So, reading something I found out that armies of middle ages were not in fact made out of peasants raised for campaign, but from individuals that could he called professional soldiers. My question is how did medieval armies work? Is only difference between medieval professional army and standing early modern army in organization in peace time? If I understand correctly in Early Modern Europe standing army was always of paylist of monarch, 12 months a year, serving to him, and in Medieval time those professionals were "recruited" only for campaigns and were on pay-list of monarch during war but in peace time did other things (plunder, bandits, or even mercenaries for other rulers)?
Generally, how did army in High and Late Middle Ages work, since my conception about peasant militia is obviously wrong.
Quarantine makes all of us do weird things. Especially me, whose only contribution to this sub is "knowing how to use Reddit Search". I have for you nine answers, which for the sake of tag limit must be spread over this post and the next, as military history is popular on this sub. The following three answers are ones that apply to the Medieval Era in general:
There is also from u/Rittermeister and u/MI13 this post on a lord's familia.