Cover photo: Battle of Nicopolis by Sébastien Mamerot, Les Passages d’Outremer (1472-1475).

Text by Ilias Anagnostakis.

The perception that heavily armored knights, especially when fighting on foot, were cumbersome is entirely mistaken. Both historical references, eyewitness accounts, and the excellent work done by reenactment groups attest to the fact that a fully armored knight, carrying an average of 35-40 kilograms of equipment (25-30 kilograms for the forged steel plate armor, depending on the wearer’s build and preferences, as everything was custom-made), plus the 3-4 kilograms of padded armor (gambeson/aketon) filled with wool for absorbing shocks from blows and providing a comfortable fit for the metal armor, sometimes an additional thick textile armor with sewn-in blades (jack armor), and the weight of the weapons (sword, sometimes a second sword, dagger, occasionally an axe, poleaxe, war hammer, short lance), could move at will, run lightly, climb ladders, leap over obstacles, conduct a cavalry charge, and even mount a horse alone (!), as the forged steel plate armor was well-fitted to the human body.

Certainly, factors such as heat (in Nicopolis) and mud (in Agincourt) made things more challenging, but nothing was too difficult for most, especially types like De Carrouge, Bernard du Jusclin, Jean de Vienne, Ekkehard de Coucy, and, of course, the “tank” of the Middle Ages, the legendary Jean le Maigre, also known as Marshal Boucicaut.

It was expected that this generation of knights, who had participated in dozens of battles, sieges, landings, and clashes of all kinds during the Hundred Years’ War, would be born into war, live off of war, and seek war, being particularly proud and arrogant until their final downfall, something they paid for repeatedly (Courtrai 1302, Halmyros 1311, Crécy 1346, Poitiers 1356, Nicopolis 1396, Agincourt 1415).

Nevertheless, the impression they left on their contemporaries and subsequent generations was unbeatable: they were the true “war dogs.” Only in the Battle of Nicopolis (September 25, 1396), the French armored knights, and especially this “special breed of warriors” demonstrated their worth:

In this specific clash, the French armored knights, most of them on foot, ascended the hill where the Turks were fortified, receiving an incredible number of arrows – “the arrows had hidden the sun,” as Froissart narrates-. Nonetheless, individuals like Sir Jean de Carrouges IV (57 years old) and Jean de Vienne (55 years old) managed, with tremendous physical condition, despite the September heat, thousands of arrows, and fatigue, to run up the hill, crush the first line of Turkish defense, break the second line of turkish defense , and advance toward the plateau, only to face a full-scale attack from the numerous Turk Sipahis , kept by Sultan Bayezid as a reserve for this very scenario.

Despite this, the remaining 2,500 French, including 700 knights, fought with the courage of desperation, even after two (!) hours of conflict. In the fierce clash that followed, the French armored knights literally sowed death among the Turks, fighting more fiercely than “wounded bears and captured wolves” (Froissart 564-8, Religieux de Saint Denis, 124).

The wounds they inflicted with their heavy weapons and well-aimed blows were so gruesome that “many Turks were unrecognizable” (Slitberger, Memoirs, 34-6). Only around the body of De Carrouges (1) were found no less than fifteen (!) gruesome dismembered bodies of Turks. Boucicaut (Jean II Le Maingre) was captured by the Turks after being pulled alive from a small hill (!) of Turks he had killed with his own hands. Around the wounded Philip, Count of Eu, “only Turkish heads were present,” while royal standard-bearer (and Admiral of France) de Vienne fought after fifty (!) hits to his armor until he fell. Even dead, he held the flag with the Cross and the fleurs-de-lis, causing Sultan Bayezid to “express his dissatisfaction” with the extraordinary losses, addressing Allah, stating that he “never wanted such a victory again.”

It is a fact that the weapons of the late Middle Ages (heavy swords, polearms, war hammers, battle axes, two-handed swords, axes, large falchions, short lances) caused horrific injuries to the human body. In the hands of individuals like the French armored knights, who trained with these weapons since childhood, they were even more deadly.

Of course, English, German, Czech, Polish, and Spanish armored knights were all dangerous, as were the Italians, but none had the “Esprit de corps” that the French knights possessed. The camaraderie of Boucicault and De Carrouges created the era, not followed by it…

(1) The one played by Matt Damon in the movie “Last Duel”.

Primary Sources

Froissart’s Chronicles.

Chronique du religieux de Saint-Denys, contenant le règne de Charles VI de 1380 à 1422.

Bibliography

D. Nicolle, “Nicopolis 1396: The Last Crusade.”, Campaign Series. London, Osprey Publishing.

T. Madden, “Crusades: the Illustrated History“, publ. University of Michigan Press, 2005.

N. Housley, “Documents on the Later Crusades“, 1996.