Horse crossbowmen - rifle cavalry, consisting of crossbow shooters, using their weapons from a horse in combat conditions. The crossbow in general was an infantry weapon, but in Europe, starting at least from the beginning of the 13th century, special detachments of mounted crossbowmen fired without dismounting from their horses [3] .
The far more common medieval practice of crossbowmen who rode on horseback, but dismounted in battle, is not covered in this article.
History
We see shooters from a crossbow using their weapons from a horse in combat conditions, for example, on engravings from fencing book (martial arts textbook) by Hans Talhoffer , and even an exotic crossbow shooting technique is shown back at full gallop (similar to the Parthian shot ). Their weapons usually belong to the type cocked by kranekin - a slatted-gear gate [2] [4] .
The most detailed armament and equipment of horse-drawn crossbowmen-kranekinje are described in the Burgundian ordonances of 1471-1473.
"Jacques is worn over the chain mail-pallets and must be [sewn] from 10 [layers] of fabric (instead of 12) and supplemented with armor, namely lower semi-bracers and small upper braces to the elbow, wide enough so as not to obstruct movements during shooting . They should wear short boots with round toes so that when they dismount, the socks do not prevent them from walking freely. Crossbowmen and cavalry should have brigandines or breastplates, like those of a veil ( gendarme’s assistant), lower half bracers and steel upper bracers, [ringed] necklace, salad, sword, like horse archers. A horse must cost at least 20 francs. ”
- Boen-en-Vermandois Ordinance
"Equipping a mounted kranekinje will be the same as that of a buttermilk, except that the aforementioned kranekinje will have a kranekin and a quiver for arrows (?) To it instead of a dart."
- Dijon Ordinance [5]
Meanwhile, the use of horse-drawn crossbowmen, apparently, was never massive, as in view of the specifics of themselves as a kind of troops (equipping a saddened horse soldier with a crossbow was expensive, with its very limited combat use: the crossbow prevented them from participating in hand-to-hand combat), so and taking into account the limitations inherent to them and the generally low effectiveness of their use in battle. In some of the old illustrations, among the bulk of the horse-drawn spearmen, sometimes individual warriors can be seen firing from crossbows, usually located behind the majority of the horse-drawn spearmen; apparently, in practice, their use of the crossbow was reduced to a single volley just before approaching the enemy at a distance of a spear collision, as a maximum - to the second one after it began, after which the crossbowmen either engaged in a melee with cold weapons, or hastily retreated. That is, the crossbow, as later the pistol, acted as a kind of one-time (for one shot) replacement for cavalry pike, which in horse fighting also often broke or was lost after the first collision.
Shooting from a crossbow riding was also widely used in riding hunting.
Application tactics
In Phillip von Zeldenek's “Military Book”, mounted crossbowmen are away from the main detachment and slightly in front of him, and their actions are described as the only volley during rapprochement of the detachments, followed by departure for their combat formations, since while they reloaded their weapons, they were fleeting the clash of two cavalry detachments could have ended in victory for one of the parties:
... the arrows must hold out against the enemy next to their squad, on the right side, at a distance of throwing a stone or further, and a little in front of the squadron. And at that moment, as the troops are going to come together and the front to touch, then the arrows must behind the enemy banner aim and strike; to separate those from the banner of the enemy; so that their system will receive less help; and yours, if they break through, from those that must approach their banner (were separated from the banner), in their turn no harm will happen. But as the arrows broke through, they must turn on the enemy at that very hour and not linger or stop until the crossbows are turned on; since it will be too slow and it will turn out that sooner than they are touched again, a victory or flight will happen to that part. And it will be good if the arrows on the left side of the enemy and his banner, turn around and break through, so that the row with the banner will upset and the banner will fall. But no one does, as I now know.
- [8]
Thus, it can be concluded that the concept of a horse-drawn crossbowman apparently copied with what the Europeans saw during the Crusades of an eastern horse archer did not justify itself. Practice has shown that, while the qualification of a fighter could be lower than that of a horse archer, reloading a crossbow took so much time that the effectiveness of firing an enemy in a fleeting cavalry battle turned out to be close to negligible. About any "falling asleep" of the enemy with arrows, which was the classic tactic of horse archers, who, without stopping the shelling, skillfully maneuvered on the battlefield and were one of the decisive forces in the cavalry of many Eastern countries, there was no talk about it. Before the start of the skirmish, the volley of crossbowmen was called upon to bring confusion into the ranks of opponents, completely or partially deactivate some of them, disorient them, and “facilitate the work” of the main strike force, the spearmen . As von Zeldenek himself admits above, he doesn’t recall cases when the attack of mounted crossbowmen ended in decisive success (“so that the row with the banner could be upset and the banner fell”) .
Anyway, the Reiters, already armed with pistols, to some extent adopted the tactics of mounted crossbowmen, like musketeers adopted caracol from foot crossbowmen.
Known Application Examples
Gascon equestrian crossbowmen were used by the Black Prince at the Battle of Poitiers in 1356. In the French ordinance companies there were several horse riflemen per gendarme , but combat experience again showed that such arrows were forced to stop for firing, and their pace could not exceed the rate of English foot archers (who, during the Hundred Years War, moved astride, dismounting for battle). Polish archers (equestrian crossbowmen) were also not very effective. In the Swiss army, the battle commander had a detachment of horse-drawn crossbowmen [9] .
There are also references to the use of horse shooters from a crossbow in China during Qin Shi Huangdi and, later, in India . Separate pictorial sources make it possible to talk about equestrian crossbowmen in the Muslim world of the Crusade era with some probability [10] .
Horse Crossbowmen in Popular Culture
Horse crossbowmen are sometimes mentioned in the literature of the “ fantasy ” genre, and the combat effectiveness and prevalence of this type of troops are often very different from the real historical ones (which, in principle, can be said about other elements of military affairs described in this genre).
Comments
- ↑ In the depiction of the battle of Guinegat in 1513, made for the cycle “The Triumph of Emperor Maximilian ” in 1513-1515, artist Georg Lemberger (Lemberger, Georg; 1490/95 - 1540) uses exactly the same type of construction (foot arrows - pikiners - artillery and equestrian crossbowmen - cavalry - equestrian crossbowmen). However, modern researchers [7] believe that Georg Lemberger portrayed not one, but a sequence of different time moments of the battle: skirmishes depicted on different planes did not occur at the same time, but consistently.
Notes
- ↑ Encyclopedie Larousse Illustree, 1898. - p . 404 .
- ↑ 1 2 P. Lonicerus . Insignia Sacrae Caesareae Majestatis. - 1579.
- ↑ Kelly DeVries, Robert Douglas Smith . Medieval Military Technology . - University of Toronto Press, 2012. - p. 46. (eng.)
- ↑ Ralph Payne-Gallwey . The Book of the Crossbow (Russian edition: Ralph Payne-Golluey . The book of crossbows. - M .: Tsentrpoligraf, 2005).
- ↑ Kurkin A.V. The armament of the Burgundian army of 1460-1470.
- ↑ Philipp Mönch . Codex Palatinus Germanicus 126, War book. - Heidelberg, 1496.
- ↑ For example: Isabel Christina Reindl . Georg Lemberger. Ein Künstler der Reformationszeit Leben und Werk. - Inaugural-Dissertation in der Fakultät Geschichts- und Geowissenschaften der Otto-Friedrich-Universität. - Bamberg aus München / Bamberg, 2006.
- ↑ Philipp von Seldeneck . Kriegsbuch . - 1490.
- ↑ The Swiss at War 1300-1500 . - Osprey Publishing, 1979. - P. 30—36. (eng.)
- ↑ Persian flask of the XIII century with the image of the equestrian shooters from the crossbow .
See also
- Horse archers