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Early I4th century French manuscript. The horsemen on the right have the latest form of conical great helms, perhaps with hinged visors, while one hasplatedgreaves on his legs. The crossbowman on the far left has a perhaps fanciful scalę cuirass over his mail hauberk. Both crossbowmen have spanning hooks on their belts. (Ms. <4245, f.254r, Bib. Royale, Brussels)

‘Histoire du Bon Roi Alexandre’, Frcnch c.ijoo. Here the horsemen wcar conical grea t helms with movcable cisors, while the leading Ggure also has grcaves. (Ms. 11040, fj6v, Bib. Royale, Brussels)

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shaft, perhaps designed to injure horses as much as their riders. It was clearly very cheap and was available to anyone; those madę in Gent in 1304 cost only one-tenth of a shield, which was itself among the cheapest items of eąuipment.

Among missile weapons, various forms of javelin such as the agier were still recorded in the late 1 ith century, while the simple hand bow was never abandoned. Of far greater importance was the cross-bow. This had survived as a hunting weapon in many corners of Western Europę, particularly around the

Mediterranean, after the fali of the Roman Empire. Crossbows may have been used in defence of Senlis in AD 947, and there were almost certainly crossbowmen with William the Conqueror’s Army at Hastings in 1066. Mounted crossbowmen formed a highly mobile elite in various early i3th century French armies, and by the early i4th century they were as important in open warfare as they had long been in sieges. Other bulkier siege engines could also be used in the open against a static foe, as the French did against immobile Flemish infantry at the battle of Mons-en-Pevele in 1304. The terrifying espringal, which shot a massive bolt or arrow, was also used by the French aboard Meuse river-craft that same year.

Further reading

E. Audouin, Essai sur L’Armee Royale au Temps de Philippe Augustę (1913).

T. N. Bisson, Medieval France and her Pyrenean Neighbours (1989).

M. Bloch (trans. L. A. Manyon), Feudal Society (1961).

P. Contamine (trans. M. Jones), War in the Middle Ages(i 984).

G. Duby, Hommes et Structures du Moyen Age: Recueil d’articles (1973).

Funck-Brentano, Feodalite et Chevalerie (1946).

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