The Chivalrous Cheval - War Horses in the Middle Ages

It is hard for us, in this day and age, to imagine a knight without his noble steed. For centuries, horses in literature have been a reflection of their rider; it has only been fitting to picture noble, armor-clad men atop powerful horses adorned in colorful caparisons and armor of their own. While medieval warhorses certainly existed, and some of our mental pictures aren't entirely inaccurate, medieval warhorses may not have looked and worked exactly as we like to imagine today.

Diagram of a horse's plate armor (16th century) 

One of the first steps in understanding the function and importance of the medieval warhorse is to understand the horse itself. While we might think of massive, powerful horses with feathered feet and incredible stamina, this is likely a more modern, romanticized image than an accurate one. We often speculate that warhorses would have to be large to support the weight they were expected to carry without losing too much power or stamina. After all, not only did a late medieval war horse carry a knight, his suit of armor, and his weaponry - some also wore armor of their own. Though early medieval warhorses were not usually armored (notice none of the horses in the Bayeux tapestry wear armor), moving into the 15th century the most well-equipped of warhorses might wear a chanfron, a crinet, a peytral, flanchards, and a crupper (see left). The materials used to make a horse's armor evolved with the armor used by their riders, with examples of leather armor, mail armor, and  plating found dating from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries.

Steel crupper panel (left); leather crupper panel (right) 

While horses may have needed to be a bit larger once all of this armor was added, it would still not have been necessary for knights to ride upon draft horses (and in fact, such a feat would have been fairly difficult). Dainty, swift Arabian horses (top right) were praised as warhorses through the 12th century, as armor was still not commonly used and the breed possessed great stamina. As armor was introduced, breeds similar to the modern Holstein (bottom right) may have become more popular.

Evidence of lighter horses being used as warhorses is also available in numerous primary sources. Armor in the Royal Armoury at the Tower of London would fit a horse about 15 hands high. In the Bayeux Tapestry, all horses are of fairly light stature, without the thick legs associated with draft breeds. Likewise, in The Song of Roland,  one of the great warhorses is described "swift and fill of spirit ... his legs are smooth and flat, his thighs are short ... his back is high and straight, his body long... no animal at all can run with him." By all means this description matches that of a lighter breed, not of lumbering drafts. I believe we can therefore cast aside the notion of massive, powerful horses, replacing the image with that of smaller, swifter animals akin to many of the breeds we see today.

Fully armored horse (14th c. chess piece)

While understanding what types of horses were used in battle is important in terms of creating an accurate mental image, simply examining the types of horses used does not make clear how they were used. Warhorses (often called destriers) were a part of a knight's equipment as much as any other part of his weaponry, and were valued as such (to reference The Song of Roland once more, the two pieces of the knight's equipment that were important enough to name and describe were their swords and their horses).Warhorses were well-trained for battle, and were not utilized for everyday riding or travel, as it would risk the well-being of a valuable asset. Horses often called palfreys or rounceys were used for riding instead. Not all knights could afford the expensive upkeep associated with warhorses (they had to be fed well, trained, and those that could were not necessarily able to afford additional armor for the horse. It was the privilege of the elite to ride into battle upon fresh, fully-armored destriers. Because of this expense, armies were often mostly foot soldiers rather than cavalry, despite modern depictions of full armies on horseback. Still, any number of cavalry allowed for a considerable strike against an enemy force, with cavalry charges serving as both menacing and powerful blows to opposing troops.

Mounted Knight with Lance 

The use of horses in warfare both sprang from and influenced technological advances in the Middle Ages. The use of stirrups and special saddles designed to help keep knights firmly seated upon their mounts made it feasible to ride and fight in tandem; without these advances in technology, it would have been much more difficult to ride into battle, as keeping seated bareback without any means of leverage or balance would have taken a great deal of focus and energy. Once horses became more common on the battlefield, war adapted to their presence. Polearms and long lances became more common weaponry, as they allowed men on the ground to reach riders and riders to reach each other with a bit of distance, and swords carried by riders were lengthened for the same purpose. Even the horse's armor advanced over time, adapting to serve different functions and protect horses from different weaponry as they became targets for enemy attacks.

A mounted knight's warhorse was a vital part of his weaponry, giving them an advantage over soldiers on foot. While they may have been smaller than the powerful steeds we tend to imagine, they were still an important feature of medieval warfare. Once common, warhorses helped to shape war itself, with advances in arms, armor, and tactic made in order to fight efficiently. Founded by ancients, built upon in the Middle Ages, and romanticized in later eras, horses would remain a facet of war into the nineteenth and even twentieth centuries.


Note: Most images are hyperlinked to their sources; in order to learn more about any image or artifact, the image/caption may be clicked. 

Resources

Breiding, Dirk H. "Horse Armor in Europe." The Metropolitan Museum of Art, March        2010, http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/hors/hd_hors.htm.

The Full Bayeux Tapestry, 10 Jan. 1998, http://www.hastings1066.com/baythumb.shtml.

Harrison, Robert, editor. The Song of Roland, Penguin Putnam, Inc., 2002.

Hood, John. "Significance of the Stirrup in Medieval Warfare." CLIO Journal,       2009, https://cliojournal.wikispaces.com/Significance+of+the+Stirrup+in+Medieval+Warfare.

Newman, Paul B. Daily Life in the Middle Ages. McFarland & Company, Inc., 2001.