What part did a knight play in medieval military strategy?
Medieval military strategy was largely based on attack. Part of the advantage the Normans had in invading England in 1066 was that they included mounted, javelin-throwing knights who could charge King Harold’s Anglo-Saxon foot soldiers. When, in the 1100s, knights started couching their lances (holding them under their arm so that they were pinned against their bodies), the knight and the horse acted as a sort of medieval missile. A group of charging knights could, therefore, easily overpower a larger group of foot soldiers. After this initial onslaught – which usually broke many lances – the knights would draw their swords, maces or axes and fight on, sometimes still on the horse, sometimes — if the horse was downed or the ground was uneven — on foot. This meant, however, that two opposing forces would always attack at the same time – there was not much in the way of defensive strategy in medieval warfare other than retreating to a castle. As weapons evolved, though, the knight’s mi
