How did they fight in the medieval times?

Answer 1

Haven't you ever seen the movie trilogy "The Lord of the Rings"? If you haven't you should immediately watch, as it's a perfect example of how warfare was conducted in the Middle Ages.

people tried to take over other people's castles, so armies from each castle would fight at the castle who is being taken over. at first, catapults fling rocks at the castle walls, and then the army rushes towary the castle when there is enough damage. then, there is hand-to-hand combat. and 'the Lord of the Rings' and 'kingdom of heaven' are very good movies that show this.

MoreI don't think the movies show accurately what medieval warfare was all about. If you look at the great battles, they included the Battles of Tours, Hastings, Bannockburn, Crecy, and Agincourt, none of which was a siege operation. I have watched all the movies of the Ring trilogy several times, and I cannot say there was anything in them that was like any of these.

The Battle of Hastings was a day long battle in which Normans attacked the English army, which defended itself with a wall of interlocked shields, unsuccessfully with archers, infantry, and cavalry, until the English counterattacked, breaking their shield wall and their best protection. When that happened, the Norman forces were able to deal with them.

The battles of Bannockburn was largely attacks by cavalry across rough ground, in which the English attackers, who were on lower ground, fell into concealed pits, trod on caltrops, and were shot up with arrows. Arrival of what appeared to be a fresh Scottish army, but was actually camp followers, put the English army into a frightened route, and the soldiers were hunted down and killed singly and in very small groups.

The Battles of Agincourt and Crecy, like many other battles of their time, were decided by English archers armed with longbows. These men could fire three times per minute, and their arrows cut right through the best armor available at ranges well beyond a hundred yards. The knights who attacked were killed in great numbers.

Medieval warfare was easily as unpleasant as any war today. It included flame throwers and incendiary grenades, both of which were called Greek fire. In siege situations, catapults were used, trowing stones against the weaker parts of castles, or throwing rotting meat or parts of people who had died of contagious diseases over the walls.

One way to break through walls of a castle was to have miners tunnel under the walls, not to create a way into the castle, but to build a large room, which could be filled with things that would burn over a long period of time, such as the bodies of dead pigs, whose fat would burn slowly. As the fire went on, it weakened the walls, which eventually collapsed.

Armies had to support themselves, and logistics were a problem, so plunder was the easiest way to get food and other supplies. Often, no distinction was made between a friendly population and one that was enemy.

One characteristic of medieval warfare, and this was particularly true of the crusades, was that military leadership was often disunited. Armies commanded by different kings that were supposedly on the same side, often got in each others' ways. Part of the result of this was that wars dragged on incessantly.

Another characteristic of medieval warfare was that land, crops, and buildings in an entire area were destroyed to destroy the value of the area to the other side. The result of this was that recovery from warfare was often a thing that went on for generations.

Several wars were decided or stopped by plagues and other epidemics. The fighting in the Hundred Years' War stopped for sever years, for example.

There were groups of armed people that simply moved through the countryside, plundering, and these ranged from small scale Viking raids to armies, such as those the Hungarians sent through Europe, looking from plunder.

Answer 2

In the Middle Ages, battles were brutal, horrible, nasty things, not that they are any better now.

The middle ages lasted a thousand years, and a lot changed during that time, so there is not a single description that would apply in terms of tactics or weaponry. But a few examples might be in order.

In Spain, bandits in the countryside attacked caravans often in the Early Middle Ages. The response was to circle the caravan wagons and fight from them, much as we see settlers do in TV westerns.

The Middle Ages saw the invention of the stirrup and new saddle appropriate to the lances we associate with jousting we see in movies. Our earliest records of these being used to effect refer to the Battle of Hastings, where the Anglo Saxons, who had never seen such a thing before, were broken on them.

There was another invention called Greek Fire, and though it is not known why it was considered Greek, or even exactly what it was, it did set people, ships, buildings, and whatever on fire.

Men who operated battering rams were often chained to them so when the battering rams caught fire they would not run away. Similarly, sailors sometimes fought on ships with nets over them so they could not jump overboard, even though this meant that if the ship sank they would go down with it.

The longbow, which took terrific strength and skill to operate, could fire an arrow so hard that it could kill a heavily armored knight from well over 100 yards away. When French knights attacked English soldiers at Agincourt, they were killed in large numbers. The arrows had points that were designed so that removing them would do more damage than was done when they hit.

People were brutal throughout the Middle Ages. Captives were sometimes killed in large numbers for no other reason than to show how brutal the captors were. And when this was done, the method of killing them was often simply cruel.

People who fell in a battle were often left where they fell until the battle was over. If they were injured and out in the hot sun baking in their armor, that was too bad for them. Corpses rotted and smelled bad.

In sieges, castles had their walls mined, which meant that miners dug under the walls to produce large rooms, filled the rooms with something that would burn, such as tons of lard, and set them on fire. The result was that the walls would collapse into the moat, creating an entrance.

Sieges often included biological warfare, sending parts of dead bodies over the walls to spread disease among people who were already starving.

At many battles that took place on open fields, the fields were strewn with caltrops so men and horses would step on then and be stabbed in the foot. Then they would fall on others, getting stabbed in the stomach or chest.

At battles such as the Battle of Sterling, where one side was routed, it was not uncommon for men who were running away with armor on to face the choice of being taken captive by an enemy in a blood frenzy, or jumping into a river with a suit of armor on. A lot of people drowned rather than risk being taken.

One of the really interesting things about all this was that people actually fought in the battles because they wanted to.

Answer 3

medieval battles were very primitive technologicly speaking. Battle was very close combat. Fronts fighting on foot with weapons of edge and blunt ones. They also had horse flanking with sharp weapons that were longer such as spears to fight the enemy ata little more distance.

The longer range weapons were primitive also wich included catapults and the such.

Answer 4

There were two basic types of battle. One is where both armies lined up facing each other on a field and when someone gave a signal they ran at each other. This was close and personal battle and the army who had the most standing at the end won. The second type was to attack a keep/castle. This was done in many ways and could take weeks or months to accomplish.

Answer 5

If you were a foot soldier it was terrifying. You had to move with the mass around you, you possibly had a crappy weapon and almost anyone else especially horsemen, could kill or worse, maim you.

Answer 6

they started as people will want resources from the other countries vikings invading brtain or racial religous political reasons ww2 mcrusades