"Pike charging horse?" Topic
8 Posts
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freecloud | 01 Nov 2018 4:39 a.m. PST |
Did it ever happen in the Renaissance/Pike and Shotte era? Iirc Swiss charged (or more accurately just kept on walking towards) Medieval knight, but I don't know of any later instances |
Phillius | 01 Nov 2018 11:50 a.m. PST |
Pretty sure we would have heard about it if it happened. After the Swiss, pike fighting became a lot more of a defensive capability. So I'd assume if the Swiss didn't do it, no one did. |
TheOtherOneFromTableScape | 01 Nov 2018 12:13 p.m. PST |
From the fourteenth century onward infantry that stood up against cavalry, like the Flemish and Scots, typically did so by using long spears or pike and standing still in close formations. They often also chose where they would fight and prepared the ground around them to make it more difficult for the horsemen. A good book on this is "Infantry Warfare in the Early Fourteenth Century: Discipline, Tactics, and Technology" by Kelly DeVries. The key elements seems to have been confidence, a tight formation and keeping stationary. Moving might cause some slight disorder and then everything would go very south! |
22ndFoot | 01 Nov 2018 12:21 p.m. PST |
I'd recommend Sir Charles Oman's Art of War in the Middle Ages: it is a bit dated today but a jolly good read with an extensive discussion of the Swiss (whom Oman didn't much like). Haven't read it for years but it might be a good starting point especially as it can be found free online. |
olicana | 02 Nov 2018 1:45 a.m. PST |
My understanding is this. Your original post pretty much hits the nail on the head. Pike, and infantry in general, didn't charge horse. The large pike squares of the early renaissance could, and did, edge forward into contact with cavalry, whereupon the cavalry withdrew, counter-charged or stood their ground. In the second instance the pike would stand on the defensive and the cavalry would, as likely as not be halted. Where cavalry were halted in front of pike it was always an unequal fight as weapon length and density always put the cavalry second in the race. However, though pike could be battle winners, pike often found it almost impossible to 'finish cavalry off' unless well supported by cavalry with which they could pursue a broken enemy. Later, when pike became the secondary killing weapon of infantry formations, when they were fielded in support of the true killers, the musketeers, they would assume a defensive posture when cavalry were near to protect the musketeers. With the horse unable to close, the pike would remain stationary and leave the sheltering musketeers to do the killing from a distance. Cavalry, of course, soon knew all this and would wait for infantry to become disordered and shaken by other events before going in. Where the pike were in a jumble, their defensive qualities were severely lessened. |
Daniel S | 02 Nov 2018 2:45 p.m. PST |
I've actually come a across a fair number of "charges" against cavalry by infantry in the 16th and 17th centuries, but they generally occur outside the large battles in the open field. Rather they occur when the cavalry is caught in diffult terrain which prevents them from charging or at times even manouvering properly so that the infantry can press home the attack at close range with everything from point blank fire to polearms and clubbed muskets. Examples of terrain includes deep snow, forrest filled with boulders and uneven ground, marshland, icy streets and sandy hills & slopes. |
Marcus Brutus | 03 Nov 2018 4:48 p.m. PST |
I don't think it happened often but it did happen. I am reading Oman's book "A History of the Art of War in the Sixteenth century" (an amazing book actually) and I remember one of the battles in the French Religious Wars where a unit of Swiss pike intervened in a cavalry on cavalry melee tipping it to one side. The reality is that cavalry could always just ride away from a pike block unless it was in some way already pinned so I would imagine actual contact was quite rare. |
Charge The Guns | 04 Nov 2018 8:51 a.m. PST |
At Alford, 1645, Montrose's Irish foot intervened in a drawn cavalry fight, and tipped the melee in favour of the Gordon horse. |
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