>the army on the left won How do you fuck up this badly?
>>17087581French.
>>17087581The Portuguese had a favourable defensive position, on top of a hill well prepared with ditches and traps, plus they pulled a mini Cannae on the Castilians by pulling away the center, allowing the flanks to surround the Castilian vanguard. The Castilians were also pretty tired from spending the hot summer afternoon marching around the hill to attack the Portuguese from a less steep side.>>17087588This was also a factor, king Juan wanted to camp for the night and attack the Portuguese on the next morning but was pressured by the ever arrogant French knights into attacking right away. When they were decimated by the Portuguese, the rest of the army lost any will to fight and ran away, even king Juan narrowly manage to escape the slaughter.
>>17087677>ever arrogant French knightsThese fucking niggers again
>>17087581the english longbowmen
>>17087581https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Muret>the army on the left wonHow do you fuck up this badly?
>>17087581>foot soldiers>lances>crossbowmen>longbowmenso, what exactly were the foot soldiers?Did they carry maces along with swords?
>>17088543>so, what exactly were the foot soldiers?Spears, halberds and other polearms, mostlyLances refer to knights, either mounted or dismountedMounted in the case of the Castilians, forming the vanguard that charged uphill along the French knights; mostly dismounted in the case of the Portuguese, spread out along the battle line along the regular infantry, with a small mounted reserve of knights and lightly armored riders (jinetes) accompanying king João
>>17087581>>17087588>>17087677>>17087919Why does this happen every time in the Medieval period, Agincourt and Nicopolis being an example, where the French knights get arrogant and overconfident and blow the entire battle when they get fucking destroyed?
>>17089831Because 90% of the time French knights absolutely wreck the opposition, they weren't arrogant without reason. People just tend to remember the exceptions rather than the norm.
>>17089831>NicopolisSpeaking of which.How come every single crusade but the first one was a total failure?
>>17089848what are the norms then? because it happened in all the later french Crusades, in Tunis, Egypt and Nicapolis
>>17089831>Nicopolisthe fuck you call me
>>17089853pridebelief god would grant them victory no matter whatmaybe a complete disdain for the infantry due to its dominance by commoners? I think that's how Varna and Nicopolis played out, the Polish and French knights charged ahead of the infantry and got surrounded and cut down.
>>17089853>How come every single crusade but the first one was a total failure?The second crusade achieved success in Iberia, capturing Lisbon for Portugal and Tarragona for Aragon, and the sixth crusade was also successful in regaining Jerusalem >>17089854>what are the norms then?Battles like Bouvines, Muret, Saint-Omer, Patay and FormignyMost of which were smaller contingents of French knights wrecking larger regular armies of knights and infantry, specially Muret and Patay
>>17088543>so, what exactly were the foot soldiers?If it's like for Agincourt, literal servants and camp followers counted by the winners as part of the enemy contingent to inflate the numbers (while of course not counting the servants on their own side).That's how Agincourt went from a 6,000 vs 12,000 battle in reality to a 6,000 vs 36,000 one in popular culture.
>>17089854The norm in the middle ages is meme sieges and skirmishes where 47 knights opportunistically raid a convoy numbering 200 or something.Longbowmen were effective at Crecy and Agincourt because they had hours to prepare, but if armored knights trained from infancy manage to get in and amidst them they're finished. Here a mindlessly aggressive charge is an advantage, to close the distance, maintain local numerical superiority, prevent the enemy getting into formation, cause the enemy to flee and finish the battle before they themselves are exhausted. In a duel knights will spar for several minutes, but here they can brook no delay, if they encounter a stray man-at-arms here they must close immediately before the 2 vs 1 becomes a 2 vs 8.
>>17087581English longbowman > French Heavy Knights
>>17090126Battle of Patay disagrees
>>17089853>every single but the first>totalno, biggest example being that the third is very arguable (didn't take jerusalem but humiliated and disarmed saladin and ensured that the crusader states basically survived saladin's dynasty)plus if you accept them as crusades (which those at the time very often did), the northern crusades and reconquista were highly successfulbut in general, the middle eastern crusades were highly aggressive expeditions over massive distances into unfamiliar geography and political conditions with often unstable and shifting leadership and unusually restricted resourcesit's only natural most would fail, the first mainly succeeded because the seljuq leaders had died and their empire splintered just before it and the crusaders then faced relatively little unified opposition
>>17089854
>>17087581>posts summary and zero context like terrain, weather, supplies, condition, experience in combat, debt to soldiers
