Outraged Americans are saying members of the Trump family should also be expected to enlist if soldiers are called up to a full-scale war in a military draft.
Sounds like a draft is being planned for the occupation of Iran, aka Vietnam v.4
Honestly the only perk of feudalism is that the princes would have to go to war. Unfortunately it was prone to make them worse leaders by way of trauma, but hey, sometimes they died.
How much they actually fought depended a lot on the prince/duke.
Some led their troops into battle, some directed from the rear and had knights to defend them if the battle went poorly enough that the enemy engaged with them directly (with some fighting to the death from there, others surrendering to be ransomed, and some being killed whether or not the fought or surrendered), others fled as soon as they thought the battle wasn’t going their way (which often caused their side to lose even if it had a chance).
And some had a friend or subordinate lead their army while they maybe led a different army or maybe just chilled in the comfort of whatever castle they were in.
Or they named someone else the governor of a certain area and then left subduing whatever was going on there to them, often just naming the other party the governer if their first candidate sucked (which wasn’t rare, since it was mostly nepotism).
Not really. Firstly, knights were heavy cavalry. By the time they’re walking in battle shit’s gone sideways and there’s a decent chance they’re injured either by whatever knocked them off their horse, falling off their horse, or the whole process of their horse getting injured or killed and going down. And in that vein, the pointy sticks are about stopping the horse, not the knight. A pike wall (as well as fortifications like ditches) creates areas of denial for knights and danger to their horses. A bunch of poor people with long sticks are how you stop knights.
Medieval warfare in open fields was largely about archer volleys attempting to wear each other down and to damage pike walls enough that they break formation allowing knights to ride in and rout (basically come in and kill everyone). Pike formations outlasted armored knights with the rise in quality and availability of firearms simply being integrated into their formations. This is how you get the Renaissance era walls of people lining up to shoot each other.
At least that’s what I remember from various learning of it, definitely not an expert.
Honestly the only perk of feudalism is that the princes would have to go to war. Unfortunately it was prone to make them worse leaders by way of trauma, but hey, sometimes they died.
How much they actually fought depended a lot on the prince/duke.
Some led their troops into battle, some directed from the rear and had knights to defend them if the battle went poorly enough that the enemy engaged with them directly (with some fighting to the death from there, others surrendering to be ransomed, and some being killed whether or not the fought or surrendered), others fled as soon as they thought the battle wasn’t going their way (which often caused their side to lose even if it had a chance).
And some had a friend or subordinate lead their army while they maybe led a different army or maybe just chilled in the comfort of whatever castle they were in.
Or they named someone else the governor of a certain area and then left subduing whatever was going on there to them, often just naming the other party the governer if their first candidate sucked (which wasn’t rare, since it was mostly nepotism).
I always figured knights just kind of walked around hacking up the poor people with sharpened sticks to pieces
Not really. Firstly, knights were heavy cavalry. By the time they’re walking in battle shit’s gone sideways and there’s a decent chance they’re injured either by whatever knocked them off their horse, falling off their horse, or the whole process of their horse getting injured or killed and going down. And in that vein, the pointy sticks are about stopping the horse, not the knight. A pike wall (as well as fortifications like ditches) creates areas of denial for knights and danger to their horses. A bunch of poor people with long sticks are how you stop knights.
Medieval warfare in open fields was largely about archer volleys attempting to wear each other down and to damage pike walls enough that they break formation allowing knights to ride in and rout (basically come in and kill everyone). Pike formations outlasted armored knights with the rise in quality and availability of firearms simply being integrated into their formations. This is how you get the Renaissance era walls of people lining up to shoot each other.
At least that’s what I remember from various learning of it, definitely not an expert.
O captain! My captain!