I would like some help regarding the composition of a medieval army

by Slinkybazooka

I am currently writing a book with a fantasy medieval setting corresponding to 12th and 13th century europe with flavours of imperial rome. For an army of a well off country in this world, what would be a feasible army make up regarding the size- the numbers of heavy infantry, light infantry(archers), heavy cavalry, light cavalry, skirmishers, civilian accompaniments and command structure in the army. Any help would be appreciated. Thank you

[deleted]

Well, don't take my word for it, but it really depends on who's raising the army. In the 12th and 13th centuries, there were no professional standing armies, only levied forces that went and fought and then were disbanded once the fighting was over. The king would say to his vassals, "Hey I'm going to war, help me." The vassals would comply and say to their vassals, "The king is going to war and he needs help. Muster your troops and help me." Now it matters who is raising it because if you want a big army, you need either a lot of money or a lot of land. So if a character is a powerful duke, then of course he'll be able to muster a sizable force. But, if the character is a count or a baron or whatever, then he might only be able to raise a small or medium force. As for the actual numbers at that time, I would say maybe 6000-8000 or 10000 men in total. If a large realm is going to war, the king would probably be able to raise about 10000 men if all of his vassals gathered into one huge force. An average-sized realm would likely be in that 5000-8000 area, and a smaller realm, perhaps a petty kingdom, would be able to raise even less. I don't believe there are solid numbers on exact troop types, but there would likely be a lot of light infantry (spearmen, not archers), a good amount of archers and crossbowmen, the heavy infantry would be limited to either knights who fight dismounted (not many did), mercenaries, or just well off people that could afford good equipment (everyone bought their own equipment). For cavalry, honestly I'm not sure how many light cavalry and heavy cavalry there would be, but I would guess that there might be a few hundred knights on average and maybe a few hundred light cavalry as well. Horses were expensive, so there wouldn't be any peasant cavalry, but there might be experienced sergeants who can afford horses and light cavalry mercenaries. By the way, most of the army used spears, axes, and knives, and wore either just their clothes or some padded armor such as a gambeson (padded armor is not bad, it is EXTREMELY good; do not underestimate it). The knights and the richer folk were the ones with the metal or otherwise more expensive armors. I hope this helps, since I too write stories in and about the Middle Ages and sometimes the information about this era is very confusing and unclear. I hope it all goes well for you. :)

Hergrim

Hi there - we're happy to approve your question related to your creative project, and we are happy for people to answer. However, we should warn you that many flairs have become reluctant to answer questions for aspiring novelists and the like, based on past experience: some people working on creative projects have a tendency to try to pump historians for trivia while ignoring the bigger points they were making, while others have a tendency to argue with historians when the historical reality does not line up with what's needed for a particular scene or characterization. Please respect the answers of people who have generously given you their time, even if it's not always what you want to hear.

Additionally, as amazing as our flair panel is, we should also point out that /r/AskHistorians is not a professional historical consultation service. If you're asking a question here because you need vital research for a future commercial product such as a historical novel, you may be better off engaging a historical consultant at a fair hourly rate to answer these questions for you. We don't know what the going rate for consultancy work would be in your locality, but it may be worth looking into that if you have in-depth or highly plot-reliant questions for this project. Some /r/AskHistorians flairs could be receptive to working as a consultant in this way. However, if you wish for a flair here to do this work for you, you will need to organize this with them yourselves.