TLDR: Outside of plundering and pillaging, what kind of effects did war have on society and the economy of a kingdom as a whole?
Hey everyone I was wanting to pick the minds of others and see if I could get some tips on my setting. I have a world in which a war is brewing between two kingdoms, currently they are gathering forces preparing for the blood bath that is to follow. When the players first step into my world I plan to put them smack dab in the middle of one of these kingdoms, so I want it to really feel like they are preparing for war. This got me thinking, what kind of effects did medieval wars have on society.
To be clear, I am not talking about what happened to towns when war would sweep over them, but instead I want to focus on the towns and people part of the kingdoms but far from battles. I was thinking that perhaps black smiths might have been taken away to the war camps to help repair armor and forge new sets, farmers would have most of their crops taken, lumber would be in short supply for the use of building war machines, able bodied men would have been forced into service, supplies like medical kits, bedding and mess kits would be in low supply, and in a setting like D&D you'd have a shortage of magical herbs, potions, priests who were tending to the troops and so forth.
Now, I will admit my google skills aren't that great, but when I look into the subject I actually find people saying that war wouldn't have affected those far removed from the battles at all and that the fighting would have mostly been carried out by knights and the kings trained soldiers. So as someone with next to no knowledge on medieval warfare, what kind of effects did war have on society and the economy of a kingdom as a whole?
Hey everyone I was wanting to pick the minds of others and see if I could get some tips on my setting. I have a world in which a war is brewing between two kingdoms, currently they are gathering forces preparing for the blood bath that is to follow. When the players first step into my world I plan to put them smack dab in the middle of one of these kingdoms, so I want it to really feel like they are preparing for war. This got me thinking, what kind of effects did medieval wars have on society.
To be clear, I am not talking about what happened to towns when war would sweep over them, but instead I want to focus on the towns and people part of the kingdoms but far from battles. I was thinking that perhaps black smiths might have been taken away to the war camps to help repair armor and forge new sets, farmers would have most of their crops taken, lumber would be in short supply for the use of building war machines, able bodied men would have been forced into service, supplies like medical kits, bedding and mess kits would be in low supply, and in a setting like D&D you'd have a shortage of magical herbs, potions, priests who were tending to the troops and so forth.
Now, I will admit my google skills aren't that great, but when I look into the subject I actually find people saying that war wouldn't have affected those far removed from the battles at all and that the fighting would have mostly been carried out by knights and the kings trained soldiers. So as someone with next to no knowledge on medieval warfare, what kind of effects did war have on society and the economy of a kingdom as a whole?