How to Raise a Medieval Army DOCUMENTARY
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In this history documentary we explore how to raise a medieval army! Our discussion starts be recognizing that most pop cultural depictions of Medieval armies just show huge armies already in the field like in the movie Kingdom of Heaven. Other times you get some brief, hand waved reference about how the army is to be raised. This includes Call the Banners from Game of Thrones, Summon the Elector Counts from Warhammer Fantasy, and Muster the Rohirrim form the Lord of the Rings.
In our documentary we take a deeper look at what this process actually involved: The decision to go to war, the call to arms, mustering the troops, and deployment for battle.
Before getting into these topics however we spend some time talking about the nature of Medieval Warfare. This entails discussing how both armies and conflicts were generally smaller than antiquity due to the fragmentation of power to the local level. Large wars did however occur and these will be the subject of our video. We also spend some time describing what a typical army would have looked like in these conflicts. This ends up being a mix of an aristocrat's retinue, freemen, and auxiliary forces.
The rest of the documentary then looks at what were the major causes for war and the long discussions and preparations needed to ultimately bring about the decision to pull the trigger. Then we look at how key officials were informed of that decision and how the call to arms was put out. Next we cover the mustering of forces and how they were deployed on campaign.
Credits:
Research: Andrew W.
Writing: Andrew W.
Production: PentaLimited
Music: Paradox - Crusader Kings 3
Bibliography and Recommended Reading:
"Soldiers Lives Throughout History: The Middle Ages" by Clifford Rogers
"Armies and Warfare in the Middle Ages: The English Experience" by Michael Prestwich
"Age of the Hundred Years War, from Medieval Warfare: A History" by Clifford Rogers
"Warfare Under the Anglo-Norman Kings" by Stephen Morillo
"A Warlike People? Gentry Enthusiam for Edward I's Scottish Campaigns, 1296-1307, from The Soldier Experience in the 14th Century" by Andrew Spencer
"Agincourt: A New History" by Anne Curry