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Will Bolton shook his head and immediately regretted it as melting snow from his helmet went down the back of his garment. He shivered, took his helmet off and pulled his hood back up over his head. It restricted his hearing, but it did keep the back of his neck dry.
He turned to look at young Jack Fulford, "The Duke is content to hold this ground and let the Yorkists come to us. Or would you rather be slogging up yon hill in this slop?"
Jack looked at the older man, "Guess I am just impatient, Will. But it is terribly cold out here and the wind is blowing straight into our ..."
Will turned in surprise as Jack make a gasping noise, the young fellow had the shaft of an arrow protruding from his throat. The boy's eyes turned to him in panic as he sank to his knees.
Before Will could do anything else, he too was falling to the ground, an arrow deeply embedded in his brain. He had not redonned his helmet.
Lord Fauconberg ordered his archers back up the hill. None of them knew what effect their single volley had had on the Lancastrians some distance away. Some of the younger men groused that they had been out of range so why were they wasting their arrows?
When the more experienced men pointed out that they had the wind at their backs, which would increase the range of their arrows, the younger men nodded in understanding. Their Lord knew his business!
The Lancastrian archers were ordered to begin loosing against the Yorkist line, only intermittently visible in the snow being driven into their faces by the wind. After a number of ineffective volleys, they ceased wasting their arrows.
"We're out of range, Milord, they have the wind."
"Advance and loose again!"
Fauconberg had his archers move forward again, he had seen, briefly, the Lancastrians moving forward. He had his men move up to where the ground prickled with wasted Lancastrian shafts.
"LOOSE!"
The Lancastrian line seemed to stagger in midstride, even in the blowing snow the Yorkists could see their enemy falling to the ground. Many of the Yorkists were pulling arrows from the turf and returning them to their owners.
The battle was scarcely thirty minutes old and the Yorkists had whittled down the Lancastrian army. They were still outnumbered, but they had bloodied the enemy.
As Fauconberg had his men come back up the hill once more, a man on horseback trotted up, "My Lord!"
"Ah, Sir William! What news of Norfolk and his men?"
"They approach Milord, perhaps four hours, give or take, and they shall be on the field."
"Very well."
Fauconberg turned his horse back to the battle as the leading ranks of the Lancastrians closed to within fighting distance. The bloody work of the front line was beginning.
John Mowbray, 3rd Duke of Norfolk had his men on the march again, their rest had been brief but it seemed to have given the men new life. He rode down the column.
"Step lively lads! William Neville, Earl of Kent, Baron of Fauconberg, awaits your coming! The Lancastrians outnumber the forces of your rightful King and are even now engaging! We must hasten or we shall miss the spoils!"
As the Duke rode past, Rufus Thorpe grumbled, "We'll also miss getting killed as well, unless I am mistaken."
"Ah, Rufus, ye yearn for the sting of battle, I know this."
Turning to look at his friend Thomas, Rufus said, "This is your first time, young Thomas, if ye survive I doubt ye'll be as eager the next time. But at least we had a bit of a nap and a crust of old bread, better than nothing I suppose."
"Less talk, more walk, my lads." The sergeant hissed as he strode past.
Rufus and Thomas fell silent, Rufus to contain his energy, Thomas to hide his nerves. In truth, this would be his first battle and he wondered how well he would do. Looking at Rufus' badly scarred face he couldn't imagine sustaining a wound like that and then going back for more. He felt a sudden urge to relieve himself, but the column would not be stopping again until they met the enemy face to face.
He hoped no one noticed when he wet himself.
There was the Duke of York, he had ten thousand men..
ReplyDeleteAs soon as I finish this I have to go to YouTube and find that blasted song, thank you very much!
'"Less talk, more walk, my lads." The sergeant hissed as he strode past."
The eternal Song of the Sergeant.
Another excellent piece of writing
.
Thanks, Joe.
DeleteHe marched them up the hill one day and marched them down again... is what popped into my mind as soon as I read Joe's first line!
DeleteThe Grand Old Duke of York!
DeleteNCO's haven't changed much over the centuries even as technology has. PBI in Ukraine are looking at their third Winter already.
ReplyDeleteWinter on the Eastern Front, no fun.
DeleteOh, the grand old Duke of York
ReplyDeleteHe had ten thousand men
He marched them up to the top of the hill
And he marched them down again
And when they were up, they were up
And when they were down, they were down
And when they were only half-way up
They were neither up nor down
Aye.
DeleteYour writing carries the bite of Winter, Sarge - makes me shudder a bit as I hear the rain dripping on my windows this morning. I can only faintly imagine what it must have been like in 15th Century A.D. battle garb (armor in snow must have been frightful).
ReplyDeleteAs winter approaches, I thought it would be interesting to have a tale set in olden times in horrid weather.
DeleteWX here in Europe (well Czech Republic and Southern Germany) has been in the low 30's, Foggy, Ceilings about 500', Vis less than a mile, snow flurries. AKA a perfect day for a battles.
DeleteOr not!
Wonder if that's the mental picture you're building. For some reason it matches what I'm thinking your describing.
We're on the boat and sailing in about an hour. Right after the freezing water life jacket drill! ;-)
Cheers,
juvat
That weather sounds about right for this time of year in that region.
DeleteIt matches very closely with what I'm trying to convey.
TB- reminds me of that cartoon with the infantry guy saying "This really sucks." The Ranger "This could suck more", Special Operator "I love how much this sucks", and aviator- "I sure bet it sucks down there."
DeleteJuvat, how are the rivers? Hopefully full enough to keep you off tour buses, and not too high to prevent passage under the bridges.
Love that cartoon.
DeleteTuna, so far so good. Wx is very “wintery” and several layers of clothing are pretty much mandatory, but tolerable. I’m getting a pretty good idea what the Battle of the Bulge might have been like. Air support would not have been possible.
DeleteBut, we’re having a good time!
juvat
Another insight into past history. History is thousands of volumes, and cannot all be read in sequence. But, we can learn a lot from reading a single volume, or a chapter. Even a paragraph or sentence can be enlightening and/or entertaining. I love these little snippets Sarge provides, either with some context, or even none at all.
ReplyDeleteThanks.
John Blackshoe
I'm glad someone likes them!
DeleteOne of the few niceties about the armor ensemble of the time is that the base of the whole armor thingy, for low or lowlife, was a padded jacket made of multiple layers of linen and stuffing. And a padded cap. All which helps keep out the cold. Add on a woolen surcoat with the appropriate arms on it, and a brigandine jack (a vest made of layers of more linen and maybe wool with small metal plates riveted or sewn onto the inside) and woolen tights pulled over linen tights and that's a lot of layers to keep warm.
ReplyDeleteWool is great in winter as even if it's wet, it tends to hold in heat far better than linen and far far better than cotton (which only rich people could afford anyways.)
So, short of snow dripping down inside one's harness and clothes, only the face, the legs and the hands would really be exposed. Still sucks.
Now, of course, try to wear that stuff in the blazing heat and trying to keep cool becomes a real issue. When I wore a full gambeson, during summer I'd basically get it soaked with water before wearing it and I tried to keep it soaked.
My concern would be the bulkiness of what they were wearing, not sure how nimble they'd be!
DeleteNot bulky at all, to a point. The armor has to fit like a... business suit. The gambesons and jupons and arming jackets often had cutouts for the underarms and elbows. It's almost like the needs of mobility were a factor in the design and construction of the whole armor systems. Which, of course, they are.
DeleteIt's a holdover from the stupid Victorians that medieval armor was difficult to move in. It wasn't. In fact, there's a French instructional written by a famous knight that basically said that the knight should be able to do the same things in armor as out of armor. Running, chopping wood, hopping onto a horse, yada yada.
During the Crusades, several of the Orders Militant had the rule that you had to harness your horse, suit up, hop on, ride, charge, get off and jump into or over a ditch, climb out of ditches and over walls, fight, and then retreat if necessary by climbing down walls, jumping and climbing over/out of ditches, get back on one's mount, go back to camp, unharness the horse and take the armor off.
I've suited up in my armor, carried two shields (one big war shield, one tourney shield), a 9' spear and a 7' polearm and a 6' halberd, two swords, a dagger, a crossbow and a bucket of bolts, my helmet, a pack with lunch and drink, mini-armor repair kit, first aid bag and various sundries, and then walked a mile to the fighting areas, .and do stuff for 6-8 hours, pack everything up and walk, yes, uphill to the encampment or to my van. For 5-6 days. Then pack all the camping supplies up and head home for a long 6-8 hour drive.
Reasonably fitting armor isn't overly bulky or difficult to move in. It's actually more of a pain to carry it in a box or chest or in pieces than it is to wear the damned stuff.
The Victorians left behind a number of stupid notions then. Makes sense that soldiers would equip themselves in such a way as to preserve their mobility.
DeleteRegarding the archers, there were two types of arrows available. Broadheads for semi-armored and unarmored targets. Typically a long, wide flat sharp head with rear-facing barbs. Great to penetrate light armor or only cloth armor, and unprotected horses. But they suck against solid armor or brigandine or what we call plate-mail. Will penetrate 'chain' maille to a point. Effective against unarmored at all ranges and cloth-armored up to pretty much the full range of the bow.
ReplyDeleteThen there's Piles or Bodkins for armor penetration. Basically a nail on the end of the arrow. Good for punching small circular or 4-sided holes in light to medium plate or through layered armors. Even then, penetration was only at relatively close distances, the heavier the armor the shorter the distances for penetration.
Typical tactics were to not shoot at the fully armored enemy but to shoot the horses out from under them, and to take out the man-at-arms and other archers.
As was pointed out, wind has a lot to do with the effective range. And penetration. A strong headwind can suck a heck of a lot of energy and force out of the arrow. Conversely, a tail wind can add speed and distance, thus increasing the energy and force imparted by the arrow.
It's a fun thing archery is.
A lot of bodkin heads have been unearthed on the Towton battlefield.
DeleteUnhorse the man and he's far less effective a combatant. Something Hollywood always gets wrong, dozens of riders die but very few horses.
On the gripping hand, not many stunt horses out there.
The greatest threat to a mounted warrior is the foot-soldier. Not other mounted warriors, on a mixed battlefield. So killing the foot-soldiers was pretty much a requirement.
DeleteAnd even a miss was good enough, in some instances, to screw up the battlefield. Tripping hazards, the visual clue of 'you're in range,' and so forth.
The Towton battlefield had a number of arrows (probably hundreds) in the ground in front of the Yorkist positions. The accounts do say that those encumbered the Lancastrians' advance.
Delete