Important Battles

Battle at Bannockburn (1314)

England - King Edward II
  • 12,000 infantry (half archers)
  • 2,000 cavalry
Scotland - King Robert Bruce
  • 10,000 infantry (far fewer archers than English
  • 300 light cavalry
Results
  • Scottish victory
  • English army size caused difficulties in coordination on the unfamiliar terrain
  • English casualties: 2/3 of their original army
  • Scottish casualties: 2 knights, relatively light (no exact figure)
Important Facts
  • One of the first notable demonstrations of coordinated infantry being used to defeat a superior force of cavalry, a victory by dismounted commoners over armored knights
  • The Scots were able to trap the English with their wall of spears into a confined space by the Bannockburn waters. Because of the confined space and its size, the English army was unable to assume their battle formations. The disorderly mass was slaughtered by the Scots.

Battle of Morgarten (1315))

Swiss Confederation - Werner Stauffacher
  • 1,500 halberdiers and archers
Austrian soldiers of the Holy Roman Empire - Duke Leopold I
  • 5,000 infantry
  • 2,500 cavalry
Results
  • The Swiss setup an ambush resulting in a crushing defeat for the Austrians
Important Facts
  • Helped to spread the reputation of the Swiss infantry as fierce fighters that didn't follow the customs of battles between knights, instead barbarically butchering their defeated enemies
  • One of the first battles in which the halberd was used, to great effect; marked the halberd as one of the most powerful weapons at that time

Battle of Crecy (1346)

England - Edward III, Edward (the Black Prince)
  • 4,000 knights/men-at-arms
  • 7,000 longbowmen
  • 5,000 spearmen
  • 5 cannons
France - Philip VI
  • 6,000 crossbowmen
  • 20,000-30,000 knights/men-at-arms
Results
  • Decisive English victory
  • A few hundred English casualties
  • 10,000-15,000 French casualties, including 11 princes and 1,200 knights
Important Facts
  • Proved the effectiveness of the English longbow
  • First real use of the cannon on the European battlefield
  • Seen by many historians as beginning of the end of classic chivalry: knights were being killed by peasants and anonymous arrow shots, rather than face to face battles against their peers

Battle of Agincourt (1415)

English - King Henry V
  • Approximately 6,000 soldiers
  • Approximately 5/6 were longbow archers
  • 1/6 were dismounted knights and men-at-arms in heavy armor
France - Constable Charles d'Albret
  • Approximately 20,000-30,000 soldiers
  • Approximately 10,000 knights and men-at-arms (approximately 1,400 were mounted)
Results
  • Decisive English victory
  • Less than 450 English casualties
  • 4,000-10,000 French casualties, including the constable, 3 dukes, 5 counts and 90 barons
  • 700-2,200 French prisoners, almost all were nobles as the less valuable prisoners were slaughtered
Important Facts
  • Victory of the commoners in the English army over the supposedly superior French noble men-at-arms
  • Despite going up against a much larger, better equipped and fresher French army, the English successfully used the bottleneck of the terrain to take away the French's size advantage

Battle of Arbedo (1422)

Swiss
  • 2,500 infantry (almost exclusively halberdiers)
Duchy of Milan
  • 1,600 cavalry and crossbowmen
Results
  • Swiss were defeated
  • The Swiss had initial success against the Cavalry because of their Halberds
  • The Milanese dismounted and used the fact that their lances outreached the Swiss Halberds to outmaneuver the Swiss and to cover the Milanese crossbowmen, effectively defeating the Swiss.
Important Facts
  • This Battle demonstrated that Archers, Cavalry and Pikes were not always a strictly rock paper scissors scenario. Often, combinations such as this could be used to completely out-class an enemy force