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Another carving from the Stadhuis in Leuven portrays a fully armoured knight riding down a group of foot soldiers, perhaps representing the Duke of Burgundy defeating rebels from Gent. (Author’s photo)

war of siege and coun-tersiege. At first, of course, the French were largely on the defensive, and here the ability of towns and castles to defy the English was of paramount importance. Fortunalely for France defence sdll held an advantage over offence in such warfare, and most major sieges were really intensified blockades. Here the main role of a defender’s stone-throwing engines was to destroy the besieger’s siege machines. During the defence of the castle of Bioule in 1346-47, for example, resistance was organised in a concentric manner: first the stone-throwing mangonels and cannon, then the larger ‘two-feet’ crossbows, then ordinary crossbowmen manning (he walls, and finally men dropping rocks on the enemy by    hancl.    On    those    occasions    when French forces were on

the    offensive    they,    like    the    English,    still relied on blockade,

polluting a water supply, filling a defensive ditch, then approaching the wali with mobile towers or sheds to protect their miners. While besieging La Roche Darien in 1347 Charles of Blois had trees and hedges felled and drainage ditches filled to deny cover for English archers should they attempt a sortie.

lndividual combat skills were also morę sophisticated than was once thought, and by the limę of the Hundred Years War a knight was no mere muscular thng relying solely on the strength of his sword-arm - nor did he indulge in the almost ritualised fencing seen in the 16th century. Instead his attitude towards close combat skills had much in common with modern commando training. Swordplay relied on both cut and thrust, while combat between horsemen armed with lances relied on what might be called the ‘psychological edge’. The natural human tendency to look away shortly before impact was fully recognised, as was the need for constant practice and the selection of weapons suited to an individual’s strength.

The middle years

During the second phase of the Hundred Years War the realities of warfare and the culture of chivalry clashed dramatically for the French noblesse. Whereas honour said that a challenge to battle should never be refused, recent bitter experience argued that it often should be. This led to tortured consciences and sleepless nights for many commanders. Though it was increasingly common for the men-at-arms to dismount to

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