alternatehistory.com

I am reading "The Art of War In the Middle Ages" by Oman an he stated that while the Swiss Pikemen dominated the battlefield and destroyed anyone who fought them for half of the Middle Ages, near the end of Medieval Times and starting into the Renaissance era, the Swiss would no longer dominate.

While a large reason for this dealt with the fact foreign armies, would copy the Swiss Pikemen and create their own counterparts, like the Lankerskreight (nor sure if this is the right spelling) of the Germans, the real blow dealt with when the Spanish faced the Swiss on the battlefield using their shield-and-sword infantry. In this battle Oman describes the Swiss as hopeless when the Spanish swordsmen clashed in with Swiss Pikemen and utterly massacred them.

Other armies would copy the Spanish Swordsmen armed with Bucklers with their own equivalents and the Swiss would end up facing a large series of military disasters for much of the late Middle Ages and Renaissance.

Oman states there is a parallel with the slaughter of Swiss by Spanish Swordsmen with Bucklers to when the Romans fought the Macedonia a thousand years earlier. The Romans armed with their rectangular shields and gladius would take on the Macedonian Phalanx head on and slaughter them with absolute ease. In fact in the biggest battle of the Macedonian Wars, the Macedonians would lose and lose thousands of soldiers int he process while the Romans would lose less than a 100 soldiers!

Oman implies that the Spanish Swordsmen armed with Buckler was inspired when old Latin and Greek texts were rediscovered and European powers started using the newfound knowledge to their advantage in war (thus coming the implications that the Spanish probably copied the Romans when they came up with Swordsmen armed with Bucklers).

What is the Swordsmen with shield dominating Spearmen,Pikemen or similar troops using very long Polearms?

I'm even more interested with why the Romans dominated the Macedonian Phalanx considering the Macedonians had shields too!
Top