168 



A HISTORY OF CAVALRY. 



[period II. 



i 



The day did come, as we shall see subsequently, 

 when the people of Switzerland, who, by the physical 

 character of their country, could not maintain cavalry, 

 and were obliged to rely mainly upon their infantry, did 

 organise a force of foot-soldiers which, when brought 

 into contact with the proud chivalry, taught them that 

 prowess was not everything, but that order, solidity, and 

 art exercised a very important influence in war. 



The feudal armies, in fact, were not organised upon a 

 jjrinciple that would permit of the growth or use of tac- 

 tical skill. They were composed of raw levies of soldiers, 

 who were, individually, thoroughly trained to the use of 

 their weapons, and well equipped, and, taken singly, were 

 probably as fine material as ever fought in action ; but 

 their feudal tenure usually required only forty days' ser- 

 vice a year, so that they were only mobilised just as they 

 commenced a campaign, and there was no time to teach 

 them to act harmoniously together in masses. High 

 tactical skill can only be acquired by thorough training, 

 and can never reach perfection except in a military 

 system based upon a standing army. 



The great development of the art of manoeuvring and 

 handling troops in large masses among the Romans, 

 especially in the days of Scipio, may be attributed to the 

 fact that the service in the Roman army varied from ten 

 to twenty years. 



The tournaments, which were the only military exer- 

 cises among the knights of the middle ages, were not of 

 much use as schools of tactics, for the jousts and passages 

 at arms taught only dexterity in the use of weapons in 

 single combat. Even in the exercises where two parties 

 fought, one on each side, there was no appearance of art 

 in the manner of fighting. The contests were simply a 

 series of duels, where no element was brought into play 

 except downright hard blows, skill in the use of weapons, 

 and endurance. When we remember that a suit of tilting 

 armour weighed as much as 200 lbs., we can readily 

 understand that endurance was a very important quality. 



The tournaments were not maintained solely for the 

 purpose of improving the dexterity of the knights, 



