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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.

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14y ago

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