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ABOVE 14th century bombard from Lisieux Castle.

BELOW Late 14th century \/euglaire with a separate breech, found in Lisieux Castle.

(Both in the Historical Museum, Rouen)

fight, the knightly etlios was still that of a horseman, and in fact the proportion of cavalry in French armies was increasing.

The campaigns still consisted largely of raids by land and sea, sieges and skirmishes in which archers and crossbowmen often took only a minor part. Battles were now on a very smali scalę, though a number of successes had a huge impact on French morale. Most actions were dominated by dismounted but fully armoured men-at-arms fighting with shortened spears and axes. Other battles focussed upon the control of strategie river crossings, or occurred when smali mobile French forces attacked the rear of English columns at night, or when the garrison of a castle attempted to destroy a besieger’s encampment.

Similar French tactics were seen at the battle of Roosebeke in 1382, which involved much larger forces - perhaps 50,000 on each side. Here rebels from Gent largely consisted of infantry militias, while the French faced them with dismounted men-at-arms and other infantry plus cavalry on the flanks. Believing that an all-out assault was their only hope, the Gent rebels launched a massive attack; but the French linę held and the cavalry swung around to envelop the enemy, who were virtually wiped out.

Morę typical, however, were devastating English cheuauchee raids across much of France. These were launched not only for their immediate rewards, but in the hope of drawing the French into the open battles which the French king and his commanders wanted to avoid. In fact the French garrisons generally resisted English taunts, but for the common people these chexuiuche.es remained a nightmare. A song from the so-called Bayeux Chansonnier complained: ‘In the Duchy of Normandy there is so much pillage that there one cannol have plenty. May God grant that the country of Normandy know peace. ’

The French solution: positional warfare

In the middle years of the 14th century the development of gunpowder artillery had not yet reached a stage giving attackers the automatic advantage in siege warfare; and guns could also be mounted in fortified places to return the attackers’ fire. In response to English armies’ relatiye domination of open field fighting the French king ordered an inventory of all fortified places in 1358 and 1367.

At the bottom end of the scalę were the fortified churches which were particularly common in Southern and western France. Other defences included fortalesium fortified yillages, hostal or valat fortified houses, and pals which appear to have been linked houses or walls around a settlement. Similar terminology was used in the 15th century when a castrum could rangę from a proper castle to a fortified church or house, a repayrium being a habitation in a naturally defensible site, a turris or

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