w25

and infantry during the llth and 12th centnries. But the static, spcar-anned infantry militias were themselves threatened by tlte crossbow sińce they provided an even easier target than the cavalry. To survive, communal militias had to change. The result was the adoplion of tlie crossbow as a key weapon, and the creation of the new force of f)ovesari, who shielded the crossbowmen as they reloaded, and provided a base from which light infantry and cavalry could launch their charges. Almost identical tactics had already been adopted in tlie Middle East to deal with the threat posed by mounted archers armed with composite bows.

Italian cities were in a good position to be able to take fuli advantage of the crossbow’s potential. Most were wealthy, their arms-manufacturing facilities were well established, and levels of political sophistication were high. The crucial factor above all though was that military discipline was built upon existing bonds of communal loyalty. The division of cities into quarters or wards for militia recruitment facilitated the establishment of a military framework: the number of such quarters varied from city to city but they remained a fundamental feature of medieval Italian urban life.

The Piazza del Duomo in the Tuscan hilltop town of San Gimignano, showing the Torri dei Salvucci. (Author’s photograph)

Italian militias reached a peak in the 13th cen tury, after which their discipline was eroded by diverging interests of the rich and the less pros-perous, and between emplo\ er and employee. Militia senice became les prevalent in sonie northern cities in the first half of the 13th centurv, bu in Tuscany it remained the norm umil well into the 14th century. Meanwhile other factors were also at work. During the First half of the 13th century freebooting and ‘Crusader’ armies campaigned across much of Italy. Several included large numbers of so-called ‘Saracens’ from Lucera. This extraordinary ghetto of Italian Muslims, forcibly trans-ferred from Sicily in the 13th century, survived by sen ing as soldiers for whichever ruler offered them protection. They included cavalry but were most often employed as light infantry armed with composite bows and crossbows. Their offensive infantry tactics had a remarkable

influence upon Italian infantry militias and, through them, on the whole development of medieval European infantry warfare in the 13th and 14th centuries. One thing urban militias could not reproduce was the Lucera ‘Saracens’ skill with the composite handbow. Nevertheless, militias were expected to be proficient in the use of weapons, be they armoured cavalry, light cavalry, pavesari mantlet-bearers, scuderi ‘smali shield’ infantry, balestieri crossbowmen, or the increasingly common mounted crossbowmen.