CHAP. IV.] 



FEUDAL CAVALRY, 



133 



of 



grafs, or counts, must have been coming into use. In 

 the age just preceding the institution of knighthood, the 

 Franks were rude and unskilful in their use of cavalry, 

 and the horsemen often dismounted and fought on foot. 



Whether fighting on foot or mounted, they rushed 

 upon the enemy with vehemence, and relied for success 

 mainly upon the impetuous charge, followed by honest 

 hand-to-hand fighting. The discipline among them was 

 not very good, as can be readily imagined in an army 

 composed of nobles and freemen, who still looked upon 

 their king as holding ofiice simply by the voice of the 

 people.^ They turned out for war willingly, but were 

 impatient of protracted campaigns, and abandoned their 

 standards and returned home if the war was prolonged. 

 Their cavalry charged rapidly with the lance in serried 

 order, aijd required level plains to operate upon with 

 advantage. They do not appear to have used reserves. 



The IJmperor Leon gives many details as to their 

 habits, and advises his troops, in case of campaigning 

 against them, to avoid fighting them in pitched battles, 

 but to harass them on difficult ground, to entice them 

 into ambushes, to attack their camps at night with 

 mounted archers, and to prolong the war in every pos- 

 sible way, in order to weary out their patience, and 

 compel them to consvime their provisions. 



The Greek army at this period is fully described by 

 the Emperor Leon, and we are enabled to discover, with 

 some certainty, the state of the cavalry of the Eastern 

 Empire during his reign. 



The mounted archers wore coats of mail covering the 

 body, and a helmet of polished iron, adorned with a 

 crest. Their principal arm was the bow, of moderate 

 strength, which was carried in a case to preserve it in 

 good order, while they also were provided with a quiver 

 containing thirty or forty arrows, a lance of medium size, 

 with a pennon attached, a sword on a shoulder-belt, and 

 a poignard in the girdle. Each man was also provided 

 with a file, an awl, and a reserve of bow-strings. 



The young horsemen, who were not skilled in the use 



' Gibbon, iv. 373. 



