When William I invaded England in 1066 he did so on horseback. In the battle of Hastings the foot-soldier based army of the English wilted under the charge of the Norman knights. With this conquest, Marcus Bull argues, the old era of foot-soldier armies was wiped away and the new era of the horse-backed knight began.
Up until the end of the thirteenth century the mass cavalry charge was the ace-card of battle. The destructive fury of a group of heavily armoured knights could break any unit. Knights lived their entire life to fight. They trained all day in the art of war and at tourney they practised war-games constantly. As time progressed they developed more discipline and cavalry units began to regroup and hit second or third units with a charge. However, throughout the period the discipline of knights was always suspect and the pursuit for personal glory a priority. What would a peasant warrior do when faced with the charge of this blood-crazed battalion?
By the fourteenth century the peasants had quite a simple plan of action. …
