File:Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance (1870) (14598470937).jpg

Identifier: gri_33125008050011 (find matches)
Title: Military and religious life in the Middle Ages and at the period of the Renaissance
Year: 1870 (1870s)
Authors: Jacob, P. L., 1806-1884
Subjects: Middle Ages Civilization, Medieval Civilization, Renaissance Costume Military art and science Christian life
Publisher: London : Bickers & Son
Contributing Library: Getty Research Institute
Digitizing Sponsor: Getty Research Institute

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nths;Henry IV. increased this period, but not without difficulty, for, to quotethe words of Sully, Our soldiers can now only be enlisted by force, andcan only be persuaded to march by the use of the stick and the threat ofthe gibbet. To this picture we must add the significant fact that thesystem of drill was a very insufficient one, and that it was by no meansunusual to find soldiers, whose stay with the standards was after all but a * Dressed like ragamuffins, with puffed trunk hose; some going harelegged with theirstockings hanging to their girdle; singing as they trudge along to lighten the toil of the road. 64 WAR AND ARMIES. very temporary one, entirely incapable of handling the arms they wereentrusted with, The urban militia were, however, far superior to theserecruits, for, since the reign of Charles V., it was customary to drill thecitizen every Sunday with pike, bow, and crossbow, particularly in thefrontier towns. It is not till Oolignys time, in the middle of the sixteenth
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Fig. 56.—Soldiers of the German Bands.—From an Oil Painting by Joachim Bueclear(Frankfort, 1548—1596), in the possession of M. Paul de Saint-Victor. century, that traces can be found of any regulations imposing on command-ing officers the duties of teaching and drilling their soldiers. We have attempted to outline the general military physiognomy of theMiddle Ages; we will now rapidly examine the weapons and warlikeengines that were invented for the attack and defence of fortified places. WAR AND ARMIES. £>5 Until the invention of gunpowder, or rather till that of artillery (Fig 57)the whole art of fortification, says the learned Prosper Merimee, consisted infollowing more or less exactly the traditions handed down by the Romans.The stronghold of the Middle Ages had precisely the same characteristic asthe ancient castellum. The methods of attack against which the engineershad to guard were the assault by escalade, either by surprise or by force ofnumbers, and the breach, cau

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