Identifier: gri_33125008050011 (find matches)
Title: Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Jacob, P. L., 1806-1884
Subjects: Middle Ages Civilization, Medieval Civilization, Renaissance Costume Military art and science Christian life
Publisher: London : Bickers & Son
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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WAR AND ARMIES. 57 Francis I. replaced them by the light horse, a body chiefly composed ofmercenaries of different nations. In England, ever since the thirteenthcentury, the mounted archers formed a considerable portion of the nationalforces. An army of fifteen hundred complete lances, which represented a totalof six or seven thousand horsemen, required a complement of at least fivethousand mounted archers, who were all skilful marksmen. In the timeof Henry VIII., an English bowman could discharge as many as twelvearrows in a minute, and he would have considered himself disgraced if he hadlet fly a single shaft which failed to kill, wound, or at least strike an enemy.
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Yis. 49.—German Foot-soldiers fighting—From a Drawing by Holbein preserved in theMuseum at Basle (Sixteenth Century). The desperate melee of Fornoue (July 6th, 1495), which forcedCharles VIII. to retrace his steps after his successful Italian expedition, wasnearly the last of the confused and sanguinary struggles of the Middle Ages.The sword and the bow contributed more than the cannon and the fire-stickto the terrible result of the day. From that time the infantry regained itsold pre-eminence over the cavalry, and cannon were employed preferablyto all other projectile weapons. A complete revolution was also about toensue, as well in the tactics of an army in the field as in the attack anddefence of fortresses. Louis XII. and Francis I., in their Italian cam- 5§ WAR AND ARMIES. paigns, in which they wasted so muoh of the resources and treasures ofFrance, had to contend with German and Spanish mercenaries, at that timethe best soldiers in the world; they opposed to them bodies of

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