"… and the cavalry was divided into two parts."
First Book of Maccabees 9:11
Military affairs at the turn of the eras. It just so happened that in the Middle Ages, wars practically did not subside on the territory of Italy. But everyone was especially bothered by the endless wars between the Guelphs and the Ghibellines, that is, the papal throne and the emperor of the Holy Roman Empire. Naturally, the decline in people was enormous, so they began to hire mercenaries very early there (first of all, rich trading cities were engaged in this), dress them in knightly armor and send them into battle against the feudal nobility. And she, too, did not lag behind and tried to recruit mercenaries to fight in their place and their children.
Condottes and Condottiere
True, the first mercenaries were still not Italians, but Catalans, whose detachments were contracted to serve for a fee in Venice, Genoa, and Constantinople. Nevertheless, in Italy, the condottiere, that is, the commanders of the condotta, appeared already in 1379, when Alberico di Barbiano formed his "Company of St. George". The most interesting thing, however, is that from the very beginning the Italian condottieri tried to fight a "good war" as opposed to a "bad war" waged by the Germans and the Swiss. Those prisoners did not take (especially the Swiss, who simply slaughtered them like cattle!), Burned cities and villages, that is, they behaved like real barbarians. This is not what the Italian condottiers did. Since they recruited their troops with their own money, they resorted to war as such only as a last resort, and as far as possible did without shots. They were slow and careful, maneuvered a lot, and preferred negotiation and bribery to the brutality of a "bad war." In battles, sometimes there were not even wounded, or there were very few of them, and to lose a mercenary for a condottier at that time was the same as today for the Americans to lose an Abrams tank in some Iraq.
Condotta was headed by the captain, and the units included in it were "baners" (the same as the "banner") were commanded by "bannererius" ("bannermen"). Usually there were 25 "copies" in the "banyera", 20 of which were "squadron", and 10 - "ensign", under the command of the decurion. The Post included the last five “copies”. It was commanded by a corporal.
In turn, the Italian "spear" was smaller in number than the French and Burgundy. It consisted of a trio of warriors: an equestrian armored man, his page and a swordsman-ecuillet. Infantrymen were not included in the "spear" and in general there were few of them in the "Condotte". They were called "fanti" and from this word came the French word "phantassen", that is, "infantryman".
And it was precisely on the model of the Italian Condottes that Ordonance companies were subsequently created in France, Burgundy and Austria. Their number, as we already know, was greater than that of the Italians. With this, the European monarchs tried to compensate for the worse training than the Italians, who drew their military experience from the treatises of the ancient Greeks and Romans and which only later became available to other European peoples.
The cavalry is divided into parts …
It should be noted that progress in the field of military technology at that time was very rapid. So, an arquebus with a lid for a powder shelf, a spring trigger and a wick lock were already produced in large quantities in Germany in 1475. In 1510, they received a shield that protected the shooter's eyes from the red-hot powder parts that flew to the sides when fired, the first pistols in the same Germany appeared already in 1517. Moreover, it is believed that the same wheel lock for a pistol was invented by Leonardo da Vinci somewhere around 1480-1485. The first wick pistols appeared around 1480, but they were inconvenient for riders, and therefore did not become widespread at first.
However, at first, all innovations were aimed precisely at stopping the avalanche of armored horsemen, who in the past, in the past, lacked only one thing - discipline. There was only one way to resist the attacks of the gendarmes, dressed in such perfect armor that they did not even need shields. Set up a picket fence against them. And the infantrymen are massively transformed into pikemen, and the length of their spears increases to 5 and even 7 meters. It was difficult to own such a "superpike", but even the most untrained recruit could do it. All that was required of him was to rest it on the ground, press it with a foot, and with both hands direct it towards the approaching riders, while trying to stick it in the horse's neck or hit the rider. It is clear that he could not pierce the armor, but having run into such a peak, the rider risked flying out of the saddle, and falling to the ground in 30-kilogram armor usually put him out of action.
And, of course, killing such riders was most convenient for other riders, namely, equestrian arquebusiers, who appeared in the French army by decree of Francis I in 1534. By this time, in addition to the gendarmes in the French cavalry, light-skinned horsemen-chevoliers appeared, used for reconnaissance and security. Now 10-50 people of equestrian arquebusiers were added to them in each company. And it immediately became clear that in order to shoot from the arquebus, they did not need to get off the horse at all, which was very convenient in all respects.
Then the varieties of light cavalry began to multiply in number more and more, and the cost of their weapons decreased. Dragoons appeared - dragoons-spearmen and dragoons-arquebusiers, who in fact became an analogue of infantry-pikemen and infantry-arquebusiers, carabinieri - natives of Calabria. Armed with carbines or rifled barrels, as well as "Albanians", also called pop musicians, dressed like Turks, only without a turban on their heads and wearing a cabasset, cuirass and plate gloves. The latter, for example, were hired by Louis XII to fight in Italy, and the Venetians - to fight with Louis. However, they paid a ducat for the head of each Frenchman, so it was not cheap to hire them!
Cuirassiers and Reitars appear on the battlefield
The problem, however, was that for all the effectiveness of the spear heavy and light cavalry, the cost of the first was too high. Only a horse dressed in horse armor could withstand without harm to itself, but they were very heavy - 30-50 kg and expensive, plus the rider's armor - another 30 kg and his own weight, plus a sword (and often more than one) and a spear. As a result, the horse had to carry a large load, so the plate cavalry needed tall, strong and very expensive horses. In addition, as soon as such a horse was incapacitated, the price of its rider on the battlefield immediately dropped to zero. In addition, again, remember that the infantry also wore armor, and the armor of the riders became extremely durable. Chronicler François de La Nou, nicknamed "The Iron Hand" and a captain in the army of the French Huguenots (1531-1591), for example, wrote in 1590: “A pistol can penetrate defensive weapons, but a spear cannot. It is a miracle if someone is killed with a spear."
Therefore, any reduction in the cost of equipping equipage was only welcomed by the sovereigns. “Take away his spear and a good horse from a spearman, and then it will be a cuirassier,” a certain Walhausen wrote in 1618. However, the armor of cuirassiers also underwent, so to speak, "secularization". Legplates - sabatons and greaves, which were difficult to manufacture and fit on the leg, were removed, and the legguards began to be made only on the front of the thighs and in the form of overlapping plates. It was much easier to fit them in size, which was also helped by the fashion for plump, padded pants. Legplates replaced the tall cavalry boots of tough leather. Also not cheap, but compared to plate shoes, they gave considerable savings. And the armor for the arms was always easier to make than for the legs. In addition, they were now replaced with chain mail, while cuirasses began to be produced using stamping. They stopped polishing the armor, and began to cover it with a thick layer of black paint. Reitars, natives of Germany, used similar armor, which is why they received the nickname "black devils" and "black gangs", and for others it is the pistol that has now become the main weapon, a substitute for the spear. On the other hand, the same La Nu wrote about something else, namely, that in order to protect against bullets from arquebusiers and musketeers, as well as brutal blows with pikes, many began to make armor more durable and resistant than before. Additional plate bibs became fashionable, that is, riders, like modern tanks, began to use multi-layer spaced armor!
P. S. The author and the site administration would like to thank the curators of the Vienna Armory Ilse Jung and Florian Kugler for the opportunity to use her photographs.
