m337

VII and the Duke Burgundy in 1435 meant that the crown could once again gather the taille taxes, rebuild an effecdve army, and tamę the troublesome ecorcheurs.

Charles Vll’s reforms

Finally, on 5 January 1445, the creadon of the Royal compagnies cTordonnances was announced. There would be 15 of these, each of 100 lances; each lance consisted of six men (a man-at-arms, his sword-bearer, page, two archers and a varlet or military servant). These new forces were in action against English-held Caen in 1459, where the Royal contingents alone included 11,700 men-at-arms and 6,000 francs archers.

The infantry francs archers were established after the cavalry compagnies d’ordonnance and their structure was simpler. Men were expected to live at home, were inspected regularly, and pracdsed archery every religious feast day. They were supposed to have suitable armour but if they were too poor this could be supplied by their parish. On active service they were paid four francs a month and were exempt from the taille tax. Nevertheless, there were fewer than 8,000 such francs archers during the reign of Charles VII.

As might be expected, banners and even costumes were similarly modernised. Although the ‘free archers’ had no uniform as such, the archers of the Royal Guard in 1449 were dressed in blue, white and red, or green, white and red. That year Charles VII entered Rouen in triumph, accompanied by the 600 men of his own ‘batlle’ or cavalry unit, each having a spear with a pennon of red satin with a gold sun.

ARMOUR & WEAPONS

Armour in France was less varied than in Italy or Germany. Large amounts of mail rather than piąte were still worn in the I330s, and consequenlly much of the French cavalry at Grecy and Poitiers would have been highly vulnerable to English arrows. On the other hand many knights had abundant equipment. The will of Bertrand de Montibus, a French knight in 1327, included five armours, a manche de fer arm protection, five warhorses and four riding horses. Ninę years later the equipment expected of a mounted vassal in Hainault, a French-speaking provincejust on the Imperial side of the frontier, was a mail hauberk or smaller haubergeon, mail chausses for the legs, plus a mail coif or barbiere for the ncck, and mail gauntlets.

An interesting text describing the arming of a knight shortly before the Hundred Years War would probably still have applied to many Frenchmen. The knight began by putting a shirt over his breeches and combing his hair; then putting on leather shoes and hose. The first

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