"… at last the riders got tired …"
First Book of Maccabees 10:81
Military affairs at the turn of the eras. We continue our story about the warriors of the era of transition from feudal relations to market, "capitalist", because, as it turned out, this particular era is almost as interesting as the era of the classical knights. Time has accelerated its run, "shrank", changes began to occur faster, it became easier to track them. This is the first circumstance. The second is obviously related to the first: technology has improved, the productivity of enterprises producing weapons has also increased, as the mining industry has developed, which means there is more metal. And more metal - more armor and at a lower price, that is, it became possible to wear them now for many people, and not two or three, the richest, as it was before.
True, the solution of some problems, as always, gave rise to others. So, Henry VIII, having replenished his guard with a detachment of 50 nobles in full knightly armor, riding "armored" horses, could not afford to increase its number due to … lack of appropriate horses. That is, they had armor (and money for it!). But there were no horses. Well, it just wasn't. By the way, these riders also represented something like an "ordinance company", because each of them was accompanied by other riders: a horse archer, a rider in light armor with a light spear, and a servant who took care of all three.
This detachment took part in the famous Battle of Gunegayte (on "VO" about this battle it was told) in 1513, but in 1539 it was completely reorganized as too expensive. In order to somehow raise the fighting efficiency of the army, the king even issued a law according to which every Englishman, having an income of 100 pounds a year, must also have a horse suitable for army service. Moreover, it was ordered that every man whose wife wears a velveteen skirt or a silk petticoat, outside of his income (that is, in excess of these very 100 pounds!) Would necessarily also contain a war horse. They say that there is money for the wife's extravagance, so if you please think about the Motherland.
By the way, let us note that not all people who visit museums and admire the knightly armor exhibited there are aware that they are looking at the armor that is not at all knightly! It does not even occur to them that very few genuine knightly armor have survived. And then this is an armor dating back to the middle of the 15th century, and the earlier ones are practically gone. What is exhibited in museums is basically the armor of the transition period: tournament, ceremonial and combat, but again, this is either the armor of ordinary soldier-at-arms, who have nothing to do with knights, or the armor of "knights" (feudal lords), who served these mercenaries … as commanders. That is, very often it is either serial armor of mass production, or more rare, but also quite common armor of commanders, made to order. It is clear that there was also the armor of kings and courtiers. But the bulk is relative to the armor of the mercenaries! And they ended up in museums precisely because there were a lot of them.
Let us recall, for example, the arsenal in the Austrian city of Graz. There were just one or two pieces of armor made to order and impressive in its decoration, but there were thousands (!) Of armor of ordinary horsemen and infantrymen! By the way, the scale of production of such armor is evidenced by the example cited by the English historians D. Edge and D. Paddock, who report that in 1512 the same indefatigable Henry VIII bought 2000 sets of lightweight armor only in Florence (16 shillings per set), and a year later another 5000 in Milan. In 1539, 1,200 pieces of armor were purchased at Colony and 2,700 at Antwerp, although the latter were of poor quality and were only used by the infantry.
And here is almost completely an analogue of the cuirassier armor depicted on it from the Armory of Dresden. They were made by the gunsmith Christian Müller from Dresden, circa 1640. Material - blackened iron, brass rivet heads, leather straps, velvet lining. Height 175 cm, weight 23, 07 kg. It is known about the armor that the Saxon Elector Johann Georg II bought it from the gunsmith Christian Müller, and he made an order for 50 such armor, that is, for a whole detachment. This is cuirassier armor, but of improved quality, which could be worn by generals and princes. True, it is not known whether Elector Johann George II himself wore it. The decor of this relatively simple work consists of brass rivet heads.
However, such purchases for the treasury still turned out to be costly. And in 1558 it was decided that the army should be supported by the population itself. Now every Briton with an annual income of £ 1,000 or more was required to buy six horses for riders in three-quarter armor, ten horses for light cavalry, and complete with harness and armor. For the infantry, it was necessary to buy 40 cuirasses with legguards and helmets, that is, equipment for pikemen and arquebusiers, 40 lightweight armor of the "German model" (?), 40 pikes, 30 bows with a bundle of 24 arrows, 30 light helmets, 20 copies of "bill "(" Bull tongue "), 20 arquebus and 20 morions - that is, a whole arsenal. Well, those who had less income, say 5 or 10 pounds, still had to fork out. They were required to buy one halberd or one bill, one bow and arrow, one light armor and a helmet. Naturally, the purchases of all these weapons have become massive, which means that their production has also become massive. In addition, it was also standardized, although wealthy people still preferred to order armor.
However, the price of custom-made armor was still very high. For example, in 1612, Henry, Prince of Wales, ordered cuirassier armor for himself and paid £ 340 for it. By the way, a pair of cuirassier pistols with wheel locks at that time in England cost 2 pounds 16 shillings.
During a discussion of one of the materials about cuirassiers on the pages of "VO", the question arose about how long the spear was used by the plate riders of the transitional period. And whether it was used along with a pistol. Or the pistols were separately, and the spearmen were separately. To begin with, France was ahead of all of Europe in the issue of refusing to use the spear. Here, in 1604, the use of the spear was officially prohibited by decree of King Henry IV. But in other countries, it was used both before this time and after.
However, in the plate cavalry, they were actively used in the 16th century. In fact, the Ordonance companies that existed before have survived into this century, but their composition and weapons have changed in response to the challenges of the time.
It is known that foot tournaments were held in 1606, 1613, 1614, 1615, 1622, 1630, 1650, 1652, 1662, 1667 and 1679. The helmets impress with their compact, closed shape, which is due to the nature of the tournament, in which the fighters had to withstand blows mainly to the head. They have been listed since 1688 with all accessories including helmets and tournament swords. But despite the numerous information about these foot tournaments, the only thing that was known about these four suits of armor was that they were acquired on behalf of the then Prince-Elector Johann George II. In 1650, they entered the armory for storage. Until now, there are no references to the manufacturer of these unusual products.
So, in 1522, Charles V approved the composition of the mounted gendarmes in the amount of eight detachments, 50 copies each. In 1545, their number increased to 19, but then, in 1547, it again decreased to 15. True, this was the number of peacetime. During the war, the number of such units grew rapidly, which is why they were called "growing". The spear of the ordinance company in 1545 included one gendarme on horseback in horse armor, a squire with the same spear as the gendarme, but in a cuirass riveted from stripes, a page - in a morion helmet and with a light spear-ginette, then another one soldier in a cuirass and again with a knight's spear, but on horseback already without armor, and three spearmen in bourguignot helmets, chain mail capes and with pistols in holsters at the saddle.
In 1572, the horsemen of these Ordinance companies received even more monotonous weapons: a morion helmet or cabasset (the commanders still wore an armé), full plate cover for the arms, a cuirass made of plates on the chest and back, over which they also wore "spaced armor" optional bulletproof bib; and knee-length plate legguards. Over the armor, it became fashionable to wear the so-called "footman's jacket" with sleeves tied at the back. Horse armor has already been abandoned. But in addition to the spear, these riders already had two pistols in holsters. The spears themselves became much lighter, so the lance hook on the cuirass of this time was no longer attached.
References
1. Norman, A. V. B., Pottinger, D. Warrior to soldier 449-1660. A brief introduction to the history of British warfare. UK. L.: Weidenfild and Nicolson Limited, 1966.
2. Richardson, T. The Armor and Arms of Henry VIII. UK, Leeds. Royal Armories Museum. The Trusteers of Armories, 2002.
3. The Cavalry // Edited by J. Lawford // Indianopolis, New York: The Bobbs Merril Company, 1976.
4. Young, P. The English Civil War // Edited by J. Lawford // Indianopolis, New York: The Bobbs Merril Company, 1976.
5. Williams, A., De Reuk, A. The Royal Armory at Greenwich 1515-1649: a history of its technology. UK, Leeds. Royal Armories Pub., 1995.
