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‘Davidand Goliath’, La Charitć Psalter, Loire region, late I2th century. Goliath wears the old-fashioncd cąuipmcnt oftcn giycn to ‘infidels'in medieval manuscripts,

though such short-hemmcd, short-sleeyed mailhauberks would also ha vc been issued to sergeants. (Ms. Harl. 2895, f-5iv, Brit. Lib., London)

the towns for troops. In 1253 nine towns of the Massif Central region provided over 3,000 sergeants. Half a century later most wealthy citizens payed to be exempted service, this money being used to hire professionals who were probably morę useful. Dur-ing a military emergency of 1303-4 the crown tried to turn payment for exemption into a regular tax from both nobles and commoners, only serfs being exempted, but this caused widespread resentment and was cancelled ten years later. Nevertheless there was a thorough reorganisation under King Philip V in 1317, with the old ‘rear vassals’ being drawn back into the system. Each town or province was again respo-nsible for providing men, eąuipment and leaders, all to be placed under regional commanders approved by the king. The most detailed information about the organisation of such militias comes from Flanders and its neighbours. Here late i3th century militias were generally organised around craft guilds, each providing ‘constabularies’ of both fighting men and servants led by their own commanders and eąuipped at the guild’s expense. The richest citizens fought as cavalry but the majority, of course, still served on foot.

Early militias, while enforcing the nth century Peace of God, acted in the king’s name though often being led by local abbots. The growing wealth of some i2th century towns enabled their militias to be well eąuipped, but citizen soldiers remained part-timers with little training who generally needed the support of knights or mercenaries. Yet their morale was often good. In 1177 the peasants of the Laon region rosę against a bishop who was their lord. They summoned the militias of Crepi, Vaili and other communes to their aid, while the bishop summoned those of Laon town, Soissons and the Abbey of St. Medard together with his feudal forces. A brief battle took place near the little River Ailette, but the peasant militias had taken up a position on a grassy plain with their flanks open to cavalry attack and as a result were ąuickly beaten.

Nevertheless militias were probably morę effect-ive than the aristocratic chroniclers would have us believe. Not only could they defend fortified walls, but at the battle of Bouvines in 1214 they were arrayed under their own banners directly in front of the king, forming a defensive błock around which the cavalry could manoeutre. We also know that the opposing Imperial infantry, including Flemings and Branęones, had pikes longer than French cavalry lances, while others had hooked spears to puli French horsemen from their saddles. Most operations out-side their own walls seem, however, to have been ‘police’ duties. In 1233 19 communes successfully put down a rebellion in the Beauvais area. The Flemish uprising in the early i4th century was largely hased upon militia forces, and their staggering

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