Dear God, what should I do
And which kingdom to cling to:
Will I choose the Kingdom of Heaven?
Will I choose the kingdom of the earth?
If now I choose the kingdom, I will choose the earthly kingdom, The short is the kingdom of the earth, The Heavenly Kingdom will be forever …
“The ruin of the Serbian kingdom. Song
Knights and chivalry of three centuries. How did the knights of the Balkans differ from the chivalry of Western countries, what features did it have in weapons?
Last time we finished examining the military affairs of the Lower Lands, Outremer, as they said in Europe then. Today our path lies north. Passing Byzantium (there will be a separate story about it), we find ourselves in the Balkans - "the underbelly of Europe", at first glance, it seems to be its distant outskirts, but in fact "a direct road to its very heart." Yes, but what was there that was so interesting in the period we are considering, from 1050 to 1350? And now our story will go about this …
Many mountains, peoples and religions
The medieval Balkans were as fragmented as they are today. Most of the inhabitants of this region were Slavs, including Bulgarians, Macedonians, Serbs, Bosnians, Dalmatians, Croats, and Slovenes. Of these, the last four groups were predominantly Catholic before the Ottoman conquest. But after the Ottoman conquest, most of the same Bosnians gradually converted to Islam, but it is interesting that in medieval Bosnia, even before that, there was already a significant non-Christian minority. They were Bogomils, followers of a version of the Manichean faith that previously existed in eastern Anatolia and, like the heresy of the Albigensians or Cathars, became widespread in southern France. The inhabitants of medieval Dalmatia were partly Italians in culture and speech. The Walachs, the semi-nomadic ancestors of modern Romanians, lived in a large part of the Balkans, including some western and southern parts of the peninsula. The relief of this area was heavily indented. There are many mountains, valleys between them, along the coast there are many islands where one could hide from any conquerors. In Croatia alone, there are 1,145 large and very tiny islands. It was a real pirate paradise where pirates could feel at home.
Aftermath of the crusades
At the beginning of the 11th century, most of the western Balkan Peninsula, with the exception of parts of Slovenia and Croatia, was part of the Byzantine Empire. By the time of the First Crusade, the Croats were under Hungarian rule after the period of independence. After the Fourth Crusade and the fall of Constantinople in 1204, the entire Balkan region was even more fragmented. Northern and western Greece was divided between the small principalities of the Crusaders and the Byzantine despotate of Epirus. For example, the same Albanians were soon able to win independence under these conditions, but by the middle of the XIV century. Serbia conquered a significant territory from the Danube to the Gulf of Corinth, and the Albanians lost it again. The southern Italian kingdom of Naples at this time actively participated in what is happening on the lands of Greece. Well, the Crusader principalities occupied only a relatively small part of southern Greece, while Venice and Genoa fought for control over most of the Greek islands surrounding the peninsula in order to control maritime trade.
When the "top" move away from the "bottom"
Culturally and even politically, Byzantium certainly exerted a strong influence over much of the Balkan Peninsula. Nevertheless, during the period under review, the influence of western and central Europe exerted an increasing influence on the western lands of the region, especially in military matters. The mountains were ideal for building castles, and the valleys for breeding thoroughbred horses. Well, castles are knights, and knights cannot be knights without horses. Therefore, for the development of chivalry and knightly military art, this region turned out to be ideal. Therefore, Western influence fell on "good soil" here, and took place through the expanding Kingdom of Hungary and the Republic of Ragusa (Dubrovnik), which was the main channel for the import of Italian weapons and armor. It then spread to Bosnia and further east. In addition, the military elites of the western part of the Balkan Peninsula turned to the West not only for the supply of weapons, but also in a broader political plane, which gradually isolated them from the bulk of the local Orthodox population, which remained mainly "anti-Frankish" and "anti-Catholic". A fairly widespread situation arose when the “upper classes” perceived a foreign culture, while the culture of the lower classes remained purely local and traditional. Alienation arises between the nobility and the masses. Moreover, over time, it was this alienation that was to play a very important role during the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans. Only at that time no one thought about it. People of that time could not even think of such a thing … Everyone lived exclusively "by the will of God"! Well, chivalry here was the same as elsewhere!
But this is a very interesting artifact. The fact is that in the ancient world the arrowheads were cast, bronze and socketed. Medieval ones, on the other hand, are made of iron and petiolate. This is a medieval arrowhead, but petioled. And it's also made of bronze. That is, those who made it had problems with iron, but there was enough bronze, but they only knew petiolate tips. They did not think of pouring the socketed ones! (National Museum of Serbia, Belgrade)
Homeland of the oblique top shield
The Bosnians, being closer to the Adriatic coast and to Italy, were even more influenced by the West than the Serbs, primarily in military matters. Bosnia appears to have been independent from the beginning of the 12th century until 1253, when it fell under the rule of the Hungarian crown, and before it was incorporated into the ephemeral Serbian empire of the 14th century by King Stefan Dusan. It was a relatively poor, geographically isolated and, of course, stormy, in terms of social relations, mountainous region, in which archaic forms of warfare and very specific weapons remained for a long time. a kind of equipment appeared. For example, somewhere in the middle of the XIV century, a rider's shield appeared, known as the "Bosnian scutum", which was distinguished, firstly, by the upper edge beveled from left to right and from top to bottom, and secondly, by its design. Very often, its surface was decorated with the wing of a bird of prey, either painted or real, made of feathers!
A very interesting shield from the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. True, it refers to 1500, but nevertheless it is a typical "Bosnian scutum". The description of the shield indicates that such shields with a characteristic rear edge were used by the horsemen of Hungary. In the 16th century, such shields were adopted in many countries of Eastern Europe by both Christian and Islamic horsemen. The elongated upper edge of the shield served to protect the back of the head and neck from the blows of sabers, which became the main cavalry weapon in the region. On the outside of the shield is the sword of the Prophet Muhammad with a double blade, and on the inside - the Crucifixion and iron of the Passion. This unusual combination of Islamic and Christian symbols suggests that the shield was used in the tournament by a Christian warrior dressed in Muslim fashion. In these “Hungarian-style” tournaments, participants donned Hungarian and Turkish costumes and used sabers to cut down the feathers attached to their opponents' helmets and to the sharp corner of their painted shields. Even at a time when the Turkish armies posed a constant threat to Eastern Europe, the opponents of the Turks imitated their costume and tactics, they made such a strong impression on them.
Do you want to shoot a bow? Get off your horse first
Croatia, which united with the Hungarian kingdom on almost equal terms in 1091, remained a part of the Hungarian state to this day. Therefore, it is not surprising that the military affairs of Croatia, as well as the armor and weapons of its medieval army, echoed the military affairs of Hungary, although there was no element of archery from a horse in it. That is, an important element of tactics of steppe origin, which distinguished the Hungarian horsemen from the horsemen of other Western countries, as well as our distant ancestors too. It is from here, by the way, that another reason for the hatred of the Slavic warriors on the part of the Western knights stems from. They considered it shameful to shoot from a bow from a horse at a warrior of equal social dignity, and where it was impossible to do without it, they hired turkopuls. European horse archers, before taking the bow, had to get off the horse, so … not to offend the noble animal! And here … it seems like the same knights, but they fight in violation of all the rules of knightly art, that is, they win "incorrectly". But the Hungarians, too, are "wrong", although they were Catholics. And here they are not Catholics, and they allow themselves that. "Yes, they are worse than pagans and Muslims, by God!"
Dalmatians and Slovenes are the most “westernized” of all
More is known about Dalmatian weapons and armor than about other Balkan regions, because more documentary sources have survived. The cavalry was almost identical to the cavalry of the West and especially Italy. The infantry, primarily archers with simple and complex bows, and later with crossbows, played a very important role in this urbanized and seaside region. The importance of the infantry has increased especially since the beginning of the 14th century, when Dalmatian cities had to fight their inner Balkan neighbors. Therefore, they actively imported a variety of weapons and armor from Italy. In particular, Ragusa (Dubrovnik) imported firearms from Venice as early as 1351 to protect itself from attacks from Hungary.
The most unconditionally pro-Western of all the Balkan peoples in terms of military technology were the Slovenes. They inhabited the provinces of Carniola, Styria and, until the area was Germanized, Carinthia. After all, it was the Holy Roman Empire that managed in one way or another to stop the invasions of the Hungarians in the 10th century. And then only Western Istria was outside the Empire, and under the rule of Venice. So the penetration into this area of Western culture was carried out very quickly and for good reason.
Albanian stradiotti
Albanians also dominated many of their immediate neighbors for much of the Middle Ages. The coastal cities of Albania experienced urban decay during the early Middle Ages, remaining major trade centers until the end of the 11th century. Where lands were under Byzantine rule, local warriors served as stradiots under various categories of Byzantine leadership. By the way, the sense of national identity was made more difficult for the Albanians by the fact that some of the Albanians were Catholics, while others were Orthodox. Albania's independence was conquered around 1190, but then lost again in 1216. This was followed by a wave of strengthening of the military influence of Italy and France, which at first was welcomed by the local feudal lords. However, this influence, say the same Angevin monarchy, never spread beyond the coastal plains and cities, and in the mountainous area there was still its own local culture. In the XIV century, the influence of Albania spread far south, to Thessaly, and for a long time dominated the region of Epirus. When in the early 1330s Albania fell under the rule of the Serbs, this territory could put up at least 15,000 horsemen, of which about one thousand were real knights, but the remaining 14 were lightly armed warriors who had a spear, a sword, and at best chain mail case. All of these troops usually fought under the Venetian flag in 15th century Italy, where they were known by the Italian name Stradiotti.
Thus, before the beginning of the Turkish conquest in the Balkans, it was an area of completely European military culture and traditions, on the one hand, under the influence of Byzantium, on the other, Italy and the Holy Roman Empire. National "motives" existed somewhere in the mountains, and the essence of spiritual contradictions was the conflict between Catholics and Orthodox. The region was more culturally monolithic and gravitated more towards the West than towards the East, which, by the way, did not change even after 669 years!
References:
1. Nicolle, D. Arms and Armor of the Crusading Era, 1050-1350. UK. L.: Greenhill Books. Vol.1.
2. Verbruggen, J. F. The Art of Warfare in Western Europe during the Middle Ages from the Eight Century to 1340. Amsterdam - N. Y. Oxford, 1977.
