Why Were Medieval Armies So Small? - Medieval History DOCUMENTARY

*Note that only 1 Promo code can be used within 24hours

Kings and Generals historical animated documentary series on medieval history continues with an episode on the armies of the Middle Ages, as we try to deduce why they were smaller than their ancient and modern counterparts, how the fall of the Roman empire and the rise of feudalism affected the armies of the period.

Animation: Michael Merc, Kate Korolko
Artwork: Vadym Berkutenko
Script: Johan Melhus

Production Music courtesy of Epidemic Sound

#Documentary #Mafia #CrimeSyndicates

[KingsandGenerals]

*Note that only 1 Promo code can be used within 24hours

[MyMy-tvfd]

1. Smaller more numerous kingdoms/states = fewer group resources
2. Smaller populations
3. Development of armoured knights/heavy cavalry

[maddogbasil]

I guess this is probably one of the main reasons the ottomans were so successful.

They're standing army and massive conscription really put them ahead of much of the medieval levies

[googane]

I think their smaller size is mostly attributed to the decentralised and relatively autonomous nature of nobles at the time. How much a king could field was directly influenced by how popular he was. There was no standardised conscription and no obligation to send men to fight for your king. Sure the smaller kingdom sizes had some influence but that still doesn't explain how many similar sized realms outside of medieval europe could still field more men.

[holyfreak]

In that time all the money used to go to armour😅

[iexist]

I've always had this question in the back of my mind! Looking at it now, smaller states and de-centralization make sense for small armies in the Middle Ages. Also, are you considering covering battles/wars in Chinese history, like the Warring States Period or the rise of the Qing?

[Hey-ujee]

Fun fact, in the historical record of many battles of the middle ages many times the historians didn't even care to include how many soldiers (not armoured infantry or archers) there were but only the Knights. A Knight was similar to a tank of today in a battlefield, a machine of death trained since its birth to kill, and also well fed with meat, compared to the peasants of the time.

[Vodal_Kressh]

I'd say that another factor that limited the army numbers in middle ages in comparison with the classical era, was the feudal system. The lords could provide a king mostly knights, while the past empires ruled by totalitarian central autorities, could enlist as many men they wanted on their own

[paskberger]

Currently reading A Distant Mirror from Barbara W. Tuchman and wondered why those armies were that small. Also, once England or France were taking a "break" the soldiers would make "compagnie" and continue to pillage the land since there were not paid anymore, adding to the issue for common peoples.

Then came the Jacquerie!

[alex_spartan]

During the medieval period, leaders lacked centralized finances, infrastructure, and logistical systems to properly provide for their armies. K&G always does great jobs on all of their videos!

[Artur_M.]

If anyone is wondering WTH is "Schinesghe" that appears on the map at 6:44 (and again letter in the video) - that's technically the earliest recorded name of the early Polish state. However, it appears only once in a copy of a Latin document from around 991, known as "Dagome iudex" (we don't have the original). So, no one really knows what the word was supposed to be.

[AJKecsk]

Another thing to note - army size is an arms race. It's immensely expensive to field 50, 000 soldiers - to the point where you wouldn't even think to do it if your enemy is bringing 10, 000 and you remember that in the last war, both armies had 10, 000. But if your enemy is fielding 100, 000 you're going to strain your country to the limit to try to get at least 70, 000 to defend your land (and your entire mentality around war, strategy, logistics, etc has to adapt). This is the sort of thing you see in the Napoleonic wars and the World Wars.

[Zetler]

Middle Ages armies are smaller to reduce lag and to prioritize frame rates. This is common knowledge.

[daturtlez]

Another factor that I would guess leads to the changing of army sizes would be the focus of warfare changes to more on sieging of cities/castles where you only "need" enough troops to hold the enemy in a castle and keep them from getting supplies.

[wilfredogaringa]

I wonder why a city-state like Athens could field armies and navies with tens of thousands of personnel while say, the French Kingdom and even the HRE could barely field that much.
Could it be because of feudalism vs the citizen levy model of army recruitment?
Could it be that feudal army pool is limited to the small military class and ill-trained peasantry, while citizen levies of ancient city states like Rome and Athens could draw out more troops as they have more landed and propertied people available?

[NotDumbassable]

5:30 hard disagree on the geographically larger argument.
The Roman Republic didn't even encompassed Italy when they were able to field a total of around 60000 men during the Pyrrhic War.
Classical Athens was tiny in comparison to medieval kingdoms and still managed to field a total of about 30000 hoplites during the Peloponnesian war (according to some readings of Thcydides 2.13.6-7).

I would argue it was the variety in socioeconomic and political structures which caused these differences between ancient and medieval armies.

[Achillez]

Thank you answering a history question I've always wondered about!
And massive shout out to the art team, the images in this episode were majestic to look at!

[abhishekpawar]

I wish I had a history teacher like Kings and Generals. It's truly an art to create such quality videos and you have mastered it !

[JakeBaldwin]

One thing I think needs to be noted about losing 50 knights as being a major setback may be more of a political and administration issue rather than a military one.
Since knights were basically warriors and administrators rolled into one, losing that many at once would be as if a country lost 50 towns worth of mayors, judges, and sheriffs in one day.

[TIME]

Before watching this video I think the reasons were that:
1. Pop cap limit reached (aoe2)
2. They forgot to do quantity ideas (eu4)