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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Agemegos" data-source="post: 1523155" data-attributes="member: 18377">There were precious few standing armies. The exceptions are roughly:(1) The Holy Fighting Orders, especially in the Eastern Mediterranean, the Iberian Peninsula, and the Baltic;(2) The households of nobles; and(3) 'Free' mercenary companies.(1) The armies of the holy fighting orders were generally well-organised and well-disciplined. They consisted of a core of knights (aristocratic members) and sergeants (second-class members), plus archers, servants &c. who were salaried permanent emplyers, but had generally not taken vows. Each commandery had a permanent commander, a drapier (quartermaster) etc. Commanderies were grouped into territories with permanent 'preceptors' or 'priors', and those were grouped into 'langues' (national groups) with grand priors/grand preceptors in permanent charge. And ech order had a permanent Master with a staff, commissariat, treasury, regular revenues &c.(2) Each knight or baron generally led his household himself, or perhaps deputised his eldest son. They were pretty much a mob. A great baron's military contingent would consist of his own household knights plus the households of his vassals, each household acting as a contingent. At war the army might be divided into three or four 'battles' (battalions) each including the contingents of the various barons, organised according to the prestige, alliances, and ages of the barons, and commanded by a 'captain' or 'general' appointed for the nonce, for political reasons, and often on the eve of battle. The king, his eldest son, or one of the great officers of the Royal houshold (the Constable of France, the Earl Marshal of England etc.) was in overall command. There is some evidence that in the best period Frankish and Norman knights were trained to co-ordinate with a small group of comrades called a 'lance', and some that the leader of a lance was denoted by the 'bannerette' on his lance. But on the whole command and control was a schemozzle. The infantry levies were separate, commanded by the 'sergeant-major general'. Individual local contingents of the infantry levy were probably led by prominent citizens elected from their districts.(3) A mercenary company was led by its captain, who took orders from the person who hired him and gave orders to his troops. Sometimes the captain had an assistant/deputy called his 'lieutenant', and sometimes he would put his lieutenant in temporary charge of a detatched command.Knights spent their youth in training, sometimes while fostered in the household of one of their fathers' overlords, allies, or friends.Depending on time and place, members of the lower classes may have had compulsory weapons training and practise as part of the fyrd or wapentake. But there would not have been very much of it. Otherwise, no.Mostly this seems to have depended on their social class. The rich gots trained as knights, the not-quite so rich as mounted sergeants, the middle-class as foot sergeants, the poor as various forms of light infantry. But things were slightly different in places where livestock was cheap (eg. Spain.When they weren't in camps, soldiers often lived in castles. The household of a landed knight would live in his castle, usually sleeping in the hall while the family slept in the chamber. A king or great baron might have a big enough castle that it had truly separate quarters for the garrison. The holy fighting orders had commanderies that ranged from a fortified manor house with a garrison of two or three up to great castles with a permanent garrison of two hundred knights, plus sergeants and turcopoles (light missile cavalry).Knights apparently had up to seven years of formal training as squires in the household of a baron.In England at lest, commoners were obliged by law to own weapons appropriate to their wealth and to train with them every now and again: presumably the institutions that organised the training (parish wapentake, hundred moot and so forth) organised some training for youngsters.A knight in service often died in service. Otherwise he might be lucky enough to be granted a manor or to marry an heiress.A knight or sergeant in one of the Holy Fighting Orders was bound to the order for life, and leaving it under any circumstances was both a crime and an sin. But after specified tours of duty at the front he could expect to be put out to grass in a commanderies in a safe rear zone. This might be a big place where he got to live like a monk (under laxer or stricter discipline depending on time and place) or a little country manor where he got to live like a landed knight and mingle with the aristocracy (or at least gentry).Mercenaries were generally free to quit at will, and companies often (butnot alway) broke up when their employment ended.</blockquote>

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