So, I've been told that before the era of full plate armor, you would almost always want to go into battle with a shield, yet there is a lot of imagery of medieval soldiers with huge two handed pikes and no shield in sight. Were these formations only used later with plate armor, did they have shields or pavises or something, or did they just head out without shields?
Interesting question, would like to add a side question;
Would a shield be seen as less than necessary because they were using a weapon that would keep them at more than arms’ length from opponents in melee combat.
Someone mentioned shields slung on the back, if that is accurate, would the pikemen turn their back to the combat zone when archers fired a volley at them? (I’m assuming that like I’ve seen in movies archers would fire synchronized volleys across the anticipated melee zone because firing into the melee zone you couldn’t effectively target foe vs. friend)