"Terms for Medieval unit organisation?" Topic

I don't know anything about how military units were organised in the Dark Ages or Medieval periods. Can anyone point me at diagrams or discussions on these, including approximate sizes? Company, troop, squadron, lance, war band etc.?

I am currently reading MERCENARIES AND THEIR MASTERS: Warfare in Renaissance Italy right now and the terms seemed fluid. The book focuses on the 15th century before the French invasion, so would give you some idea for late medieval mercenaries.

link

There is a good discussion of how the term Lance evolved in Italy during the 14th and 15th centuries, and how it got larger over time, up to 6 men including the horseman himself plus crossbowmen, pages, etc.

The term squadron is used for a unit of 25 lances, but that even seemed to fluctuate. He does include a whole chapter on how the mercenary companies were organized and another on how they fought on the battlefield.

He appears to have spent a lot of time reading condottieri contracts, and I am not sure hoe applicable it would be for feudal armies outside of Italy, but you may find it useful.

Good luck with your project!

It varied from place to place, and changed and evolved through the period.

The main thing to bear in mind is that military organisation, like social organisation, was all about personal relationships.

So in the earlier part of the period, it was all about men following their lord. They did so because they had a personal obligation, and in return they would expect to get rewarded by their lord.

Later on, a professional leader might be contracted by a king or duke or whatever, to provide a certain number of men. The contract might also specify what level of equipment these men were expected to have, for example. Once again, it is personal. The contract is between the King and the captain. The men recruited by the captain are HIS men, not the king's.

Here are a few broad categories that apply to most of medieval Europe. "Battle" (precursor to battalion) was one of usually three divisions in an army, center (or vanguard), right (usually mainguard) and left (usually rearguard). No matter what size the army was it would be divided into these three (usually more or less equal in size) "battles". "Conroi" was a small company-sized unit composed of the lord and his horsemen, knights as well as men-at-arms or sergeants. A conroi was variable in size depending on the number of followers. It seems to have varied between ten and c. fifty horsemen. A conroi would train together regularly.

In England during the HYW and later, and probably earlier, a "vintenar" would lead twenty men, and a "centenar" would lead a hundred men. That is how longbowmen were ordered.

An "acie" was a squadron of cavalry, and sometimes attached infantry. It could be anywhere from a score to several hundred in size.

So, medieval armies were more flexible when small because the "units" were small. Large armies tended to become almost immobile because the command structure did not allow for subunits that could receive direct orders from the chief kahuna….

GWA

Actually a conrois could be formed by several lords/knights, plus their retinues. Usually, the conrois had a strong regional flavor, as neighbours commonly joined in the same conrois. At least that was what seems to have happened in Northern France and, possibly, Germany and Northern Italy. I am not sure about other regions, though.

"Kahuna," heh! That was just above "high mucky-muck". Equivalent to the Eastern "shmendrick". From the Norman French, I believe. ;-)

A battle is usually a collection of troops under a single command, though it may have been a division of an army it need not be.

I think that battles of roughly equal size were rarer than uneven ones over the span of the 'medieval' period (whatever you decide that is). Having three was common but by no means exclusive – even in the 100YW.

Vintenar & Centenar (and even Millenar) were mostly used for Welsh troops though the term did get used for English later on.

Company was used but had no fixed size or composition implied and was probably the commonest term used for mercenary/professional contingents from 100YW onwards.

In the earlier part of the MA you'd tend to find most records in Latin or at least using Latin terms. Often these get translated into terms considered appropriate when translated (often by those with limited knowledge of the military aspects) – that makes it pretty well impossible to know what was and was not commonplace terminology.

A Millenars command would be a mix of archers and spearmen so that a balanced subdivision of the army could be assigned to specific operations. It seems most likely that the Centenar would command either archers or spearmen.
In large English armies operating in Scotland (at least) there would generally be three battles (divisions) of infantry and four formations of knights/men-at-arms. If the king were present one of these formations would generally be much larger than the other three. By 1300 if not before most knights /MAA would be serving for wages, others for pardons and so on.

Thanks guys!