The success of the pike over the bow discussed through the battle of Guinegate, during which the Swiss type infantry clashed with the armies of Louis XI . Twilight of the English military system

Abstract

The success of the pike over the bow, which has had a far-reaching impact on the French art of war and the creation of landsknechts infantry, de facto resulted in the collapse of the English military system on continental Europe. The battle that had finally brought upon those changes, was a clash near a village named Guinegate (Enguinegate today), that took place in 1479. The growth of the economy related to the strong monetary position of western Europe that began at the end of the 13th century led to a significant enrichment of cities and their inhabitants. The town militias had more competent and better-equipped recruits, who could afford expensive arms and armour. European leaders, thanks to the power of multiplier money, began to invest in professional military forces like mercenaries in ever larger quantities.1 We could say that the incentive behind serving in an army changed to a financial one, which is contrary to the traditional understanding of duty. The power of the armed forces became based on their training level and discipline, which resulted in a significant portion of the knighthood elite and their traditions stepping on ever thinner ice. In the time of the well-armed, trained and tactically used infantry, the place for romantic courage was starting to shrink dramatically. While the English knights had experienced relatively gently the power of the dense troops of the Scottish highlanders that were heroically resisting attacks of heavy cavalry, like for example during the Battle of Falkirk (1298), the French chivalry had, in turn, suffered the most severe consequences of their own reckless and chaotic decisions. It became obvious very quickly that a reckless use of heavy cavalry masses, who due to their elitism would overcome every obstacle to defeat their enemy, was an approach doomed to failure. Even the best warhorses and armaments could not ensure the knighthood a victory over appropriately equipped, well-arrayed and well-commanded plebeians. The main purpose of this article is to present a synthetic outline of the battle of Guinegate, and to prove the value of this battle in the further progress of western European art of war, underestimated in current publications. In the author’s opinion, the fields of Guinegate verified the medieval, western European art of war and became the basis for the later changes. They were also a decisive clash in the history of warfare between the two conceptions of infantry armament, during which the Swiss pike emerged as a more effective weapon than the English longbow. The Swiss infantry, who fought lightly armed while holding powerful polearms appeared in the 14th century as an unstoppable force. They were usually poor peasants, working in forests or fields with very difficult lives, and war for them was a risky but lucrative way to improve their living conditions. Then they