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Sergeants at the
By C. A. Powers
(AKA Sgt. Charric Van der Vliet)
The battle of Bouvines took place
in 1214 A. D. Its primary chronicler was
William the Breton, chaplain to the French king. William the Breton’s text, which may be found
in m.s. 5925 in the Bibiotheque Nationale, gives some
good glimpses into the nature of the medieval Sergeant, about the time of “bad
King John” of
In the army of this time, knights, squires, and their feudal levies, made up one group. The second group was footmen from the “communes”, basically town tradesmen, very loyal to the King. The third group consisted of the Sergeants.
The Sergeant of 1214 was a professional mercenary in armor, and there were a lot more of them than there were knights. The ratio of knights to sergeants seems to be about 1:40.
“Saint-Valery…appeared there with fifty knights and 2000
sergeants.” (1)
On the day, the French scouts seek the Flemish/German forces. The first indication French scouts have that the battle will start is when they see
“…the
Sergeants and the foot soldiers up front, which is a sure sign of battle.” (2)
Deploying for battle, Sergeants took the lead. Even as battle commenced, far from leading the way, the Chivalry entered the battle after the Sergeants,
“…following
the mounted Sergeants whom the (bishop) elect had sent ahead to start the
battle, the …knights…plunged into the fray.” (3)
After the professionals had softened up the enemy, then the Knights attacked. If Sergeants on his side received approval from William, the enemy knights certainly didn’t like them much.
“He
sent ahead 150 mounted Sergeants to start the battle. He did this with the aim that the noble
combatants…would find their enemy somewhat agitated and worried, but the
Flemings and the Germans, who were very eager to fight, greatly scorned being
first challenged by Sergeants instead of Knights. Because of this, they did not deign to move
from their position but waited and received them very harshly;” (i.e., from
behind 700 dismounted Sergeants of their own.) “…many of their horses were slain and they suffered many injuries but
only two were wounded unto death. These
Sergeants were born in the
William is capable of admiring a Sergeant on his own side. Of the Sergeant Peter de la Tournelle:
“…he
does not seem to be of noble blood yet he is so valorous that he could be
worthy of knighthood,…” (5)
The Sergeants seem to have been effective. Sergeants on the side of Otto drove forward and almost killed the French king, pulling him from his horse, but Peter Tristan jumped down and
“destroyed and killed all those Sergeants on foot.” (6)
Of Sergeants in the opposing army he has a lower opinion, despite (or because of) their effectiveness.
“After
the King had remounted…the rabble who had brought him down had all been
destroyed and killed…” (7)
Sergeants also appeared on foot. Being mounted does not seem to be the quality that confers Sergeantry. From this description of a new innovation in tactics, it seems that the Sergeants were intended to be on foot.
“Count
Renaud of
It may be that Sergeants who were afoot were only that way due to attrition in battle. Count Renaud with six knights left by him, is still fighting strongly, but
“At
this point a courageous and daring sergeant by the name of Peter of Tournelle, who was fighting on foot because his enemies had
killed his horse, went toward the count, lifted up the covering of his horse,
and struck it so well that he plunged it to the guard all the way to the
guts.” (9)
This would seem to indicate that the expected initial condition of the Sergeant was mounted and armored.
To be a Sergeant on the losing side was bad. Since having a large group of unpaid mercenaries wandering around extorting money from the populace was undesirable, the Sergeants of the enemy were not considered for ransom. After everyone else of Otto’s army fled,
“…there
still remained in the field the 700 foot Sergeants…who had been used as a
defense against the onslaught of the enemy.”
(10)
The French king sent Thomas Saint-Valery, 50 knights, and 2000 foot Sergeants against this 700, and killed them to a man. Despite this, William the Breton admires the King’s clemency, since no ransomable noble was killed.
The early Sergeant would appear to have been a mercenary of disreputable character but whose expertise was sorely needed by the nobles who found themselves forced to hire them. The later adaptation of installing the experienced warriors in a leadership role over troops of common foot soldiers awaited a later era. This would seem to argue for early period Sergeants fighting in troops of their own, while late period ones lead inexperienced troops. Thus, both roles appear to be appropriate, each in their own era.
Work Cited
All quotes are taken from:
The
By Georges Duby, Translated by Catherine Tihanyi
English Translation © Polity Press, 1990
First Published as:
Le Dimanche de Bouvines, © Gallimard, 1973
ISBN # 0-520-06238-8
(Most of Georges Duby’s quotes are from William the Breton’s text found in m.s. 5925 in the Bibiotheque Nationale.)