In the later Medieval ages (1300 - 1500) were heavily armored spearmen ever deployed?

by Turnipocalypse

A question that has been on my mind recently is if there were ever soldiers deployed with spears who were also deployed with armor befitting a knight/man at arms (full plate). A spear as in one that you use on foot, instead of the lance. Did this ever happen, or was heavy armor only used by rich infantrymen who preferred other weapons on foot (e.g. anti-armor like maces and lucernes) and cavalrymen?

WARitter

Yes. Specifically, in the Hundred Years War both the English and French fielded dismounted men-at-arms who wielded shortened lances as spears. The English did this at Crecy, among other battles, and the French copied them at Poitiers. In the mid-14th century, these dismounted men at arms would have worn plate limb defenses, coats of plates on the body, and probably some form of open-faced bascinet or kettle hat. It should be noted that some effigies from as late as the 1340’s have few plate limb defenses, though. In short they were armoured much as men at arms would be on horseback, though it is possible they would have taken off some leg armour - I have found no references to this in the 14th century. The 15th century treatise 'How a man shall be armed at his ease when he is to fight on foot' describes men at arms armed in full leg armour for foot combat (though this if for a judicial combat).

In the 15th century the shortened lance was replaced by the pollaxe and other polearms among dismounted men at arms.

In the 15th century, many portrayals of swiss pikemen shows some of them wearing rather complete armour from the waist up. Examples include this roughly contemporary depiction of the battle of Dornach in 1499, and this depiction of the Battle of Grandson from a chronicle of 1513. The 15th century enemy of the Swiss, Charles the Bold, specified in his ordinances of the 1470’s that pikemen were to wear a breastplate, a vambrace for the right arm and a target (small shield) on the left. However, both this and most artistic depictions do not show pikemen with fully armoured legs (the exception is Franco-Burgundian illuminated manuscripts, which sometimes show both archers and pikemen in full armour). There are depictions of pikemen with articulated tassets (the upper-thigh guard that extends from the bottom of the cuirass) in multiple sources of the 16th century (such as Burgkmair's print series, 'the Triumph of Maximilian'), but these pikemen are not shown with greaves. There are vague descriptions of the Scots at Flodden (1513) in armour that is 'so complete' that English arrows did the Scots little harm, but it makes no explicit mention of leg armour - it is hard to tell just how 'complete' this armour was, other than that it was sufficient to minimize casualties from archers.

TL/DR, fully armoured, dismounted men at arms used shortened lances as spears in the 14th century, but used polearms in the 15th century and onwards. 15th and 16th century pikemen often had limb protection and even more often had protection for their bodies but did not have plate armour on their entire legs nearly as often.

Sources:

Images from Swiss Chronicles as cited.

Strickland and Hardy, the Great Warbow, for Charles the Bold’s ordinances.

Edge and Paddock - Arms and Armour of the MEdieval Knight, for references to the use of the shortened lance and effigies depicting mid 14th century armour.