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Two i3th century prick spurs, the upper one dating from the beginning of the century.

cavalry and infantry sectors, each of which had to give the appropriate mili tary service. At first these grants reverted to the king on the death of the owner but the need for settlers was so great by the early i2th century that the grants were madę hereditary.

The armoured cavalrymen thus raised were not knights, being of non-noble birth, and were termed caballeros uillanos. Frontier warfare consisted mainly of raids and the caballeros oillanos therefore adopted the Moorish style of hit-and-run fighting, riding on light horses and carrying light lances or javelins, which were thrown rather than used as shock weapons. Such light horse was ideał for the frontier warfare and formed the bulk of the Spanish cavalry arm, with a much smaller elite of the morę heavily armoured nobles.

Another important source of fighting men was the city militia, most ofwhom were only reąuired to defend their own walls in return for their grants. Although mainly an infantry force, any man wealthy enough to purchase a horse and armour was compelled to do so, and city militia therefore freąuently included a proportion of caballeros oillanos.

Municipal independence was also encouraged in Portugal from the mid 12th century, and from that datę onwards Portugal could field armies which consisted of nobles and their feudal retainers together with steady bodies of infantry formed from free men and led by their own elected captains.

Mercenary bands were also employed to supple-ment the limited manpower as the land held by the

Christians was increased in volume. The most famous of these bands was that led by El Gid, who eventually had a following of around 7000 men. Most bands were considerably smaller, and freąuently included a fair number of Moors.

Throughout our period the Christian armies of Iberia were hampered by the lack of manpower and the rivalry, freąuently leading to civil war, between the various kingdoms. Many of the contingents would march away from a muster if their leader did not like the plan of campaign, and a Spanish king could count himself lucky if nonę of his troops actually sided with the enemy!

THE BYZANTINE ARMY

Byzantium had been ‘crusading’ against Islam sińce the 8th century and was particularly engaged in fighting the Seljuk Turks during the 12th century to keep open the land routes to the Holy Land for the western crusaders. Smali groups of specialist troops and light cavalry also accompanied the armies of the ist Crusade to the Holy Land, but it was not until 1137 that the Byzantine army advanced to Antioch, to force the Christian prince to pay homage to the emperor. In 1138 a combined Frankish-Byzantine army forced the amir of Shaizar to yield. The Byzantine army again advanced to Antioch in 1142 and 1158, the second expedition culminating in a combined campaign with the Franks against the Saracens in 1159. Byzantine forces also advanced to assist Tripoli against the Saracens in 1163 and 1164, and in 1168 the navy supported the Franks’ invasion of Egypt. This was the last action of the crusades in which the Byzantines directly assisted the crusaders.

By the time of the ist Crusade the ąuality of the Byzantine army had declined considerably and it was now mainly composed of mercenaries: Turks for the light cavalry; Franks and Normans for the heavy cavalry and therefore not used on the crusader front; Russians and Norsemen for the infantry; and Anglo-Saxons and Danes for the Varangian Guard. Nevertheless, the Byzantine army remained a formidable force, possibly the most highly organized army of the period, and it is worth looking at the basie military system which was to keep the Byzantine empire alive for another 400 years.