SYNOPTICAL CHARTS. 
473 
The left-hand side of the chart is devoted to the evolution of fortifica¬ 
tion, the right-hand side to the evolution of artillery and small arms, 
and the interval between them to a list of the British monarchs, and to 
matters affecting military history generally; i.e. t the principal wars 
that have taken place during the last 600 years, a list of eminent 
scientists, artillerymen, and engineers, and a statement of the tactical 
predominance of various arms on the field of battle. 
This latter column is, perhaps, more open to argument than any 
other, so that it will be as well to give authorities as far as possible for 
the statements made therein. 
The rise of the feudal system, involving the predominance of the 
mail-clad horseman began as far back as the days of Charles Martel 
in the eighth century (“ Encyclopaedia Britannica,” 9th edition, Art. 
“ Army,” by Sir George Colley, Vol. 2, page 563). 
In Sir George Colleys words: “ The fall of feudalism as a military 
system, though gradual, as all such changes are, ma,y be said to have 
been accomplished in the middle of the fifteenth century. Two 
events occurring about that time gave it its death-blow—the defeat of 
the Burgundian chivalry by Swiss infantry in the three successive 
battles of Granson, Morat, and Nancy ; and the establishment of “com- 
pagnies d’ordonnance ” by Charles VII. of France. The first des¬ 
troyed for ever the overwhelming prestige attached to the mailed horse¬ 
men, and restored infantry to the place which it had held in ancient 
armies, and has never lost since; from the second dates the origin of 
‘ standing armies ’ in Europe.” Although the fall of feudalism may be 
said not to have been definitely accomplished till the middle of the 
fifteenth century, yet there can be no doubt that the English archers 
under Edward III. and the Black Prince at the commencement of the 
Hundred Years’ War with France uttered with no uncertain voice the 
doom of chivalry and the mail-clad horseman. 
“ The fall of France,” says Green in his “ Short History of the Eng- 
/ish People,” speaking of the Battle of Crecy, was hardly so sudden or 
so incomprehensible as the ruin at a single blow of a system of war¬ 
fare, and of the political and social fabric which rested on it. Feudal¬ 
ism depended on the superiority of the mounted noble to the un¬ 
mounted churl; its fighting power lay in its knighthood. But the 
English yeomen and small free-holders who 1 bore the bow in the 
national “ fyrd ” had raised their weapon into a terrible engine of war ; 
in the English archers Edward carried a new class of soldiers to the 
fields of France. The churl had struck down the noble; the yeoman 
proved more than a ‘match in sheer hard fighting for the knight. From 
the day of Crecy feudalism tottered slowly but surely to its grave.” 
The year 1346 is, therefore given on the chart as the date on which 
the mail-clad horseman resigned his pride of place to the archer, who 
in his turn, was destined to reign on the field of battle for 250 years. 
Nor need this long period of predominance excite our astonishment. 
The ordinary range of the bow, on the authority of Neade, a celebrated 
archer of Charles I., was from 16 to 20 score yards (say 300 to 400 
yards), and so rapid was the shooting of the archers, or so slow the 
