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Ul Tttttzt Ituln li mirrf. lup ipfc bntehu \ \\    W tt.~ii*utr*j; cAuh’- fA£|. Sramf-V •

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‘Agitator’, Burgundian manuscript of c. iooo. Though he still carries a round shicld, this warrior also has a mail hauberk

and an advanced forward-tilted form of segmented helmet. (Ms. 448, f.68v, Bib. Munic., Dijon)

of the French military elite were no w focused on petty internal sąuabbles and external adventures like the Norman conąuest of England. Nevertheless, the population and economy both expanded, although it was not until the 12th century that the crown rebuilt its power-base. It was against this background that the Peace of God movement arose, traditionally beginning in AD 989 at Charroux and Narbonne in Southern France. Led by the Church and largely manned by common folk, these peace movements took over the crown’s peace-keeping role, gradually curbing the worst excesses of knights and nobles.

Warfare itself had not changed much, largely remaining a matter of sieges and brief campaigns by smali forces, with major battles being avoided wher-ever possible. Few people were involved and life for most went on uninterrupted. The knight, as an armoured cavalryman, appeared to dominate the scene, although this was an oversimplification. Yet the knight would soon be socially dominant, and was fast evolving into the idealised ‘Christian warrior’ whose violence was sanctioned by the Church— particularly if directed against non-Christians. Chiv-alrous behaviour to one’s foes may have been a popular ideał but in reality seems to have been rare, at least in the i2th century, when savagery, mutilation and the long imprisonment of captives were common.

THE ARMIESOF NORTHERN FRANCE

Most of the Carolingian nobility disappeared in the chaos of the 9th and ioth centuries, although some survived to merge with a new elite. The miles or knight was not yet a member of this class. The old Latin term miles first seems to have been used in its new sense of a feudal warrior in the late ioth century but, like the comparable terms passus and fideles, it only indicated military status. The milites themselves remained a lowly group of professional warriors, perhaps descended from Carolingian retainers, whose land holdings were often no greater than peasants’. By the early nth century the milites were

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