitulation of castles or towns. By the 1430s, hand-held
gunpowder weapons began to take their place among infantry contingents, changing the
face of battlefield engagements. By the Swiss and Burgundian wars of 1475–77, one third
of the infantry on each side was outfitted with handguns. These late-medieval changes
brought an end to feudal methods of warfare and encouraged the development of states
capable of financing mod-ern armies.
Kelly De Vries
[See also: ADMIRAL OF FRANCE; AGINCOURT; ARCHER/BOWMAN;
ARMOR AND WEAPONS; BOUVINES; BRIGAND/BRIGANDAGE; CASTLE;
CAVALRY; CHIVALRY; CONSTABLE OF FRANCE: COURTRAI; CRÉCY;
CROSSBOW; CRUSADES; FRANC-ARCHERS; HUNDRED YEARS’ WAR;
KINGHTHOOD; MARSHAL; MILITARY ARCHITECTURE; MURET; NAVAL
POWER; ORLÉANS CAMPAIGN; PRIVATE WAR; RANSOMS; RECONQUEST OF
FRANCE; SERGEANT; WARHORSE]
Allmand, Christopher T. The Hundred Years War: England and France at War c1300-c1450.
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Contamine, Philippe. Guerre, état et société à la fin du moyen âge: étude sur les armées des rois de
France, 1337 7–1494. Paris: Mouton, 1972.
——. War in the Middle Ages, trans. Michael Jones. New York: Blackwell, 1984.
Kaeuper, Richard W. War, Justice and Public Order: England and France in the Later Middle
Ages. Oxford: Clarendon, 1988.
Verbruggen, J.F. The Art of Warfare in Western Europe During the Middle Ages: From the Eighth
Century to 1340, trans. Sumner Willard and S.C.M.Southern. Amsterdam: North-Holland, 1977.
WARHORSE
. The warhorse (OFr. destrier) was the most important military equipment owned by a
medieval knight. The ownership of a horse not only indicated the knight’s military status,
but the expense of ownership and upkeep also established the knight’s status within
medieval feudal society. So important and expensive was the warhorse that often the
French king provided some compensation or reimbursement for one that was killed or
injured on the battlefield or in a tournament.
Although many barbarian tribes used the warhorse in the early Middle Ages, it was not
until the more frequent use of the stirrup, nailed horseshoe, and saddle with cantle (ca.
1100) and the establishment of heavy cavalry units that the horse became a dominant
force in medieval armies. From then until 1300, victory in nearly every French military
engagement was tied to the heavy cavalry and its tactical use of mounted shock combat.
Even after the infantry victories against the French cavalry at Courtrai, Crécy, Poitiers,
and Agincourt, the mounted knight remained the dominant part of the French army.
Off the battlefield, among the noble (or chivalric) class of Europe, the warhorse also
played an important role. A knight was expected to own not only his horses for military
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