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Much of the heroism of the knightly elite was, in fact, focussed on tournaments and quixotic feats of arms rather than real battles. In 1369 Eustachę Deschamps complained thal ‘Soldiers destroy the country through pillage, all honour is gone, they like to be called gens d armes but they roam the country, destraying everything in their way, and the poor people are forced to flee before them. If the soldier manages to travel three leagues in a day he thinks he has done. well.’ By the close of the 14th century Deschamps was also complaining about the knights' lack of training, idleness, desire for good winę and fine clothes, and the fact that boys of ten to twelve were knighted long before they had earned such rank on the battlefield.

Hired companies

In generał, those men direcdy involved in the struggle against the English took a morę practical attitude towards warfare. Many swore ‘brotherhood of arms’ with various colleagues. These could be contracts of service or of mutual support, either for a specified period or for life, and sometimes included agreement to share both information and profits from ransoms. Several Brotherhoods might establish Alliances or chains of obligation, sometimes resulting in military compagnies of routiers with a corporate name and badge.

Such companies or routes might then be recruited by kttres de relenue, by which the king or his lieutenant ‘retained’ a captain with a specified con-tingent in return for a specific sum of money. But sińce a time limit was rarely mentioned in tliese contracts, the companies were generally free to go elsewltere after as little as two months’ seryice. This madę it difficult for

A 19th century facsimile of a tost wali painting from the Leugemeete in Gent. These illustrate units of the city’s militia, here armed with crossbows, ordinary bows, swords, and a pointed form of mace or club called a goedendag. Notę the uniform appearance of the clothing of this company. (Photo Studio Claerhout, Gent)

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