"The Household of Charles The Bold." Topic

Hello everyone,

In addition to a group of some 40 or more men-at-arms comprised of the Duke's chamberlains and gentlemen of the chamber, providing the guard for the ducal banner, of its 8 cavalry squadrons and its 8 companies of mounted archers , the Household of Charles The Bold incorporated also 4 'ordinary household infantry' companies of 100 men each (404 men) and 4 more such company, this time described as 'extraordinary household infantry'of 100 men each (but understrength at 332) …

I would like to know how the 736 infantrymen of these 8 infantry companies were dressed and armed.

Thank you.

Well on this forum it looks like Charles The Bold and his army are totally unknown?

because you did not receive an immediate answer ?

OK on this forum it looks like Charles The Bold and his army are totally unknown?

'The return of the Duke of Burgundy', with liveried bodyguard, in 'Chroniques' by Jean Froissart. A copy from Bruges, Belgium, 4th quarter of the 15th century may be of interest.
As it was painted in Bruges it is likely to be based on Burgundians of that date.
See also Liveried French Retainer, 15th century, in 'Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 1' by Ian Heath

mirror sites
'The return of the Duke of Burgundy', with liveried bodyguard, in 'Chroniques' by Jean Froissart. A copy from Bruges, Belgium, 4th quarter of the 15th century.
Liveried French Retainer, 15th century, in 'Armies of the Middle Ages, Volume 1' by Ian Heath

Druzhina
15th Century Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

Ah Thank you Druzhina, but the first image cannot be used, the second I know it, but as we imply in its description, we will never know if it is a soldier of Charles the bold or ofPhilip the Good and the third is the same as the first … For the fourth I will pass the exam as soon as possible.

Not knowing the specific dress of Charles bodyguard hardly equates with not knowing Charles the Bold himself.

BTW: Just took a look into Freezywaters "The Burgundian Army of Charles the Bold". Empty on looks for the Ducal Guard.

Alas , I don't even know how the 4 'ordinary household infantry' companies of 100 men each (404 men) and 4 more such company, this time described as' extraordinary household infantry'of 100 men each (but understrength at 332)… were armed.

I have also been puzzled by the armament of the ordinary and extraordinary household infantry companies of Charles the Bold. While their numbers in 1476 are repeated in a number of sources, none of them them seems to provide any details on their armament.

One reasonable assumption could be that they were equipped similarly to the infantry element of the Burgundian ordonnance companies, i.e. split equally between pikes, crossbows and handguns. Thus a full company of 101 men could consist of 1 commanding officer, 33 pikemen, 33 crossbowmen, 33 handgunners and 1 extra person (perhaps trumpeter or standard bearer?). Equipment might be similar to that required for the similar combatants in the ordonnance companies.

Some wargamers (and army list authors) seem to associate these household infantry companies with various polearms, though I am yet to see any specific evidence to back that up. This may be due to confusion with household guards (especially men-at-arms, but possibly sometimes also archers) bearing polearms when attending the duke on foot.

I started a discussion on TMP about the same topic in 2015, but back then nobody was able to find any hard references either:

TMP link

Yes but page 32 of the M.A.A. n° 144,there is a famous illustration of Burgundian longbowmen without livery coats behind a row of stakes with behind them "billmen" also without livery coats armed alternately with épieux and fauchards (2HCT) …

In my opinion, in this illustration , the infantrymen of the famous 4 'ordinary household infantry' companies and 4 'extraordinary household infantry' are the "billmen"of the guard behind the dismounted longbwmen (in this case also of the guard I guess…) because soldiers thus armed (the billmen…) do not correspond to anything in the Burgundian army.

You can't tell if a livery colour is or is not being worn from a black and white print.

See the 2nd Print by the Master WA (or Master W with a key) showing Burgundian soldiers.

Having a weapon that supposedly no Burgundian has is not evidence for them being anything specific in the Burgundian army.

mirror site
Prints by the Master WA (or Master W with a key) showing Burgundian soldiers.

Druzhina
Burgundian Illustrations of Costume & Soldiers

because soldiers thus armed (the billmen…) do not correspond to anything in the Burgundian army.

My understanding is that dismounted coustilliers of the ordonnance companies could be expected to fight with such polearms.

That well-known (and well-done) illustration by Master WA has been used as a basis for all sorts of claims by army list authors over the years. However, there seems to be no clear understanding on when exactly the drawing was done and if it is intended to represent a specific unit as such (rather than soldiers in general). Even if the illustration dates from the rather brief ordonnance era (and not from before or after it), there were still urban militias and feudal retinues in existence at the time in the Burgundian lands, in parallel to the regular ordonnance companies.

Polearms of various kinds were certainly widely available at the time, so it is in a way a bit surprising to find out that they were not part of the infantry element of the ordonnance lance (other than for use by coustillier and possibly gendarme when dismounted). However, I would find it logical that the household infantry (which apparently was not part of the ducal guard as such) would be largely organised similarly to the ordonnance infantry.

That said, with the apparent lack of specific published evidence one way or another, we seem to be largely limited to speculation as to whether these infantry companies were armed with pikes, polearms, bows, crossbows, handguns or some mixture of them. One entirely viable hypothesis might be that each of the four ordinary infantry companies was armed differently (e.g. first with pikes, second with handguns, third with crossbows and fourth with either bows or polearms), and that the four extraordinary infantry companies would mirror these, but again there is no specific historical backing for this.