In the wake of the collapse of the Roman Empire, the Germanic tribes warred with each other nearly constantly. By the 6th century the Franks had arisen as the dominant power in central Europe, under the kings of the Merovingian Dynasty. The reason for Frankish dominance is still disputed, but it is said by the chronicler Gregory of Tours of the area known as Francia that “its physical constitution so admirably conduces to unity, that even the most unreasonable parceling of its territory failed to bring about Frankish disruption.” Christianity was also a unifying factor.
Reasonably flat terrain is a requirement for developing a strong cavalry, and over the next four centuries that would be precisely what the Franks would do. They would also embrace Christianity and develop feudalism.
From Infantry To Cavalry
In the years following the Roman Empire’s demise the Frankish military was almost wholly Germanic in nature. They fought mostly on foot in the traditional shieldwalls of the Germanic peoples. They were mustered in the form of a Heriban, or militia summoned on occasion of necessity. However, there was an emphasis upon an individualized style of warfare rather than mutual cohesion, and battles of the period were won “by hard fighting rather than by skillful operations.”
The Frankish prince Theudebert had a bodyguard of mail-clad lancers rather than the traditional Teutonic heavy foot; Oman points to this as the beginning of the departure from the predominance of infantry; the demonstration of the superiority of cavalry by the defeat at Casilinium in 554CE (The Roman Cavalry flanked and destroyed the Frankish Infantry) being the catalyst for change.
A Martial Class
The other important development of the age was that of a military class; that is a class of men whose purpose in society was to fight. This is cited by Gregorius, who states:
“The Duke was originally a military leader, appointed to command a particular campaign, at the end of which he might be left without active employment; his function as governor was rather the exception than the rule, because dukes were usually appointed only to particular frontier regions where it was important to ensure the active co-operation of the local counts…”
This is a clearly medieval practice—that of the aristocrats being the main fighting men. According to David Nicolle, Frankish society had become agricultural and had a lower class which worked the land whilst the wealth derived from that land was used by the upper classes to pursue military endeavours Military equipment is, was, and always will be expensive, and only those who could afford the best had it. When the Carolingians began their royal hold on the kingdom of the Franks, this stratification developed further, until something that very closely resembled the medieval knight appeared on the battlefields of Europe.
Weapons And Tactics
Military equipment of the time had developed considerably—Nicolle states that the Carolingian cavalryman would be fully armored—full armor of the time being mail and a helmet—and that the weapons: Sword, shield, spear, axe, and bow and arrows, were somewhat standardized. The Frankish Duke of the time was also advised, but not expected, to bring extra wargear, so that he might arm additional cavalrymen or have extras to use for himself; Indeed the Domesticus Dodo, a supporter of Pepin, was wealthy enough to provide multiple complete panoplies to his cavalrymen.
The connection of the Frankish miles to his Roman roots might seem to be all but lost; this is not the case, however, as the tactics were very much inspired by Roman models. David Nicolle provides the example of the use of a heavy spear (though not yet a proper lance) for close combat, as Late Roman Cavalrymen had done, and the considerable use of javelins by Bretons and others. The cavalry were organized in tightly-formed squadrons known as cuneii, and used practiced charge-and-retreat attacks. This was adapted as well from the Lombards, whom the Franks conquered and absorbed as a military elite. On a whole the Franks had begun, by the ninth century, to “abandon their tradition of fighting exclusively on foot”, as Oman states.
Defeating The Magyars
The greatest test of the Carolingian cavalryman came in the 10th century when, after years of handily defeating their Viking and Saxon neighbors, a fierce race of invaders known to modern historians as the Magyars swept into Frankish territory. What separated them from the other enemies of the Carolingians was the fact that they too were superior horsemen. Thus, the tactics of the Carolingians had to change. This change, according to Nicolle, was an increased emphasis upon unit cohesion rather than upon individual fighting. This involved the organization of the cavalry into lines of battle, known as acies, which attacked cohesively in turn, one after the other, much like the coordinated attacks of the Byzantine Banda which so heavily influenced Feudal cavalry warfare. Eventually the Magyars were defeated and pushed back in spectacular fashion by Otto I of Germany -Then known as East Francia - at the battle of Lechfeld in 955.
Related Articles:
Church And State In The Early Middle Ages
The Barbarization Of The Roman Army
Sources:
Gregorius, Bishop of Tours, trans. Dalton, O.M. The History of the Franks. London: Oxford
University Press, 1927.
Oman, C.W.C. The Art Of War In The Middle Ages. Ithica, NY, Cornell University Press, 1953.
Nicolle, David. Carolingian Cavalryman AD 768-987. Oxford: Osprey Press, 2005.
Coss, Peter. The Knight In Medieval England 1000-1400. Pennsylvania: Combined Books, Inc,
1996.
Wise, Terence. Medieval Warfare. New York: Hastings House, 1976.
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